Introduction

Please click here to see Individually Structured Major department information.

The University of Colorado’s Intercampus Interdisciplinary Studies Degree is a fully online degree designed to offer maximum flexibility for students whose interests and professional aspirations span many disciplines. While requiring a high level of self-direction on the part of students, this program also offers students active guidance by faculty and academic advisors.  Key features of this program include:

• Students design majors around interdisciplinary topics of professional and personal interest
• Students, guided by advisors, take initiative in directing their own education not just through the choice of interdisciplinary topics but also through required experiential learning opportunities
• Students learn how to analyze and apply knowledge gained from multiple disciplines
• Students choose from among a large set of courses offered across the Boulder, Colorado Springs, and Denver campuses
• Degree focuses on fostering graduates who are able to write, problem solve, and communicate verbally
• Students have the option to complete the full degree in three years

ISO is a system initiative realized through campus cooperation. Faculty and administrative representatives from the three comprehensive campuses of the University of Colorado System (CU Denver, CU Boulder, and UCCS) have participated in constructing the major.

The central facets of the Option are:

• Collaborative Foundational Courses
  • Collaborative teams made up of faculty members from the three campuses have completed syllabi for three foundational courses and have begun the process of building these courses online through the Canvas Learning Management System (which the three comprehensive campuses have now adopted).
• Collaborative Course Clusters
  • Campus teams have vetted ten clusters across their campuses in discussions with faculty governance bodies, department chairs, and other groups to assure buy-in as well as to confirm that appropriate courses are included in the clusters.

These degree requirements are subject to periodic revision by CLAS, and the College reserves the right to make exceptions and substitutions as judged necessary in individual cases. Therefore, the College strongly urges students to consult regularly with their CLAS Academic Advisor to confirm the best plans of study before finalizing them.

Program Delivery

• This is an on-campus, online or hybrid program.

Declaring This Major

• Click here to go to information about declaring a major.

General Requirements

To earn a degree, students must satisfy all requirements in each of the areas below, in addition to their individual major requirements.

• CU Denver General Graduation Requirements
• CU Denver Core Requirements
• College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Graduation Requirements
• Click here for information about Academic Policies

Program Requirements

1. Students must complete a minimum of 39 credits from approved coursework.
2. Students must complete a minimum of 15 upper division (3000-level and higher) credit hours from approved coursework.
3. Students must earn a minimum grade of C- (1.7) in all major courses taken at CU Denver and must achieve a minimum cumulative major GPA of 2.0. All graded attempts in required and elective courses are calculated in the major GPA. Students cannot complete major or ancillary course requirements as pass/fail.
4. Students must complete a minimum of 24 credit hours of approved coursework with CU Denver faculty.

Requirements 

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
Take the following
ISMA 1500	Introduction to Interdisciplinary Learning 1	3
ISMA 3500	Interdisciplinary Experiential Learning	3
ISMA 4500	Interdisciplinary Learning Capstone 2	3
Complete two course clusters of a minimum of 15 credit hours each.		30
Total Hours		39

1	Should be taken early in the academic career (i.e. freshman year.)
2	Should be taken toward the end of the academic career (i.e. senior year.)

Approved Course Clusters

Clusters are interdisciplinary groups of courses selected from each campus to support a recognizable topic shared among the three campuses; they differ from traditional campus- and disciplinary-based minors and certificate programs. Team ISO has created 10 interdisciplinary clusters from which students will select two. Each cluster must contain a minimum of 15 credits from a common group of courses drawn from the three comprehensive campuses:

1. Cultural Diversity
2. Research Methods & Data Analysis
3. Global Studies
4. Digital and Media Studies
5. Environment & Sustainability
6. Policy & Security
7. Social Justice Studies
8. Organizations & Leadership
9. Professional & Technical Communication
10. Health, Science, and Society

To learn more about the Student Learning Outcomes for this program, please visit our website. 

To review the Degree Map for this program, please visit our website.