Benefits of Quarter Conversion for Professional Health Careers Students

A Return to the Original Curriculum Model
In the late 1980s, the first evening school science curriculum was modeled after the "day school." However, the evening and weekend curriculum had to be squeezed into the semester system.

Examples:
General Chemistry, which was a 3-quarter sequence at the day school, had to be squeezed into a 2-semester system, resulting in a significant loss of lecture and lab hours.
Likewise, the other core sequences of Biology, Physics, and Organic Chemistry, had to be similarly squeezed into a semester system.

That practice of squeezing the day-school curriculum into an evening and weekend schedule has been applied in all of our Professional Health Careers concentrations. By moving to quarters, SCS is simply returning to the original model of the NU curriculum.

Increased Lecture and Classroom Time for Sequence Courses
Students in a year-long sequence will see the contact time increase from 70 hours (30 hours per semester) to 90 hours. That will allow the instructors more time to go into greater depth in their lectures, to examine problems in class, and to field more questions from students. For example, students and instructors have complained that some important topics, such as genetics, were not thoroughly covered due to the hectic semester schedule. Under quarters, content will be delivered in more deliberate and systematic fashion.

Increased Time for Laboratory Experiments
In each of the lab courses, the move to quarters will result in more time in the labs. For example, the labs in BIOLOGY 210 often have to be doubled up in order to match the day school curriculum; in the quarter system, students will follow the same schedule of the day school., which should allow them to focus their efforts more efficiently. In GENERAL CHEMISTRY, students will no longer have to wait half a year in order to begin lab; now, they will have lab work in their very first course. As a result, the labs will enhance the lectures, allowing students to integrate their learning.

Greater Access to NU Resources
The semester system meant that SCS was permanently out of step with the calendar of the rest of the university. That led to problems in room scheduling and availability and access to NU services, such as the bookstore and intercampus shuttle. More importantly, the misalignment of academic calendars made it harder to recruit NU faculty. In the quarter schedule, SCS will be able to offer more consistent services to students and recruit more NU faculty.