First-Year Seminar: Overview

At the University of Illinois Springfield. First-Year Seminar (FYS) is a program of small, topic-based courses designed to introduce new, first-year students to interesting topics and immerse them in critical investigation, while also developing foundational skills for academic success in college. Each seminar has a required lecture and lab.

This course fulfills a general education requirement in the area of First-Year Seminar and will also count as fulfilling either a general education humanities or social science requirement. Courses are limited to 20 students each.

Requirement: 1 course, 3 hours.

In taking these seminars, first-year students will become acclimated to the requirements of higher education and the beneficial learning styles that will help them excel in their studies.

First-Year Seminar: Common Learning Goals

First-Year Seminars at UIS are developed around four goals:

1. Foundations and Skills for Lifelong Learning: Students will develop foundations and skills of curiosity, initiative, independence, transfer, and reflection as ways to reinforce habits of mind that are the essence of lifelong learning.
2. Information Literacy Skills: Students will develop information literacy skills, demonstrating the ability to know when there is a need for information, to be able to identify, locate, and evaluate information effectively, and responsibly use and share that information.
3. Civic Engagement: Students will develop an understanding of civic engagement, demonstrating evidence of adjustment in individual attitudes and beliefs through the consideration of issues and ideas of both personal and public concern from diverse perspectives in a way that is individually life enriching and socially beneficial to the community.
4. Critical Thinking Skills: Students will develop critical thinking skills, demonstrating a habit of mind characterized by the comprehensive exploration of issues, ideas, artifacts, and events before accepting or formulating an opinion or conclusion.