The First Year Experience: Where We Are July-August 2007
Draft 10/4/07
Dimensions and Indicators[1] / Programs, policies and procedures, activities / Data and documentation: Existing and coming1. Philosophy
1. Campus FY philosophy
2. Influence on campus policy and practice?
3. Disseminated and funded? / 1. Commitment to student learning and retention is in Strategic Plan: Goal 3, Build a learning environment that facilitates student development and success.
We will design our services so that all our studentsmay take maximum advantage of a learning environment truly conducive to educational effectiveness
Objective: Facilitating student success
Indicator: Increase Freshman to sophomore retention rate
2. No campus-widespecifically FY philosophy, no unit responsible for FY coordination, nothing to disseminate or to fund at campus level.
GE goals statement, restriction of GE courses to lower-division, Eng 100 policy on completion in FY (24 cr)
[Used to be a FY coordinator and Univ 101 involved faculty; no longer funded]
Individual OSA units may have a philosophy. E.g, Univ 101 group has a well-articulated statement.
VC-SA is compiling vision and goals statements from all SA units. (Not complete as of 9/28/07)
3. Not presently a specific focus of academic units.
Other: Orientation funding is fee-based $55/student and $25/parents. Advising is part of orientation but students may get advising w/out orientation and w/out fee. There used to be a $50 fee for faculty to participate in summer advising sessions. / Univ 101 program description/goals
Other units’ mission statements/goals?
Student Success Committee April 06 report
Available data: outcomes of 101: students who took 101 and track their GPAs and persistence; characteristics of students (freshman, senior?); compare 101 grade distribution with those of other FY courses [Brendan has a report already]
Entering student survey to all new students: exists and can be revised to include needs assessment; involve all entering students
New: How to make the survey compulsory to everyone; Under discussion: Follow-up survey: needs assessment,
How many complete Eng 100 in first year? Math requirement?
FY average credit hours? Completing Gen Ed?
2. Organization[2]
1. Existing organizational structure(s) and evaluation; a steering committee
2. Funding
3. Integrated approach
4. Faculty/staff development / 1. No organizational structure, steering committee, or coordinator; evaluation of own services by individual units?
2. Funding for individual programs through OSA, federal agencies; courses are covered by Academic Affairs (Eng 100, Math Lab, Writing Center]
3. Not integrated outside of OSA, perhaps not as integrated within OSA as it could be.
4. None specifically for FY, but other faculty development opportunities address issues of importance to FY: workshops on improving writing instruction, including Freshman Comp; Offices of VC Academic Affairs and Student Affairs funded a dozen participants in the 20th International Conference on the First-year experience , July 9 – 12, 2007; Office of Academic Affairs and Kīpuka funded two participants in the National College Learning Center Association’s conference “Learning Centers by Design” September 2007; annual new faculty orientation includes sessions on student learning and Student Affairs’ support, not specify FY / 1. List of units involved in FY activities, program descriptions/missions/goals. Orientation is starting an evaluation process: student/parent satisfaction. [Banner entries on who went to Orientation, then track those who did not and who did; student attribute list goes from Brendan to KENNY]
2. MELLON: survey of OSA and other student-centered grants
3. Learning
1. Articulated and assessed FY learning goals
2. Effective pedagogies in high-risk gateway courses
3. Measures of out-of-class learning
4. Appropriate course placement
5. Developmental support / Colleges, VCAA; STEM Keaholoa, Kīpuka,
1. Univ 101 course objectives are formulated and reviewed by instructors
Regular review of English 100 goals, norming exercises among instructors.
Gear Up project sessions involving Hilo and Waiakea High School English teachers, Community College, and UH Hilo writing instructors in the articulation, alignment and sequencing of learning goals from High School English through Freshman Composition; a common rubric was designed and will be tested and evaluated this AY.
2. STEM-funded peer tutoring, data for DFW STEM courses; we do not know what is going on in most 100-level courses
3. Service learning included in some Univ 101 sections; on-campus employment in academic settings. Calculus for Physics majors.
4. Writing Placement Exam, English Proficiency Test, Math Placement Test, Chemistry Placement Test, Computer Skills Exam (CoBE). Math follow up study indicated that while placement testing appears to improve student performance in Math 103, it does not appear to improve student performance in 104 or 205.
5. Courses: Math 103, Eng 100T, cooperation with HawCC for pre-Eng 100 and mixed in Math
Tutoring and academic guidance: STEM-Keaholoa peer tutoring program, Kīpuka,MAAP, PALS, SSSP, Athletics: tracking;
Writing Center, Math Lab: some tracking / NSSE freshman data on academic challenge and other academic issues.
Data on student success, retention, etc.
Student Success Committee April 06 report
Set as benchmark? Percentage of freshmen in good standing at end of freshman year (cum GPA of 2.0)
Set as benchmark? Percentage of freshmen undeclared in first semester that have declared by end of first year.
First-year transfers also need our attention; they are harder to track than “first year fulltime freshmen.”
1. Data on Univ 101 and retention/success [see section “philosophy”]
2. STEM data on gateway courses
3.
