Scope
First-Year Experience (FYE) offerings are intended to:
· Give first-year students a small group experience to help them integrate into university life
· Give first-year students the opportunity for more interaction with faculty, fostering a stronger sense of academic community
· Communicate high academic expectations to students
· Help students recognize and take advantage of the roles that various campus resources play in their academic lives
A proposal for a First Year Experience SEMINAR should identify an existing course or propose a new course with the following features:
· First-year seminars will have academic content and be offered for academic credit (either as GUR or elective credits
· First-year seminars will be taught in small sections, with an expected maximum enrollment 30
· First-year seminars will restrict enrollment to first-year students
· The seminar may be a stand alone course or offered as part of a link or sequence of courses
· The seminar may be letter-graded or pass/fail if it is not offered as a GUR course
Learning Outcomes
First-year seminars should be designed to meet at least two of the following learning outcomes:
· Demonstrate an understanding of inquiry and creative processes from disciplinary and/or interdisciplinary perspective(s)
· Articulate individual learning goals in the context of a liberal arts education and identify means for achieving these goals.
· Enhance competency in academic skills including: framing questions/posing problems, critical literacy, evaluating information sources, writing, oral communication, and collaboration
Proposal Development
· Courses in this group can be altogether new courses or special offerings of existing courses.
· Additional learning outcomes are strongly encouraged in the first-year seminars, and a comprehensive listing of the most common first-year learning outcomes and appropriate assessment methods will be available online to faculty as they design their first-year seminar.