COLLABORATIVE QUEST (CQ)
The Collaborative Quest is a hallmark component of a student’s Guilford education. It consists of a series of inquiry-based courses and experiences that provide space for curiosity, exploration, and reflection. The program offers a unique opportunity for students to merge academic and personal inquiry into an individual or cooperative project through collaboration with fellow students, faculty and staff, and/or members of broader local or global communities.
The culminating project for the Collaborative Quest, called the Contribution, represents a tangible conclusion to the discovery, reflection, and synthesis processes students have been engaged with during their time at Guilford. Whether students undertake a project that relates to their academic pursuits, their vocational aspirations, or their co-curricular interests, the Contribution is intended to provide the opportunity to showcase their own intellectual curiosities, knowledge, and skills as an integral part of their education.
The Collaborative Quest begins by building community through collaborative, project-based experiences in Initiate to lay the foundation for the Contribution. Reflection Seminar courses offer a place for students to identify and reflect on their curiosities and integrate their learning across disciplines. With the support of their advising team, students choose Explore courses that have informed their Contribution, which is completed in the Apply course.
Through the Collaborative Quest, students will
- Develop an awareness of who they are as a learner and in the academic community of Guilford.
- Engage in continuous reflection on their academic growth as it relates to their curiosity and future goals.
- Produce a project (the Contribution) that integrates their learning, insights, values, and questions.
- Develop skills in collaborating with others to achieve group and individual goals.
- Develop skills for communicating their work in small groups and with larger audiences.
- Demonstrate a commitment to ongoing, self-motivated pursuit of knowledge.
The Collaborative Quest consists of the following courses and experiences.
| Code | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Reflection Seminars | ||
| Two-credit seminars taken during twelve-week sessions. | ||
MYCQ 101 Reflection Seminar I | ||
MYCQ 201 Reflection Seminar II | ||
| Code | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Explore Courses | ||
The purpose of Explore courses is to develop, in more detail, a student's academic curiosity. Given this, potentially any course that a student takes could be identified as an Explore course. Therefore, students develop plans for Explore courses in their first semester at Guilford. As students prepare their Contribution proposal, they will identify Explore courses as an assignment in MYCQ 201. Students should identify at least two Explore courses (six-eight credits) that together demonstrate a multidisciplinary approach to their curiosity. | ||
Explore courses may double-count with general education requirements, major requirements, minor requirements, or course requirements of other programs. | ||
MYCQ 401 Apply
A four-credit coursetaken after the completion of Explore courses and Reflection Seminars. In the Apply course, students complete the Contribution. Students will typically take the Apply course in the fall or spring twelve-week session of their senior year. The typical expectation is for each student to complete the Contribution in an Apply course before the spring three-week session of their senior year.
The Collaborative Quest requirement at Guilford is expected not only of traditional first-time students to the college, but also of transfer students joining Guilford after completing college credits at another institution. The modified Collaborative Quest requirements for transfer students are summarized below.
First-time, first-year and transfer students (<24 credits)
|
All requirements listed above
|
Transfer students (>24 credits but without an Associate’s Degree) |
Initiate and Reflection Seminar I recommended Reflection Seminar II
Apply and Contribution
|
Transfer students (with an Associate’s Degree) |
Initiate and Reflection Seminar I optional Reflection Seminar II Apply and Contribution |
| Course | CQ elements | Grading schema for course | Minimum grade necessary to meet requirement |
|---|---|---|---|
| MYCQ 100 | Initiate | Graded | D- |
| MYCQ 101 | Reflection Seminar I | Credit/No Credit | CR |
| MYCQ 201 | Reflection Seminar II | Credit/No Credit | CR |
| Explore Courses (2) | Graded | D- | |
| MYCQ 401 | Apply | Graded | D- |
| Contribution | Met/Not Met | Met |
The Contribution requirement is met with successful completion of MYCQ 401.
MYCQ 100. Initiate
The Initiate course is the initial academic experience for Guilford College students. This course provides an immersive introduction to who we are as an academic community at Guilford and the learning experiences that lie ahead. Initiate courses build from themes that develop out of the interdisciplinary interests and experiences of the instructor team, introducing students to what it means to be curious. This course integrates the Common Read for the fall. Course assignments, activities, learning, and multidisciplinary content will model and anticipate the team-based, hands-on projects that students will use to explore questions and address problems.
