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What academic requirements does UNIV 104 count for?
Who can take UNIV 104?
What is the enrollment cap?
Are there pre-requisites?
Which year is best for taking this course? Who takes it?
Why does this course exist?
Is this a psychology or wellness class? What subject is this?
Is this the same course as PSY232?
What’s staying/changing from PSY 232 to UNIV 104?
Is this a hard class or an easy class?
How important is regular attendance and engagement?
Is it introvert friendly even tho there’s a lot of talking?
Is this class graded?
Should I sign up?
What academic requirements does UNIV 104 count for?
UNIV 104 has the following course curricular codes:
Social Sciences (SS)
Arts, Literatures and Performance (ALP)
Research (R)
UNIV 104 also counts as an elective course for the Psychology major and minor.
Who can take UNIV 104?
Any enrolled undergraduate student.
What is the enrollment cap?
500 students.
Are there pre-requisites?
No
Which year is best for taking this course? Who does or should take it?
The course was designed with sophomores in mind, but it’s just as effective for any class year. Last semester it was about split between sophomores, juniors, and seniors with only a few first years enrolled. It is accessible and open to first semester students, but we recommend enrolling during sophomore year or later.
Last semester it was split about 80/20 between Trinity and Pratt students and we had students with majors in Biology, Biophysics, Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Economics, Environmental Science and Policy, Evolutionary Anthropology, French Studies, Interdisciplinary Studies, Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering, Neuroscience, Physics, Political Science, Psychology, Public Policy, Statistical Science, and Visual & Media Studies. Help us expand our list. Obviously we think everyone should take it sometime! You don’t need to know anything about anything to take this class.
Why does this course exist?
Professors Shani Daily and GR Samanez-Larkin, the UNIV 104 co-conveners, noticed in their roles as Faculty Fellows and Faculty-in-Residence that there is a lot of useful “life” and “wellness” programming on campus that is under-attended because students are prioritizing their coursework, friends, and other campus commitments. That’s wise! You should prioritize classes and friends, and there’s not space in life for every single thing that you wish you could do. This course was designed as a way for students to make space in their lives for deep evaluation of and scholarly experimentation with what works across a range of topics in their lives.
Is this a psychology class? Is this a wellness class? What subject is this?
This course will focus on wellness but it’s more holistic than a wellness course. The course covers a range of topics relevant to your own well being and wellness (nutrition, physical activity, cognitive balance, emotion regulation, spirituality) and the broader people and world around us (relationships, interacting across differences, collaboration, leadership, community impact, meaning, and purpose in life). The professors who designed the course have scholarly disciplinary expertise in psychology, neuroscience, engineering, computer science, art & design, cultural anthropology, pop culture, and gender and feminist studies. Elements of almost all of these disciplines and others are integrated in this course, which is why it’s UNIV and not a cross-listed class in, for example, PSY, EGR, and CULANTH. More information about the class will continue to be added to the course summary.
Is this the same course as PSY232? Is it still cross-listed and does it count as a psychology elective?
Professors Shani Daily (ECE/CS), GR Samanez-Larkin (PSY/NEUROSCI), and Nikki Lane (GSFS) designed and piloted a version of this course as PSY 232 in Fall 2023. It was formally titled “Quad Course: The Art and Science of What Works in Life” and had the same curricular codes. We called it a Quad Course because we initially planned for it to be priority enrollment for our FiR and Faculty Fellow dorms/quads. We decided against that but left the quad course name, because a lot of the goals of this course are also goals of QuadEx “to enhance and integrate the social, residential, and intellectual lives of undergraduates” to “strengthen on-campus communities, enable deeper exploration of intellectual interests, and support student wellbeing and growth.”
UNIV courses are not cross-listed so this course will not show up as PSY232 anymore. The Psychology DUS office is working to keep it coded as a PSY 2xx course for the Psychology major or minor even when a student enrolls in it as UNIV 104. This is not yet confirmed, but we are doing everything we can to make this happen.
