The Baylor Promise

Capstone courses and projects are one of the 11 types of high-impact practices endorsed by the Association of American Colleges and Universities. The AAC&U defines capstone courses and projects as culminating experiences that require students nearing the end of their college career to create a project that integrates and applies what they’ve learned. These projects often represent how a student brings together the ideas they’ve learned over many semesters while assessing their own perspective, attitudes, and values. The capstone project might be a research paper, a performance, a portfolio of “best work,” or an exhibit of artwork. Capstones are offered in Baylor’s departmental programs and, increasingly, in general education as well. 

The AAC&U defines collaborative learning as combining two key goals: learning to work and solve problems in the company of others and sharpening one’s own understanding by listening seriously to the insights of others, especially those with different backgrounds and life experiences. At Baylor, students learn alongside each other. These learning approaches range from study groups within courses to team-based assignments and writing to cooperative projects and research.

Small group work at Baylor is an instructional strategy used to present multiple perspectives and viewpoints from the group members. Small-group formats—such as discussion groups, role-playing and games or challenges—can encourage and provide opportunities for peer-to-peer interactions . For example, Baylor’s Honors College offers small class sizes that foster group work and discussion. With ten to 15 students per class, students in these courses can rest assured knowing their voices will be heard.

The unified core curriculum for the College of Arts & Sciences’ BA, BFA, BS and BSAS degrees is an essential element of Baylor’s transformational undergraduate education pillar and represents a significant portion of a student’s chosen degree. The unified core provides a shared foundation of knowledge drawn from the rich and diverse liberal arts tradition; develops various skills necessary for the completion of an academic degree, but also essential for personal and professional life beyond Baylor; and inspires moral, intellectual and spiritual virtues.

Virtues enable a person to live a life of well-being and happiness. Furthermore, virtues direct our actions because they allow us to love and desire what is true, good and beautiful. Baylor aims to develop these virtues within each of her students through their engagement both in the classroom and in the community. Within the Christian tradition, seven virtues—four cardinal and three theological—are understood as those from which all other virtues flow. The cardinal virtues—wisdom, justice, courage, and temperance—are those which can be fostered through diligent practice. The theological virtues—faith, hope and love—are considered gifts, imparted through God’s grace, and are therefore exclusively spiritual virtues that cannot be generated or perfected solely by human effort.

The knowledge, skills, and virtues students gain and cultivate within Baylor’s community of Christian scholars provide them with the resources they need to uncover and recognize truth, to deepen their faith, to live virtuously, to strengthen their communities and to affect the world in transformative ways.

Baylor emphasizes courses and programs that help students explore cultures, life experiences and worldviews different from their own. These studies—which may address US diversity, world cultures, or both—often explore “difficult differences” such as racial, ethnic and gender inequality, or continuing struggles around the globe for human rights, freedom and power. Additionally, Baylor’s commitment to diversity and inclusion integrates within all core classes students are required to take. Frequently, intercultural studies are augmented by experiential learning in the community and/or by study abroad programs. 

Baylor offers three different types of study-abroad programs: exchange, affiliate and faculty-led. Each credit-bearing academic program varies in length and distance, and you can find these programs in more than 30 different countries around the world. These programs provide an opportunity to engage and study in an off-campus setting. Students can expect similar classroom practices in study abroad programs, including classroom study, research, intern- or externships, and service learning. 

First-Year Seminars (FYS) offer a chance for new Baylor students to enhance their education by exploring topics with significant cultural/social importance. These seminars encourage the early acquisition of critical thinking, writing and research skills and introduce freshmen to opportunities for cultural and intellectual enrichment on campus. Seminars are offered on an array of different subjects, including history, political science, economics, neuroscience, social work, classics and other departments. 

