Q1 Call for Courses

Grounded in the Humanities (H) subject area of the General Education (Gen Ed) program, UF Quest 1 courses provide first-year students the opportunity to explore essential questions about the human condition that are difficult to answer and hard to ignore: What makes life worth living? What makes a society a fair one? How do we manage conflicts? Who are we in relation to other people or to the natural world? UF Quest 1 courses are rigorous and multi-disciplinary. They reflect the instructor’s area of expertise and are not simply a survey of or an introduction to a field of study.

UF Quest 1 engages students as co-creators of knowledge and provides them with the opportunity for self-reflection and experiential learning. Students will learn how to develop arguments, draw on evidence, and articulate ideas as they explore essential questions in one of the five overarching themes: (1) The Examined Life, (2) Identities, (3) Justice and Power, (4) Nature and Culture, and (5) War and Peace.

Each UF Quest 1 course must align with the Objectives and Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) of UF Quest 1 and the Humanities (H) Gen Ed subject area. Faculty seeking to add either the International (N) or the Diversity (D) Gen Ed designation and/or the Writing Requirement designation to their course must also meet those Gen Ed requirements

Faculty on a 9-, 10-, or 12-month appointment from the following colleges are eligible to develop and teach UF Quest 1 courses:

• The Arts (COTA)
• Design, Construction and Planning (DCP)
• Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) 

Other faculty members, who teach credit-bearing courses at UF, need to be sponsored by a participating college. For more information, contact uf-quest@mail.ufl.edu

To receive the Temporary UF Quest 1 designation for Spring 2025, submit your application by March 1, 2025 into the Approval website (see Approval Website Guide). You will need to add the following two documents to your application.

1. Detailed Syllabus (see the Quest Syllabus Builder and Template)

Must conform to the UF Syllabus Policy, the General Education Syllabus Policy, the Quest 1 Course Syllabus Policy, and if applicable, the Writing Requirement Syllabus Policy. Quest 1 Syllabi will be evaluated on the following:

• A course description that fully states the essential question that is the focus of the course and mentions explicitly the multidisciplinary content;
• Course-specific Objectives and SLOs that clearly align with those of  UF Quest 1 and the pertinent Gen Ed Objectives and SLOs;
• A week-by-week course schedule detailed enough to demonstrate that the weekly topics and assigned materials (readings, viewings, online activities, etc.) are multi-disciplinary, meet the criteria for the Gen Ed designations you seek, and address the course’s essential question;
• At least one thesis-driven analytical essay (minimum 1,000 words);
• Deliberate self-reflection by students, achieved through assigned work or structured class discussion; and
• An experiential-learning activity. 

2. Letter of Support Form

Because faculty teach their UF Quest course in-load, they need the approval of their department and college to propose and teach a UF Quest course. The Letter of Support Form documents this approval.

Please complete the "instructor fields" of the Letter of Support Form and then submit the form to your chair to fill out the "department fields" in order to document department support. Your chair will then need to submit the form to your college to complete the "college fields." Your college will then return the form to you to add to your application in the Approval system.

The Letter of Support Form may be added separately to your request after the March 1 deadline.

To teach a course in Spring 2025 that has already been approved to satisfy the UF Quest 1 requirement, whether it has the temporary or permanent UF Quest 1 designation, please complete the Repeat Course Application by March 1, 2024.

The UF Quest Syllabus Builder and the UF Quest Syllabus Template provide detailed instructions, explanations, and examples that will help you prepare your syllabus.

The UF Quest Approval Checklist shows how reviewers will evaluate your proposal.

Faculty may choose to teach to residential students or to both residential and UF Online students. Residential sections may be taught 100% in person, partly in person and partly online (i.e., hybrid, not HyFlex), or 100% online. UF online sections must be 100% online. For more information, please consult the UF Quest Guide to Course Modalities, Formats, and Enrollment Capacities.

Residential Students Only (100% in person, hybrid, or 100% online)

• 35 students, 0 GTAs, no break-out sections.
• 46 students, 1 GTA @ 0.25 FTE, no break-out sections. Your department will need to be able to provide your GTA with an additional assignment to reach a 0.50 FTE.
• 66 students, with 1 GTA @ 0.50 FTE, 3 break-out sections.
• 76 students with 1 GTA @ 0.50 FTE, no break-out sections.
• 132 students, with 2 GTAs @ 0.50 FTE (each), 6 break-out sections.

Residential AND UF Online Students*

• 66 students, 67% asynchronous & 33% synchronous, 1 GTA @ 0.50 FTE, 3 break-out sections.
• 76 students, 100% asynchronous, 1 GTA @ 0.50 FTE, no break-out sections.
• 132 students, 67% asynchronous & 33% synchronous, 2 GTAs @ 0.50 FTE (each), 6 break-out sections.
• 152 students, 100% asynchronous, 2 GTAs @ 0.50 FTE (each), no breakout sections.

*Before teaching UF Online students, faculty are required to work with The Center for Online Innovation and Production (COIP) to prepare their new UF Quest course for the online modality.  For this work, UF Online will provide a stipend up to $5000.  Once the new UF Quest course is approved through Quest, faculty can submit a Course Development Request form to begin the online course development and stipend application process. Questions about UF Online course development may be directed to academics@ufonline.ufl.edu  

GTA Support

• Most GTAs for UF Quest courses are hired at a 0.50 FTE (full-time employment) to do 20 hours of work per week.
• Your department, not UF Quest, will be responsible for selecting and appointing the GTA for your course.
• Before requesting GTA support for their UF Quest courses, faculty should consult with their units regarding the availability of graduate students to assist them in the semester they will be teaching, the rules and regulations regarding the appointment of graduate assistants, and the kind and amount of work that may be assigned to a GTA. 

UF Quest Support: A UF Quest course development stipend is provided to faculty who develop a new "temporary" UF Quest course that is taught Spring 2025. A faculty member who is the sole developer will be awarded a $3,000 course development stipend as a "lump-sum" payment if the course is taught Spring 2025. In the case of a course jointly developed, the $3,000 award will be provided to the faculty member who teaches the course in Spring 2025. If the course is team taught, the $3,000 award will be jointly split. See Additional Terms and Conditions.

UF (AI)^2 Award: Faculty who develop a new "temporary" UF Quest 1 or UF Quest 2 course with an AI focus to be taught Spring 2025 may apply for the (AI)^2 award. Recipients of the award will receive up to $3,000 as a lump-sum payment. The (AI)^2 award is in addition to UF Quest course development stipend that the recipients are also eligible to receive. Applications for the (AI)^2 award are due March 1, 2024 (see Application Instructions ).

UF Online Support: Faculty who plan to teach their UF Quest course in a UF Online format for Spring 2025 must submit a Course Development Request to work with COIP.  Faculty working with COIP to develop their Quest courses are eligible for a $5000 stipend.    Please consult these dates and deadlines for development request due dates. Questions about UF Online course development may be directed to academics@ufonline.ufl.edu  

For additional information, please contact us at uf-quest@ufl.edu