Throughout their studies at the Tourism College, undergraduate students will have the chance to study and do coursework in a great diversity of courses and subjects. These courses are highly varied in their content area (hospitality, tourism, business management, practicum, languages); the skill level which they impart (technical/professional, supervisory, senior managerial); and in the type of skills students are expected to develop (decision-making, interactive-communicative, analytical-critical, conceptual mastery and proficiency).

While each course and subject in the curriculum will have its own blend of the above skill elements (area, level, and type), each is expected to be delivered under the guidance of the following principles of learning.

Students should see their classes as opportunities for interacting and sharing. They are designed such that each encounter between a student and his or her instructor and peers result in some identifiable learning achievement, however minor in the overall list of course objectives. Students should view their lessons not as a series of assessments and examinations, which is not to say that courses should be less demanding or challenging. Rather, each course is aimed so that each learning encounter leads to a positive mind-set among students, which is essential to bolstering an intrinsic motivation in achieving the course learning objectives.

Courses are delivered in such a manner that students are given the opportunity to direct, if not be the center of, class discussion and not the instructor. Debates, presentation of opposing viewpoints, open-ended inquiries, and agenda setting are the key elements of engaging students to become active learners. The role of instructors is to moderate, provoke discussion, and ensure that dialog remains lively and respectful. Learning activities outside the classrooms are incorporated in the : site visits, case histories, guest lectures,

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." Courses at the College are designed so that students do not attain mere content mastery but to become insightful of what they are learning and why, what else they need to learn, and how they can learn it. In other words, their courses are meant to be only the beginning or portal of a life-long learning journey. In this regard, class activities will be oriented toward research, exploration and the conduct of inquiry whereby students are given the chance to set their own learning agenda to some extent.

Coursework at the College are arranged such that a substantial portion of the class activities are devoted to group or team work. While this is a common feature in most collegiate level courses, this is implemented one step further at IFT by the use of joint Problem-Based Learning approaches in several courses of the curriculum. Group work is also expected to be one of collective responsibility and not a mechanism for division of labor.

One hallmark of learned students is that they gain confidence in presenting, communicating, and asserting their ideas and thoughts before others. Courses at the College expect students to attain and demonstrate the necessary communicative skills and confidence to convey their ideas and engage others in constructive dialogue or discussion.

While not equally applicable across the spectrum of courses in the curriculum, such principles articulated above are expected to be adapted to suit the conditions of each course. Factors such as the abilities and learning styles of students, class sizes, and curricular objectives are taken into consideration. In general, however, students are expected to prepare themselves to perform under the above methods of learning.