This paper explores an inter-learning teaching method designed and utilized by the authors in the Winter 2021 term for first- and upper-year therapeutic recreation (TR) students in an online platform. This collaborative teaching method sought to make intentional space for upper-year students to take the lead on and facilitate seminars for…

At an institution which serves mostly commuting students who are first generation and often balancing life responsibilities, online learning is enticing and presents challenges. Students can struggle with the required skills of self-regulation, effective time-management, communication, and balancing needs. In the spring of 2022, an innovative…

First-Year Seminars (FYS) are a high-impact practice (Keup & Young, 2018; Skipper, 2017). However, outcomes of pedagogical approaches linked to those seminars have not been as well researched. An expectation of Christian higher education is to consider what kind of spiritual and personal formation is happening through classroom assignments and…

University students crave immersive, collaborative, interdisciplinary, applied learning contextualized to real world sustainability challenges. Liberal arts and sciences institutions are particularly well positioned to respond. Here we report on our high impact, cross-disciplinary, biomimicry-themed firstyear experience (FYE) curricula. Biomimicry…

First Year Seminars have been found to positively impact student experience and retention in universities, especially in large-outcome measures such as grade point average, retention rates, and ultimately, graduation rates. Common learning experiences, a high-impact practice, such as course readings, a syllabus template, and discussion topics help…

This article outlines the process of how the author purposefully designed an integrative assignment to meet the real-world needs of a nursing cohort, First-Year Seminar anchored learning community. The author provides evidence from her own teaching practices to explore the elements that contributed to the construction of this assignment. For…

Historically, storytelling has been a way to pass knowledge between generations and to facilitate an understanding of beliefs. The aim of this current research was to explore the value of storytelling in the higher education classroom, to address the question "how can sharing stories assist students in constructing new knowledge in the…

This paper explores the course design and implementation of a first-year discovery seminar on "Living in the Metaverse" offered at a business university. Integrated with standardized college-readiness topics, the course combines hands-on activities with collaborative assignments and class discussions to present a multidisciplinary…

Evaluating information is an essential skill, valued across disciplines. While librarians and instructors share the responsibility to teach this skill, they need a common framework in order to collaborate to design assignments that give students multiple opportunities to learn. Librarians and First Year Seminar faculty at Belmont University…

Wikipedia can serve as an effective, engaging tool for teaching key information literacy skills. This article examines the experience of seven faculty members and over four hundred students who edited Wikipedia as part of a first-year seminar. We review the literature surrounding the pedagogical value of Wikipedia and then discuss our goals in…

Cultivating interdisciplinary connections between freshman and capstone students epitomizes a novel pedagogical approach to deepen student understanding of the learning process in a Community College environment. Within such a context, this article focuses on the outcomes of a two-semester collaborative effort that aims to establish and strengthen…

College student persistence is of the most challenging issues currently facing higher education. This study is an exploration of grit, tenacity, and perseverance as demonstrated by 43 first-year students at a small, teaching-intensive university in South Texas in response to two required exercises assigned in a first-year seminar. Student…

This study investigated how an interdisciplinary first-year seminar focused on representations of schooling in popular culture supported the acquisition of an academic version of critical media literacy. The authors explore how tapping into students' funds of knowledge, constructing carefully scaffolded assignments, and offering targeted,…

Podcast assignments in higher education foster students' deep engagement in course content, knowledge construction, technical skills, and problem-solving abilities. We designed a podcast assignment in a First Year Seminar course based on student-led interviews comparing theoretical concepts to lived experiences of the interviewees. Students were…

To address the challenge of developing critical thinking skills in college students, this empirical study examines the effectiveness of cognitive exercises in developing those skills. The study uses Critical Thinking: Building the Basics by Walter, Knudsvig, and Smith (2003). This workbook is specifically designed to exercise and develop critical…