This study explored how college freshmen at a mid-sized public university in north-eastern United States used Twitter, an anytime/anywhere writing technology, to support and promote the writing process by using tweets as a pre-writing activity. Two of the authors taught a joint course of First Year Seminar and Basic Reading in which the same group…

Findings from the ninth triennial administration of the National Survey of First-Year Seminars, describing the nature and extent of first-year seminars on American college campuses. Drawn from a broad sample of colleges and universities from every institutional type, control, and size, the survey addresses topics including seminar characteristics…

This 2016 directory identifies, describes, and contains evaluative data evidence-based practices that improve academic performance, close the achievement gap, and improve persistence towards graduation for low-income, first-generation, and historically-underrepresented 6th grade through college students. The directory was a production of the…

This paper details the First-Year Career Development Program (First-Year Program)--a component of a comprehensive multi-year program designed to guide business students through self-assessment and the selection of an appropriate business major and ultimately to prepare them to secure professional career positions. The First-Year Program is…

This article examines evidence of academic skill development and transfer related to the taking of a first year Inquiry-based seminar course designed to enhance a range of self-directed learning skills and their transferability to other learning contexts. The study compares a sample of academic work from two groups of Social Sciences students, one…

Enhancing critical thinking skills for undergraduate students is important across the curriculum and between disciplines. We report on a method of improving critical thinking skills, which was studied through an Ethics and Science First-Year Seminar course. We used full cycle assessment over a three-year period to assess students' development and…

Since the first National Survey on Freshman Seminar Programs was conducted in fall 1988, the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition has continued to investigate, triennially, the extent to which first-year seminars are offered on college campuses across the United States. Data in this publication provide…

This monograph considers the role of peer leadership in first-year seminars and how they help create successful transitions for incoming students. It explains how they provide meaningful leadership opportunities through various activities on campus. The monograph begins with the history of an educator's experience directing one of the initial…

This study evaluated the impact of a cluster program and the First Year Experience Seminar (First YES) on a variety of student outcomes at Boise State University in Idaho. To evaluate the cluster program, which included 57 students, a control group of 102 students was formed of similar students who were enrolled in the same core courses but not…

This volume reports on the sixth triennial National Survey of First-Year Seminar. Data from more than 600 colleges and universities are analyzed to offer information on the structure, content, and administration of these courses. Changes to the survey capture new information on innovative course practices including using undergraduates as…

Social isolation and loneliness, cultural shock, and lack of commitment to minority students have been suggested as barriers to educational attainment for many minority college students. Blacks are severely underrepresented in the sciences and in mathematics, and these issues and concerns are not uncommon to black students enrolled in the School…

This monograph presents data from a 1994 national survey on freshman seminars gathered from 1,003 accredited, two- and four-year colleges with student populations of over 100 students. The survey investigated the content and structure of freshman seminars in a mail survey of provosts/vice presidents for academic affairs at 2,460 institutions Among…

During 1987-88, Manor Junior College, in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, developed a semester-long freshman seminar designed to help students understand the college system, to strengthen students' identification with their vocational program and career choice, and to improve students' academic competencies and confidence in their ability to achieve…