Approval Process and Requirements for First Year Seminar Course Proposals

Learning Objectives for all First-Year Seminar Courses (New Link Coming)

First-year Seminar Courses will be assessed by GEAC on SLOs 5 and 7.  

• All proposals are required to have the new UCC cover sheet with the FYS box checked.
• All proposals must be signed by the college dean (COB, COE, VPA, or CLAS) before being considered by the General Education Committee.
• A sample template for the Summary of Request/proposal in Word can be downloaded here

1.     Title. Provide the title of the class that will appear in all university literature and websites where the class is listed.

2.     Description. Course description should appear in MYKU and on the General Education Website. The course description should be brief (75-word max) and clearly describe a class focused on a single topic that is clearly understood in the description. Overall, it should make the course appeal to students as an "infomercial" would. Proposals will be given wide latitude in how the description is written. 

3.     Assessment Agreement. Each proposal must include the following phrase with the appropriate section checked: "Do you agree to provide the General Education Assessment committee appropriate student work product for assessment? Criteria for each SLO assessment are available on the GEAC website. ______ yes  ______no"

4.     Rationale. Because the description's main purpose is to attract a student to a class, the rationale should include more information on the academic content of the class and how it developed out of research, faculty interest, student interest, etc. Remember that FYS classes are open to any student. Therefore, the course should not focus on one major or population of students. The rationale should also include a separate section on how the professor intends to accomplish the official course learning objectives (including the two required SLOs) if this is not specified in the anticipated weekly schedule.

5.     Assessment. Please provide specific examples of what assessment items (ungraded writing/class assignments, papers, critical essays, projects, etc.) will be used in this course to complete the two SLOs assessed by GEAC. (Criteria for the SLOs can be found on the GEAC website). The assessment materials should be clearly linked to the two SLOs.  The SLO also needs to be clearly stated before the assignment (ex: SLO 5. Demonstrate the ability to retrieve, interpret, and evaluate information).

6.     Anticipated Weekly Topics. Please provide a brief schedule for the academic content over 14 weeks. If the schedule does not detail how the course will satisfy the required course objectives, please provide this information in the course rationale. Faculty members are not required to include quizzes, exams, or due dates for assignments (papers, essays, etc.) in this section.