First year student experience

The application was made on behalf of the undergraduate courses team who sought to enhance the first year experience by engaging students in the practice of business. The intention was to develop and signpost enterprising qualities and characteristics in first year learners and develop confidence as well as competence. The undergraduate review for FBL commenced in September 2009. This offered an opportunity to innovate and build good practice in enterprise learning as a pilot to inform the undergraduate review. The team sought to provide a coherent and relevant set of learning experiences that could be achieved outside structured curriculum that would enable learning through live projects

Now what? First year student teachers' reflective journal writing.

With the increasing focus for New Zealand teachers on reflective practice, initial teacher educators must take increasing responsibility in scaffolding students' critical writing, developing reflection skills for working in schools, the teacher registration process and ongoing professional learning. This article reports a study of journal writing practices of a sample of student teachers in their first year of an undergraduate degree at the University of Waikato. Of particular interest in the findings are the sophistication of the students' writing, choice of topic for each entry and the impact of feedback and support provided

First year student expectations: Results from a university-wide student survey

Although much has been written on the first-year experience of students at higher education institutions, less attention has been directed to the expectations of students when they enter an institution for the first time. This paper provides additional insights into the expectations of students at an Australian university and highlights areas in which students’ expectations may not necessarily align with the realities of common university practices. By providing opportunities for students to articulate their expectations, staff are able to use the responses for a constructive dialogue and work towards a more positive alignment between perceived expectations and levels of student satisfaction with their experience.Geoffrey Crisp, Edward Palmer, Deborah Turnbull, Ted Nettelbeck, Lynn Ward, Amanda LeCouteur, Aspa Sarris, Peter Strelan, and Luke Schneide

First-Year Student Success Initiative Video

Student success is central to UMaine’s mission, values, reputation and fiscal health. The first year of a student’s academic experience has a particularly significant impact on their academic success or failure. A variety of factors contribute to students’ success (or failure) in their first year. In 2018-2019, the Divisions of Academic Affairs and Student Life are collaborating on the development of a plan to optimize the first-year student experience. The goal is to help students form a solid foundation for initial and continued success

Faculty Forum- First-year Student Success

The first year of a student’s academic experience sets the tone for their academic success or failure. Every year from 20% to 25% of first-year students do not return to UMaine for a second year of study. There are a variety of factors that contribute to students’ success (or failure) in their first year. In 2018-19, the Divisions of Academic Affairs and Student Life will collaborate to develop a plan to improve first-year students’ experience so that more students build a strong foundation for continued success. At this Faculty Forum, Provost Hecker will share data and analyses that shed some light on factors associated with student success and failure. He will present a draft proposal for how the administrators, faculty, and staff can work together to address first year student success. All UMaine community members are encouraged to attend. For those unable to attend, a video of the Forum and an opportunity to provide feedback will be available through this webpage after the Forum

First-Year Student Success Initiative webpage

Student success is central to UMaine\u27s mission, values, reputation and fiscal health. The first year of a student\u27s academic experience has a particularly significant impact on their academic success or failure. A variety of factors contribute to students\u27 success (or failure) in their first year. Throughout the 2018-2019 academic year the Divisions of Academic Affairs and Student Life collaborated on the development of plans to optimize the first-year student experience. On September 27, 2018, Provost Hecker led an Academic Affairs Faculty Forum at which he shared background data and analyses related to student success and failure as well as a proposal for how UMaine administrators, faculty, and staff can work together to create a comprehensive first year student success plan. On May 15, 2019, key findings and recommendations from teams assigned to work on various aspects of the plan were shared at a Faculty Forum. This webpage capture shows how information about the Student Success Initiative was disseminated to the University community and public at-large

Faculty Forum : First-Year Student Success

The first year of a student’s academic experience sets the tone for their academic success or failure. Every year from 20% to 25% of first-year students do not return to UMaine for a second year of study. There are a variety of factors that contribute to students’ success (or failure) in their first year. In 2018-19, the Divisions of Academic Affairs and Student Life will collaborate to develop a plan to improve first-year students’ experience so that more students build a strong foundation for continued success. At this Faculty Forum, Provost Hecker shared data and analyses that shed light on some factors associated with student success and failure. He presented a draft proposal for how the administrators, faculty, and staff can work together to address first year student success. Click the Download button for an machine-generated, English language transcript of this video. A PDF copy of slides presented during this talk may be downloaded by clicking the supplemental files link

Collaborative practice in enhancing the first year student experience in higher education

Transition into higher education presents challenges for students, whatever their age or previous educational history. An emerging issue on an undergraduate programme in England was how to support students who self reported educational histories of continual formative feedback, model answers, revision guides and limited use of the library. This article reports findings from an action research project which considered whether there was a mismatch between students’ previous educational histories and the academic expectations of the university. Findings indicated that academic expectations did not fully take account of previous student experiences. Student responses also indicated little previous guidance around effective internet searching and libraries were rarely used prior to starting university. Transitional scaffolding was positively evaluated, students reporting greater confidence levels in accessing appropriate resources, high levels of student completion, retention and satisfactio