First-Year Experience
Specific Expectations of Faculty Teaching in the First-Year Experience
The responsibilities of the participating faculty or staff member are:
- To work collaboratively across disciplines to design courses that are connected by a theme, meet the goals of the first-year experience, and form a first-year learning community.
- To use active learning principles and strategies to promote and encourage engagement and collaboration in class, student-led initiatives, and individual and collective student civic engagement.
- To connect students to academic and social support services as well as the range of social and professional development opportunities available to students at MSU.
- To work collaboratively to facilitate student involvement in the intellectual and social environment of the university by providing intellectually stimulating and relevant academic experiences, by providing feedback to students, and by maintaining high and clear expectations.
- To meet at least once a week with your learning community colleagues to discuss student issues, course planning, assignments, and other issues as they arise.
- To attend all CETL workshops on objectives and assessment, civic engagement and service learning, engaged teaching and learning, library resources, and other topics of interest to faculty as they emerge throughout the experience.
- To submit a learning community description and syllabus prior to the start of the semester in which the course will be taught and according to the deadlines given by CETL.
- To work with the other instructors in your learning community to select and use a common reading for the learning community.
- To work with the other instructors in your learning community to create and implement an engagement activity (volunteer, civic engagement, service learning, community problem solving) for your learning community. The activity should be relevant and related to the courses and topics in the learning community.
- To work with CETL and your supervisor to handle scheduling issues and any overload issues.
- To work with the library, the peer mentoring and tutoring coordinator, student affairs staff (residence life, counseling, disability services, career services, etc.), and other relevant people and resources to support your first-year students and to enhance the learning community’s environment.
- To work cooperatively and productively with the peer mentor assigned to your learning community.
- To notify CETL staff of any significant problems or issues related to your learning community.
- To respond in a timely manner to the requests of CETL and its staff as related to your learning community and its courses.