For college students, opening Chinese courses is the inheritance and continuation of Chinese culture, which can improve students' literary quality. However, because the content of college Chinese course selection has higher requirements for students' literary foundation and loses the pressure of examination, traditional teaching methods can not…

First-year students in a distance learning institution face academic writing challenges arising from inadequate writing skills developed in high school, the need to adapt to new writing standards, and limited language proficiency. These challenges could potentially lead to higher dropout' rates, increased failures, and delayed qualification…

The importance of student engagement is long recognised. Students who are more engaged will be more motivated and inclined to complete their studies. The aim of this study is to understand barriers to engagement for first-year computing students, a cohort that traditionally have high non-progression rates. A qualitative descriptive design was…

University orientation plays a crucial role in fostering student engagement, social integration, and retention. This practice report describes the development and refinement of a game-based orientation activity: a digital scavenger hunt designed to enhance engagement, social connectedness, and campus familiarisation. The activity was guided by the…

This study demonstrates how to evaluate a university-wide online course designed to support student transition into university by using Propensity Score Matching (PSM) and Doubly Robust Estimation (DRE). Using data from seven academic years, from 2016/17 to 2022/23, with more than 28,000 students, we examine whether enrolment in this optional…

When students enter university, they become increasingly accountable for their own learning. Feedback and self-reflection processes are an important part of this. Therefore, the primary aim of this mixed methods study is to contribute to the understanding of how feedback literacy and self-reflection can be measured, interact, and support each…

There is an ongoing debate that first-year assessment does not prepare students to deal successfully with future writing tasks. This paper suggests that one of the reasons might be a narrow focus on assessment strategies and interventions that meet immediate learning goals to help reduce assessment shock. It is suggested that designing scaffolded…

This research aims to analyze the experiences of first-year students during their process of adaptation to university. Ten participants were interviewed at two points in time: (1) during the transition from high school (grade 12) to university, and (2) at the end of their undergraduate studies. A phenomenological qualitative analysis of interviews…

Academic cheating is a pervasive issue in tertiary education, with implications for the competency of university graduates and their future ethical workplace behavior. Past research indicates that understanding academic cheating according to its different levels of severity allows for a more nuanced understanding of its aetiological factors, and…

The research examines the effectiveness of channels for promoting educational services in the tasks of preparing personnel for the communication industry. The high level of professional requirements for graduates of relevant specialties dictates the need to enhance the attractiveness of these educational programs, enabling a more rigorous…

Engaging first-year students from the first moment of arrival is crucial to support their transition to higher education and facilitate their learning experiences and learning outcomes. Orientation activities offer first-year students important transitional support during their first period at higher education. As students sometimes consider…

This study examined the impact of Augmented Reality (AR) technology on learning achievement among first-year university students in safety education contexts within a Chinese higher education setting. The research employed a one-group pretest-posttest pre-experimental design involving 30 first-year university students during the first semester of…

For almost 40 years, our university's first year writing program has included a shared outcome: "Students will appreciate the capacity of writing to change oneself and the world." This outcome, unlike our more typical composition goals concerning writing processes, rhetorical acumen, and critical research abilities, had never been…

This qualitative multiple-case study examined the experiences of exploratory students and the support provided by university resources and academic advising throughout their transition and major exploration. Data collection consisted of semi-structured interviews with the five exploratory students who entered the university in the Fall of 2021.…

While women entering medical school are faced with a patriarchal system, they also enter into a community with other women and the potential for "resistance." The purpose of this study is to use the theory of temporal agency to explore how first-year medical students who identify as women draw upon past, future, and present agency to…