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Course Catalog

Campus Undergraduate Program

Business Administration

Counseling, Psychological Studies, and Human Services

Education (K-8)

Environmental Science

Liberal Studies

Campus Undergraduate Program

The undergraduate "active learning" curriculum at Alaska Pacific University (APU) includes both traditional and nontraditional features. The Associate and Bachelor degrees require 64 and 128 semester credits respectively. All students who graduate from APU must also compile and present to the faculty a Portfolio demonstrating that they have acquired and possess certain skills and understandings. These graduation requirements are described below. Course requirements for the Associate and Bachelor degrees are listed in the department sections of this catalog.

The Portfolio

The Portfolio process begins when students enter APU. In the courses GS 132 Orientation to Active Learning or GS 135 Self and Society in Context: A Quest for Wisdom, students prepare the introductory materials: autobiography, goals statements, and resume. During the next four semesters, students collect materials to be included in the documentation for the junior year review. In the junior year, students address the required competencies, documenting their mastery, or outlining a plan for acquiring them before the end of the senior year. While the portfolio is a collection of a student's work and a series of essays assessing that work, in a fuller sense the term "portfolio" refers to the current product of an ongoing process intended to encourage academic and personal growth through reflection and self-assessment.

The portfolio is reviewed by the student's major department and is considered an essential tool for students and their advisors to chart and carry out a plan for individualized learning.

The Portfolio Development Guide, which details this process, is available online and from the Registrar's Office.

General University Requirement

There are three kinds of undergraduate courses at APU: General University Requirement courses (GURs), departmental major courses, and elective courses. As listed below for the A.A. degree, 8 courses (nominally 32 credits) are required, and for the B.A. or B.S. degrees, 10 courses (nominally 40 credits) are required. These courses are the heart of the academic program at APU and have their roots in the liberal arts. Taken from science, humanities, arts, and social sciences, they reflect the convictions of the university founders that courses in all these areas are essential to the preparation of a fully educated person. The Liberal Studies department provides most of these courses; however, the Counseling, Psychological Studies, and Human Services department and the Business Administration department provide additional social science courses while the Environmental Science department provides science and math (Quantitative Skills) courses. The course "Sophomore Seminar" is offered separately by each department. All students take a practicum class appropriate to their major. B.A. and B.S. degree candidates also complete a 12-16 credit senior project. These special classes, Sophomore Seminar, Junior Practicum, and Senior Project are described below.

Alaska Pacific University's traditional disciplines allow students to integrate their learning and see the connections between different areas of knowledge. These disciplines are housed in five departments:

Business Administration
Counseling, Psychological Studies, and Human Services
Education
Environmental Science
Liberal Studies

Each student at Alaska Pacific University selects a department within which to focus his or her studies. Within each department, students select a major or area of emphasis, which leads to the development of competence in a particular field and to career opportunities.

All undergraduate programs lead to the Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degrees. In addition, the Associate of Arts degree and Certificate programs are available in some areas. The university requirements for the A.A., B.A., and B.S. degrees are listed below. Specific requirements for majors are described in the sections of the catalog containing departmental information.

Sophomore Seminar

In this course, students learn, and put into practice, the basic thought processes, questions, and problem solving styles of the various academic disciplines. Each department provides one sophomore-level seminar course designed to introduce the student to the fundamental project skills of real world professionals representative of that department.

This course will teach the student how to frame a directed study that is academically rigorous, and how to design a project that yields clear results, to evaluate those results, to manage time effectively, and to critique one's own work. The student will interact creatively with faculty and peers, plan and carry out a basic but professional team project or independent study, and critique the projects of other student teams.

Directed Study

Students are encouraged to design directed studies as opportunities to make attachments across disciplines or to study in greater depth areas of particular interest. Under the mentorship of a faculty member, students pursue learning objectives they have set for themselves.

Junior Practicum

Each major offers a Junior Practicum that adds more refined and technical problem solving skills to the student's professional repertoire. A significant part of the Junior Practicum is the planning and execution of an individual project with greater complexity and sophistication than projects attempted at earlier levels. The practicum will involve extensive library or observational research, and will provide experience involving real world issues in the major.

Senior Project

The undergraduate program at Alaska Pacific culminates in the Senior Project, undertaken in a student's major and related to postgraduation plans. The Senior Project builds upon, and further personalizes, the student's education; it combines knowledge gained with the ability to apply that knowledge to real situations. Whatever the project, it will be an excellent stepping stone to graduate school or immediate entry into the workplace. Students present their senior projects to the campus community on designated days at the end of each semester.