Course Information
- COEN 1500 is a one-credit free elective course for students in the Engineering Quad LLC
- Each section meets once a week for 50 minutes; class enrollment capped at 25 students
- Each section has an instructor-mentor (you) and two undergraduate peer mentors
Curriculum
Lesson plans will be developed for you, and a semester schedule will be set so all sections are following the same topic schedule. There will be scheduled weeks where you and your peer mentors can choose the topic for your class. Topics include:
- Design Your Life (DYL) Curriculum from Stanford Engineering
- Academic skills and non-cognitive skills
- Career/major exploration
- Campus resources and involvement
- Implicit bias and diversity
Time Commitment
Pre-Semester Trainings (required)
These training days will be where you will learn the curriculum week-by-week, understand the assignment and grading structure, meet your peer mentors, and understand the expectations about the class.
- Instructor-only training: Aug. 10, 1-5 p.m.
- Deep Dive Curriculum Overview
- Instructor-mentor and peer mentor training: Aug. 13, 9 a.m.-noon
- Meet your peer mentors
- Publish your Canvas course
- Plan first lecture
- Message your new students
Engineering Launch (optional)
Engineering Launch is a two-day welcome experience for new students in the College of Engineering and Applied Science. All new first-year engineering undergraduate students are required to attend both days. It is recommended that you volunteer to help with Engineering Launch so you can see some of the experiences your new students are going through.
Engineering Launch will be Aug. 20-21. Sign-up will be sent in August!
Meet with Peer Mentors (required)
Each section is lead by a teacm of one instructor-mentor and two peer mentors – we call this your tripod.
Each tripod is expected to meet at least once a week, most likely for one hour or less, to prepare for the coming weeks in their course. You will set this meeting time when you meet your peer mentors during training.
Teach COEN 1500 (required)
- Your assigned section will be based on your availability
- Each section is 50 minutes. Typically, instructor-mentors spend 10 minutes after class engaging with students if possible (even if that’s on the walk back to your office)
Outside of Class Experiences (optional)
- We are not requiring that you create or attend any outside-of-class experiences. We will ask the peer mentors to engage with their students in this manner throughout the semester, though.
- If you are inspired to create or attend outside of class experiences with your students, that is awesome!
- Please do not add additional graded components to these experiences. This creates an inequity among the various sections and becomes hard to manage in Canvas. There are already a lot of opportunities for students to engage in extra credit by exploring interests. Consider adding an extra credit assignment if absolutely necessary.
Grading (required)
- This class is letter grading based on attendance, participation, and completion of assignments.
- The required assignments should be easy for you to grade using Canvas,
- We expect that you provide written feedback to your students after grading. This should be more than “nice work” and should comment on what the student could have done to improve their grade or commend them on hard work or provide specific resources or additional advice.
- Grading could take 60 minutes or less each week, with the maximum being up to a couple of hours for a few of the larger assignments.
- Remember, if you choose to add additional assignments, they are in addition to what is already created in Canvas. Set assignments should not be deleted. If you choose to assign more things to your students, this will increase the need for grading and feedback.
Compensation
- Each instructor-mentor will receive a $1,500 stipend, which will be distributed in one lump sum at the end of the semester. The payments may not be in line with your regular paychecks, as they are processed through an Additional Pay Form with your department’s HR representative.
- You may or may not be taxed on the stipend up front; therefore, it is important that you consider the implications of this regarding taxes and any requirements you have regarding compensation.
Requirements
- Each instructor-mentor must be a full-time employee at CU Boulder, preferably in CEAS or in a position which interacts with students in CEAS.
- You must have 2-3 hours available each week during the fall semester.
- You must be willing to empower and mentor your peer mentors in their role. Remember, they are undergraduate students learning their own presentation and leadership skills. Every peer mentor pair will be at a different level and we expect that you work to meet their comfort level while challenging them to take more ownership over their mentoring experience.
- It is preferred that each instructor-mentor have at least a master’s degree or five years relevant experience in higher education. Exceptions can absolutely be made, so reach out to Maura.Hollister@colorado.edu if you have questions.
- You must sign the Instructor-Mentor Agreement, giving permission for you to participate in this experience.