SuperStudio

The Honors College SuperStudio

The educational benefits of problem-based learning, design thinking, communities of practice, and studio courses in higher education are now well documented.  The Honors College SuperStudio initiative builds upon these practices to help students engage in the kinds of transdisciplinary and massively-collaborative work they will need to employ as professionals and citizens to address critical 21st century issues.  The SuperStudio concept thus brings together — in one space — multiple advanced courses, each of which focus on a different critical aspect of a complex global challenge, and all of which work together toward possible coordinated solutions. 

SuperStudio students enroll in one of the participating 3-credit courses and in UH 4514: Honors SuperStudio, a required co-requisite 1-credit course with a common meeting time that allows students to work together in transdisciplinary teams to explore connections among their subjects and approaches, consider the challenges to such broadly collaborative efforts, and pursue the possibility of coordinated problem-solving.  

All participating courses meet in the Honors College's SuperStudio space in Squires Student Center (formerly the Old Dominion Ballroom) to facilitate student collaboration within each section, between various sections, and among all sections as a whole. Each student gains swipe-card access to the studio and a project-development space.  The Honors SuperStudio is now a vibrant transdisciplinary community of practice.