All students must take a course designated as a First-Year Seminar (FYS) in their first year (30 credit hours) at UCA. (Incoming students with more than 30 hours of credit are not be required to take an FYS.)
The purpose of an FYS course at UCA is to provide students with an exemplary academic experience as an introduction to collegiate life at UCA.
First-Year Seminar courses are built around a set of core principles that provide structure and consistency, but still allow faculty the freedom to design a creative and innovative academic experience. FYS courses:
● Introduce students to ways of knowing, academic standards, and scholarly debates of an academic field through exploration of a special topic.
● Use assignment structures and pedagogical strategies that help students develop the skills needed to meet the academic expectations of college.
● Guide students in recognizing and using academic success skills such as academic reading, effective studying, and time management.
● Integrate the use of university resources into required assignments and available course materials.
● Create intentional and extended opportunities for peer collaboration and support, such as writing or research groups, team project-based learning, community-based learning, and experiential learning.
● Include intentional, required, and repeated opportunities for faculty-student interaction, such as individual conferences, recursive feedback and revision processes, and scaffolded assignments.