Integrative Role of First-Year Seminars in Learning Communities

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Integrative Role of First-Year Seminars in
Learning Communities

• Nannette Commander
• Bill Fritz
• Maggy Smith
• Dorothy Ward
• Jean Henscheid
• May 2004 NLCP Conference
• Copies at www.gsu.edu/flc

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Who Are We?

• Five friends who worked on a monograph together
• People who care deeply about integrating the
  first-year by intersecting two reforms
  first-year seminars and learning communities

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A recent survey of First-Year Academic Practices
at colleges and universities in the United States
indicates that learning communities are being
offered at every type of institution. For the
full report on the Second National Survey of
First-Year Academic Practices, go to
www.brevard.edu/fyc/
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First-Year Seminars and Learning Communities
Results from the First-Year Initiative Survey 62
institutions 30,000 students Fall 2001
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First-Year Seminars Results from the 2001
First-Year Initiative Survey
Without knowing how deep the links are Linked
seminars are correlated with greater learning
outcomes than non-linked. Measuring deepness of
links is next
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First-Year Seminars Linked or Clustered with
other Courses (N 760)
Results from the 2000 National Survey of
First-Year Seminar Programming
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First-Year Seminars Linked or Clustered with
other Courses
National Survey of First-Year Seminar Programming
1997-2000 Comparison
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First-Year Seminars Linked or Clustered with
other Courses

• Of the 106 linked courses, number of syllabi
  describing a link?

National Survey of First-Year Seminar Programming
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First-Year Seminars Linked or Clustered with
other Courses

• 16

National Survey of First-Year Seminar Programming
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First-Year Seminars Linked or Clustered with
other Courses

• Main Reason to Link
• The Nun Study

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First-Year Seminars Linked or Clustered with
other Courses

• Other Reasons
• Increase institutionalization of first-year
  seminar
• Faculty buy in AND pitch in
• Integrate curricular/co-curricular
• Build context for skills

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First-Year Seminars Linked or Clustered with
other Courses

• Other reason
• Total world domination

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First-Year Seminars Linked or Clustered with
other Courses

• So, why the anemic links?
• Finally, we get to teach, now you want us to
• Worshiping in the cult of coverage

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First-Year Seminars Linked or Clustered with
other Courses

• Collaborating across power lines and divisions
• Interdisciplinary inexperience
• Time and money to plan
• Seemingly incongruent goals

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First-Year Seminars Linked or Clustered with
other Courses

• Making teaching public vs. my own private
  sanctuary
• Protecting scarce resources

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First-Year Seminars Linked or Clustered with
other Courses

• 12 ways to link the recessive and the dominant
  Jean

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Seven Secrets to Linking

• Consider personally engaging learning
  experiences.
• List common characteristics, include in your
  work.
• Account for your own fall-on-my-sword course
  goals and the goals of the program, choose a FEW.
• Show each other your syllabi.
• Decide how much you will integrate what will
  students DO! Put these clearly in your syllabi.
  Are they linked to your goals? Are they engaging?
• How will this work be assessed, by whom? Make the
  assessment criteria transparent to students.
• Bring out your calendars, plan frequent meetings.

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Integrative Role of First-Year Seminars in
Learning Communities

• Nannette Commander
• Director of Undergraduate Studies
• ncommander_at_gsu.edu
• Bill Fritz
• Associate Provost
• wfritz_at_gsu.edu
• Georgia State University

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What Prompted Creation of the Learning Community
Program?

• ATLANTA RESEARCH UNIVERSITY 28,500 students
  30 graduate, diverse, urban, commuter (2,000)
  beds
• GOAL 1) Produce an undergraduate student body
  reflective of a top 100 research university 2)
  Become more student friendly
• RAPID GROWTH 5,000 students since 1998
• CHANGE IN STUDENT POPULATION sharp increase in
  entrance requirements when Georgia State
  designated a research university in 1995, became
  much more traditional with respect to student
  population
• OTHER CHALLENGES poor retention, low graduation
  rates, small percentage of alumni giving, and
  poor student services, low performance on NSSE

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What Prompted Creation of the Learning Community
Program?

• Concern about retention and student satisfaction
• FLC started Fall 1999-11 communities 295
  students (16 of freshmen class)
• Fall, 2004 40 communities 1,000 students (50
  of freshmen class)
• Significant increase in retention, academic
  performance, graduation rates, satisfaction
  (focus groups) and engagement (NSSE)

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What Was Georgia State Universitys Approach?

• FACULTY DRIVEN BUBBLE-UP STRATEGY
• All FlCs 5 clustered/linked courses including
  orientation, themes
• faculty members submit proposals reviewed by a
  university-wide faculty advisory committee for
  the creation of the FLCs
• more proposals submitted than accepted
• first-year seminar course counts as one course in
  the faculty members workload
• Credit resides in faculty members department

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Sample FLC

• Law and Society (Limit 25)
• Fall Semester Courses
• GSU 1010 New Student Orientation 3 Elective
• Engl 1101 English Composition I 3 Area A
• Phil 2010 Great Questions of Philosophy 3 Area C
• Pols 1101 American Government 3 Area E
• Hist 2110 Survey of U.S. History 3 Area
  E 15
• Spring Semester Course
• Phil 2410 Critical Thinking 2 Area B

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What Was Georgia State Universitys Approach?

