The article explored the modern global educational space and university environment with its structure and functioning. It presents key tasks of US university education in a global context, offers the definition of the university environment, and describes core features of the US university setting. The university campus is considered as a main…

Winston-Salem State University incorporates critical thinking and oral communication into general education learning outcomes and assessment. To teach these critical skills, the authors used active learning techniques in a first-year seminar on animal behavior. Students performed simulation experiments and orally presented their findings. Their…

Research in higher education confirms the importance of self-efficacy in student persistence and success in college. The current study examined the role of self-efficacy in supporting academic and psychosocial adjustment in the critical first college year and the context of an academically-oriented first-year seminar (FYS). Students completed…

Despite the demands for innovation, adaptability, and creative problem-solving as seen in the fourth Industrial Revolution, many institutions of higher education struggle to center creativity in the learning experience. This qualitative, grounded theory study examines how first-year courses using design thinking approaches can introduce creativity…

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…

The literature on information literacy identifies several significant challenges inherent in designing and providing comprehensive first-year programs, including reach, sustainability, instructional design, the flipped classroom, and assessment. In summer 2020, in response to the requirements of the COVID-19 pandemic, the User Experience and…

Franciscan University of Steubenville (FUS) has established a strategic initiative to help all students identify their unique gifts and gain tools for living their personal vocations on a daily basis and throughout the course of their lives. As a Catholic institution of higher education, FUS is actively building an institutional culture that will…

A simulated conference in first-year curriculum reinforces undergraduate research as beneficial to both honors and campus communities while fostering scholarly development and campus engagement among honors freshmen during the coronavirus crisis.

Much has been written about the necessity for induction programmes that help students bridge the gap between secondary and tertiary education. Oftentimes the language around this issue focuses on perceived student deficit rather than institutional shortcomings, not least in discussion of students from Widening Participation backgrounds. The…

Humane Acts Bystander Intervention Training curriculum (HABIT) aims to reach students less inclined to learn from liberal and more-feminist education offered in current curricula. Using moral foundations theory to encourage bystander intervention in potential sexual assault situations, the authors taught and assessed 137 diverse students within an…

In many cases, students are unaware of some parts of their study plans or do not have enough information about utilizing available college resources that may help them through their study years. The purpose of this study was to propose and evaluate a method to improve engineering students' understanding of their study plans and available resources…

This study is an exploratory comparison of 69 Hispanic students enrolled in first-semester general chemistry (Chem I) who attended either a Hispanic-Serving or emerging Hispanic-Serving Institution and were not successful in Chem I. Students' automaticity skills (what can be done without the aid of a calculator) in arithmetic and quantitative…

First-year seminars that teach foundational academic skills are common in universities around the world, but few studies have been conducted to determine whether the specific skills students develop in these courses transfer to other academic contexts. Our research presents a case study that addresses this gap by measuring students' perceptions of…

Engineering and pop-culturist instructors team-teach a first-year experience course exploring science through the lenses of history, literature, film, television, and sequential art. Authors present science fiction discourses as unique for synthesizing fields in the humanities and STEM, and they present curricular and co-curricular design…

With the rise of international education in the Asia-Pacific, Chinese students have become a key demographic in Australian universities. However, cultural differences between China and Australia often challenge these students' adaptation. Drawing inspiration from the growing trend in the modern entertainment industry, researchers have explored…