Bay Area Culture, a State Studies Course Requirement, Course Redesign using Flipped Pedagogy

This redesigned course will offer students the opportunity to complete one domain of knowledge and one of the four SF State Studies requirements (Social Justice), both of which are in high demand and present bottlenecks for students. Together with AU 301 and a social science class currently being designed, this course will allow a large number of transfer students arriving at SF State to complete all of their Upper Division GE and SF State Studies requirements, often in a semester in which it is difficult for some students to find courses in their major.  Moving some lessons online (including lectures, slides, assignments, readings, videos, and films) will allow instructors to devote in-class meetings to active learning as well as to encourage integrative reflection on the subject of life in the San Francisco Bay Area from multidisciplinary perspectives. Additional newly-built online units will feature interviews and engagement with artists, scholars, and leaders in the Bay Area. We will also develop well-designed, self-guided community learning opportunities to help students connect with their local environment. The redesign team will work with SF State’s Affordable Instructional Materials program to look for lower cost instructional materials. We will use iLearn for course materials and written assignments.