First-Year Experience GOAL: To promote for first-year students a positive adjustment and assimilation into the college. ADVANTAGES: 1.Retention (persistence)

First-Year Experience

GOAL: To promote for first-year students a positive adjustment and assimilation into the college.

ADVANTAGES:

1. Retention (persistence)

2. Academic Performance (achievement)

3. Extended Freshmen Advising

Joe Cuseo, Exhibit A


Goals of an Ideal Course

1. To help students learn to balance their freedom with a sense of responsibility as part of the process of enhancing self-knowledge and self-confidence.

2. To help students learn and develop a set of adaptive study, coping, critical thinking, logical problem-solving, and survival skills.

National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience

97% of the 40,000 faculty respondents to the survey conducted by the America Council on Education indicated that promoting critical thinking was the most important goal of undergraduate education.

Joe Cuseo, The Conceptual Case for the First-Year Seminar;



3. To help students make friends and develop a support group.

4. To improve student attitudes toward the teaching/learning process and towards faculty who are responsible for providing this process.

5. To help students learn how to understand professors' teaching and presentation styles.




6. To improve relations between faculty and students.

7. To involve students in the total life of the college.

8. To help students discover a mentor on campus.




9. To teach students about JCC: its history, purposes, organization, rules and regulations, people, services, resources, and opportunities for student development.

10. To have students use such helping resources of the institution as the Library, Career Center, Study Skills Center, Tutoring, Counseling Center, Writing Center, and Mathematics Laboratory.




11. To reduce student anxiety about written and oral communication, enhance reading comprehension, and provide supplemental practice in applying the knowledge students gain in other first-year courses.

12. To provide students with information about health and wellness issues.




13. To introduce students to American higher education with emphasis on its history and current structure.

14. To help students develop personal goals for careers and academic majors and to master processes/means of achieving these goals.

15. To provide students additional training, practice, experience, and knowledge in the following skill areas: decision making, goal setting, planning, time management, and group/teamwork.


First-Year ExperienceExtended Advising - NACADA

I. Personal Development I

a. values clarification b. understanding abilities c. aptitudes d. interests e. limitations

II. Personal Development II

a. developing decision-making skills b. developing problem-solving skills

III. Educational/ Career Planning

a. life goals b. interests c. skills d. abilities e. values to careers f. world of work


IV. Educational Plan

a. consistent with life goals b. consistent with life objectives c. alternative courses of action d. alternative career consideration e. selection of courses

V. Institution Information

a. policies b. procedures c. resources d. programs

VI. Support Services

a. campus b. community


VII. Evaluation and Re-evaluation of Progress

a. toward established goals b. toward educational plans

VIII. Student Information

a. advisors b. departments

First-Year Experience:Success Def.

First-year students succeed when they make progress toward fulfilling the following educational and personal goals:1. Developing academic and intellectual competence

2. Establishing and maintaining interpersonal relationships

3. Developing personal identity

4. Deciding on a career and lifestyle

5. Maintaining personal health and growth

6. Developing an integrated philosophy of lifeUpcraft, M., & Gardner, J. The Freshmen Year Experience

Current Trends in 1st-Year Seminars – Course Structure

Grading:

83.5% of seminars are graded by a letter grade

18.9% of seminars are graded pass/fail, satisfactory/unsatisfactory, or are upgraded

Mary Stuart Hunter, University of South Carolina

2000 National Survey of First-Year Seminar Programming – 1,103 institutions

Current Trend in 1st-Year Seminars – Course Structure

Required/Elective

49.3% seminars are required for all first-year students

29.7% are required for some students (generally high-risk students)

21% are elective courses for all new students


Current Trends in 1st-Year Seminars – Course Structure

Academic Credit; Credit Hours

92.1% of seminars carry academic credit toward graduation

46.7% carry 1 semester or equivalent quarter hour(s) of credit

16.6% carry 2 semester or equivalent quarter hours of credit

29.6% carry 3 semester or equivalent quarter hours of credit

10.2 % carry more than 3 semester or equivalent quarter hours


Current Trends in 1st-Year Seminars –Current Trends

Application of Credit:

44.5% of first-year seminars carry elective credit

34.1% carry general education credit

20.9% carry credit toward core requirements

5.2% carry credit toward major requirements

5.7% other (i.e. graduation requirement, college requirement, non-degree credit)


Current Trends I 1st-Year Seminars – Instructors, Instructor Training, and Academic Advising

Instructors (% in institutions which have seminars):

89.3% of seminars are taught by faculty

53.3% are taught by student affairs professionals

34.5% are taught by campus administrators

23.8% students (10.5% upper-level undergraduate students, 5.1% graduate students, 8.1% others)


Current Trends in 1st-Year Seminars - Instructors, Instructor Training, Academic Training

Team Teaching:

31.4% of seminars are co-taught

Training:80.7% of institutions with first-year seminars offer instructor training for seminar instructors

50.4% of institutions consider training a prerequisite for teachingAcademic Advising:In 20.5% of institutions, the freshman instructor is the academic instructor for all seminar students.


Current Trends in 1-Year Seminars

Linkage with Learning Community:

26.3% of responding institutions link the first-year seminar with another course/ other courses to create a “learning community.”


Current Trends in 1st-Year Seminars – Evaluation of Course Outcomes

(Percentage represents the number of institutions finding that attribute)

58.5% student satisfaction with the course and instructor

34.7% increased persistence to sophomore year

31.3% student satisfaction with the institution

30.4% increased content knowledge/improved academic abilities

26.6% increased us of campus services

23.1% increased number of friendships among 1st-year classmates. Mary Stuart Hunter, University of South Carolina

Current Trends in 1st-Year Seminars – Evaluation of Course Outcomes

(Percentage represents the number of institutions finding that attribute)

20.1% improved grade point average

19.5% increased level of student participation in campus activities

19.1% increased out-of-class interaction with faculty

16.7% increased level of campus involvement

15.6% increased persistence to graduation


Other Trends in First-Year Seminars

Types of Seminars:

more academic seminars, fewer extended orientation seminars

Grading:

more seminars are letter graded, fewer seminars are graded on pass-fail basisCredit:

amount of credit is increasing (more 3-credit classes, fewer 1 credit classes)


Other Trends in First-Year Seminars

Application of Credit:

increase in general education credit

decrease in elective credit

increase in credit in major

Linkage to Learning Communities:

more linkage to learning communities – almost double the 1997 number


Student Retention Outcomes

1. Persistence to Completion of the First-Semester/Quarter of College: 50% higher than non-participants.

2. Persistence to Completion of the First Year of College: 67% first-year retention rate, compared to a rate of 46% for non-participants.

3. Persistence to Completion of the Sophomore Year: significantly higher retention rates throughout first four semesters in college.

Joe Cuseo, The Empirical Case for First-year Seminars

Student Retention Outcomes

4. Cumulative (Total) Number of College Units/Credits Completed: completed 326% as many units as non-participants.

5. Persistence to Degree/Program Completion: 49% persist to completion of the baccalaureate degree, versus 28% of non-participants.

6. Time Taken to Degree/Program Completion: 29% graduate within four years, versus 16% of non-participants.


Academic-Performance/Achievement Outcomes

1. Cumulative GPA Attained at the end of the First Term or First Year of College: GPA of 2.87, versus GPA of 2.38.

2. Cumulative GPA Attained Beyond the First Year of College: achieved significantly higher GPAs.

3. GPA Attained vs. GPA Predicted: significantly higher.

4. Total Number of First-Year Students in Good Academic Standing: significantly higher.


Academic-Performance/Achievement Outcomes

5. Total Number of First-Year Courses Passed: completed an average of nine more units by the end of first semester.

6. Total Number of First-Year Courses Completed with a Grade of “c” or Higher: completed four time as many math classes, three times as many writing classes, and twice as many reading classes with a grade of “C” or higher.

7. Percentage of Students Who Qualified for the Dean’s List and Honors Program: significantly higher.



GOAL: To promote for first-year students a positive adjustment and assimilation into the college.

ADVANTAGES:

1. Retention (persistence)

2. Academic Performance (achievement)

3. Extended Freshmen Advising

Joe Cuseo, Exhibit A


Documents

First-Year Experience GOAL: To promote for first-year students a positive adjustment and assimilation into the college. ADVANTAGES: 1.Retention (persistence)