Autumn Quarter: Monday, November 13- Friday, December 8, 2023
Winter Quarter: Monday, February 26- Friday, March 15, 2024
Mini-Courses Proposals Timeline
Do you have an idea for a 1-3 week course? Don’t miss out on the opportunity to propose your very own Mini-Course for fall ’23 or winter ’24! PhD students, Master students and postdocs are invited to create their proposal with Bioscience faculty member sponsorship. We encourage mixed teaching teams of faculty and students and/or postdocs* to apply. Funding is available to provide teaching stipend support for trainees instructing courses.
*Postdocs should review these teaching guidelines and follow appropriate approval process.
New and returning courses must submit a form in order for the course to be considered. We recommend preparing all of your information on instructors, course descriptions, learning goals, proposed schedule, etc. before beginning the proposal form (for reference, proposal questions can be viewed here).
If you would like to consult with the Office of Graduate Education in advance about a possible course, please contact oge-helpme@stanford.edu.
Mini-course proposals will be reviewed by a curriculum committee and instructors will be notified about decisions in mid-June.
Funding decisions will be provided a few months after the application status notification. In order to receive support, please provide detailed information about funding amounts and purposes.
About Mini-Courses
Learn more from our April 7th Mini-Course Info Session:
These intensive, one to three week, interdisciplinary courses taught by faculty, postdocs, and students allow participants to enhance their education without requiring a full quarter’s commitment. Mini-courses address topics of high visibility and interest to the Biosciences community and utilize innovative approaches to learning, teaching, and research. In particular, Mini-courses provide opportunities to develop a broad range of scientific and professional skills, to engage in rigorous and responsible research, to promote representation & belonging, and to enhance career preparation. These themes have been recently articulated by the NIH as ways in which to modernize biomedical graduate training.
Mini-courses are scheduled during the last three weeks of fall, winter and spring quarters. Summer course scheduling is more flexible. Courses can be one, two, or three weeks in duration. If you would like to propose a new or repeat mini-course, please use the guidelines and instructions below and complete the online proposal form. You will receive an automated confirmation email when your submission is received.
Mini-Course Proposal Guidelines
Audience
Current graduate students are the primary intended audience for Bioscience’s mini-courses. Course directors are also encouraged to open their course to postdoc participation, though postdocs cannot officially enroll.
Format
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.
Timeline
2022-2023 ACADEMIC YEAR
April 8, 2022
Call for Mini Course proposals opens for Fall & Winter Quarters
May 2, 2022
2022-23 Fall & Winter Proposals Due
Mid-late May 2022
Mini-course directors notified of award decisions
May 13, 2022
Fall mini-course Room reservations are requested
TBD
Deadline for mini-course directors to confirm all course details (e.g. title, descriptions, grading basis, units, preferred course schedule, room needs/special requests)
New Mini-Course Form due to oge-helpme@stanford.edu. The form will be signed by the Senior Associate Dean and submitted to School of Medicine Registrar.
Early June
Priority scheduling deadline: Office of Graduate Education will submit all scheduling requests for Biosciences Mini Courses.
July – September
Course directors notified of classroom assignments
September 1, 2022
Call for Mini Course proposals opens for Spring & Summer Quarters
October
Mini-courses announced to graduate students and postdoctoral scholars; registration opens in Axess.
October 14, 2022
2022-23 Spring & Summer Proposals Due
Autumn-TBD
Winter- TBD
Spring- TBD
Summer- TBD
Please refer to the Academic Calendar managed by the Registrar for enrollment open dates each quarter. Any mini-course changes must be solidified by that date each quarter.
November 14, 2022
First day of autumn quarter mini-courses
February 27, 2023
First day of winter quarter mini-courses
May 23, 2023
First day of spring quarter mini-courses
July 18, 2023
First day of summer quarter mini-courses
Dates
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. Regular add/drop deadlines apply.
Mini-courses must adhere to University unit of credit rules. All mini-courses should meet for a minimum of 10 hours (1 unit).
Course Topics
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 and Belonging: gender in science, microaggressions, implicit bias, inclusive practices
Research rigor, reproducibility, and transparency: statistics, statistical analysis, data and image processing, materials and data availability, experimental design
Responsible conduct of research: conflict of interest, data sharing, responsible authorship and publication, policies for handling misconduct, human/animal subjects, data management, peer review, mentor/trainee responsibilities, collaborative science
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.
Funding
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.
Funding decisions will be provided a few months after the application status notification.
Who May Propose Mini-Courses?
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.
We encourage mixed teaching teams of faculty and students and/or postdocs to apply.
Proposal Format
Mini-course proposals should utilize the online form linked above, and must include:
Name(s) and email address(es) of course director(s)
Course capacity for graduate students and postdocs
Postdocs and Mini-Courses
Postdocs will be invited to express interest in mini-courses each quarter and may be admitted at the course directors’ discretion, as space permits.
Classroom Scheduling FYIs
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.
Administrative Support for Mini-Courses
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.