If you would like to teach an extra-departmental First Year Seminar (FRS), complete and submit the form below on or before the appropriate application deadline. In preparing your application, please note the following:

Eligibility: If you hold an instructional appointment at UC Davis you are eligible to teach a First Year Seminar. This includes all members of the Academic Senate and all Lecturers, Adjunct Lecturers, Visiting and Adjunct Professors, and Emeriti Professors. Graduate students are not eligible to teach on their own but can serve as co-instructors with an eligible faculty member.

Review Process: A copy of each completed application is sent automatically to your department chair for approval. Pending the chair's approval, the application is sent for review to the FRS Faculty Review Committee. Review Committee comments and suggestions will be forwarded to you by the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL). Approved proposals are retained by the CETL and are available for review by the Committee on Courses of Instruction.

Review Criteria: To ensure that your application is consistent with FRS ideals and guidelines, we encourage you to review the catalog description and online resources listed below.

Catalog Description: Investigation of a special topic through shared readings, discussion, written assignments, and special activities (such as fieldwork, site visits, laboratory work, etc.). Emphasis is upon student participation in learning.

Application Deadlines (to see the actual dates, click on Information for Faculty link below):

In addition to our usual variety of First-Year Seminars, we will offer for the first time, ten to fifteen seminars focused on our UC Davis Campus Community Book Project (CCBP) book for 2013-14. These will bring faculty and students together to read and discuss Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide (Kristof and WuDunn). The CCBP’s campuswide lecture and discussion opportunities make it a natural fit for the FRS program’s goals. Proposals should emphasize how the instructor and students will engage the book’s themes over the course of the quarter. Please look at the sample proposal that can be revised to fit your needs. We especially encourage proposals for the book project seminars in Fall Quarter.

Information for Faculty
Seminars Offered

For more information, contact:

Janet Chambers, FRS Program Coordinator
Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning
Email: jachambers@ucdavis.edu

Note: All fields are required unless noted

 

Is your proposal for a new or existing seminar?

NEW Seminar (Not previously taught in the UCD First Year Seminar Program)
EXISTING Seminar (Was taught previously in the UCD First Year Seminar Program)
Campus Community Book Project Seminar (Download, fill out and submit Word doc to jachambers@ucdavis.edu)

Contact Information
Instructor First Name
Instructor Last Name
Instructor Email Address
Instructor Job Title
Home Department
Affiliated Department (Optional -- Department in which seminar is taught, if different from home department)
College
Department Chair First Name
Department Chair Last Name
Department Chair Email Address
Co-instructor first name (Optional)
Co-instructor last name (Optional)
Co-instructor email address (Optional)

Seminar Scheduling and Credit

Note: First Year Seminars can be offered for either one unit (for 10 contact hours during the quarter) or two units (for 20 contact hours) and as either Pass/No Pass or for letter grades. All seminars need to provide opportunities for engaged discussions between students and instructors and among students themselves, and enrollment is limited to 19 students. Laboratory work, site visits, and field work may be included as part of the seminar design--with three outside-of-class hours counting as one contact hour but only if they are described clearly in the seminar proposal. A more complete description of seminar expectations and FRS policies is available here.
Proposed Title of Seminar
Number of Units 12
Grading Option LetterPass / Fail
AcademicYear
Preferred Quarter First Choice FallWinterSpring

Second Choice FallWinterSpring

Third Choice FallWinterSpring

Proposed Day of Week: MonTueWedThurFri
Proposed Meeting Time

Proposed Room

Note: Instructors are encouraged to find a conference room in their department that can be scheduled for this seminar. If you cannot find a room, we will request a room assignment from the Office of the Registrar.

Note: A complete seminar proposal will include brief, but clear, descriptions for each of the following elements. The information you provide will be used to review your proposal and also serve as the course description that students consult when registering for classes.
A. Seminar Focus: A one-paragraph description of the course content. In terms that will make sense to you and your prospective students, what is the course about? What key ideas and experiences will students encounter in the seminar?

 
B. Learning Outcomes: A brief paragraph or list that describes your goals for what students will learn. What ideas will they be introduced to, become more familiar or comfortable with, or understand better? What concepts, knowledge, or skills will they develop more fully?

C. Assignments: What work will you expect from students who enroll in this seminar? What writing and reading will they do? What kinds of projects or reports will they be asked to prepare? What will they do as individuals and what will they do in groups? If particular forms of class participation are expected, what do those forms look like?

D. Required Outside Activities (if any): If students will be expected to participate in out-of-class field trips, laboratories, or field work, please describe them here. If no outside activities are required, enter "none".

E. Grading: What evidence will you consider in assigning students grades? Please keep in mind the following guidelines: (1) At least half of the course grade should be based on oral or written assignments such as reports, papers, presentations, etc. (2) Final exams are strongly discouraged. (3) By campus policy, students cannot be graded on the basis of attendance per se, but they can be graded on varied forms of class participation.
F. Other Significant Seminar Features (Optional): You may include here a weekly schedule of discussion topics, additional information about the format of the seminar or about any special features not noted above.
G. About the Instructor: A brief, one-paragraph description of your current position and work on the Davis campus and your interests, expertise and experience related to the focus of this seminar.