First-Year Experience Course Criteria
A proposal for a First-Year Experience course should identify an existing course or propose a new course with the following features:
- First-year courses will have academic content and be offered for academic credit (either as GUR or elective credits)
- First-year courses will be taught in small sections, with an expected maximum enrollment 30
- First-year courses will restrict enrollment to first-year students
- The course may be a stand alone course or offered as part of a link or sequence of courses
- The course may be letter-graded or pass/fail if it is not offered as a GUR course
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
First-year courses 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
- 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 courses, 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 course.