scholarly journals Implementing a First-Year Experience Curriculum in a Large Lecture Course: Opportunities, Challenges and Myths

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 72-89
Author(s):  
Daniel Ahadi ◽  
Jennesia Pedri ◽  
L. Dugan Nichols
Keyword(s):  
First Year Experience ◽  
First Year ◽  
Communication Studies ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Instrumental Approach ◽  
Post Secondary ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Post Secondary Institution ◽  
Media And Communication ◽  
Simon Fraser University

This article documents the design, delivery, and evaluation of a first-year experience (FYE) course in media and communication studies. It was decided that CMNS 110: Introduction to Communication Studies would start to include elements to address a perceived and documented sense of disconnectedness among first-year students in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University. These elements included coping, learning, and writing workshops facilitated by various services units across campus. We present results from surveys and focus groups conducted with students at the end of the course and discuss the predicaments that the new realities of an accreditation and audit paradigm—under the cloak of the neoliberal university—produce. On one hand the FYE course may help students transition into a post-secondary institution; on the other hand, too much emphasis on the FYE can result in an instrumental approach to education, jeopardizing the integrity of the course. We offer some insights into the challenges and opportunities of implementing FYE curricula within a large classroom setting.

scholarly journals Implementing a First-Year Experience Curriculum in a Large Lecture Course: Opportunities, Challenges and Myths

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 72-89
Author(s):  
Daniel Ahadi ◽  
Jennesia Pedri ◽  
L. Dugan Nichols
Keyword(s):  
First Year Experience ◽  
First Year ◽  
Communication Studies ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Instrumental Approach ◽  
Post Secondary ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Post Secondary Institution ◽  
Media And Communication ◽  
Simon Fraser University

This article documents the design, delivery, and evaluation of a first-year experience (FYE) course in media and communication studies. It was decided that CMNS 110: Introduction to Communication Studies would start to include elements to address a perceived and documented sense of disconnectedness among first-year students in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University. These elements included coping, learning, and writing workshops facilitated by various services units across campus. We present results fromsurveys and focus groups conducted with students at the end of the course and discuss the predicaments that the new realities of an accreditation and audit paradigm—under the cloak of the neoliberal university—produce. On one hand the FYE course may help students transition into a post-secondary institution; on the other hand, too much emphasis on the FYE can result in an instrumental approach to education, jeopardizing the integrity of the course. We offer some insights into the challenges and opportunities of implementing FYE curricula within a large classroom setting.

scholarly journals TRANSFORMATIONAL LEARNING THEORY: A PEDAGOGICAL FRAMEWORK TO ENCOURAGE SOCIAL PERSPECTIVE TAKING IN FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS IN POST-SECONDARY INSTITUTIONS

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-51
Author(s):  
Joel Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Student Affairs ◽  
Learning Theory ◽  
Transformational Learning ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Pedagogical Strategies ◽  
Post Secondary ◽  
Transformational Learning Theory ◽  
Diverse Student ◽  
Post Secondary Institution

There has been an increased emphasis for professionals within the field of student affairs to focus on programming that will engage and help support increasingly diverse student populations on (Odağ, Wallin, & Kedzior, 2016). Bowman (2012) writes: “Many entering college students have had limited opportunities for meaningful interactions and friendships across difference, which further suggests the unique role of college in promoting diversity-related growth” (p.1). Missing within the literature are examples of pedagogical strategies for developing programs that can positively affect inclusivity on post-secondary institution (PSI) campuses. This paper identifies transformational learning theory as a specific pedagogical strategy to help student affairs professionals better support informal first-year programming. Developing innovative theory-guided programming is necessary to encourage learning and development (Baldwin et al., 2004).

scholarly journals Challenges and Opportunities of Asynchronicity: Task-Based Approach After COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Līga Beļicka ◽  
◽  
Tatjana Bicjutko
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
Asynchronous Learning ◽  
First Year ◽  
Self Directed Learning ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Directed Learning ◽  
Professional Contexts

The fast transition to fully online studies due to the pandemic made the universities around the world question many of their accepted notions on teaching foreign languages in general and English for Specific Purposes (ESP) methodology in particular. Putting stress on the synchronous remote teaching and learning has proven to yield a reductionist perspective missing asynchronicity, the dimension which makes reconsider the whole educational process. With its shift from the sole focus on learning terminology to training skills in authentic professional contexts, the task-based approach has long excelled in meeting the diverse needs of students. Thus, the research question is how well task-based teaching (TBT) solves the problems raised with asynchronous learning in a university ESP course. The research of available literature on TBT yielded the framework for constructing an extended task applicable in the advanced medical English. The case study with 120 first-year students of medicine organised around an informational interview with health professionals demonstrated easy adaptability of the task to the asynchronous nature of the educational process. Personal observations by the course instructor, summaries of student-conducted interviews, and student written feedback proved the responsiveness of the method to the learners’ needs and the potential of the approach in terms of motivation. The emphasis on self-directed learning, however, threatens the systematicity of the acquired language skills, as a more controlled teaching environment would not allow “skipping” any learning step. Additionally, TBT does not solve the problem of the voluminous teaching load.

