Abstract:

Attracting and retaining college students is a major focus of higher education in the United States. To this end, many US colleges require incoming students (freshman and transfers) to take a “first-year seminar” (FYS) course. This FYS is designed to help new students with adjusting to college life and responsibilities, developing skills (academic, social, and post-college life) needed for success in and after university, and increasing feelings of belonging to the college community as this transition to college is perceived to be challenging.

In an effort to support our university’s attempt to retain and prepare incoming students, we as professors sought to design a FYS that did this and more. We wanted to help students develop necessary academic and life skills, and learn about our university’s resources and supports, but also wanted to more effectively: a) develop soft skills and a growth mindset, b) empower students in their learning, c) embed using technology in relevant ways, d) cultivate a sense of community and belonging in our class to support one another during and after the class, and e) meet students’ needs and interests through innovative pedagogical approaches.

Thus, we used purposeful and high impact teaching practices to meet students’ needs including: designing a blended learning experience, creating a community of learners in our class, having students focus on personal experiences to increase the relevance of the course work and assignments, using varied high impact pedagogical practices, providing opportunities to develop and strengthen academic and soft skills needed in and after university life, collecting student feedback throughout the course in a variety of ways (informal discussions in class, online pre-assessment survey week one, online midterm survey, and end of course evaluation), and using data to guide our practices to best support students’ needs and interests.

Though data show mixed results on the impact of FYS on incoming students, in this presentation we will demonstrate some of the ways that innovative pedagogical practices can impact first year university students as well as underscore the importance of particular teaching practices for all college students-not just those new to university life. Data will also be shared on elements FYS students found valuable to them and supportive of their needs.

Keywords:

Blended learning, student engagement, innovative pedagogical practices, digital storytelling, student retention.