First Year Seminar Application Form – REVISION 5-2-2015
Name:
Course Number:
Course Title:
Department:
College:
Date submitted:
The semester when you first expect the course to be taught:
FIRST YEAR SEMINAR (FYS)
I. Description of Purpose and Content
The First Year Seminar brings students into the university through close engagement
with full-time faculty. Faculty work with a writing instructor and LMU librarians to
introduce students to intellectual rigor, critical thinking, and effective writing skills while
laying the foundation for a life-long commitment to learning. The topic of each section of
the FYS is chosen and developed by the full-time faculty member within one of seven
broad themes: 1) Faith and Reason, 2) Ethics and Justice, 3) Virtue and Justice, 4)
Culture, Art and Society, 5) Power and Privilege, 6) Globalization, and 7) Science,
Nature, and Society. Instructors share the example of life-long commitment to intellectual
curiosity and creative activity by developing topics that grow from their own work and
interests. Aimed at improving students’ skills in written and oral communication and
information literacy, the FYS invites students to engage critically and reflectively with
scholarly discourse, analyzing and producing texts in a variety of media formats. FYS
activities, pedagogies and experiences aim to develop intellectual community inside and
outside the classroom. Seminars may be linked to Living/Learning Communities so that
the activities that take place in the seminar are coherently connected to the co-curricular
programming in the LLC.
HOW DOES YOUR COURSE FIT THIS CATEGORY?
1. Please provide a course description and explain how your course fits the
overall purpose and content of this Core category. Include any learning
objectives specific to your course.
[BOX for text, limit 500 words]
2. Please provide a preliminary list of readings and/or textbooks for the course.
[BOX for text, limit 300 words]
3. Please describe possible assignments (or types of assignments) for your
course, including a grade breakdown (weighting of assignments). For longer
assignments, you may include an additional attachment(s).
[BOX for text, limit 500 words]
II. Learning Outcomes
HOW DOES YOUR COURSE ASSESS THE LEARNING OUTCOMES?
How do you measure whether and to what extent students have achieved the
learning outcomes listed below? Referring to the assignments your described in
Part I, please explain for those outside of your field how these address this Core
First Year Seminar Application Form – REVISION 5-2-2015
category’s learning outcomes. Note that a single assignment may address
multiple outcomes. Note also that for learning outcomes asking that students
“value” or “appreciate” particular issues or concepts, the course does not need to
assess student opinion or belief but level of engagement with that issue or
concept.
FYS students will:
1. Understand and appreciate the intellectual rigor and academic excellence that
defines an LMU education.
[BOX for text, limit 500 words]
2. Engage critically and reflectively in scholarly discourse.
[BOX for text, limit 500 words]
3. Learn to read critically and carefully.
[BOX for text, limit 500 words]
4. Exercise critical thinking in oral discussion and writing.
[BOX for text, limit 500 words]
5. Be able to evaluate sources for quality (e.g., by learning to differentiate between
scholarly and popular sources).
[BOX for text, limit 500 words]
6. Acquire research skills including use of the library catalog and electronic
databases to retrieve books or articles, whether in print or online.
[BOX for text, limit 500 words]
III. Defining Characteristics
The content of the FYS is driven by instructors’ own interests, teaching, or research
fields, within the seven broad themes of the course. The seminar environment
encourages conversations that carry forward into Rhetorical Arts and the Explorations
and Integrations stages of the Core. Activities and pedagogies stress written and oral
communication skills and critical, scholarly engagement with a variety of formats. This
critical engagement should also advance students’ information literacy and research
skills.
The First Year Seminar will:
1. Be taught principally by a full time faculty member who is responsible for course
content (including reading and writing assignments) and for assigning final grades.
2. Identify the subject matter as falling into one of the following categories: 1) Faith and
Reason, 2) Ethics and Justice, 3) Virtue and Justice, 4) Culture, Art and Society, 5)
Power and Privilege, 6) Globalization, and 7) Science, Nature, and Society.
3. Emphasize activities and pedagogies that stress written and oral communication
skills and critical scholarly engagement.
First Year Seminar Application Form – REVISION 5-2-2015
4. Employ a writing instructor who provides students with guidance in presenting,
developing, and revising their ideas, as well as working toward stylistic objectives of
clarity and coherence.
5. Incorporate LMU librarians in order to develop information literacy and basic
research skills.
6. Include formal instruction in grammar, structure, style, and citation.
7. Be taught primarily as a seminar with students expected to engage actively and
responsibly with the material under consideration.
8. Assign at least 50% of the course grade on the basis of assessed academic writing,
making use of multiple drafts for the purpose of revision, editing, and proofreading
and providing some form of feedback on all submitted assignments.
9. Assign at least 15% of the course grade on the basis of oral competency.
10. Assign at least 10% of the course grade on the basis of assessed information
literacy, which must include completion of standardized tutorials prepared by LMU
librarians.
HOW DOES YOUR COURSE MEET THESE REQUIREMENTS?
What do students do (e.g., solve, research, read, write, revise, practice,
collaborate, review, study, perform) and what do you provide as an instructor
(e.g., in-class instruction, written feedback, reading/viewing assignments) to
address the characteristics above (you may use the numbers above to refer to
specific characteristics)? You may refer to assignments or readings listed in Part
I. Note that a single assignment or form of instruction (e.g., lecture, discussion,
group work) may meet multiple requirements.
[BOX for text, limit 500 words]
To submit your proposal, you should:
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Send the proposal electronically to newcore@lmu.edu
CC your chair and Dean on the proposal. Your chair and dean can approve your
proposal by sending an e-mail message stating approval to newcore@lmu.edu.
Once we receive your chair's and dean's approval, your course proposal will be
reviewed by the appropriate core area committee of the UCCC. No proposal will
be reviewed by a core area committee without both your chair's and dean's
approval.
The core area committee may approve the proposal, request revisions (this is
very common), or reject the proposal. Rejections may be appealed to the full
UCCC.
Once the course is approved, you will receive word from the UCCC, who will
copy your chair and dean.