The transition to college from high school is significant for at-risk students, especially as they tend to struggle with self-regulated learning skills when trying to adapt to the university environment. In an attempt to mitigate this challenge and assist students with this transition, many universities offer first-year experience courses.…

This research examined the effects of a first-year seminar course redesign on promoting students' self-efficacy. By implementing a project-based approach in the course curriculum, the study investigated if, and to what extent, did such redesign improve student belief in their ability to master course-related outcomes. Two-tailed independent…

The high-school-to-college transition can be difficult as students are adapting to a multitude of academic and social changes simultaneously. The University of Wyoming has created a first-semester program targeted at development of student skills for at-risk students using paired first-year seminar classes. Using student survey data from both pre-…

This essay contributes to recent scholarship in queer and feminist rhetorical studies that has argued for a formulation of ethos as a rhetorical practice that centers the rhetor's awareness of their subjective, spatial, material interdependence with and accountability to others. My first year writing course, titled "Archiving LGBTQ…

At Georgia State University (GSU), like at most other institutions, corequisite courses must be taken simultaneously--the information in one is necessary to the full understanding of the other. However, the corequisite pairing describe in this article has a unique history; GSU 1010 course, part of the larger Freshman Learning experience, was…

This case study documented the critical reflective practice of an instructor in a higher education context related to teaching and learning approaches. In particular, the reflections unveiled ways of seeing teaching and learning, learning through sharing experiences, developing technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK), and nurturing…

College student attrition rates remain a major concern and many students leave due to unsatisfactory academic performance. Colleges have responded by offering first-year seminars focused on study skills. There is limited research on the effectiveness of these programmes. More research is needed to assess actual student behaviours after completing…

The ACRL "Framework for Information Literacy" revolutionized information literacy instruction. It asks librarians to instill in students the higher-level skills to navigate the information landscape. Literature establishes the value of shared faculty ownership of information literacy threshold concepts, but it also documents the…

College completion in the United States is a complex and incessant problem resistant to change despite decades of effort. To address a precursor to completion, this quantitative study focused on early-career success within college. The problem of this study was to examine settings beyond large research universities and explore how interactions…

Although the word "freshman" has been around for centuries, the idea of the freshman as someone who is in need of special care and services in college or university is much newer. While much research has been done on the effectiveness of first-year student programming, little has been published about the origins and evolution of the…

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…

Information literacy is the primary instructional focus of many librarians. With the development of a core set of information literacy threshold concepts, librarians often strive to impart these concepts to undergraduate students during their years of study. However, when students come to school, they are not blank slates. They arrive with…

The transition to college life presents myriad opportunities, hurdles, and learning experiences. Honors education emphasizes the importance of building community. This article showcases a program developed to engage first semester honors students in community through cocurricular activities designed to raise their awareness of diversity,…

The accountability of institutions of higher education to ensure high-quality student learning which is requisite for success in the twenty-first century economy is increasingly remiss (Kuh & Ikenberry, 2015). Institutional researchers have reported limited academic gains among college graduates, a result of students' disengagement in…

In this case study, two librarians reflect upon our efforts to design STEM-focused information literacy instruction for undergraduate students at an R1, land grant university. Designed around the principles of culturally relevant pedagogy, our curriculum integrates community-focused and regionally specific topics reflecting our students' lived…