First-Year Odyssey
Seminar Workshops
Course Design 1:
Planning your FYOS
Paul Quick, PhD
Coordinator of Faculty and TA
Development
Questions via the web?
Submit
via webform:
ctl.uga.edu/fyos/stream
via Twitter:
@ugactl (use tag #FYOS)
Goals for this FYOS workshop
 Discuss questions faculty have about planning FYOS
 Become familiar with backward-course design
 Become familiar with two taxonomies of learning to
better appreciate the FYOS goals
 Explore how to integrate FYOS learning goals into
your planning
Why are you here?
 How many have submitted proposals?
 https://fyo.uga.edu/
 How many have a syllabus?
 How many of you are at the idea-stage?
 What questions about planning your FYOS do you
have?
Traditional Course Design
 How are courses
traditionally put
together?
Backward Course Design
Blue Sky Dream
One to two years after my
FYOS is over, my students
will be able to…
Bloom’s Taxonomy
(revised by Anderson & Krathwohl)
Fink’s
Taxonomy
of
Significant
Learning
LEARNING HOW TO LEARN
•Becoming a better student
•Inquiring about a subject
•Self-directing learners
FOUNDATIONAL
KNOWLEDGE
Understanding and
remembering:
•Information
•Ideas
APPLICATION
•Skills
•Thinking: critical,
creative, & practical
•Managing projects
CARING
Developing new
•Feelings
•Interests
•Values
HUMAN
DIMENSION
Learning about:
Oneself
Others
INTEGRATION
Connecting:
•Ideas
•People
•Realms of life
Blue Sky Dreams and FYOS Goals
 On which taxonomy do your Blue Sky dreams fit?
Fink’s Taxonomy and FYOS: fyo.uga.edu
Backward Course Design
Situational Factors
 Context
 Specific teaching and learning situation
 General context of teaching and learning
 Nature of the subject
 Characteristics of learners
 Characteristics of teacher
Learning
Goals Come
First
LEARNING HOW TO LEARN
•Becoming a better student
•Inquiring about a subject
•Self-directing learners
FOUNDATIONAL
KNOWLEDGE
Understanding and
remembering:
•Information
•Ideas
APPLICATION
•Skills
•Thinking: critical,
creative, & practical
•Managing projects
CARING
Developing new
•Feelings
•Interests
•Values
HUMAN
DIMENSION
Learning about:
Oneself
Others
INTEGRATION
Connecting:
•Ideas
•People
•Realms of life
In a course with significant learning, students will:
1. Understand and remember the key concepts,
terms, relationship, etc.
2. Know how to use the content.
3. Be able to relate this subject to other subjects.
4. Understand the personal
and social implications of
knowing about this subject.
5. Value this subject and further learning about it.
6. Know how to keep
on learning about this subject,
after the course is over.
FYOS Goal 1
 Introduce first-year students to the
importance of learning and academics so that
we engage them in the academic culture of
the University.

Assignments and discussion will:
Focus on seminar topic
 Encourage student to be self-reflective learners
 What’s the reason for study?
 What’s it mean to be a self-directed learner?

www.ctl.uga.edu/fyos
Goal 1: Assessment and Learning Activities
 Have student relate long-term professional and
personal goals. Where do those goals come from?
How do students intend to use their college career to
help pave the way toward those goals?


Journal entries, brief oral presentation, reflective essay
Have students reflect on these questions the first week of class
and then revisit them at the end . Perhaps have them revise
and reflect upon changes.
www.ctl.uga.edu/fyos
FYOS Goal 2
 Give first-year students an opportunity for
meaningful dialogue with a faculty member
to encourage positive, sustained studentfaculty interactions.

Key elements of seminar will:
Introduction to faculty members’ scholarly path
 Inclusion of one or more written exercises that:
 document dialogue between student and faculty
 guide students in thinking and rethinking academic

Goal 2: Assessment and Learning Activities
 Trade questions: Students write questions, the
professor collects them and redistributes them
randomly back to students. Students are given a few
minutes to try to answer the question. Discuss
selected questions as a whole class.


Written paper, journals, blogs
Written documentation of dialogue between the faculty and
student in the preparation of:
a poster presentation,
 an oral presentation,
 a mathematical proof

www.ctl.uga.edu/fyos
FYOS Goal 3
 Introduce first-year students to the
instruction, research, public service and
international missions of the University and
how they relate to teaching and learning in
and outside the classroom so that we
increase student understanding of and
participation in the full mission of the
University.


Web-based overview resources will be made available
Students are required to attend at least 3 campus
events
Goal 3: Assessment and Learning Activities
 For each event a student attends write about the
event and attempt to connect that event with one of
the missions of the University and/or with the
seminar and/or the work of the
professor/discipline/department.

These can be posted on blogs, on eLC or turned in on paper.
www.ctl.uga.edu/fyos
FYOS Learning Goals: One-Column Chart
Learning Goals
Seminar Topic
Knowledge
Significant Learning
Goal
(see Fink)
Significant Learning
Goal
(see Fink)
FYOS Goal 1
FYOS Goal 2
FYOS Goal 3
FYOS Planning: Three-Column Chart
Learning Goals
Seminar Topic
Knowledge
Significant Learning
Goal
(see Fink)
Significant Learning
Goal
(see Fink)
FYOS Goal 1
FYOS Goal 2
FYOS Goal 3
Assessment Activities
Learning Activities
Weekly
Schedule