The Honors Program at Baylor University also hosts its own catalog of First Year Seminars. These specialized seminars are introductory courses within the Honors Program curriculum.  Most incoming Honors Program students will participate in one of these highly recommended seminars during their first semester at Baylor. These small classes enroll a maximum of 15 students, ensuring close student-to-faculty interaction and a chance for lively discussion. Honors Seminars have covered a wide array of topics, including: 

• Crossroads in Medicine;
• Environmental Ethics and Human Health;
• From Memex to YouTube: Media Studies;
• Getting Away with Murder in Classical Athens;
• Language, Thought, Identity, Action;
• Philosophy of C.S. Lewis; and 
• Priests, Pastors and Power: Church Leaders in Literature

Internships are an increasingly common form of experiential learning. They provide students with direct experience in a work setting—usually related to their career interests—and give them the benefit of supervision and coaching from professionals in the field. If the internship is taken for course credit, students complete a project or paper that is approved by a faculty member.

The Office of Engaged Learning works with students in a variety of ways to discover, apply for and secure internships that promote personal growth and equip them for their futures. Additionally, many major courses of study at Baylor require upper-level students to complete a semester-long internship while they take an internship-specific class. For example, in the Garland School of Social Work, students are required to do a field internship to graduate. 

Living-Learning Communities are organized around specific academic programs or extracurricular interests. Students of all classifications live among other students with similar interests and degree plans. As part of the emphasis on community, residents share common cohort classes and have access to other academic services and programming provided specifically for members of the communities. Living-Learning Community Housing Contracts are for one academic year and may be renewed.

Baylor’s Living-Learning Communities include the Baylor & Beyond LLC in North Russell, the Business & Innovation LLC in Brooks Flats, the Fine Arts LLC in Heritage House, the LEAD LLC in Allen and Dawson Halls, the Outdoor Adventure LLC in Penland and the Science & Health LLC in Earle Hall.

In community-based learning programs, field-based “experiential learning” with community partners is an instructional strategy—and often a required part of these Baylor courses. These programs aim to give students direct experience with issues they study in the curriculum and with ongoing efforts to analyze and solve problems in the community. A key element in these programs is the opportunity for students to both apply what they’re learning in real-world settings and reflect on their service experiences in a classroom setting. These programs model the idea that giving something back to the community is an important college outcome and that working with community partners is good preparation for citizenship, work and life.

At Baylor, this community involvement is referred to as Civic Engagement. Every semester offers a variety of courses through the Philanthropy and Public Service Program. These courses often blend an instructional classroom environment with a required community service aspect. For example, Introduction to Citizenship and Community Service relates community service to poverty, literacy, local political participation, peer mentorship, mentoring, community law enforcement, gender and neighborhood development. This course has a weekly requirement of one hour classroom learning along with a minimum of two hours of service work. 

The Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Achievement (URSA) Initiative at Baylor is a campus-wide initiative that serves faculty and students from all disciplines. Housed in the Office of Engaged Learning,URSA aims to support, promote and enhance high-quality undergraduate research and scholarship through research grants and Scholars Week. Learning to write research proposals and presenting their research in a professional setting enhances a student’s education. Baylor offers undergraduate research opportunities in several different fields, including business and education, fine arts, music and theatre, health sciences and nursing, humanities and social sciences, and STEM. 

Research is an engaged-learning activity that allows undergraduates to: 

• gain experience in a chosen field;
• prepare for graduate or professional school;
• develop problem-solving skills;
• contribute to the knowledge in a specific discipline; and
• build relationships with professionals.

These courses emphasize writing at all levels of instruction and across the curriculum, including final-year projects. Students are encouraged to produce and revise various forms of writing for different audiences in different disciplines. The effectiveness of this repeated practice “across the curriculum” has led to parallel efforts in such areas as quantitative reasoning, oral communication, information literacy, and, on some campuses, ethical inquiry.

Baylor offers several research writing courses as part of our core curriculum. The courses are centered on different topics, including English, religion, philosophy, history, environmental science and more. The course’s goal is for students to “learn and practice writing and research skills integral to academic, civic, professional or technical pursuits.”