The Valparaiso University Department of Biology is responding to a change in student needs post-COVID by implementing a seminar for all first-year students. The first-year seminar (BIO 101) was taught for the first time in the Fall semester of 2023. This course is designed to integrate new biology students into the Biology Department. It is the…

High dropout rates in the first year of undergraduate studies are an expression of the secondary-tertiary transition problem and they seem to be particularly high in those degree programs where specialized mathematics courses are taught in the first year of study. Research shows that students' difficulties during the transition period cannot be…

Oral communication and presentation skills are considered key competencies for many academic fields and professions, including science-related ones. Therefore, it is vital that students are given sufficient class time in the curriculum for practicing public speaking. It is well documented in the literature that video technology can be of valuable…

This study quantitatively examines how students' cocurricular involvement in their first year of college relates to their pre-college attributes and perceptions of the role of cocurricular involvement on employability. We situate this study in Astin's (1984) theory of student involvement, Ajzen and Fishbein's (1980) theory of reasoned action, and…

This study aims is to examine the degree of satisfaction among students in the preparatory year at the Prince Sattam Bin Abdul Aziz University (PSAU) and Imam Abdul Rahman Bin Faisal University (IAU) regarding the virtual lessons and educational platforms during the 2019 coronavirus pandemic. It focused on the educational services provided through…

This qualitative case study analyzed how first year university mathematics students used words, images, and symbols to convey the same mathematical ideas. The study was located within the interpretivist paradigm and took naturalistic methodology. Twenty-six first year students were purposefully selected to participate in the study. Data was…

Purpose: This paper aims to evaluate the awareness level of university students on energy conservation by focusing on their knowledge, attitude and practice. Energy awareness is a feasible energy conservation measure, but an inappropriate approach can cause the wastage of resources. The current number of reported awareness studies especially among…

First year undergraduate students go through a critical stage of their education; a challenging transition which makes them feel more independent and free to decide not to attend classes, although attendance is compulsory. Whether this absenteeism has any impact on their academic accomplishments remains a controversial topic. Furthermore, the…

Multimedia instructional materials are indispensable in the holistic process of instructional design, particularly for asynchronous online courses. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the impacts of background classical music played in an instructional video on learners' retention. The video started with a pretraining message…

Past studies have found that university students' well-being is relatively low, and that first-year students are specifically vulnerable. This issue has drawn particular attention during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study examines the effect of COVID-19 on the well-being, academic confidence, feeling of informedness, and self-efficacy of first-year…

Learning to read primary scientific literature (PSL) is an important part of developing scientific literacy skills. First-year students entering college often have little previous exposure to PSL and therefore face initial barriers in learning how to engage with PSL. Annotations have been shown to be a useful tool in undergraduate education and…

Peer victimisation during school years has been found to significantly shape the way students perceive themselves and how they enter into relationships with peers, thus impacting students' current and long-term wellbeing. However, victimisation has seldom been examined in university students. The present study aimed to investigate students'…

This paper explores an inter-learning teaching method designed and utilized by the authors in the Winter 2021 term for first- and upper-year therapeutic recreation (TR) students in an online platform. This collaborative teaching method sought to make intentional space for upper-year students to take the lead on and facilitate seminars for…

In 2010 a mathematics curriculum was introduced in Irish second level schools entitled 'Project Maths' (PM). It aimed to refocus second level mathematics teaching and learning away from an over emphasis on procedural mathematics towards problem solving and real understanding [Department of Education and Skills (DES). (2010). "Report of the…

Student expectations are complex constructs that can influence adaptability, engagement, achievement, satisfaction and retention. A number of individual studies have been published on the expectations of students when starting university, however none that synthesise student expectations of teaching and learning. Therefore, the aim of this…