OSUN COURSES AND CERTIFICATES: DEEP CURRICULAR INTEGRATION

Integrating students from multiple geographies and educational backgrounds is an excellent way for encouraging open, critical discussion of various issues pertaining to the field. Having students from various OSUN institutions definitely counteracts intellectual monocultures. It stimulates inter-cultural communication, helps to develop critical thinking skills, and contributes to raising a new generation of responsible leaders.”

Begaiym Esenkulova, Faculty, American University of Central Asia

OSUN offers students the opportunity to take two types of courses with peers from across the network. An OSUN Online Course is a single course offered at one institution that is taught fully online in a synchronous format and enrolls students from multiple OSUN campuses. OSUN Network Collaborative Courses are co-designed by faculty from multiple OSUN partners and taught in person on each of those campuses, with students coming together online and offline throughout the semester to collaborate on assignments and projects. These unique but connected OSUN courses embody efforts to integrate teaching and learning across the network. The vast majority of students and faculty participating in OSUN courses believe that they enhance learning outcomes and help students to gain unique insights into some of the most important challenges facing humanity. They also provide opportunities for displaced and marginalized students to participate in dialogue with students from across the globe and to contribute to and benefit from a dynamic and rigorous learning environment.

Both kinds of OSUN courses focus on OSUN themes and many are components of OSUN Academic Certificate Programs, which provide structured curricular and co-curricular pathways through the themes. Academic certificate programs further curricular integration, sequence coursework, and allow non-degree students, such as refugee and displaced learners, to obtain credits and a transferable micro-credential. Each certificate requires 3-6 courses and may include co-curricular activities. There are currently six OSUN Certificate Programs – in Public Policy and Economic Analysis, Civic Engagement, Global Educational Development, Social Enterprise and Leading Change, Food Studies, and Human Rights.

In addition, OSUN offers courses through Summer University at CEU (SUN). SUN courses serve advanced students, scholars, and professionals interested in curricular experimentation and professional advancement. These intensive courses feature interactive learning and foster ongoing faculty collaborations across the network.

OSUN also supports the Invisible University for Ukraine (IUFU), an online program for junior and senior undergraduate and graduate students from Ukraine, whether residing in Ukraine or in refuge, whose studies have been affected by the war. The program offers an intensive learning experience on the role of Ukraine in changing European and global contexts, with a transnational comparative perspective.

2022-2023 OSUN COURSES BY THE NUMBERS

3,854 STUDENTS

205 FACULTY

160 STUDENTS ENROLLED IN CERTIFICATE PROGRAMS

This course, taught by Al-Quds Bard faculty, blew me away. The other students introduced me to things I never knew about and it was really powerful and beautiful to listen and hear their personal reflections.”

Elena Thompson, Student in OSUN course, Dislocated Identities in a Fragmenting World