Latin American Studies 100: Redesigning a Core Area Studies Course

This project reconfigures Latin American Studies 100, the core first-year gateway to students’ understanding of Latin America. Employing a blended learning approach incorporating technological resources (a web interface, blogs, video and audio lectures and podcasts) and flexible pedagogical processes (flipped classroom, student as producer, active learning), we will enrich student learning, increase capacity, attract new students to the major and minor, encourage interdisciplinary, interdepartmental, and inter-institutional collaboration, and open the course up beyond UBC.

Latin American Studies 100 is UBC’s key contribution to undergraduate students’ understanding of the greater part of the landmass and population of the continent on which we are situated: Central and South America plus Mexico and significant Latino presence in the United States. The course has historically recruited well, but is capped at 50 and is easily overlooked. This redesign is a first step to transforming and upgrading UBC’s educational offerings regarding this vital world region.