Teaching First Year Seminars

Minimum qualifications for instructors who have primary responsibility for teaching a course for credit and/or for assigning final grades for such a course (i.e. UNIV1050, UNIV1100, and UNIV1150) must have either earned a master’s degree (education-, psychology-, or counseling-based disciplines preferred) or be a currently enrolled graduate student who has earned at least 18 graduate semester hours in their graduate discipline. All instructors are under the direct supervision of a faculty member and/or professional experienced in the teaching discipline, receive regular in-service training, and will be evaluated regularly. First-time instructors must also attend a minimum amount of classroom-based training and are observed by a supervisor at least once during their first term of teaching. The aforementioned requirements meet or exceed SACS accreditation standards for first year seminar courses.

Contact Sarah King or Chris Wyckoff in First Year Experience (FYE)- Academic Initiatives for an application.

UNIV1050 classes meet once a week and are one-credit hour courses and UNIV1150 and UNIV1100 classes meet once or twice a week, dependent upon the number of credit hours assigned to the section. All FYS course meetings last 50 minutes. Instructors are required to adhere to posted class meeting times and location and hold a weekly office hour outside of class (one hour per credit hour taught). First-time instructors must attend a minimum number of classroom-based training sessions and are observed by a supervisor at least once during their first term of teaching. Other training is available throughout the semester.

Classroom-based training sessions are available during the spring and summer term and include numerous topics essential to teaching a first year seminar. Lesson plans, handouts and standard syllabi are posted on an online resource for all teachers. Instructors must attend a minimum number of training hours each year.