PA College Magazine - Winter 2021 - 6

TEACHING
TEACHING
&& LEARNING
LEARNING

NEW CORE CURRICULUM
HELPS STUDENTS BUILD
SKILLS SOUGHT BY EMPLOYERS
By Jennifer Walker
This fall, PA College rolled out its new
Health Care Professional Core Curriculum
for baccalaureate degree students. The
curriculum was developed after academic
leadership and faculty members had
extensive conversations internally
about the importance of developing
graduates with a specific skill set; they
also talked with health care employers
about what skills they were looking for
in their staff members.
" We wanted to make sure that we
prepared our students for success,
both in their coursework and in the
workforce, " says Stacey Ruch, Associate
Professor of Biology and the Health
Care Professional Core Curriculum
Coordinator.
The core curriculum includes a new
" Intensives " requirement, which includes
24 credits that help build skills in five areas,
as well as a course, CSS 101: College
Studies Seminar, for new students.
This focus on skill-building through
the Intensives classes - as opposed to
only focusing on core classes that fit
subject requirements, like Math and
Humanities - is perhaps the most
notable addition to the curriculum.
" We want our students to be good writers,
and we want them to be critical thinkers, "
Ruch says. " These Intensives are
addressing some of those needs. "
The Intensives are pre-existing, higherlevel courses that help students build
skills in five areas: writing, critical
thinking and analysis, digital literacy,

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community engagement and diversity.
In some cases, courses already contained
ample material in one of the skill areas
so they were listed under the Intensives
requirement without any changes; in
others, faculty incorporated new content
about one of the skills into courses
so they would meet the Intensives
requirement.
Students are given several course
choices to fulfill their Intensives
requirements in each of the five areas.
For their Diversity Intensive requirement,
for example, students can choose
two courses from a list of six options,
including a 200-level course in world
religions and a 300-level course in
cultural care nursing.
For their Digital Literacy Intensive
requirement, all new PA College
students will take the CSS 101: College
Studies Seminar course during their
first semester. " We want to introduce
students to our College, so we thought
this course was necessary for every new
student regardless of previous education, "
Ruch says.
The CSS course - which is currently
offered in three formats, including a
5-week accelerated option, a 15-week
asynchronous online version, and a 15week option that combines the online
learning with a synchronous Zoom
session - is organized into three parts.
First, students learn about the College,
including what resources are available
in the library, how to get involved in

" These courses were developed to address both
the needs of the workforce and the need for
skill-building in students' higher-level courses. "
- Stacey Ruch, Associate Professor of Biology
and the Health Care Professional Core
Curriculum Coordinator

student activities, and how to access
financial aid services. Then the course
shifts into covering digital literacy and
how to look up information and find
primary source articles. The final third
of the course covers learner success.
" Many of our students are working or
have kids, so this section is about
balancing work and life, " Ruch says.
The Core Curriculum also allows students
to have more choice in their Science
and Humanities courses and includes
Interprofessional Collaborative courses,
in which nursing and health science
students take several classes together.
" But the Intensives and the CSS course
are the big pieces we're excited about, "
says Ruch, adding that the new Core
Curriculum for associate degree students
will be available in the fall of 2021.
" These courses were developed to
address both the needs of the workforce
and the need for skill-building in students'
higher-level courses, " she says. n
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PA College Magazine - Winter 2021

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