Faculty are making plans to change the Program Evaluation as Augustana transitions to semesters in the Fall of 2019. The Program Evaluation helps students keep track of the courses they have taken, along with the courses still needed to graduate.
Dr. Kristin Douglas, Associate Dean, says that plans for the Program Evaluation are not yet final, but faculty hope to create an easy transition for students. According to Dr. Douglas, the goal is to create tools and resources to easily track how the trimester courses are transitioning to semester courses for the students who will be effected by the change.
“We have been talking about how we get information to students, so that they can get a sense of the requirements they have already completed for the major and the requirements they still need to complete,” Douglas said.
According to Dr. Douglas, the college is going to have a transition guarantee put in place. This means that Augustana students that are in good standing before the transition and maintain good standing after the transition, will still graduate on time. The college will make sure that students can still graduate in four years as they transition into the new curriculum.
“I am both excited and curious for the change. Trimesters are very fast and it’s hard to keep up with everything. But I love the breaks and having fewer finals at a time. On the other hand, semesters will be difficult to adjust to for my senior year. Especially being an education major, the program has to adjust scheduling and it might complicate the process of becoming a teacher. It’s most definitely going to be a challenge, but it will be interesting to see how it goes,” first-year student Ashley Marcinkus said.
A positive aspect for many of Augustana is the ability to double major and add minors. According to Dr. Douglas, the college hopes to keep this possibility open as the curriculum transitions to fit a semester system.
“Our goal, the faculty’s goal, as we change the curriculum, will be to maintain that ability to double major,” Douglas said.
Augustana has been discussing the transition to semesters for many years, according to Dr. Douglas.
“One of the driving factors is that it will be easier for students to transfer,” Douglas said.
Along with the ease of transferring, the faculty believe that there is a benefit in not having students go through the stresses of registration and finals three times each year, according to Dr. Douglas.
There is also the possible added benefit of cost efficiency. Transitioning to semesters will reduce the amount of times that the registrar and other offices will have to go through all the processing of registration.
“It also gives a chance to look at our curriculum and make sure we are teaching in a way that will be most beneficial for our students,” Douglas said.