I heard a lot about PSY 232 from friends. What is staying and changing for the UNIV 104 version?
Students in PSY 232 really enjoyed the randomized groups and all the in-class group discussions. That will stay in UNIV 104. Lecture periods will stay very active with a max of 25 minutes of a single person talking. PSY 232 covered a lot of life topics; we’ll cover the same range in UNIV 104 including 1 or 2 additional topics. As suggested by the PSY 232 group projects focused on redesigning the course, students suggesting adding discussion sections to go deeper into some of the course topics in smaller TA-led discussion groups. A few of those discussion sections will also lead students through the analysis of their own qualitative and quantitative data collected throughout the semester. Students in UNIV 104 will attend two 75-lecture periods per week led by Profs Daily and Samanez-Larkin and a 50-minute smaller group discussion section led by a graduate TA. Compared to PSY 232, there’s an extra 50 minutes of class time per week in UNIV 104 but the overall required formal “work” for the course is not changing much…
I heard there’s not a lot of work in this course. True?
The majority of the “work” of this course happens during class times. Class is very active, so be prepared to show up and engage. In between class meetings, there are surveys and reflections to complete based on activities we try in our own lives or pre-review of some artistic or scientific material. The time commitment outside of class is arguably low compared to other courses. However, the “work” being light is debatable. If you engage with the course, the topics can be heavy or existential. The course overall is intellectually stimulating throughout and you’ll catch yourself thinking about the weekly topics (or past week’s topics) throughout the week even when you’re not actively engaged in a graded assignment. It’s a different kind of work than most classes. It’s not problem sets or exam studying. It’s life work. That might seem easy to some and difficult to others.
How important is regular attendance and engagement?
Essential. It’s a big part of your grade. If you know you will miss several class meetings during the semester, this is probably not the class for you. Absences are obviously excused according to Duke’s usual policies
(documented illness or Duke-sponsored travel), but you can’t really make up the work entirely on your own. The best parts of this class emerge from discussion with peers, the instructional team, and the guests. Many assignments are also completed during class based on the classroom experience.
This class cannot be used as a study hall. If you spend your class time doing work for other classes or causing disruption to others, your attendance credit for that day will be revoked.
Sounds like a lot of talking to people. What if I’m an introvert?
This is the ideal brave space for you. We promise. A large percentage of the students last semester self-identified as introverts. All of the required conversation happens in small groups of people (5 or fewer) that you get to know surprisingly well. Those conversations are also highly structured ensuring that each person has an opportunity to share with each other uninterrupted. We alternate between talking (in small groups) and listening (in small groups and with the whole class) during each class period.
Is this class graded?
Mostly no, but overall yes. This class uses specifications grading (sometimes called “specs grading”), an evidence-based grading system that simplifies grades and increases both student engagement and actual learning (Nilson & Stany, 2015; Elkins, 2016; Katzman et al, 2021). The focus is on establishing clear expectations and being rewarded for your continued engagement with each component of the course in a transparent way. There are many small surveys and reflections to complete each week, but almost everything is graded S/U. However, in this course overall you will receive a letter grade (unless you opt for S/U overall which we will approve). Only whole letter grades will be assigned (A, B, C, D, F). There will be no + or – grades. The end of semester group-based assessment will be letter-graded (whole letter grades again) with a clear rubric. Final grades are determined based on bundles of percentages of satisfactory assignments, class attendance, an individual autoethnography, and a letter-graded end-of-term group project. Thresholds for specific letter grades will be detailed in the syllabus.
Should I sign up?
ofc! Do you float around and keep your head down and hope your life unfolds? Does everybody tell you that you’re doing so well, but you honestly find it hard to tell? It’s fine, you’ll figure it all out. You’re still only quite young. In a way this life of yours has only just begun. It’s fine. You’ve got time. You’ve got tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiime to sign up for UNIV 104.