First-Year Seminars Background Information
Introduction
First-Year Seminars introduce first-year undergraduate students to the intellectual life of the University of Iowa, providing an opportunity to work closely with a faculty member or senior administrator. The seminars are designed to help students make the transition to college-level learning through active participation in their own learning.
To encourage students' active participation, instructors rely on classroom participation, papers, projects, and other interactive assignments, and, consequently, instructors agree not to use quizzes or exams as part of the evaluation of student work.
First-Year Seminars are limited to 16 students, meet for a total of 15 50-minute sessions over the course of the semester, and may be team-taught. Seminars may meet for one class period for the entire semester, or may be offered off-cycle. For example, a seminar may be offered for 75 minutes per week for 10 weeks.
First-Year Seminars are graded using the A-F scale; rules for adding, dropping, and withdrawal are governed by the college offering the course. The second grade option cannot be used for CLAS offerings.
Comments about grading from First-Year Seminar colleagues.
Course descriptions
A description of current and past First-Year Seminars may be found here.
Course descriptions should be written with a high school senior audience in mind; students may not, for example, have the sophistication to understand technical terms. Especially good course descriptions help students connect the theme of the class to their academic aspirations and lives.
The experience of many instructors has been that first-year students do not know how to read or to study intensely or efficiently. Keeping this in mind, instructors should gauge course work on the "two hours of study for one hour of credit" model. In a one semester hour First-Year Seminar, the outside assignments should be based on how much a student can prepare if the student devotes two hours to the task. This may be as little as 15 pages of material per week or may be substantially more depending on the materials and the particular ability of the students. Instructors should introduce students to the appropriate methods of reading, writing, and studying the materials of the course.
How to begin
If you are interested in participating, please complete a Course Description Form. If you have questions, please contact Beth Ingram, beth-ingram@uiowa.edu, 335-0148, or consult the Center for Teaching website.
What happens next?
If you are affiliated with a College that offers undergraduate courses and wish to offer your course through your home department, follow these steps:
- Complete the Course Description Form and submit by April 29th for Fall 2009.
- Working with your department administrator, schedule the course on ISIS
- The title must be “First-Year Seminar”; the subtitle should be the specific title of your course.
- Please use 029 as the course number if possible.
- The course should be approved for one semester hour and have the standard A-F grading option.
- Request a special permission code Y and that the course be pending until Summer Orientation. The Registrar’s Office will control removing the pending code and releasing the seats over the summer orientation programs.
- Inform us by email at paula-kerezsi@uiowa.edu that the course has been successfully scheduled.
For example: Beth Ingram is a faculty member in economics and wishes to offer a first year seminar. She contacts her department administrator and tells the administrator when she (Beth) wishes the course to be scheduled. The administrator then finds a time, a room, and adds the course to ISIS using the description that was submitted on the Course Description Form. The course is numbered 06E:029, titled “First-Year Seminar” with a subtitle “Discovering Economic Ideas through the Lens of Science Fiction.” Beth then emails Paula Kerezsi to let her know that the course is available on ISIS.
- The course will be governed by the College which offers it for the purpose of adds, drops, grade submission, late drops, etc.
If you are not affiliated with a College that offers undergraduate courses or wish to offer your course through University College, follow these steps:
- Complete the Course Description Form and submit it by April 29th
- Send an email to Angie Cochran, angela-cochran@uiowa.edu, with your preferred day and time for teaching the course, and a preferred location (although this may be difficult to accommodate).
- We will send you an email confirming the day, time and location.
- We will take care of scheduling the course and putting the course description on ISIS.
- The course will be offered under the University College course number 420:029.
- The course will be governed by the policies of University College for the purposes of drops, adds, late drops, grade submission, etc.
If you do not currently have a faculty appointment:
- We will process an adjunct appointment for you in the University College. This will be a zero-percent appointment.