ASEM Courses

This page contains documents related to the Advanced Seminar (ASEM) requirement at DU, including descriptions, policies, calls for propoals and so on.

While knowledge and professional skills found in a student’s major and minor are important foundations for accomplishment, successful individuals also must be able to navigate a complex political, social, cultural and economic environment that challenges more traditionally limited concepts of higher education and competencies. To help students better understand the demands of contemporary life, instructors teach an advanced seminar based in their area of expertise and passion. The topic will be approached from multiple perspectives in a course designed for nonmajors. Studying in this setting, students demonstrate their ability to integrate different perspectives and synthesize diverse ideas through intensive writing on that topic. This course must be taken at the University of Denver.  Students must complete all other common curriculum requirements before taking the Advanced Seminar.

Characteristics

ASEM Courses meet four criteria:
1. Students will write a minimum of 20 pages (about 6000 words), some of which may be informal, but some of which must be revised, polished, and intended for an educated readership.
2.  Students will complete a minimum of three writing projects that are distributed over the quarter; exceptions might include a cumulative project completed in multiple stages.
3.  Students will be required to revise some of their work based on feedback from their professor. 
4.  There will be some instructional time given to writing.

For further elaboration of Characteristics, see here.  

To Propose a Course

The ASEM Committee approves all ASEM courses and has specific deadlines for turning in proposals.

If you are proposing an entirely new ASEM Course, go to the ASEM Committee Website at http://portfolio.du.edu/ASEM and select the link to the New Proposal Form. 

Faculty Development Support

Up to $1500 of faculty development support is routinely available.  After completing a required ASEM Writing Workshop on writing across the curriculum, all participants receive a stipend of $1000.  Professors will receive an additional $500 if they write a short informal article (about 5 pages) discussing writing in their course.  The ASEM Writing Workshop funding is on top of the $1000 that faculty receive for developing a new ASEM course.  There is no funding available to support classroom expenses for ASEM courses.

Dates of Workshops and Details about the Informal Article