• INTEGRATED CURRICULUM GRANT PROGRAM
• Summer stipend to develop curriculum for
  interdisciplinary learning communities
• Reward faculty teams for work over the summer to
  develop courses with integrated curriculum that
  will be part of the FLC program the following
  fall semester
• 14 of the 16 funded proposals for 2003 link the
  first-year seminar, GSU 1010, with one or more
  content area courses.

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What Was Georgia State Universitys Approach?

• INTEGRATED CURRICULUM GRANT PROGRAM
• Data collected on FLCs with integrated learning
  (IL) have significantly higher GPAs
• Funding communicates the value placed on
  integrated curriculum
• Support for grants has steadily increased over
  the past five years
• Consistent growth in the number of submitted
  proposals and awarded faculty stipends

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What Has Worked Very Well?

• SUPPORT FOR FACULTY
• student services enrollment services provide
  modules that address various orientation topics
  such as advisement, financial aid, registration,
  diversity training, sexual assault, nutrition,
  study abroad
• regular faculty meetings (first-year seminar as
  well as instructors of linked courses)
• workshops for instructors new to program
• well developed curriculum, textbook, and outline
• office support (2nd home department)
• bridge between academic affairs and student
  services

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What Kind of Assessments Have We Done?

• GPA
• More courses (6-7 C or better even after 3
  years
• 1st term GPA significantly higher (plt.001)
• Cumulative GPA usually higher even after 2 years
• Retention
• Greater Freshmen to Sophomore retention (7-8)
  for FLC cohort
• Significantly greater (6-8) years 2-4
• Progress towards graduation
• More hours earned
• Graduation rates
• 4 year graduation rate 3.3 higher

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What Kind of Assessments Have We Done?

• Value added probably greater than measured
• Students most helped least likely to join
• NSSE FLC Cohort significantly better
• More engaged
• Greater perceived academic rigor
• Greater collaboration
• Greater faculty contact
• Focus Groups
• Academic Support
• Satisfaction
• Focus groups of 4 cohorts No negative comments!
• Students still in study groups in senior year

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What Have We Tried and Retooled?

• Regimented Curriculum to Curriculum Options
• Institutional Specific Textbook
• Summer jump start
• Great concept
• Unexpected negative consequences

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What Would be Our Ideal Approach?

• Creative adaptations to growth, i.e, speaker
  series, on-line registration

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What is Most Helpful in External Context?

• Faculty Buy-in
• Administrative Support

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What Are External ThreatsTo Our Success?

• Maintaining Academic Faculty with continued growth

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What is Our Advice to Others?

• LESSONS LEARNED AT GEORGIA STATE
• Encourage faculty from various disciplines to
  teach the first-year seminar with their content
  area course - results in broad base of support
  and increases the interdisciplinary nature of the
  FLCs. At Georgia State, 24 of the 33 FLCs for
  fall, 2003, or 73, are taught by academic
  faculty. Each professor brings a unique
  perspective from his or her position in the
  university.
• Encourage the professor of the first-year seminar
  to also serve in the role of FLC advisor - the
  professor is most aware of how all the different
  content-area courses in the community are
  contributing to the overall theme and can foster
  a team approach to supporting student success.

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What is Our Advice to Others?

• LESSONS LEARNED AT GEORGIA STATE
• Create forums to communicate the benefits -
  emphasize to faculty that the first-year seminar
  also serves as an excellent opportunity to
  introduce students to the excitement of their
  discipline.
• Utilize a peer review process to encourage
  buy-in from the faculty - faculties understand
  and relate to this process and the competitive
  nature of submitting proposals communicates
  rigorous standards and the degree to which the
  administration values participation in the
  program.
• Create equitable course assignments - teaching a
  first-year seminar should be equal to teaching a
  content-area course. At Georgia State this was
  accomplished by making credit hours of seminar
  equal to credit hours for most courses (3 hours).

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What is Our Advice to Others?

• LESSONS LEARNED AT GEORGIA STATE
• Provide faculty with a well-developed curriculum
  for the first-year seminar that they can easily
  supplement with their own materials and
  expertise.
• Provide faculty with additional support through
  student services representatives that make
  presentations in the first-year seminar on
  co-curricular issues such as diversity, team
  building, alcohol awareness, financial aid,
  advisement, etc.
• Conduct regular meetings for faculty of the
  first-year seminar to share successes,
  challenges, and facilitate involvement in the FLC
  program.

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What is Our Advice to Others?

• LESSONS LEARNED AT GEORGIA STATE
• Create a bubble-up strategy that encourages
  instructors of the first-year seminar to
  participate in the process of integrating course
  curriculum through summer stipends or course
  releases.
• Continually evaluate and assess the effect of
  first-year seminars and FLCs with data that can
  be shared with the university community to
  encourage support and participation of the
  program

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What Next?

• How can these ideas be modified to fit the
  culture of your institution?

