Interdisciplinary project experiences: Collaboration between majors and non-majors

Students in computer science and information technology should be engaged in solving real-world problems received from government and industry as well as those that expose them to various areas of application. In this paper, we discuss interdisciplinary project experiences between majors and non-majors that offered a creative and innovative opportunity for collaborative learning. Active-learning exercises allowed students to express their creativity and apply concepts learned from each discipline. Feedback from this effort resulted in the development of the Seven C’s (Competencies) for collaborative learning that were ascertained for successful completion of an interdisciplinary project. We feel that these interdisciplinary and collaborative efforts increased student appreciation, enhanced team skills, and created a positive learning environment for the application of concepts.