Welcome to the Digital Intro Project.
Introductory courses play a central role in higher education , often consuming all or much of the first two years of the college experience. Yet, outdated approaches to teaching and learning are particularly widespread at the introductory level. Moreover, these courses act as “gates”, sorting students into disciplinary fields and actively “weeding out” others despite ample rhetoric and effort surrounding inclusion and diversity. Given that these are the foundational experiences that are meant to open doors, assisting students in choosing their path and allowing them to begin to more actively pursue their interests and achieve their potential, the importance of ‘introductory’ experiences cannot be overstated. In an effort to address uneven access, many universities and colleges, simply add seats to already large sections, often resulting in exclusive reliance on lectures and few learning opportunities that actively leverage digital tools or promote technical skills in the kind of real world contexts that would best allow students to explore and expand on disciplinary content through, problems, projects, inquiry and design.
Here is an example of our work: