Fall 2026 Quest 1 Courses

Themes

Quest 1 courses should fall naturally within one of the six themes and examine essential questions relevant to that theme.

AI and the Human Experience
This category invites courses that explore how artificial intelligence is transforming the ways we live, work, create, and understand ourselves as human beings. How do we preserve our humanity in a world dominated by AI? Courses might examine ethical, social, cultural, and philosophical questions raised by AI, as well as its impact on individuals, relationships and meaning in contemporary life.

How Stories Shape Us
Stories—whether through literature, film, oral traditions, or digital media—shape the ways we see ourselves and the world. This category seeks courses that investigate how storytelling creates meaning, preserves culture, sparks change, and reflects individuals and communities across time and place.

Great Conversations
Some ideas, questions, and debates transcend time and place, shaping the way societies evolve and people think about the world. Courses in this category will engage students in these enduring conversations, encouraging them to grapple with foundational texts, influential thinkers, and big questions that continue to resonate today.

Conformity and Change
Societies are built on both tradition and transformation. This category seeks courses that examine the tension between forces that encourage conformity (pattern makers)—such as social norms, laws, and culture—and forces that drive innovation, rebellion, and change (pattern breakers).

Time and Memory
How we understand the past shapes how we understand ourselves and our future. This category invites courses that explore memory, history, and the ways different cultures, disciplines, and technologies, record and interpret time.

Outside the Box
Some of the most transformative learning comes from unexpected connections and unconventional approaches. This open-ended category invites creative, interdisciplinary courses that challenge traditional boundaries, foster curiosity, and encourage students to think in new ways.

Objectives and SLOs

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

Quest 1 courses are multidisciplinary explorations of essential questions about the human condition that are not easy to answer, but also not easy to ignore: What makes life worth living? What makes a society a fair one? How do we manage conflicts? Who are we in relation to other people or to the natural world?

Students grapple

With the kinds of open-ended and complex intellectual challenges they will face as critical, creative, and self-reflective adults navigating a complex and interconnected world. They apply approaches from the humanities to mine works for evidence, create arguments, and articulate ideas.

Objectives

Quest 1 courses address the history, key themes, principles, terminologies, theories, or methodologies of various arts and humanities disciplines that enable us to ask essential questions about the human condition. Students learn to identify and analyze the distinctive elements of different arts and humanities disciplines, along with their biases and influences on essential questions about the human condition. These courses emphasize clear and effective analysis and evaluation of essential questions about the human condition from multiple perspectives. Students reflect on the ways in which the arts and the humanities impact individuals, societies, and their own intellectual, personal, and professional development.

Student Learning Outcomes

Identify, describe, and explain the history, theories, and methodologies used to examine essential questions about the human condition within and across the arts and humanities disciplines incorporated into the course. (Content)  

Analyze and evaluate essential questions about the human condition, using established practices appropriate for the arts and humanities disciplines incorporated into the course. (Critical Thinking)

Develop and present clear and effective responses to essential questions in oral and written forms as appropriate to the relevant humanities disciplines incorporated into the course. (Communication)

Connect course content with critical reflection on their intellectual, personal, and professional development at UF and beyond. (Connection)

Call For Courses

Fall 2026 CALL FOR UF QUEST 1 COURSES

UF Quest invites faculty to submit applications to teach new and existing UF Quest 1 courses for Fall 2026. In UF Quest 1, students explore essential questions about the human condition that are difficult to answer and hard to ignore in a world that is increasingly complex. UF Quest 1 courses are multi-disciplinary, provide students the opportunity for self-reflection and experiential learning, and foster a student-centered learning environment. 

UF Quest 1 courses fulfill the UF Quest 1 requirement and may satisfy 3 credits of the General Education requirement in the Humanities. Some UF Quest 1 courses may also count toward the Writing requirement and/or the International requirement.

The deadline is November 3, 2025. Click on the links below for detailed instructions.

Q1 Syllabus Policy

Quest 1 course syllabuses must conform to the UF Syllabus Policy and the Writing Requirement Syllabus Policy (if applicable). 

QUEST 1 SYLLABUS CHECKLIST

In addition to the required items that each UF syllabus and the Quest 1 syllabus must fully meet Quest 1 goals, objectives, and requirements and include:

• A course description that fully states the essential questions that the course examines.
• A link to the Quest 1 Objectives and Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs).
• Course-specific Obectives and SLOs that clearly align with Quest 1 Objectives and SLOs (see Syllabus Builder for examples).
• A week-by-week course schedule detailed enough to demonstrate that the weekly topics and assigned materials (readings, viewings, online activities, etc.) are multi-disciplinary, meet the criteria for the Gen Ed designations you seek, and address the course’s essential questions.
• At least one analytical essay that is thesis driven (minimum 1,000 words).
  • Faculty may not substitute other types of writing assignments for the analytical essay or satisfy this requirement by having multiple analytical essays that equal 1,000 words.
  • Most Quest 1 courses will have other writing assignments in addition to the analytical essay of at least 1,000 words.
• Deliberate self-reflection by students, achieved through assigned work or structured class discussion.
• An experiential learning opportunity.

Note: Faculty first receive "temporary" approval to teach their Quest course as IDS 2935. Because temporary Quest courses cannot include a Material and Supply Fee, faculty should develop experiential activities for temporary Quest courses that do not require such fees. A Material and Supply fee can be added only to a Quest course that has been approved for the "permanent" designation.

SAMPLE QUEST 1 SYLLABUS

• Anatomy of a Story (Quest 1, Humanities, 2000 words)