4. Some placement data available—placement scores and coursework avail on Banner
5. Developmental course data? what is available?
4. Transitions [into college]
1. Articulating expectations about performance, conduct
2. Communication about and among support networks
3. Helping students establish connections
4. Academic advising / MAAP, PALS, Gear-Up, Upward Bound, Early Admissions, STEM Keaholoa Summer Bridge Program, Foundations of Excellence, American Diploma Project, Advising Center, Orientation, Admissions, Housing Office
1. Student orientation includes statement of expectations; recruiting trips and visits by AcadAdv and Admissions Offices; some syllabi
2. Student orientation, Housing Office, Student Life?, Women’s Center; STEM; campus-wide tutoring network to be developed this year (as encouraged by Learning Centers By Design conference)
3. UHAnnounce to student hawaii.edu accounts, International Student mail-fowarding; departmental activities for majors (Math, CS, Psy, Marine Science, others?); on-campus employment in academic settings; STEM; Student Association and student organizations (Student Life), Kipuka, Housing Office, Women’s Center; Fall 06 Housing learning community pilot; 2007 new student orientation included networking sessions for transfer students, non-trraditional and returning students, and commuter students.
4. Academic advising center (academic year, summers, off-island advising) / Admissions data, retention to second year and beyond
Student Success Committee April 06 report
1. Data on orientation? Follow-up?
2. Housing information?
3. Documenting dept. and other activities?
STEM has some data
4. How/what is AdvCtr tracking?
5. Faculty/Campus Culture
1. Institution involves faculty and staff in FY
2. FY expectations are explicit at point of hire
3. Rewards for FY involvement / 1. Just beginning: FYE 2007 conferences, FYE project;Congress Admissions Committee (While there was a Congress Student Success Committee in 2006, which combined the former Congress Admissions and Retention Committees, it was not renewed in 2007; when the Admissions Committee was broken out of the Student Success Committee and reformed for 2007-2008, the Retention Committee was not reformed.
2. Faculty job descriptions mention teaching and advising but not FY; ? recent hires in Math, Chemistry are specifically pedagogy -focused? RANDY?
3. None at present / 1. [report on participation, follow-up]
2. job descriptions, hiring facts
3.
6. All Students
1. Understand and meet needs of special groups of FY students
2. Understanding and meeting needs of all FY students / Policies for withdrawal, complete withdrawal, probation, dismissal, readmission, follow-up; Counseling outreach for students on probation;
1. Univ 101 and ongoing programs of support for special needs: OSA
2. Orientation and Advising Center; Writing Center, Math Lab / Data on h.s. performance, admissions, retention, tracking students thru career
1. Univ 101 variant syllabi
2. AdvCtr materials, WC and Math Lab usage data
7. Diversity
1. Support students’ exposure to diverse ideas
2. Support students’ interaction with diverse people
3. Institution conveys standards for behavior in a civil and open environment / Women’s Center, Student Life
1. Title III project to train specific faculty to integrate native Hawaiian values into teaching and course content; GE world cultures requirement; H/A/P requirement
Chancellor’s Committee on Diversifying the Faculty formed 2007
2. Sociocultural makeup of student body, staff, and to some extent faculty makes this inevitable
3. UH system and UH Hilo nonviolence in the workplace policy
2007 Joint Academic Affairs and Student Affairs workshop to help faculty work with disruptive and/or distressed students
4. / Student diversity data, course inventory, syllabus survey?
1.
2.
3.
8. Roles and Purposes
1. Communicate the institution’s sense of educational purpose
2. Provide students the opportunity to explore their motivation for higher education
3. Communicate institution’s rationale for its requirements / University, program, dept. webpages; program goals and outcomes; syllabi
1. Student and faculty Orientation sessions
2. Univ 101, introductory courses, major advising (presumably), major capstone and seminar courses (offered in some majors)
3. Requirements are publicized, not justifications? [CHECK CATALOG]
9. Assessment and Improvement
1. Ongoing assessment of student learning and program performance in terms meaningful to institution
2. Using assessment practices and results for improvement
3. Adopt other strategies for assessment/improvement / 1. ETS MFT administered by CS, CoBE; Political Science, Physics, Psychology; other funded assessment projects (2006-200&) completed by CoBE, English, Math, Nursing ; pass rates on NCLEX recorded by Nursing; natural science seminar presentations; tracking of number of users by Math Lab and Writing Center; tracking of student performance in peer-tutored high-risk science/math courses by STEM Keaholoa
2.Analysis and application of results to program improvement: Departments whose projects were funded with VCAA assessment support funds were required to include in their completion reports information as to how the results would be used for program improvement. Not all departments complied.
Contract renewal requires responses to student evals
Univ 101 seminar series are reviewed by students and this may lead to modifications.
The Writing Intensive committee has engaged the services of a consultant to develop effective assessment strategies / Banner entries on who went to Orientation, then track those who did not and who did; student attribute list goes from Brendan to KENNY; BRENDAN will check on adding code for this; AALA will find student to enter];
New initiative: establish ID swiping for all services in order to document usage, participation
[1] Upcraft, M.L., Gardner, J.N. & Barefoot, B.O. (2005). Challenging and supporting the first-year student: A handbook for improving the first year of college. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass. Nine dimensions and indicators presented by John Gardner at pre-conference workshop, International Conference on The First-Year Experience, July 9, 2007.
[2] Includes all programs that serve freshmen; may include programs that serve other students as well, e.g., Math Lab