From the beginning, Pratt Integrative Courses were meant to provide opportunities for students to engage in learning that would target particular integrative outcomes, while also allowing them to integrate their learning in Foundation, Gen Ed, and studio/departmental work happening in the first two years. They would also be able to reconnect with students from other majors in an experimental and collaborative setting. The offerings would thus allow students to explore different interdisciplinary topics and subjects while all classes would also have shared outcomes. The PICs would also contribute to Institute-wide learning goals. In fact, the PICs, launched before the Institute Learning Goals were formalized, contributed to the discussion and the framing of these goals. The offering also has led to faculty collaboration and community building across departments, with frequent meetings, confabs, presentations, guest lectures, peer-to-peer mentoring, and more. We thus used the conversation around integrative learning, along with “high-impact” practices, to generate more cross-departmental teaching and collaboration, using outcomes drawn from the Integrative learning VALUE rubric to allow students to engage in project-centered work. We also knew of challenges and tried to anticipate them, from pedagogical, logistical, and philosophical perspectives.
These dimensions of the PICs are still operational:
- One PIC is required for all undergraduate students in all departments in the School of Art and the School of Design, as well as BFA students in the History of Art and Design department, and the Writing department (both in the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences). PICs are not required for Architecture students.
- PICs are 3 credits (with a one-to-one ratio of credit/contact hour).
- PICs are mostly designed to be taken in semesters 5 or 6 by students, in their junior year. Still, there may occasionally be sophomores enrolled in PICs, especially as they have gained popularity. Students also occasionally take their required PIC in their senior year.
- PICs can be taken by all students across the Institute as an all-institute elective.
- Graduate students can’t take Pratt Integrative Courses— although we are consistently looking for ways to provide similar experiences for graduate students.
- Faculty from across Pratt departments and schools teach PICs, and there are currently several PIC-only teaching faculty. We work very collaboratively and seamlessly with chairpersons and faculty to make sure their loads and departmental needs are met before finalizing PIC teaching.
All Pratt Integrative Courses have unique content, and specific learning goals and outcomes. At the same time, all have shared learning goals and outcomes as well. The PIC learning outcomes, from their beginning to now (fall 2018– spring 2026), have been:
- Connections to experience: Students will be able to connect relevant experiences gained outside the classroom and academic knowledge.
- Connections across disciplines: Students will be able to make connections across disciplines and perspectives.
- Transfer: Students will be able to adapt and apply skills, abilities, theories and methodologies gained in one situation to new contexts and situations.
- Integrated Communication: Students will be able to integrate modes of communication in ways that enhance meaning, making clear the interdependence of language—both visual and verbal—to form, thought, and expression.
- Reflection and Self-Assessment: Students will be able to self assess, track learning process, and demonstrate a developing sense of self as learner, building on prior experiences to respond to new and challenging contexts.
In addition, through our many meetings and retreats, the PIC community—referred to as the PIC Collective—has thought of the courses as laboratories for:
- Continuous engagement in the dynamics between:
- Theory and practice
- Thinking and making
- Continuous exploration of processes, along a spectrum of:
- Collaboration (collaborative/individuative work)
- Experimentation
- Interaction