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Integrative Role of First-Year Seminars in
Learning Communities

• Maggy Smith
• Dorothy Ward
• The University of Texas at El Paso

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What Prompted Creation of the Learning Community
Program?

• The University of Texas at El Paso
• On the U.S.Mexico border
• Public comprehensive four year institution
• Doctoral/Research Intensive
• Enrollment 18,542
• Undergraduate 15,085
• Graduate 3,457

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What Prompted Creation of the Learning Community
Program?

• Student Profile
• 23 years average undergraduate age
• 71 Hispanic
• 82 from El Paso County
• 98 commuter
• 81 employed
• 96 receive financial assistance
• 54 first generation college students

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What Prompted Creation of the Learning Community
Program?

• Development of the Entering Student Program (ESP)
• UTEP mission statement / SACS re-accreditation
• Model Institutions for Excellence / NSF Award
• Task force to study / improve retention
• Title III Grant Proposal
• Core Curriculum

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What Was UTEPs Approach?

• ESP Administration Director, Assistant Director
  / Learning Communities Coordinator, Peer Leader
  Coordinator, Multimedia Coordinator
• ESP Components
• University 1301 Seminar in Critical Inquiry
• University 2350 Interdisciplinary Technology and
  Society
• Learning Communities
• CircLES (pre-science and pre-engineering)
• Peer Leader Program

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What Was UTEPs Approach?

• ESP Collaborations
• ESP Advisory Committee
• Joint appointments
• Campus-wide faculty and staff support
• Instructor workshops

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What Was UTEPs Approach?

• University 1301 Seminar in Critical Inquiry
• 3 hour core curriculum course
• Discipline based, theme driven
• Instruction team includes
• Instructor
• Peer Leader
• Librarian

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What Was UTEPs Approach?

• University 1301 Goals and Objectives
• Strengthen students academic performance and
  facilitate their transition to college
• Enhance students essential academic skills
• Increase student-student and student-faculty
  interaction both in and outside of the classroom
• Encourage students self-assessment and goal
  clarification
• Increase students involvement with UTEP
  activities and resources

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What Has Worked Very Well?

• Learning Communities Design
• Available for first-year students
• Core curriculum courses
• Student placement into English or math
• Faculty interest in theme integration

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What Has Worked Very Well?

• Learning Communities Models
• Pre-Major
• Special Interest
• General Interest
• SmartSTART

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What Has Worked Very Well?

• Pre-Major Learning Communities
• Pre-education, pre-law, pre-nursing, CircLES
  (pre-science and pre-engineering)
• University 1301 integration
• Introducing discipline through theme
• Connecting students to campus
• Linking courses through academic success skills
• Connecting academic content

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What Has Worked Very Well?

• Special Interest Learning Communities
• English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL)
• University 1301 integration
• Developing students English language proficiency
• Assisting students with the transition to U.S.
  higher education
• Connecting academic content

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What Has Worked Very Well?

• General Interest Learning Communities
• General university population
• University 1301 integration
• Connecting students to campus
• Linking courses through academic success skills
• Connecting academic content

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What Has Worked Very Well?

• SmartSTART Learning Communities
• Provisionally admitted students
• Summer bridge program
• University 1301 integration
• Connecting students to campus
• Linking courses through academic success skills

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What Kind of Assessments Have We Done?

• University 1301 End-of-Semester Feedback Forms
• Learning Community End-of-the-Semester Survey
• One-year retention rates
• Comprehensive assessment plan

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What Kind of Assessments Have We Done?

• University 1301 End-of-Semester Feedback Forms
• Students consistently report that as a result of
  University 1301
• Their academic survival skills have increased
• They feel more comfortable at UTEP
• They have gained knowledge about how to succeed
  at UTEP

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What Kind of Assessments Have We Done?

• Learning Community End-of-the Semester Survey
• Learning Community students report statistically
  higher involvement than non-learning community
  students in the following activities
• Participating in group work during class time
• Attending voluntary peer-led study groups outside
  of class
• Contacting classmates outside of class
• Discussing grades and assignments with instructors

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What Kind of Assessments Have We Done?

• Learning Community End-of-the Semester Survey
  (cont.)
• Learning Community students report statistically
  higher involvement than non-learning community
  students in the following activities
• Working on assignments that linked ideas from one
  or more courses
• Using skills learned in one course in another
  course
• Forming new friendships with students in their
  courses

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What Kind of Assessments Have We Done?

• One-Year Retention Rates
• CircLES One-Year Retention Rates

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What Kind of Assessments Have We Done?

• One-Year Retention Rates
• University 1301 One-Year Retention Rates

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What Have Been Our Challenges?

• Challenges
• Developing theme-based learning communities
• Expanding recruitment of students into learning
  communities
• Recruiting faculty to teach in learning
  communities
• Funding for learning communities

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What Advice Do We Have For Others?

• Lessons Learned
• Include representation from key offices and
  departments campus wide
• Model integration (e.g., committees, workshops)
• Develop a comprehensive assessment plan
• Use assessment results effectively (e.g.,
  funding, recruitment, program improvement)