The Signature Courses facilitate the successful transition to college (and beyond) by providing a rigorous intellectual experience, college-level skills in research, writing, speaking, and discussion through an approach that is interdisciplinary, collaborative, experiential and contemporary. The courses are powerfully engaging, as the best teachers and scholars at UT teach the Signature Courses within their area of passion, using the content as a vehicle for enhancing critical thinking and learning.

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  Innovation

  By any measure, the Signature Course program at the University of Texas at Austin has exceeded all expectations and now serves as a model for how to modernize and revamp the core curriculum at a major research university.

  Instead of mandated course content, the core requirements are manifest as transferable skills and experiences imbedded within exciting classes taken by first-year students.

  

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  Signature Course Criteria

  The Task Force on Curricular Reform (2005) proposed that all Signature Courses, regardless of topic or discipline, meet the following criteria:

  • They must negotiate the intersection of disciplines across a major divide
  • They must require students to communicate effectively in both writing and speech
  • They must require students to use evidence to corroborate or refute a theory in various disciplines
  • They must require students to attend a major University Lecture related to the course material
  • They must be taught by the University's finest teachers and scholars

  GOAL
  Effective global citizens in the twenty first century: Using the above listed criteria as a guide, the "essence" of the Signature Course has evolved into six essential elements that must be found in every Signature Course, in addition to the requirement that distinguished senior faculty would always teach the courses.

  

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  Faculty

  Once the essential elements of Signature Courses were established, the next step was identifying the distinguished faculty to teach the courses themselves. The School of Undergraduate Studies does not have faculty members of its own because, according to the vision of the Task Force for Curricular Reform and University leadership, its mission and scope should be the responsibility of faculty members from all colleges and schools. We reached out to faculty members across the University to garner support for the program and interest in teaching a Signature Course. Undergraduate Studies (UGS) then developed a system through which faculty members submit proposals for Signature Courses they designed themselves.

  The only required parameters are the inclusion of the essential elements of a Signature Course, which means faculty have considerable latitude to design courses around their own interests and expertise. The system created in 2008 remains largely in place today. Before a faculty member can teach a Signature Course, they must submit a proposal that includes details on how they will address the course essentials. These materials must be vetted and approved by the Director of the First-Year Experience office as well as the Signature Course Advisory Committee to ensure every course is of the highest quality and meets all required elements.

  

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  Funding Structure

  The School of Undergraduate Studies, while not having a faculty of its own, nevertheless is responsible for collaborating with departmental faculty across campus and administering the budget. For each faculty member teaching a Signature Course, the School of Undergraduate Studies allocates funding to the instructor’s home college. Moreover, instructors are provided generous stipends for teaching assistants, incentive funding based on course enrollment, and funding for any special expenditure associated with their Signature Course. Depending on course size, a Signature Course faculty member’s home college can receive between $17,500 for a seminar and up to $72,000 for a large section for supporting their faculty member in teaching a course.

  This also satisfies the costs necessary for course coverage in the faculty member’s home department. This model is effective because Signature Course students receive a high-quality course taught by top faculty, while the instructors’ home departments do not face unfunded mandates associated with teaching Signature Courses. The beauty of the model is that no new funds are needed—instead, our program allocates already-existing instructional funds, creating a quality control filter that encourages and supports outstanding teaching and scholarship.

  

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  Teaching Assistants

  In addition to engaging some of the most distinguished faculty members, the Signature Course program enhances student learning by providing comprehensive, course-specific training to teaching assistants. Faculty members are provided a stipend for teaching assistants based on the class size. Many of the Signature Courses are implemented as eighteen-student seminars, however there are exceptions for instructors and courses that are more conducive to larger numbers. The School of Undergraduate Studies provides funding at a ratio of one teaching assistant for every fifty students. If the Signature Course is writing intensive the ratio is reduced to 30 to 1. Graduate students serving as teaching assistants in Signature Courses are individually selected by the faculty member, making these positions highly selective.

  Unlike serving as a teaching assistant in other colleges, Signature Course teaching assistants are required to attend multiple training sessions coordinated by learning specialists in the Sanger Learning Center, an additional division of the School of Undergraduate Studies. TAs attend eight mandatory training sessions over the course of the semester, designed to deliver critical information and skills at relevant moments. These sessions emphasize the essential learning elements of a Signature Course, and they are designed around teaching effective pedagogy over course content. Teaching assistants frequently report that the training greatly improves their teaching ability. To date, few colleges or departments provide such extensive training for their teaching assistants.

  

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  Administration and Oversight

  Signature Courses are managed by a small but highly dedicated staff in the First-Year Experience Office in the School of Undergraduate Studies. This unit handles review and approval of all courses, course scheduling, and faculty support. Additional units in UGS that provide substantial support include the Sanger Learning Center, the Assessment Team, and the Writing Coordinator. The Writing Coordinator offers instructors group and individual consultation on improving writing instruction in their Signature Courses, including assignment design, effective feedback, and incorporation of peer editing. In addition, the Signature Course Advisory Committee (SCAC) has been created to provide faculty insight and decision-making oversight. The SCAC includes eight distinguished faculty members who are also Signature Course instructors, the Dean of Undergraduate Studies, the Director of the First-Year Experience Office, and a a student representative.

  Each stakeholder understands the power and reach of the Signature Course, as it represents the only mechanism on campus with the ability to influence the academic development of every student who attends the University of Texas at Austin. The First-Year Experience Office, along with the SCAC and Dean of UGS, works collaboratively and creatively with schools and colleges across campus to develop and deliver a course like no other. The transparency in course selection, funding, and vision is critical to the success of a program as widespread as the Signature Course. As is support, both financial and philosophical, from the University Administration. This combination has proven successful in starting and sustaining the Signature Course program at the University of Texas at Austin.

  

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  Signature Courses Outreach

  If you want to learn more about developing signature courses on your college campus, please contact:
  
  Patricia Moran Micks, M.Ed., Director of the First Year Experience Office (512) 471-4421
  patty@austin.utexas.edu
  
  Lori Holleran Steiker, Ph.D. Faculty, Chair of the Signature Course Advisory Committee (512) 232-9330
  Lorikay@mail.utexas.edu
  
  Or Brent Iverson, Ph.D., Dean of Undergraduate Studies (512) 475-7000
  Iversonb@austin.utexas.edu