Fall 2026 Guidelines and Expectations for Departmental Orientation Courses

Guidelines and Expectations for Departmental Orientation Courses Satisfying the College of Arts and Sciences DAS 101 (1 credit hour) Requirement

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Context

The Kansas Board of Regents (KBOR) and K-State's Next-Gen Strategic Plan emphasize the importance of student success. KBOR is looking at specific metrics related to student success annually and expects that the university will implement the full set of recommendations of the K-State Student Success Playbook. It will be imperative that the College of Arts and Sciences acts strategically and begins to consider how to scale existing successful practices to work towards achieving these goals while identifying new business procedures or methods to implement as needed. One area the college aims to intentionally address is first-year retention. As part of our approach to increasing first-year retention, the college developed an Orientation course (DAS 101) that emphasizes student success, helps instill a sense of belonging among learners and prepares students for college coursework.

Departments seeking to maintain and run their own departmental orientation course, to satisfy the college orientation requirement, are asked to include the following SLOs, PATH Portfolio, and content. Further, they are expected to adhere to other guidelines set here related to class instructional mode and modality, and other notables that align with student success initiatives of the institution and the College of Arts and Sciences.

A. Course Description and Student Learning Objectives

Departmental Orientation courses aimed at satisfying the College of Arts and Sciences DAS 101 orientation requirement will integrate the following course description and student learning objectives into their syllabi. Departments may add additional information to the course description that pertains to the department, additional disciplinary content, and additional SLOs.

Course Description and Student Learning Objectives: Welcome to K-State's College of Arts and Sciences and the Department of [INSERT]! In this course, you will explore what it means to be human, understand your world, and gain a global perspective, while laying a foundation for success in your collegiate studies. [INSERT DISCIPLINARY COURSE INFO, ADD IN SLOs FOR DISCIPLINARY CONTENT BELOW.] Upon successful completion of this one-credit orientation you will be able to:

1. Describe our rich history as the nation’s first operational land-grant and the role the arts and sciences play therein;
2. Identify campus resources and connect in meaningful ways to the campus community broadly, your academic program, and your peers in your classroom community;
3. Develop skills and strategies to support your success, including managing time effectively, developing effective study habits, practicing research skills and critical thinking, communicating effectively and respectfully, and working collaboratively;
4. Examine interdisciplinary ways of knowing and compare disciplinary approaches in the arts, humanities, social sciences, and natural and quantitative sciences; and
5. Develop rapport with your academic advisor and build a personalized long-range academic plan, including a selection of experiences (applied learning, education abroad, minors/majors/certificates, student organizations, research, etc.) you want to embed into your college experience to enhance your time here and prepare you for your long-term career goals.

B. PATH Portfolio and Accompanying Outcome Measures

Departmental orientation courses designed to satisfy the College of Arts and Sciences orientation requirement will integrate the PATH Portfolio assignments. The PATH portfolio consists of four distinct assignments; each aligned with the course’s learning outcomes and focused on key career preparation and first-year topics. Most of the work on these assignments will be completed outside of class. Each PATH Portfolio assignment is accompanied by a corresponding rubric. Instructors will assess their students SLO mastery for these assignments at the conclusion of the semester via the “SLO Instructor Assessment.” The rubrics and outcome measures are a critical component of program assessment.

Note: Detailed assignment descriptions of the PATH Portfolio and accompanying rubrics are available from Emily Mann, college orientation coordinator.

PATH Portfolio Overview: Over the course of the semester, students will complete the components of the PATH Portfolio. The PATH portfolio challenges students to plan, act, thrive and hone. It focuses on goal setting, actionable steps, and refining personal and career direction. The PATH portfolio consists of four distinct assignments, each aligned with the course’s learning outcomes and focused on key career preparation and first-year topics. Most of the work on these assignments will be completed outside of class.

The themes of the PATH Portfolio are:

• Plan: Inventory of skills and mindset, identifying areas of strength and areas to grow as well as strategies for exploring interdisciplinary educational and co-curricular opportunities that will contribute to growth as individual, citizen and member of the campus community, and map out ways to connect with opportunities across campus and employ study skills. Further, students will explore what it means to learn at a land-grant institution.
• Act: Understanding and identifying resources, developing your interests in research, and critically analyzing a range of sources and perspectives. Evaluate your own process and approach, and execute beginning searches.
• Thrive: Scheduling an academic advising appointment, preparing to meet with an academic advisor, learning to navigate the Undergraduate Catalog, developing a plan for engagement and applied learning opportunities that correlate to short-term and long-term goals, practicing strategies related to goal-setting.
• Hone: Culminating activity evaluating skills and competencies developed over the course of the semester. Students will reflect on what they've learned about themselves and about the arts and sciences, what they’d like to learn next, and barriers overcome. Further, students will display knowledge of pertinent resources and expectations of a professional profile or resume.

C. Class Content

Departmental orientation courses designed to satisfy the College of Arts and Sciences orientation requirement will incorporate content addressing the following topics:

• First-year success, including academic skills such as time management, study strategies, critical thinking, information literacy, and goal setting; personal and life skills such as self-awareness, self-advocacy, financial literacy, wellness and self-care; interpersonal and communication skills such as collaboration, effective communication and cultural competence; college navigation skills such as understanding K-State’s structure and policies, building relationships and engaging with campus resources.
• Academic advising expectations at K-State, including those specific to the college and department, such as how to schedule an appointment with an assigned advisor; prepare for advising meetings; understand degree requirements; use advising tools like DARS, KSIS, and Navigate; perform course searches; and navigate the undergraduate catalog.

D. Grading Basis

Departmental Orientation courses aimed at satisfying the College of Arts and Sciences DAS 101 orientation requirement will use a “graded” grading basis.

E. Instructional Mode and Course Modality

Departmental Orientation courses aimed at satisfying the College of Arts and Sciences DAS 101 orientation requirement should be delivered as in-person: physical presence modality or in-person driver hybrid modality. In-person courses, in which the instructor and students are all simultaneously present in the classroom space, are considered the traditional mode of teaching at K-State. Online departmental orientation courses should only be utilized to serve students in online degree programs. The course component is recommended to be REC- Recitation. A recitation is an interactive meeting that combines formal presentation, review and interaction between the students and faculty/instructor. A seminar (SEM) course component will also be accepted. The course meeting dates should correlate with the regular academic session (16 weeks). Finally, courses should be assigned as 1 unit, or 1 credit hour, and the weekly course meeting length should correlate with this unit or credit hour assignment.

F. Course Capacity

Departmental Orientation courses aimed at satisfying the College of Arts and Sciences DAS 101 orientation requirement should have a course capacity of 25-30 students. Courses may employ a higher course capacity (no greater than 60) IF sufficient learning support and structure is planned and implemented. Departments that would like to use undergraduate learning assistants to support their orientation course should include that when making their LABSUP requests to Associate Dean Mary Cain in the spring prior to the course’s offering. Please contact Dr. Christie Launius, launius@k-state.edu, with questions about learning assistants.

G. Instructor Expectations

It is preferable to appoint instructors with experience to teach departmental orientation courses. Further, it is expected that departmental orientation instructors will participate in shared annual meetings about pedagogy in the orientation course.

H. Other

Departments offering their own orientation course will be expected to fund that internally as they do the rest of their instruction.

*Departments wishing to deviate from any of these expectations may submit a request to do so, providing explanation in the Departmental Orientation Proposal Form.