scholarly journals Selective Planning of the First Year Experience in Higher Education: A Sweden-Australia Comparative Study of Support

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 128
Author(s):  
Michael Christie ◽  
Sorrel Penn-Edwards ◽  
Sharn Donnison ◽  
Ruth Greenaway
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
First Year Experience ◽  
Fourth Generation ◽  
First Year ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Satellite Campus ◽  
First Case ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
The University

Literature on the support of the First Year Experience (FYE) in institutions of Higher Education provides a range of modelled approaches. However, we argue that institutions still need to selectively plan which approach/es and attendant strategies are best suited to their particular contexts and institutional policy and practice frameworks and how their FYE is to be presented for their particular student cohort. This paper compares different ways of supporting students in their first year in two contrasting universities. The first case study focuses on a first year course at Stockholm University (SU), Sweden, a large, metropolitan, single campus institution, while the second investigates a strategy for supporting first year students using a community of practice at a satellite campus of the University of the Sunshine Coast (USC), a small regional university in South-East Queensland, Australia. The research contrasts a formal, first generation support approach versus a fourth generation support approach which seeks to involve a wider range of stakeholders in supporting first year students. The research findings draw conclusions about how effective the interventions were for the students and provide clear illustrations that selective planning in considering the institution’s strategic priorities and human, physical, and resource contexts was instrumental in providing a distinctive experience which complemented the institute and the student cohort. (212 words)

scholarly journals A Comparison of the Effectiveness of Presentation Formats for Instruction: Teaching First-Year Students

2000 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol Anne Germain ◽  
Trudi E. Jacobson ◽  
Sue A. Kaczor
Keyword(s):  
First Year Experience ◽  
First Year ◽  
Education Programs ◽  
Class Session ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
New Students ◽  
Presentation Formats ◽  
The University

First-year experience (FYE) programs offer librarians opportunities to teach new students in a comprehensive fashion. However, large FYE programs can place demands on user education programs that are difficult to meet. Instruction librarians at the University at Albany sought to address this dilemma by developing a Web-based instructional module for one class session. The module was used by a segment of students in the Project Renaissance FYE program, whereas another segment received instruction by a librarian. The effectiveness of the two instructional methods was compared using pre- and post-tests, and was found to be equal. Analysis of the test scores also showed that instruction, regardless of format, makes a significant difference (p < .05) in the number of correct test answers.

scholarly journals Information literacy in the humanities

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karin Pettersson
Keyword(s):  
Information Literacy ◽  
Digital Humanities ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Round Table ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
New Ways Of Working ◽  
Special Collections ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities

Many university libraries hold cultural heritage collections that are unknown to the majority of students. The digitisation of these collections offers new ways of working with primary sources, and with it, an increasing interest in archives and older collections. This development has made us reflect on our information literacy classes within the humanities. Are we too influenced by the STEM and social science interpretations of information literacy and their focus on the peer-reviewed article? We want to challenge this view and discuss what a humanities approach to information literacy could incorporate.We want to invite you to a discussion on how we can integrate archival material and other primary sources into our classes,thus broadening mainstream information literacy to include primary source literacy (see ACRL’s Guidelines for primary source literacy, 2018). Our understanding is that this topic is generally not discussed at Nordic information literacy conferences, and our literature review indicates that this field is mostly addressed by special collections librarians and archivists (Hauck & Robinson, 2018; Hubbard & Lotts, 2013; Samuelson & Coker, 2014).In addition, in digital humanities pedagogy, there is need for reflection on data or sources beyond “tool-based thinking” which this approach would open up for(Giannetti, 2017). We will share two examples of how we have engaged students with primary sources and discuss the pedagogical challenges and opportunities. Our aim has been to go beyond show and tell and let the students actively work with primary sources. One example, from the Master’s Program in Digital Humanities, involved working with digitised sources using the platform Omeka. In the other, first year students from the Department of Conservation explored primary sources from the Gothenburg Exhibitionheld in 1923. Hopefully, this round table can be a stepping-stone for forming a network where we continue to share our experiences.

