Cross-College Challenge (XCC) Faculty FAQs

You can express your preferences in both and can propose projects and teams. Given the complexity of scheduling so many projects and teams, we can’t guarantee specific assignments, but we expect that if you bring projects to the program, you will have the opportunity to supervise them and that, if you have a colleague from another school or college with a compatible schedule, you’ll be able to work as a pair.

Faculty may propose projects to be worked on within their own sections or offered to others. In addition, projects may be proposed by campus or off-campus sponsors, or suggested by students, and alumni.

We expect that over the course of a semester the number of hours devoted to meeting with students and supervising their projects will be equivalent to the number of hours spent preparing and teaching for a traditional 4-credit course.

Two faculty members will have joint responsibility for up to 25 students divided into teams of four to six students each. Teams of students, paired with a pair of faculty members, will spend a semester tackling a substantial problem and producing a tangible product (it may be a plan or a physical object, but it might also be a film, an exhibition, a website, a work of art, an essay, a proposal, etc.). All projects will help students to develop the four Hub learning outcomes of:

• Creativity/Innovation
• Oral and/or Signed Communication
• Research and Information Literacy
• Teamwork/Collaboration

For participating faculty members, the XCC will either count as one course toward their normal teaching load (to be approved by your supervising chair or dean) or they will earn an overbase to their normal salary. Faculty who participate in the XCC during Summer will receive the normal Summer Term compensation.

Working with the Registrar, the Hub office will coordinate meeting times and locations. Every pair of faculty members (and their student teams) will sign up for a regular class block. Even though the students won’t all assemble for the entire class block every week, a scheduled time ensures that team members will have a mutually convenient time to collaborate with each other and to meet their faculty supervisors.

There is a standard template syllabus that all sections of XCC should use as a guideline, however, faculty will have a great degree of flexibility to adapt expectations and deadlines for assignments. The basic requirement of the course will be met as long as the learning objectives are woven into the curriculum and deliverables are presented at the end of the term.

There will be a series of guidelines and a set of expectations for all XCC projects, but faculty pairs will develop a project-specific set of requirements and establish appropriate benchmarks over the course of the semester for each of their student teams (i.e. due dates for proposals, public presentations, final projects). The Hub office will maintain a collection of sample syllabi that faculty can consult.

No. While we value experience supervising team-based projects, we understand that many faculty members have had little opportunity to participate in this kind of teaching. In addition to offering training to faculty, we will make available the assistance of experts from across the University to teach participating students how to collaborate effectively and to help faculty supervisors address issues related to team dynamics.

Yes. The XCC will be working with College Deans to recruit faculty and make sure as many interested faculty as possible can participate. Still, it’s incumbent on you to get permission from your supervising Chair or Dean in writing.

The first step is to complete the XCC faculty interest form indicating your teaching preferences and availabilities.

1. A member of the XCC Steering Committee will contact you for a brief interview.
2. Signed approval from your supervisor must be provided.
3. Final details of your section (teaching partner, project, section meeting time) will be confirmed and published to the bulletin.