The outcomes of the Initiate course provide a foundation for the Collaborative Quest program and for a student’s entire Guilford education. Each specific Initiate class will have academic content outcomes spanning the interests and experience, disciplinary and interdisciplinary, of the class’s instructor cluster. In addition, all Initiate courses will have the following outcomes.
Students will
- Begin exploration of who they are as a learner and in the academic community of Guilford.
- Develop skills for collaborating with others to achieve course goals.
- Develop skills for communicating their work in small groups and with larger audiences.
Italicized outcomes address goals specified by the Guilford College Ethical Leadership model
Reflection Seminars
MYCQ 101. Reflection Seminar I
Reflection Seminar I continues the transition to Guilford’s community and academic program and builds student experience further with each student engaging in continual reflection on their education and experience.
Students will
- Grow their awareness of who they are as a learner and in the academic community of Guilford.
- Engage in exploration of their intrinsic motivation for learning through use of reflective practices.
- Identify potential topics that are of interest to them (i.e., identify curiosities).
- Identify resources, classes, and co-curricular experiences on campus that can help them explore those topics.
Italicized outcomes address goals specified by the Guilford College Ethical Leadership model.
MYCQ 201. Reflection Seminar II
Reflection Seminar II is a two-credit course that each student typically takes when they have junior standing. Students continue the process of reflection and curiosity development from Reflection Seminar I and Explore courses with a focus on developing a proposal for their Contribution through collaboration with fellow students, faculty and staff, and/or members of broader local or global communities. Through the proposal development process, students continue refining their curiosity, making changes as appropriate. Instructors may include other course content as appropriate, especially when the student population is from a specific cohort, for example, Bonner Scholars or students in the Honors Program.
Students will
- Reflect on knowledge and skills acquired through curricular and co-curricular experiences to inform the Contribution planning process.
- Develop a rich and reflective proposal for the Contribution through a collaborative process.
MYCQ 401. Apply
The Apply course in which students complete the Contribution requires students nearing the end of their degree program to complete a project addressing a question or problem that applies what they’ve learned and reflected on through their entire educational experience. The project might be a research paper, a performance, a portfolio of “signature work,” an exhibition of artwork, significant community service, their participation in the planning, organization and administration of a significant group project or program, or a project of similar scope. A student’s Contribution builds specifically on their Reflection Seminars and Explore courses and more generally on their entire coursework and co-curricular experiences. Students do not develop their Contribution in a silo, but with groundwork that is firmly rooted in the exchanges that occurred in a collaborative community of common curiosity among fellow students, faculty and staff, and/or members of broader local or global communities.
Students will
- Produce a project (the Contribution) that integrates their learning, insights, values, and questions.
- Present the project in an appropriate public forum.
- Create an artifact that is representative of the student’s Contribution and can be deposited in the Guilford College archives.
- Develop an inward and outward reflection on their culminating project and their journey through the Collaborative Quest, identifying specific knowledge and skills developed and future directions for their curiosity.
- Demonstrate a commitment to ongoing, self-motivated pursuit of knowledge.
Contribution
The Contribution requires students nearing the end of their degree program to complete a project addressing a question or problem that applies what they’ve learned and reflected on through their entire educational experience. The project might be a research paper, a performance, a portfolio of “signature work,” an exhibition of artwork, significant community service, their participation in the planning, organization and administration of a significant group project or program, or a project of similar scope. A student’s Contribution builds specifically on their Reflection Seminars and Explore courses and more generally on their entire coursework and co-curricular experiences. Students do not develop their Contribution in a silo, but with groundwork that is firmly rooted in the exchanges that occurred in a collaborative community of common curiosity among fellow students, faculty and staff, and/or members of broader local or global communities.
Student Contributions will vary widely based on student curiosities and collaborative methods within which students accomplish the goals of the projects. All projects must include (written, oral, or otherwise) the following:
- An artifact, such as a thesis, artist’s statement, research paper, reflection, or other physical or digital item, that is representative of the student’s Contribution and can be deposited in the Guilford College archives that will incorporate:
- Clear rationale for the work and why it is important (to them and/or the larger community)
- Summary of work
- A reflection on the student’s journey through the experience and their educational journey, which will include:
- Discussion of the origins of and self-motivation to explore their curiosity
- Identification of specific skills (individual and collective) developed
- Exploration of insights, values, questions, and application connections (for themselves and/or the larger community)
- Evaluation of the models of collaboration that the student has identified as useful and important to their development
- Consideration of future directions for their curiosity based on this experience
- Sharing of the Contribution in some form (presentation, performance, etc.) with peers, including providing an opportunity for discussion and feedback