Castleton: In-Person Classes
Introduction to Creative Practice
This studio-based course is designed to introduce students to the concepts, motivations and theory of making art. Students will develop an understanding of the elements and principles of art through experimentation in a range of mediums. Students will practice generating new ideas, creatively solving problems, and critically analyzing the results.
Business Software & Spreadsheets
This course will focus on business productivity software. The course provides hands-on, introductory skills in file management, word processing, spreadsheets, and presentation software using the Microsoft Office suite. Students are introduced to the concepts of information systems, transaction-processing systems, reporting, and analytics taking data and turning it into useful information to support management decision-making.
Special Topics in Business
Your first year of college is a time of change, challenge, and growth. And your experiences during this critical time will form the foundation of your academic and personal success. This course is designed to introduce, identify and utilize VTSU- programs, resources, and services that will support academic studies and co-curricular involvement for new students.
Content Marketing & Professional Networking
Social Media is changing the way organizations interact with consumers, business partners, and their supply chain. The Content Marketing approach includes marketing strategies, context of the customer decision process, and development of a professional network. Content transfers the organization’s values, culture, ethics, differentiation, and positioning to the target market through written word, pictures, videos, podcasts, and infographics.
Introduction to Cinema Studies
Why are movies made? Who gets to make them? How do they make their way to us? Why does it matter? In this course, we will explore contemporary cinema’s capacity to entertain, express, inform, and shape ideology. Particular attention will be paid to a film as a complex system of stylistic choices-including mise-en-scene, cinematography, editing, and sound-that shape the viewer’s engagement with the narrative. The course is meant to help students develop a more sophisticated understanding of the medium as well as equip them with the tools to understand and analyze the artistic and technical decisions made during the construction of a film.
Connections Seminar (1 credit)
This course will orient students to the academic and co-curricular life of Vermont State University. Students will develop the skills and dispositions to be successful and to have a sense of identity as a university community member. Topics include engagement with university and campus resources, skills necessary to be a successful student, strategies for effective learning, awareness of the components of undergraduate education, and an understanding of the value of diversity, equity, and inclusion within the University culture and beyond.
English Composition
Students are expected to read and think critically, to write effectively, and to understand the fundamentals of literary analysis and written composition. Classroom discussion of assigned readings and the construction of related essays are stressed. A required research paper demonstrates the student’s use of resources in locating, organizing, and presenting materials in an accepted format. The Writing Graduation Standard is assessed in this course. This course is writing-intensive.
Effective Speaking
Students study various theories of effective oral communication with the focus on public speaking. Students develop their abilities to listen, analyze audiences, and use visual aids. For some majors, the Oral Communication Graduation Standard is assessed in this course.
Gateway: Popular Literature
This course introduces students to the study of literature, fiction, poetry and drama, as a university discipline. Students will develop their abilities to read perceptively and write effectively, using personal connections, formal strategies, and literary concepts to interpret and appreciate literature. Each semester the course will focus on a specific topic such as touchstone texts or popular literature.
Statistics I
This course prepares students for quantitative methods in their respective fields. Descriptive and inferential statistics, including estimation, hypothesis testing, linear regression and correlation are covered. Basic tools of descriptive statistics, discrete probability, binomial distribution, normal distribution, t-distribution, estimates and sample sizes, hypothesis testing, elementary correlation and regression, contingency tables are explored. Students utilize technology on a regular basis.
World Music Cultures
This course is designed to explore music cultures from around the world. Music is discussed from the perspective of different cultural practices, geographical regions, and ethnographic paradigms.
Citizenship & Representation
This course explores the nature of citizenship in our representative democracy through a comparative approach, philosophical reflection, and empirical examination of the ways we count citizens and measure their attitudes and behaviors. The course exposes students to social science methods and epistemology as well as engaging in a broad discussion of the meaning and implications of citizenship on our campus, in our community, in our nation, and in the world at large.
Introduction to Sport Management
This course is an investigation into the relationships, philosophies, goals, and missions within the management of athletic, recreation, and other sport programs. Areas of study include the history and evolution of sports management, current trends in the profession, career options and professional development, and an introduction to topical areas such as fund-raising, management, marketing, media outlets and the economics of sport. There is also a portion of the course dedicated to service-learning, in which students will partner with a community organization to provide services.
Introduction to Human Services
An overview of the organization, values, theories, and variety of activities of various human service professions, with specific emphasis on Social Work. Designed to acquaint students with the range of human services and to test interest in a helping career.
New Student Seminar in Exercise Science
This course introduces new students to the Exercise Science major, the field of exercise science, and the college community. Topics may include professionalism, time management, study skills, advising, academic planning, general education, available campus resources, and adjustment to higher education.
