Abstract:

We will show a practice of a first year experience (FYE) in a university of Japan. The key word of our course is "independence". It indicates that a first year student usually just graduated from a high school should be challenged to find the discipline required to live own long life with continuous learning. The course contents involve academic skills for learning in the university like writing skills with thinking, and fundamental knowledge for member of society like health care and carrier planning. There are mutual relationship between the course and other courses of FYE program. So we clearly show relations between learning goal of the course and real life at least in university learning, because we emphasize reflective, integrative and self-regulative learning. We employ a blended learning style with traditional classroom learning and an iterative training in computer assisted learning. All learning materials are offered via a learning management system (LMS), and student learning is progressed with a combination of classroom and online works. All learning outcomes are recorded in the LMS so that learners can easily check own progress, and use them in reflection during or after the class. We would, in addition, show our next steps in using technologies and improvement of our course design.

Keywords:

First year experience, blended learning, computer assisted learning.