First-year seminars (FYS) comprise one of 11 researched interventions in postsecondary education known as High-Impact Practices, but few rigorous studies report significantly high impacts. This study examined a FYS employing propensity score matching to link cases and controls in a quasi-experimental design. One semester later cumulative grade…

Starting university is challenging. Students require resilience to face the inevitable challenges of university life, yet many may not be equipped with the strategies they need. In this research, we explored changes in resilience following the delivery of a resilience building module within a core first-year university course. Psychology students…

Nearly half of all students in the United States are placed into at least one developmental course in college. Many of these students fail to complete developmental course sequences and persist to degree completion. First-Year Seminars are one of several high-impact practices associated with increased persistence, retention, and graduation rates…

Milner (2012) defines opportunity gaps as the uncontrollable factors such as race, language, or economic status that can impact students' success in schools. Rather than placing focus on students' achievement, examinations of opportunity gaps emphasize the systems and structures that may contribute to disparities in student outcomes. The…

We report the short- and longer-term impacts of offering a 1-credit introductory seminar to first-year chemical engineering students. Students who completed the seminar demonstrated a better awareness of the major, career opportunities, and academic success strategies than students who did not enroll in the seminar. A longer-term comparison showed…

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…

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…

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…

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…

A primary aim of science education is to teach students how to interpret and engage with scientific information. To do so effectively requires an adequate understanding of the nature of science (NOS)--in other words, what science is and how it works. There is a long history of evidence to suggest that many undergraduate students struggle to…

Undergraduate research experiences offer a range of positive academic and affective student outcomes. However, these benefits often do not reach all students, as research experiences are often selective, favor high-achieving students, focus on STEM fields, and typically target students in their third or fourth year of undergraduate studies. To…