With course scheduling for the fall semester starting this week, students will be looking through the University catalog for classes to fill their schedules and fulfill their degree requirements.
In the process, students may become confused upon seeing courses that are shown as being “cross-listed” with a course in another department.
Some courses appear to be closely related. For example, according to the fall 2004 course offerings on PAWS, students taking some agronomy courses also must enroll in environmental science courses. Similarly, students taking some African-American studies courses also are required to take classes in Swahili.
Other courses seem to be on opposite sides of the learning spectrum. For example, the PAWS course offerings show several sections of English classes are “cross-listed” with classes in departments such as theatre, anthropology and psychology.
For example, students enrolling in one section of ENGL 3001, a course on writing in arts and social sciences, also must enroll in a PSYC 4072. Students registering for the psychology course must also enroll in the English class.
University Registrar Robert Doolos said there are two ways to take separate courses.
Doolos said cross-listed courses refer to the same course being offered through different departments. In this scenario, Doolos said a student takes only one course, not both.
In the second situation, Doolos said “linking courses” are those in which students are required to take two courses simultaneously.
Doolos said University faculty can link sections of courses to provide students with a well-rounded view of the subject matter.
Doolos said that when a student registers for one section, they are automatically registered into the other, linked section.
“When departments do this, they have to make the enrollment maximums of both of these the same,” Doolos said.
Doolos said the only way this arrangement can be disrupted is if a faculty member manually adds students to a section.
Doolos said the reason more faculty are moving toward linking courses is because of the development of campus learning communities and trying to do things in both courses that are applicable to the subject material.
History professor Karl Roider said he and an English instructor have taught linked courses that combined World War I history and literature.
Roider said the English and history classes were taught together and met for two hours three times a week.
“Sometimes the topic would be history for the full time, sometimes it would be English and sometimes it would be some combination of the two,” Roider said.
Roider said although the teaching was combined, the grading for the courses remained separate.
Roider said combining the courses allowed students to see how history and literature impact one another.
Students said they understood the concept of linking courses and did not mind it very much.
Emmy Cifreo, a nursing graduate student, said she currently is taking two courses simultaneously as part of her graduate studies.
Cifreo said she can understand the importance of linking courses because the classes tend to become focused on the subject matter.
Colby Klester, an undecided freshman, said although he had not thought about the idea very much, he did not think he would mind being required to take two classes simultaneously.
“I wouldn’t mind acquiring different knowledge, as long as it doesn’t have an effect on getting my degree,” Klester said.