Instructor Resources
Teaching a UK Core Course: What to Expect and Why it Matters
As a UK Core instructor, you have the opportunity to shape students' foundational learning experiences, helping them build critical skills that extend across disciplines and preparing them for success beyond graduation. Here's what that looks like in practice:
- Design with impact: Create a course, including syllabus, assignments and learning experiences, that intentionally aligns with the UK Core Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs), ensuring students meaningfully engage with essential concepts and skills.
- Engage in meaningful assessment: On a two-year cycle, contribute to the broader UK Core conversation by mapping one or more student assignments to the appropriate SLOs. This process not only supports continuous improvement but also highlights the impact of your teaching across the university.
Want to see how your course fits into the bigger picture? Visit the Office for Strategic Planning and Institutional Effectiveness site to learn more about how UK Core assessment works and how your participation contributes to student success.
UKC Experimental Courses
The UKC prefix allows for faculty to propose a course for the UK Core and to teach it up to two times prior to submitting it for formal approval. We encourage faculty to be “experimental” in their approaches, while also ensuring that the course meets the learning outcomes for the UK Core course area. Refer to the Curriculum Proposals page under Academic Affairs and Operations for more information and guidance on proposing a UKC-prefix course.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How do I submit a course to be considered for UK Core credit?
Information about submitting course proposals and UK Core courses specifically can be found on the Curricular Proposals page.
How are UK Core courses assessed?
The UK Core course assessment process follows the steps outlined on the Office for Strategic Planning and Institutional Effectiveness website and includes mapping student learning outcomes, artifact collection, scoring and more.
What if students don't do well when assessed? Are there penalties?
No, there are no penalties associated with UK Core assessment. The assessment of learning outcomes is designed to support continuous improvement and not to evaluate individual instructors or penalize programs. It offers valuable insights that help programs, departments, colleges and the university as a whole enhance how we prepare students for success.
UK Core focuses on foundational skills, such as clear communication, critical thinking and quantitative reasoning, that students will continue developing and applying throughout their undergraduate experiences. When student performance falls short, it's not a failure; it's a prompt to reflect on where we can strengthen learning opportunities and better support students' growth across the curriculum.