Following state legislation mandating corequisite support in lieu of remedial prerequisites for underprepared students, this article tells the story of a specific corequisite program piloted in South Texas. Our model transformed certain sections of our institution's first-year seminar into corequisite courses, which were paired with required…

The majority of universities and four-year colleges in the USA currently offer first-year seminars in at least one format. These programs often pride themselves in recruiting from among their institutions' best teachers to lead the seminars. In reality, this process of recruitment to teach in the program, as well as retention of faculty members…

Performance-based funding is becoming the norm in higher education. High-impact practices like first-year seminars hold promise for improving some of the key metrics in the funding model, such as first-year retention rate and first-year institutional GPA. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship of retention rate and institutional…

The purpose of this single phenomenological case study was to examine the importance of an FYE or College 101 seminar and why this topic matters to Latinx students' success. The research took place in a two-year Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) located in the Southwest part of the United States. The overarching question was: "How can…

At Humboldt State University (HSU), location is everything. Students are as drawn to our spectacular natural setting as they are to the unique majors in the natural resource sciences that the university has to offer. However, the isolation that nurtures the pristine natural beauty of the area presents a difficult reality for students who are…

The Effective Team Dynamics (ETD) Initiative at Georgia Tech developed curriculum to improve function of student teams. ETD uses the language of CliftonStrengths® to help students identify the areas in which they are the strongest and to apply those strengths to interpersonal contexts. ETD has developed curriculum for five "Touchpoints,"…

This paper explores how Problem-oriented Project Learning (PPL) can be organized in a context that meets the pedagogical needs of first year students. Under the assumption that, while PPL provides a fruitful context for learning, it is also challenging for early stage learners, the article formulates the theoretical considerations underlying a…

Although higher education leaders have established goals to increase the number of women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields, first-generation female college students remain underrepresented in STEM majors. Astin's (1970) inputs-environment-outputs (I-E-O) theory of student development provided a framework to examine how…

The Elon Gap Experience (EGE) was conceived out of Elon University's most recent strategic plan, the Elon Commitment (Elon University, 2009). One theme calls for "strategic and innovative pathways in undergraduate and graduate education," specifically "to launch a service program as part of a gap-year program" (Elon University,…

The purpose of this study was to examine students' and academic advisors' experiences in advisory from the Appreciative Advisement Framework through surveys and interviews. Many academic advising directors indicated there is no specific or required framework for their staff, although they have stressed the importance of advisement training,…

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to explore and understand the reasons why community college music majors choose to persist, leave the major, or leave college, and what effects a first-year seminar designed specifically for music majors might have on their intent to persist.A questionnaire was used to compare the likelihood of…

Urban public universities play a critical role in the higher education missions of access and success of historically underrepresented and economically disadvantaged populations. Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) also attract similar scholarly attention to understand the impact of these institutions on marginalized and underrepresented racial…

This article reports on an exploratory study that investigated the use of student drawings as a visual research method to understand the first-year experience. A total of 31 undeclared students enrolled in a first-year seminar participated in the study. Data generated from pre- and postdrawings of students' first semester paths were analyzed to…

This article documents the design, delivery, and evaluation of a first-year experience (FYE) course in media and communication studies. It was decided that CMNS 110: Introduction to Communication Studies would start to include elements to address a perceived and documented sense of disconnectedness among first-year students in the School of…

A majority of the research on the impact of learning communities has focused on the positive outcomes for students in their first year of study (Andrade, 2007; Goldman, 2012; Laverick, 2018; Wathington, Pretlow, & Mitchell, 2010). Less is known about the impact of learning community involvement as students complete their enrollment and persist…