Formative Experiences

There are no required learning objectives for Formative Experience courses.

The course submission must reflect the following information:

Formative Experience courses facilitate students’ engagement in independent experiential learning outside the classroom. Courses must engage students in one of these five types of experiences: creative/research, international experience, internship, leadership, and service.

Examples of specific experiences that might qualify as a FE include:

• Honors in the Major theses
• Lab research
• Curating an art show
• Recital or exhibition of creative works
• Clinical or other practicum
• Fieldwork
• Student teaching
• Structured mentoring
• Global Scholars
• Entrepreneurship or innovation
• Specific program work in Living-Learning Communities (LLCs)
• Counseling children in an after-school or supplemental program

Students must complete an oral or written reflection on the experience that is the focus of the course such as:

• The relevance of the experience to past course work or disciplinary training or to life and career goals.
• Lessons learned (i.e., how the student might approach similar projects or settings differently in the future).
• A journal.
• A mock graduate school or job application or interview in which the student articulates the value of the experience.
• Any other reflection appropriate to the discipline and/or experience.

The student’s performance must be evaluated by qualified faculty or staff.

Credit hours:

• Formative Experiences courses can be variable credit (0 or more hours).

Note: Only college-level courses (1000 or higher) are approved for the CoreFSU curriculum.

There are two components of required syllabus language:

1. Statements approved by the Faculty Senate, and
2. Statements for each CoreFSU designation the course is certified for

Faculty Senate required syllabus language:

All syllabi are required to include the syllabus language statements approved by the FSU Faculty Senate, available at https://facsenate.fsu.edu/Curriculum-Resources/syllabus-language.

CoreFSU required syllabus language:

The following statement can either be 1) adapted specifically to the course content, or 2) pasted verbatim into the syllabus. In either case, the meaning of the language should be clearly communicated to students.

This course has been approved to meet FSU’s CoreFSU Formative Experience requirement and develops your ability to develop and use knowledge by engaging in a hands-on experience outside of the classroom.

1. In order to fulfill this requirement, the student must earn a “C–” or higher or an “S” in the course if taken on an “S/U” basis.

• Formative Experiences may also be certified as satisfying the Upper-Division Writing and Oral Communication Competency requirements, but they may not carry any other CoreFSU designation.

Yes. While there is no strictly required format for syllabi, our office has created the following document that you may use to facilitate the process of creating a CoreFSU syllabus: Syllabus Guide - Formative Experience

• Faculty may contact Kestrel Strickland with any questions about CoreFSU course design, as well as questions about using the Curricular Request Application (CRA) to submit curricular requests for CoreFSU approval.
• You may also browse the FAQ for commonly asked questions and answers.