This broad overview of concepts includes neuropsychology, human development, sensation, perception, states of consciousness, memory, cognition and language, motivation, personality, psychological disorders, therapeutic interventions, etc. Because the course is required for many majors and is a general education requirement, it is often taught in large sections using lectures and some discussion. As a part of a Delaware Campus wide innovative project called the Freshman Semester Experience, Professor Hill introduced both a technological and a collaborative component to this typically lecture-based course. Class discussions and readings focus on how different personality types approach group processes such as goal setting, team building, conflict resolution, and time management. Before teaching the class, groups rehearse in front of one another to give suggestions for improvement to one another.
Groups complete four smaller projects using the web as well.
An undergraduate intern is an essential part of the team-building and teaching aspects of the course. By introducing the collaborative peer teaching component to the course, it is necessary for Professor Hill to reduce the amount of material covered for the second part of the course, but, despite this apparent drawback, students actively engage the course material that they teach and better apply what they have already learned. As one component of the Freshman Semester Experience, this course provides students with a generous variety of learning experiences, fosters bonding among members of the group and the class as a whole, enables application of technological expertise, and requires students to learn to work together in a group.