LEeWIS: Designing and Delivering an Interdisciplinary Course on Linguistics, Environment and Geography for Final-Year Undergraduate Students Through Experiential Peer-Based Learning

The ability to work in interdisciplinary teams is becoming increasing important, both in academic environments and the workplace. However few university programmes deliver course content in truly interdisciplinary formats, instead structuring coursework around traditional disciplinary boundaries. Project aims were: 1) include student partners in designing an interdisciplinary, experiential course where content was structured around a shared physical place rather than disciplinary boundaries, and 2) embed authentic interactions with external stakeholders to enhance learning through an enquiry-based approach. To achieve these aims, staff and students from across three Colleges within the University of Glasgow co-designed activities for a cross-disciplinary, final-year undergraduate field course, following the ‘three-faculty rule’ discussed in (Gibson et al. 2019). During May and June 2024, a team of 4 staff, 8 students and 1 GTA representing the Schools of Geography & Earth Science (CoSE), School of Biodiversity, One Health and Comparative Medicine (MVLS) and Celtic & Gaelic Studies (CoAH) worked together to structure and then deliver lecture- and practical-based course content centred on the cultural heritage, language, landscape and species conservation of the Isle of Lewis, Outer Hebrides. Course design was structured through three stages: 1) a series of supervised 1-hr meetings where students reflected on prior coursework that they felt comfortable teaching to their peers, followed by 2) a one-week intensive set of lectures delivered primarily by the student partners, and 3) a 1-week residential visit to the Isle of Lewis. During this visit, student and staff met with a range of stakeholders and visited locations that provided a central focus for student enquiry. After the course, student partners authored draft ILOs, proposed assessment methods and provided feedback on the stakeholders, locations and sessions from the field course. On the final day of the residential course, all partners contributed to a Mindmap to explore their experience, from which the following themes were identified. First, the residential format allowed students to create an environment of shared experience and trust, facilitating open enquiry and informal interactions. Similar to Chan and Wheeler (2023)’s recommendations, the informal spaces created by this format facilitated learning and an awareness of the value of different disciplinary approaches to a shared problem. More importantly, it also deepened student appreciation of their own discipline. Second, allocating students into teams across disciplines was essential in ensuring mutual interdisciplinary interactions, and working in a novel physical space also forced everyone to move outside their comfort zones. This also demonstrated the importance of field-based learning for Humanities disciplines and emdedded perspectives of stakeholders in an authentic and engaging way, allowing students to sense the connection to place & pride in communities and deepening their understanding of different perspectives. Overall, this project demonstrated that interdisciplinary coursework at the final-year undergraduate level can be highly successful, providing a unique learning environment in which students gained an appreciation that a more holistic approach leads to more impactful research and increased confidence in their own disciplines. Hopefully these results will encourage other teams to incorporate such experiences into their own learning & teaching.