IUPUI First Year Experience Course Template

Abstract

The goal for IUPUI FYS Course Template is to provide materials at zero cost to students by utilizing existing resources through the IUPUI library and high-quality resources found online. With the course template being used at scale, it is important the resources are sustainable, available to all students simultaneously, and integrated within Canvas, because the First Year Experience course shell is widely distributed to a large student population. In addition to serving students, the first-year seminar course template must also serve the needs of faculty and staff instructors across campus. We plan to make substantive changes to the first version of the course shell, including adding an activity catalog of new content and materials so instructors have multiple options for meeting learning goals and/or can use multiple instructional items to go deeper into a topic. Due to the sheer number of instructors with varying levels of experience who will be teaching a first-year seminar course using the course template, all activities need to be self-explanatory and/or contain instructor notes for customizing content. Additionally, all lessons are in the TILT (Transparency in Learning and Teaching) format to support student success.