Arts First instructor handbook

Introduction

This handbook is written and maintained in order to:

  1. Introduce instructors to Arts First, its role as part of the university’s undergraduate communication requirement, and its mission specific to the Faculty of Arts.
  2. Summarize relevant teaching resources and policies.
  3. Provide a brief introduction to other pertinent Arts teaching documents.

The Arts First mandate: To build students' foundational competencies in communication and analysis during their first year at university.

Arts First mission

The Arts First program was created in 2017 to fulfill the university’s Undergraduate Communication Requirement (UCR) within the Faculty of Arts. In Arts First, we promote excellence in teaching with a focus on active learning in a small class environment. Students in Arts First classes can expect to practice communication and information analysis as a means of critical inquiry and knowledge creation.

Communication courses like ARTS 160 help students to develop skills in speaking, writing, listening, critical reading, and collaboration. They also build competencies in analysis, research, and the thoughtful assessment of information, evidence, and data. These skills and competencies will support student success in their academic careers and in their life beyond the university.

To create a unique first-year experience for students, Arts First courses foreground practice-based learning and background discipline-specific knowledge. We also emphasize collaboration and community as key components of both communication and the creation of knowledge. Our aim is that students become more effective and confident communicators, better able to understand and create an impact in the world they encounter.

Best practices for instructors
  • Arts First is an opportunity for instructors to model their passion for their discipline and research, without mandatory coverage of disciplinary material. Instructors can use this opportunity to showcase how they engage in their own research and thereby cultivate in their students receptivity and engagement, habits of mind, and dispositions.
  • For this reason, Arts First courses should foreground active student engagement and background discipline-specific knowledge.
  • To achieve this, Arts First courses should contain about no more than 50% of the material that a regular, discipline-specific seminar would include. This means that instructors should assign less reading, reduce discipline-specific content, and focus more on practice and discussion than lecture modes of teaching.
  • This balance between content and in-class practice creates opportunities for students — and instructors — to reflect on what they are learning and why. Instructors can facilitate this by offering clear and thorough explanations of the purpose of assignments; by guiding students to consider audience, purpose, and context for communication; and by prompting written and spoken reflection by students about assignments and communication processes.
  • Instructors should create a classroom experience that includes frequent opportunities for student writing and speaking, as well as frequent opportunities for critical thinking, problem solving, and other learning activities that promote deep learning. Instructors are encouraged to partner with the library and orient students to library resources and research tools and methods.
  • To encourage student reflection on the purposes of communication, the needs of different audiences, and their own social positioning as communicators, instructors are encouraged to include assignments that incorporate information, evidence, and perspectives from outside students’ own experience.
  • Instructors should offer high-quality, substantive formative feedback to students on assignments and other forms of student participation. That feedback should include detailed comments designed to guide student revision and/or iteration and coach students on recognizing their own revision opportunities. With guidance and coaching, peer workshopping and revision become opportunities for students to practice giving and receiving formative feedback.

Assignment guidelines

Based on research into best practices for teaching communication courses, we have developed these guidelines for the course design and instruction of ARTS 160.

  • Assignments should align with, or follow-through on, the intended learning outcomes for ARTS 160. The sample assignments demonstrate how this might work. One assignment can certainly align with more than one learning outcome, and the seven learning outcomes can be met through a mix of assignments and classroom practices over the course of the term.
  • In general, each student should produce about 12–15 pages of polished writing (usually made of multiple scaffolded assignments) and should engage in both formal and informal speaking over the course of the term in each section of ARTS 160.
  • As much as possible, assignments should be scaffolded, connected, or linked to one another. No single assignment or component should be so high-stakes that it comprises a significant portion of the course grade. To scaffold, assignments can build on one another so that completing one assignment helps prepare a student to complete another. This can mean turning smaller assignments into component parts or phases of a larger assignment; building and layering student facility with communication processes such as brainstorming, researching, drafting, and revising; and building from simpler to higher order skills and communication tasks. Scaffolding can also help students with self-regulation, including setting and adjusting deadlines.
  • Students should practice informal writing and speaking in class that would prepare them for more formal assignments.
  • Assignments and work in class should create opportunities for feedback, revision, or reflection whenever possible. Instructors can also guide students in giving and receiving useful formative feedback through peer collaboration.
  • Problem-based assignments that foreground questions and student engagement are preferable to exams. Normally, instructors will not use traditional exams as modes of evaluation, instead setting assignments that challenge students to think critically and to explore ideas through writing and speaking.
  • At least one assignment in each section of ARTS 160 should ask students to collaborate with one another in order to solve problems together, to learn from one another, and to build together a learning community.
  • At least one assignment in each section of ARTS 160 should focus on working with, collecting, analyzing, or interpreting data or information, broadly conceived within the instructor’s academic discipline. 

