Summer 2019 Hub Essentials

SED professor, Dr. Michelle Porche teaches Intro to Research class on Tuesday, March 21, 2017

What Is the Hub?

The BU Hub is the new University-wide general education program that emphasizes working across disciplines to prepare for a complex and diverse world. Students explore a variety of courses and learning experiences throughout their four undergraduate years, both across the disciplines and in their majors, to develop six essential capacities. Each capacity includes multiple Hub areas, each with its own learning outcomes. Students who are part of the class of 2022 are the first cohort to fulfill their general education requirements through the Hub.

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For more information about the Hub, visit bu.edu/hub/.

For BU Center for Teaching & Learning (CTL) resources for teaching in the Hub, visit www.bu.edu/ctl/.

Expectations for Hub Syllabi

For instructors teaching Summer Term courses conferring Hub units, it is essential to include the following components on your syllabus:

  • Hub areas: Make sure your syllabus identifies the Hub areas fulfilled by the course.
  • Hub learning outcomes: Make sure your syllabus includes descriptions of how the Hub learning outcomes are achieved in your course. (You can also include other learning outcomes that are not related to the Hub.)
  • The Hub’s P*/F* policy: Students taking your course for Hub units cannot opt to take it pass/fail. Please be sure that your students are aware of this policy.
  • A detailed course schedule: It should be apparent to anyone reading your course schedule that you will spend time teaching the skills and concepts needed for students to achieve the Hub learning outcomes and that students will have opportunities for regular practice and feedback in these areas.

Strategies for Teaching in the Hub

All courses approved for the Hub should be intentional and explicit in how they address the Hub learning outcomes, but prioritizing these outcomes is especially important for instructors teaching in Summer Term because of its accelerated pace.

What does it look like to prioritize the Hub in your teaching? You can weave the Hub into the fabric of your course in the following ways:

  • Make time for explicit instruction in your course’s Hub areas.
  • Plan learning activities that support the course’s Hub learning outcomes.
  • Schedule opportunities for both peer and instructor feedback on students’ progress toward these outcomes. The CTL has developed a related resource on Formative/Summative Assessments that you may find useful.
  • Assess Hub learning outcomes in major assignments.

For Instructors Teaching to Hub Areas in the Intellectual Toolkit

The Intellectual Toolkit includes areas that span the disciplines and professions: Critical Thinking, Research and Information Literacy, Teamwork/Collaboration, and Creativity/Innovation. Almost every class at BU draws on and reinforces these crucial skills in some way, but Hub courses in toolkit areas teach them purposefully throughout the term:

  • Through direct instruction, vocabulary, and tools or techniques
  • Through scheduling opportunities for students to practice and get feedback
  • Through asking students to reflect on their own process

Additional resources

As you plan and teach your Summer Term Hub course, you are not alone! We encourage you to draw on resources that others have found helpful by:

 

Thank you for contributing to your students’ general education experience!