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What's New in Graduate Education at BU
Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program: An Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program can foster innovative and collaborative research and empower students to "own" their education. This new program allows a graduate student with his/her faculty advisor to assemble a research supervisory committee consisting of faculty from other departments or even schools (Arts & Sciences, Engineering, Education, Management and Nursing).
Virtual Orientation: The Graduate School uses an on-line orientation for new graduate students. In the past, new students sat through two days of mini-lectures providing the details of how to register, get an ID, obtain financial aid, and so forth, which while necessary was mind-numbing to say the least. Now the on-line orientation allows students to get specific information as they want and need it, such as before they get here, or on a day-by-day basis as they go through their first weeks here. The on-line orientation also has some new features, including advice on how to manage life in graduate school and taking charge of one's graduate education. Now there is much greater emphasis on graduate students planning their career and professional development and creating thei rpersonal strategy through self-assessment. Although a few universities have an on-line orientation, the information is not as comprehensive as what BU is now providing.
Live Orientation: The Graduate School now offers an hour orientation to new graduate students that focuses entirely on welcoming them to BU and encouraging the development of a "graduate portfolio" consisting of: 1) the advanced degree (masters or doctorate), 2) development of core competency skills (e.g., communication, teamwork, leadership, big-picture thinking), 3) internship (e.g., teaching assistant, research assistant, capstone/intern experiences required by program, self-designed internship using expertise to solve community problem), and 4) networking (within and outside university).
Revamped TA orientation: The Graduate School provides several on-line modules that new Teaching Assistants are required to complete, such as Learning Styles, Brain Chemistry & Learning, and Art of Public Speaking. In addition to the on-line modules, the Graduate School partners with the Center for Learning & Teaching and Library Services to conduct a full-day session for new teaching assistants to introduce them to modern teaching methods for university-level instruction. The session consists of mini-lectures interspersed with small-group discussions co-led by faculty, staff and senior graduate teaching assistants, and a "working" lunch to meet Graduate Directors. The live session includes the topics of diversity, engaging students for learning, and academic honesty.
Professional Ethics Training: The virtual orientation for all graduate students includes a required on-line Professional Ethics Training that has 14 modules, including the topics of academic honesty, plagiarism, and sexual harassment. To determine its learning value, it has a pre- and post-assessment. Only a few universities have an on-line, interactive ethics training for graduate students. As Chris Pascal, Director of the Office of Research Integrity, US Dept. of Health and Human Services has said, "Graduate schools play an extremely important role in the intergenerational transmission of the practices, norms, values, and beliefs of the research community." At Binghamton, we take that role very seriously. Binghamton is one of only a few universities to require this training for all graduate students.
Graduate-level Writing Skills & Tasks: This required on-line module is designed to assist graduate students with the writing necessary for common professional tasks. The module has 21 units and takes 10 minutes per unit. Our goals are to increase graduate student’s understanding of: how to write better, skills of a self-editor, common professional writing tasks, and writing as a tool for better thinking. Typical comments of students: “very instructive and meticulous, easy to understand and very helpful” and “good general coverage of professional writing tasks”. Binghamton is one of only a few universities to require this training for all graduate students.
New Faculty Orientation: The Graduate School also conducts part of the orientation for new faculty. The Graduate School re-organized these sessions: 1) teaching at BU (mini-lectures about student-centered learning techniques and how to set up a course on Blackboard, the on-line delivery system), 2) research and scholarship at BU (mini-lectures and discussions led by senior staff), and 3) mentoring graduate students and undergraduates for research and scholarship.
More fast-track combination degrees: We have over 50 fast-track baccalaureate-masters programs (5 years for two degrees, e.g., engineering BS and MBA), and we are developing new ones all the time. These programs allow Binghamton undergraduates, many of whom are already on a fast-track by entering with many AP credits, to take graduate courses in their senior year and at the undergraduate tuition rate. Binghamton also offers fast-track dual degree programs: Master in Social Work-Master in Public Administration, and Nursing MS-Master in Public Administration.
PhD in Translation Studies: BU now has the only PhD program in Translation Studies in USA. The discipline of Translation Studies has become increasingly important with globalization.
Multidisciplinary graduate program in Evolutionary Studies (EvoS): This program, the only one of its kind in the world, has already brought together faculty and graduate students from Asian history, art history, anthropology, biology, engineering, philosophy, political science, psychology and management. For example, one of the projects is a traveling museum exhibit on the arts from an evolutionary perspective (e.g., when and how Darwin's work began influencing art) that will be shown at the New York Academy of Sciences among other places.
Career & professional development university-wide for graduate students: This program emphasizes development of core competencies (e.g., skills of communication, teamwork, leadership and big-picture thinking) and co-ordinates workshops and other activities provided by the Graduate School, Career Development Center, Center for Learning & Teaching, Center for Quality, Technology Training Center and University Libraries.
Electronic theses & dissertations: Within a few years, electronic storage and distribution is expected to dominate print format. Along with a number of other major universities, BU now requires electronic submission of dissertations to the Graduate School. This is very exciting for several reasons. First, with electronic submission, dissemination around the world increases dramatically (e.g., from a few requests for hardcopy per year to hundreds per year electronically). Second, it will be very easy to include supplemental multimedia files as part of the work. For example, it can include an audio file to illustrate musical phrasing, or a video file to show process of setting up an art exhibition, or a computer program of three-dimensional, rotating molecules or engineering project. Third, there are significant cost reductions for libraries (less handling and less storage).
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