Instructors should be explicit about what language use is expected in assignments. Student writers can learn to shift between a variety of modes of communication in order to be rhetorically effective. Best assessment practices take into account the fact that rhetorical purpose and effectiveness for readers and listeners is a more suitable gauge of communication success than grammatical or stylistic correctness.

Courses and learning outcomes

Course description

ARTS 160 introduces students to the process of knowledge creation in disciplines represented in Arts. In small seminar settings, students will explore a topic determined by instructor expertise to build competencies in communication and information analysis. Students will learn how to access, examine, and communicate information, broadly conceived, in a variety of contexts. Their work will require students to meaningfully engage with the ideas of others while developing their own contributions to a community of knowledge.

Learning outcomes

Upon completing ARTS 160, students should be able to:

  • Access information and practice navigating library resources, including indexes and databases.
  • Understand the role of collaboration in the development of diverse modes of communication.
  • Relate your own experiences, strengths, and goals to effective communication practices.
  • Employ an understanding of genre and convention in the development of knowledge communities.
  • Examine critically the ways that data, information analysis, and communication lead to knowledge.
  • Effectively produce oral, written, and visual modes of communication with attention to context and audience.
  • Synthesize data and information to engage with the social and ethical challenges of our world.

Resources for instructors

Instructor workshops

  • An in-person instructor workshop is scheduled each year in the spring term to help with the design of Arts First seminars.  This workshop provides opportunities to work on key aspects of your course design, connect with our partners on campus and learn about the key resources they provide (e.g. Library, Career Development, Writing and Communication Centre), and to connect with other Arts First instructors in a community. 

  • Online instructor check-in meetings are scheduled each fall and winter term to facilitate discussion and collaboration regarding successes and challenges in the classroom. 

  • Instructors can expect to receive more information and workshop/meeting invitations several weeks in advance.

  • Occasionally, there are opportunities for engagement through communities of practice devoted to specific instructor interest.

Teaching development resources

Curriculum support

ARTS 160 is well-supported by numerous campus partners.

Research skills

It is strongly encouraged that Arts First seminars work closely with the Library to improve students’ research skills.

  • Both in-person and online workshops are available that focus on foundational content, including navigating the library website and finding resources, asking researchable questions, and citing sources. 
  • To make arrangements, please contact the Arts Librarians, Sarah Brown, or your subject liaison.

Communication skills 

The Writing and Communication Centre (WCC) offers support for both instructors and students to aid in the writing and presentation process. 

  • For instructors: The WCC offers in-person and online workshops to support a wide range of communication development, from helping students understand the initial stages of building projects through to the drafting process. Please consult Jirina Poch for more information.
  • For students: The WCC offers both online and in-person peer tutoring for students at any stage of the writing and presentation process. Students can make appointments with the WCC.

Centre for Career Development

Students have noted that Arts First courses have significantly aided them in transferable skills necessary for both future coursework as well as co-op experiences. 

  • For instructors: The Centre for Career Development (CCD) offers in-person and online workshops for those instructors who are interested in helping students identify and articulate skills necessary for future success. Learn more about careers in the classroom if you are interested in discussing available options. 
    • Noorin Manji and Erica Refling have created an ARTS 160 professional development menu of activities and assessments for those instructors interested in incorporating skills articulation as part of their course offering. 
  • For students: Students can make online and in-person appointments with the CCD for support on anything from job searches to resume development. 

Campus Wellness

Campus Wellness supports all students at the University of Waterloo, providing mental health services using an inclusive, connected, and collaborative approach. 

