Mini-Course Proposals

Current graduate students are the primary intended audience for Biosciences mini-courses. Course directors are also encouraged to open their course to postdoc participation, though postdocs cannot officially enroll.

Mini-courses are short format, one to three week courses. The condensed format allows faculty and students to explore a topic without the commitment of a full quarter course. This format also allows faculty to provide intensive learning experiences that cannot feasibly be sustained over a full quarter.

Mini-courses are offered during the last three weeks of autumn, winter, and spring quarters, and at any time during summer quarter. Mini-courses do not meet on University Holidays; due to the Memorial Day holiday in week 9 of spring quarter, spring quarter mini-courses must begin on Tuesday.

Mini-courses should adhere to the University class meeting time pattern.

Mini-courses must adhere to University unit of credit rules. All mini-courses should meet for a minimum of 10 hours (1 unit).

We are particularly interested in courses that are interdisciplinary in nature and/or address the following high-priority areas in graduate and postdoctoral training:

• Topical/subject areas of interest, targeted to an interdisciplinary audience
• Diversity and inclusion
• Research rigor, reproducibility, and transparency
• Responsible conduct of research
• Wellness, across any of the following domains, and especially as it relates to success in graduate school or during postdoctoral training: Emotional, environmental, intellectual, occupational, physical, social, spiritual
• Career, personal, and/or professional development
• Communication (written, verbal, interpersonal)

Interdisciplinary mini-courses are those that combine areas that are of significant interest to a broad audience of graduate students and postdocs in the biosciences, and do not overlap with existing courses, programs, or workshops.

To encourage and support the development of mini-courses, course directors may be awarded up to $5K for teaching assistants (TAs). For new mini-courses, an additional $5K in course development funds may be requested. Funds are limited and award amounts may vary based on the number and types of proposals received. Departments receive TRS-based funding for mini-courses just as they do for regular courses. Please be as clear and as detailed as possible in your funding request.

We invite proposals from faculty members or faculty-postdoc, faculty-student, and faculty-staff teams. A faculty member must serve as the lead instructor. If awarded, funds will be allocated to the faculty course director’s PTA account.

Mini-course proposals should utilize the online form linked above, and must include:

• Name(s) and email address(es) of course director(s)
• Quarter(s) in which you want to teach the course
• Proposed schedule (following University class meeting time pattern)
• Proposed unit value and grading basis
• Course description
• Course learning goals
• Detailed funding request
• Classroom needs and preference
• Course capacity for graduate students and postdocs

Postdocs will be invited to express interest in mini-courses each quarter and may be admitted at the course directors’ discretion, as space permits.

• School of Medicine classroom scheduling is completed by MedScheduler and is completed based on class schedule, capacity and instructional needs.
• LKSC rooms are in highest demand; if requesting an LKSC seminar classroom please be aware that mini-courses are unlikely to be scheduled in the same classroom for each class meeting, especially during peak times of day (10:30am-12:20pm is the most popular class time).
• MedScheduler uses the following priority order for classroom scheduling:
  • Required courses in the MD/PhD/Masters curriculum, including placement exams and finals
  • Required courses in the scholarly concentration curriculum
  • Elective course in the MD/PhD/Masters curriculum, including final exams and seminars (mini-courses = 3rd priority)
  • If you have a department meeting/conference room you can schedule for your mini-course, this is preferred and is very helpful! Please indicate this on your course proposal if you plan to reserve your own meeting space for your course.

For approved Biosciences mini-courses, the Office of Graduate Education (OGE) will:

• Liaise with the School of Medicine Registrar and MedScheduler team to administer course creation, scheduling, and room reservations.
• Provide Project, Task, Award (PTA) accounts for funded mini-courses
• Create and distribute a poster advertising all mini-courses
• Collect postdoc interest lists on a quarterly basis

The mini-course Director and teaching team is responsible for all other course administration responsibilities, including course evaluations, recruiting and hiring TAs/CAs, purchasing supplies, A/V support, and all communication with students and postdocs.