scholarly journals Book Review: The First-Year Experience Cookbook

2017 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 146
Author(s):  
Kyndra Valencia
Keyword(s):  
Lesson Plans ◽  
First Year Experience ◽  
First Year ◽  
Library Instruction ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Essential Component ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Staffing Requirements ◽  
Busy Schedule

In any university library, the first-year experience is an essential component of capturing students’ interest and engagement from the very beginning and of publicizing what the library offers them. However, it is always a struggle to determine how exactly to capture freshmen’s attention and disseminate information about the library’s various resources. Coming up with fresh, relevant ideas on top of an already busy schedule is enough to stress almost any librarian. Pun and Houlihan’s book attempts to alleviate this stress by presenting a “cookbook” of ideas, activities, and lesson plans that librarians across the nation have found effective in engaging first-year students, giving library staff a wealth of options to consider, duplicate, or alter according to their own needs. The book itself is divided into four sections—orientations, library instruction, programs, and assessment. Each section’s activities and lesson plans are detailed and well described, offering excellent variety as well as suggestions for accommodating a wide range of program sizes, budget constraints, and time and staffing requirements. Many of the included projects also feature photographs of the activities or reproducible versions of handouts, increasing the ease of replicability for interested librarians.

scholarly journals Promoting a culture of openness: Institutional open access policy development and evaluation at a Canadian university

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Alison J. Moore ◽  
Jennifer Zerkee ◽  
Kate Shuttleworth ◽  
Rebecca Dowson ◽  
Gwen Bird
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Canadian Universities ◽  
Post Secondary ◽  
Access Policy ◽  
Post Secondary Institution ◽  
Solid Foundation ◽  
Future Policy ◽  
Simon Fraser University ◽  
Soar Strengths

Institutional open access (OA) policies can act as a solid foundation on which to build university-wide support for open access. This is the first paper to reflect on the entire process of developing, implementing, and reviewing an institutional open access policy at a Canadian post-secondary institution. Simon Fraser University (SFU) is one of a few Canadian universities with an institutional open access policy. As a leader in open access, SFU is well positioned to share observations of our experiences in the first three years of our OA policy. Throughout this paper, we reflect on the role that the policy plays in the broader culture of openness at SFU and on the OA resources and supports provided to SFU researchers. Other institutions may find our observations and adoption of the SOAR (strengths, opportunities, aspirations, results) appreciative inquiry framework useful as they explore future policy development or review and work to promote a culture of open access within their university community. 

scholarly journals Exploring the first-year experience in a diverse population: Using participatory action research to explore strategies to support student transition into fast-track undergraduate degree programs

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 41-51
Author(s):  
Greg Rickard ◽  
Marguerite Bramble ◽  
Hazel Maxwell ◽  
Rochelle Einboden ◽  
Sally Farrington ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fast Track ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Transition Process ◽  
First Year Experience ◽  
First Year ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Student Transition ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
University Life

As the cohort of students in Australian universities become increasingly diverse, attention to ensuring their success is an emerging issue of social justice in tertiary education. Navigating transitions through the student journey is crucial to their success. Exploring and responding to the needs of a cohort of first-year students is the focus of this research. Using a participatory action approach, this project aimed to discover what is meaningful for first-year students, by exploring how students experienced the processes of admission, enrolment, commencement, and learning and teaching in two fast-track and one online health degrees. Nine students were partnered with nine academics for a six-month period. The analysis offers insights into equity issues in relation to the institution’s admission processes, the quality of support and engagement from academics to students when transitioning to university life, and how students find their ‘place’. Strategies to support the transition process for first-year students are identified and discussed.

The Online First-Year Experience: Defining and Illustrating a New Reality

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 95-108
Author(s):  
Ryan Korstange ◽  
Jeff Hall ◽  
Jamie Holcomb ◽  
Jasmeial Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Online Education ◽  
Adult Students ◽  
First Year Experience ◽  
First Year ◽  
Orientation Programs ◽  
Online Students ◽  
Online Learners ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Online Orientation ◽  
Incoming Students

All incoming students have a first experience with their institution. This article reviews literature on adult education, online learning, and first-year student success to articulate the scope of experiences and programs that ought to be included in institutional efforts aimed at helping adult students be successful in their first year of online education. In addition, three approaches to support these online students in their first year of college are illustrated. Key areas surveyed are online orientation programs, online first-year experience courses, and the co-curricular engagement of online learners. Examination of these cases demonstrates that supporting online first-year students is quite important, particularly given the proliferation of online students and their lag in standard measures of success.

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