  • For instructors: As part of the “Be You” Campaign, instructors can access toolkits to help promote wellness as a holistic part of their classroom environment. If you are interested in finding out more about support for instructors, please contact Leah Foster or Grace Wong Chong.
  • For students: Campus Wellness offers counselling services for individuals as well as workshops devoted to a variety of wellness topics. 

Policies, procedures, guidelines, and logistics

Course scheduling

  • Course scheduling begins several months before the teaching term.

  • Instructors will be asked to submit the Arts First Scheduling form to provide teaching availability, constraints, other teaching/time commitments in the upcoming term and any other information that will impact the timing of course scheduling.

  • If there are changes in availability after the form has been filled out, they need to be reported as soon as possible. Final information needs to be provided (via the webform) by the following dates, depending on the teaching term:

    • Fall term – by May 15

    • Winter term – by September 15

    • Spring term – N/A; since very few sections are scheduled, the First-Year Program Coordinator will contact you regarding availability.

  • Providing accurate information regarding your availability is essential. After scheduling is complete, room/time/day change requests are unlikely to be accommodated due to classroom availability, or because changes may introduce time conflicts for students.

Course syllabus/outline

Please visit Arts Teaching Term Info for information related to syllabus requirements in the Faculty of Arts.

  • As with all UWaterloo courses, it is strongly encouraged to use the Course Outline tool. There is also an accessible course syllabus/outline template available on the Arts Teaching Term info page (under the Course Outline/Syllabus - Requirements drop-down).
  • Instructors must submit digital course outlines/syllabi for each section of ARTS 160 to the Arts First repository at the beginning of each teaching term. You will receive an email from the Arts First administrator with instructions on how to do this.
  • Course outlines/syllabi function as a contract between students and the instructor, so all course requirements, readings, assignment dates, and expectations need to be spelled out in detail.
  • Students appreciate clarity and detail regarding attendance, assignments, and marks in the syllabus. Every instructor is different; it is crucial for each instructor to plainly state expectations and specifics regarding both time in class (participation, etc.) and out-of-class work.

Override requests

Please do not sign course overrides to enrol additional students in your section(s) of Arts First beyond the course cap. We cannot go over the 25-person cap for these courses. Instead, please direct them to enrolment problems and course overrides.

Assigning incompletes (INC)

Incompletes should only be assigned in circumstances where students have completed the majority of the coursework but may need some extra time to complete particular assignments due to extenuating circumstances. While INCs have a timeline of up to 12 months, it is best to cap extended deadlines to a few months past the close of the semester, as this helps support students’ academic progression. 

If you feel that an INC grade is warranted, please fill out the incomplete grade form and submit to the Registar.

Uploading material to LEARN

While it is not required to use LEARN to house course materials or to formally input grades, we do ask those instructors who don’t use it for these purposes to consider periodically uploading assignment descriptions and guidelines along with grading documents in the unlikely event that an emergency arises and we need to assign another instructor to finish your section. You can upload materials in a way that isn’t viewable to students in the class but can still be accessed in the case of such an event.

Academic integrity issues

Issues with academic integrity have always been an issue in the university classroom, but these situations have grown increasingly complex with the evolution of generative AI. The Office of Academic Integrity has many resources to help support instructors with this issue in a variety of contexts, and the Faculty of Arts has a handy Academic Integrity Workshop (PDF) to help instructors navigate the reporting process for suspected academic integrity violations.

Generative AI  

To respect the academic freedom of our instructors, Arts First does not have a formal generative AI policy. This allows for a wide spectrum of generative AI approaches to emerge in ARTS 160 that include instructors who forbid the use of AI to those who actively engage it as part of the skills-building process. 

As you decide how you want to tackle this issue, please read more about artificial intelligence at UW when choosing whether or not to integrate AI into your course. This site includes links to the broader discussion surrounding generative AI and scholarly integrity as well as a list of campus support units that you can consult. 

No matter how you decide to approach generative AI, it is highly encouraged to disclose your reasoning with students, which can include (but is not limited to) UW’s syllabus policies related to generative AI use in courses. 

Student grievances

While it is unlikely that you will be involved in the student grievance process, it is worth being aware of what the process entails in the event that a grievance is filed in relation to your course. Please visit student petitions and grievances for a breakdown of what kind of things can be subject to a grievance and the procedures for resolving it. 

Arts First contact information