By Anais Hernandez, Feb. 8, 2022
Cal Poly Pomona introduced pop-up courses in spring 2019 to expose students to real-world problems through unique topics and are continuing to expand with potential topics of new pop-courses arising in the future. It is not every day that students can enroll in classes with topics covering misinformation in the media, understanding COVID-19 through different perspectives and automation in the future.
Pop-up courses are offered to students as a one-time opportunity to learn about a particular real-world topic from multiple perspectives while receiving credit for GE area E. The Office of Academic Innovation has offered three pop-up courses in the past three years. The courses encourage students to think critically and engage in current events.
“Pop-up courses are set up so they have multiple disciplinary perspectives. Very few problems in the world can be solved with one discipline,” said Assistant Vice President of the Office of Academic Innovation Olukemi Sawyerr. “That is one advantage of the current course; it gives students multiple disciplinaries on that topic.”
CPU 1540, Lies, Damned Lies, and Politics: Confronting the Threats of Misinformation, Conspiracy, and Polarization, is a three-unit, 15-week course taught by Marketing Assistant Professor Randy Stein, Assistant Professor of International Business and Marketing Ling Ong and coordinator of instruction at the University Library, Shonn Haren.
The course is designed to dip into rigorous topics that allow students to challenge themselves and learn about issues outside of the traditional curriculum.
As more pop-up courses are being offered, the question of how campus culture can be affected has arisen. Sawyerr explained that the university is narrowly focused, and when a course is created that crosses different disciplines, it can significantly influence CPP’s campus culture by challenging the assumption of traditional courses in the curriculum.
“I think a lot of us know about misinformation as it impacts us directly or might impact our family directly,” stated Ling Ong. “A lot of the students in our intro class mentioned that they have had personal impacts with misinformation with their friends and family, and that’s kind of what inspired them to take the class.”
The current pop-up course has 25 students enrolled and is being taught online through video lectures via Canvas. Students are encouraged to interact with class material on their own time every week.
They are required to keep weekly media diaries on a spreadsheet where they log any media consumed and whether they trust the information or not. Students also write one-page reflections related to the weekly assignments and at the end of the 15 weeks, they write a final reflection paper that should include data collected throughout the semester.
Ling Ong mentioned that the current class consists of students from diverse backgrounds, including those with majors in engineering, communication and political science among many other majors. Getting students to enroll in the course has been a work in progress, but faculty have actively utilized social media to promote the course.
Spanish student, Samantha Vivanco, found out about pop-up courses through the Office of Academic Innovation’s Instagram account.
“I would consider taking a pop-up course in the future depending on the topic,” said Vivanco. “I wouldn’t mind taking a course that promotes diverse topics or something related to political science or government.”
The Office of Academic Innovation wants to keep providing exciting topics for students and has stated that future pop-up courses are in the works. They hope to grow and make these courses part of a permanent curriculum with the help of students and faculty.
“We can have a course on global warming or immigration in the U.S.,” said Sawyerr, who also encourages all students and staff to submit topic requests to the Office of Academic Innovation pop-up course website.
“I hope that this class encourages students at Cal Poly Pomona to become life-long learners and always on the lookout for answers because the learning doesn’t stop once students graduate,” said Lin Ong. “We want to set up students with a toolkit, so they use it for the rest of their lives.”
Graphic courtesy of Justin Oo.
