Scholarship in Practice

 

Designing a Scholarship in Practice Course

Liberal Studies Scholarship in Practice (SIP) courses help students become critical thinkers, creative users of knowledge, and independent thinkers. Courses must engage students in the application of knowledge from a particular field of study and create a tangible product or outcome.

Three students excitedly present their robot project to an exhibitor at a conference.

What are the learning objectives of Scholarship in Practice courses?

  1. Apply relevant areas of scholarship to produce an original project.

What aspects of course design are required to certify a course for Scholarship in Practice?

The course submission must reflect the following information:

Scholarship in Practice courses help students become critical thinkers, creative users of knowledge, and independent thinkers. Courses must engage students in the application of knowledge from a particular field of study and create a tangible product or outcome. The course objectives, course materials, activities, and grading criteria should reflect how students will achieve these outcomes.

If not clearly incorporated into the course syllabus, a sample assignment (and associated grading criteria) explaining the original project should be included in an appendix to the syllabus. These materials should illustrate how students will be assessed on their achievement of the Scholarship in Practice student learning objective.

Credit hours:

  • Graduation Requirement courses can be less than 3 credit hours if desired.
    • State-Mandated Writing courses cannot be less than 3 credit hours.
  • Variable credit hour courses should have a clear justification (ex: internship, seminar with rotating topics).

Note: Only college-level courses (1000 or higher) are approved for the Liberal Studies curriculum.

What language must be included in the syllabus?

There are two components of required syllabus language:

  1. Statements approved by the Faculty Senate, and
  2. Statements for each Liberal Studies designation the course is certified for

 

Faculty Senate required syllabus language:
All syllabi are required to include the syllabus language statements approved by the FSU Faculty Senate, available at https://facsenate.fsu.edu/Curriculum-Resources/syllabus-language.

Liberal Studies required syllabus language:

The following statement can either be 1) adapted specifically to the course content, or 2) pasted verbatim into the syllabus. In either case, the meaning of the language should be clearly communicated to students.

This course has been approved to meet FSU’s Liberal Studies Scholarship in Practice requirement and helps you become a critical thinker, a creative user of knowledge, and an independent learner.

In order to fulfill FSU’s Scholarship in Practice requirement, the student must earn a “C–” or higher in the course.

By the end of this course, students will:

  1. Apply relevant areas of scholarship to produce an original project.

Can I combine Scholarship in Practice with any other areas?

  • Scholarship in Practice can be combined with any General Education designation.
  • Scholarship in Practice can be combined with any of the University Wide Graduation Requirements except Formative Experience.
    • If you choose to add a writing designation to your course proposal, note that a course can only fulfill one type of Writing requirement.
      • A course may be E-Series/State-Mandated Writing “W” or Upper-Division Writing.
    • Note that a course can carry either the Scholarship in Practice (SIP) or Formative Experience designation, but not both.

Is there a syllabus template I can use to develop a Scholarship in Practice course?

Yes. While there is no strictly required format for syllabi, our office has created the following document that you may use to facilitate the process of creating a Liberal Studies syllabus:  Syllabus Guide - Scholarship in Practice

Who should I contact if I have more questions or concerns?

  • Faculty may contact Kestrel Strickland with any questions about Liberal Studies course design, as well as questions about using the Curricular Request Application (CRA) to submit curricular requests for Liberal Studies approval.
  • You may also browse the FAQ for commonly asked questions and answers.