PLEASE BE SURE TO READ FOUNDATIONAL STUDIES[1] STATEMENT PRIOR TO COMPLETING THIS PROPOSAL.
Part I: Process and Parameters for University Foundations 100 course proposals
(both face-to-face and online)
1)The deadline for completed proposals is November 17, 2017. For all proposals, please follow departmental protocol for course assignments and scheduling. The UF 100 subcommittee of the General Education Committee will review all proposals, and decisions will be communicated by December 12, 2017. For assistance or questions, Drs. Bieter and Finstuen, as well as other Foundations staff, are available to meet with departments and/or instructors until November 16, 2017.
2)Please submit completed proposals to Foundational Studies at .
3)Based on student enrollment, Foundational Studies anticipates a maximum of 30 proposals will be accepted. Faculty who submit successful proposals will be awarded $2,000 toward their research or travel account.
4)The default model for face-to-face UF 100 courses will be a single lead instructor teaching a one-hundred-student course supported by discussion leader(s). We encourage lead faculty to teach one of the discussion sections. Lead instructors have discretion over selecting their discussion leaders. Discussion leaders provide the grading for their sections.
5)The default meeting pattern consists of plenaries that will meet twice a week for fifty minutes and four discussion sections that will be convened by discussion leader(s) once a week for fifty minutes (capped at 25 students per discussion section).
6)Conversations are ongoing about workload calculations, but faculty will likely receive three units of workload, which recognizes the baseline expectation of two fifty-minute plenaries and management of one or two discussion leaders.
7)In 2018, paid course workshops and professional development opportunities will be available to faculty. Dates will be announced early in the new year.
8)Foundational Studies will convene UF 100 faculty to meet about once a month during the semester. These meetings ensure ongoing conversations regarding these courses.
Part II: Essentials of Foundational Studies
The most frequent questions asked by students about Foundational Studies courses are: What is this course? Why do I have to take it? How will it help me now and after college?
These questions are as fundamental as they are familiar to any general education program. They prompt universities to offer a clear rationale for a broad university education not tailored to a specific major. Put another way, they ask faculty to translate the purpose and relevance of any general education course.
Across this university, we have heard almost unanimous support for the importance of this type of non-majors education. Colleagues from across the disciplines have stressed the knowledge and skills students will gain through exposure to an array of subjects and how the experience will prepare them as professionals and citizens. This view of general education reflects higher education’s dedication to a classical and proven “Knowledge, Skills, Dispositions” approach to teaching and learning.
In Foundational Studies, we have translated the "Knowledge, Skills, Dispositions" learning categories to “Know, Do, Become.” With clear, consistent focus on these central teaching and learning guides, general education becomes a more explicit contribution to the mission of public education: to educate citizens for making a living and making a life as individuals and community members.
Part III: Foundational Studies Proposal Questions
The first two questions below ask for the essentials of your proposed course. The final three-part question takes its cues from the opening prompts offered by students. As you answer them, consider the fact that most students will be exposed to your discipline only once: through the course you propose here. With that in mind, and as a guide to your answers below, imagine a journalist interviews one of your students. How would you want students to answer questions 3-4?
1)What is the proposed course title? (The title should identify the course's disciplinary viewpoint or focus. For example, a course examining a question from a historian's perspective should have "history" in the title.)
2)What is the essential question of your course and the corresponding course thesis or theme? Please answer in 3-5 sentences.
3)The student question: “What is this course and why do I have to take it?” is one way of asking a core general education question: What is your discipline and why should a non-major study it? Please answer in 200 words or fewer.
4)“How will this course help me now and later?” Students asking such a question want to know what the course will help them know and do. Please answer in 200 words followed by two specific but brief examples indicating how you imagine disciplinary knowing and doing will be delivered in your course for non-majors.
a)Know (core ideas)
b)Do (core skills): Please apply one from your discipline and one from one of the three University Learning Outcomes associated with UF 100 (critical inquiry, oral communication, teamwork and innovation). For reference, please see:
c)Become (core relevance to non-major professional and civic life): How will such knowledge and skills help them become better professionals and citizens? Please provide two examples.
[1]The Foundational Studies Program is in the process of changing its name to “University Foundations.” This name change has received initial approval from Boise State’s faculty senate and we expect it to take effect prior to the 2018-19 academic year.