First-year seminar

What is being proposed? Required First-Year Seminar course One semester, three credits Within first 30 credits (could include summer) Part of GE requirements Small sections (approx. 30), face-to-face or hybrid Base curriculum and objectives, individualized by faculty and students within a particular FYS course Faculty will need to go through some sort of training on the base curriculum, objectives, and pedagogical practices

Why a Required FYS Positive impact on: retention, GPA, number of credit hours attempted and completed, graduation rates, student involvement in campus activities, student attitudes and perceptions of higher ed, faculty development and methods of instruction Best documented outcome of FYS is a positive effect on student retention, particularly in the first year FYS focuses on the development of student-success strategies and skills that have lifelong value Lots of scholarship and data about FYS courses—we won’t have to start from scratch Meets USHE requirement of having a HIP within first 30 hours

Recommended Format 3 credits, taken within first 30 credits, small sections (30 students per section) Face-to-face or hybrid—the point is to connect to campus Concurrent enrollment students would still have to take FYS if/when they enroll at UVU full time Within GE: FYS is congruent with goals of liberal arts education and GE Sends a message that FYS is central to undergraduate experience Can emphasize the message we want to deliver about GE Any transfer students who have earned their GE credit elsewhere will not have to take the FYS course

curriculum Research advocates holistic, college transition FYS focused on academic and non-academic topics Intellectual, spiritual, emotional, occupational, physical, social Don’t have to go deep into each of these areas to acknowledge the whole student Whole-person, learner-centered, skills-oriented focus Academic content focus determined by faculty and includes: Inquiry, reflection, critical thinking, problem solving, written and oral communication, technological literacy, information literacy Invite students into the intellectual life of the academy, share the “hidden curriculum” Lifelong learning, intellectual curiosity Aligned with USHE outcomes Peer mentors could be involved, too Vibrant and engaging

Faculty Contract faculty who can invest mentoring time outside the classroom Highly-invested faculty excited to teach the course Use a base curriculum then make it their own, based on their disciplinary expertise Some kind of certification or training regarding base curriculum and recommended pedagogical approaches

Administration Needs to be a shared philosophy about FYS Academic Affairs and Student Affairs will need to be on board together—Vice Presidents and President There will need to be a mandate from upper administration—Presidential level Upper administration will need to fully buy in to FYS because it will require a lot of resources and restructuring Must have an academic home

Potential side effects If part of GE, and we don’t want to add any more required credits, existing structure will need to be examined because we don’t want to add additional GE credit requirements. Online delivery is not optimal, but will probably be necessary. Therefore, there will need to be additional curricular development to ensure online sections are still effective. Departments less able to fill their own courses with full-time faculty. Will fewer students take SLSS 1000? Student schedules will still dominate their choices, which could limit the benefits of their own interest-based inquiry within FYS. Could also be positive—exposure to disciplinary focuses. Will need to work with orientation to make both more effective and help relieve pressure for orientation to cover everything.

Questions and issues Staffing and space for approximately 200 sections (entire academic year), based on estimate of 6,000 new first year students. How to motivate or incentivize faculty? Compensation and reassigned time. Encourage students to take prior to their first fall semester? Interdisciplinarity is important—how do we manage this? Sections scheduled at the same time, faculty could rotate between them. Requires extra coordination time and resources. Who determines the content focus? Individual faculty? How will students be privy to this content focus when registering for course? What role will students have in determining content? Research recommends FYS having an academic home—SLSS are the campus experts, but faculty from across campus designing curriculum and teaching? Integration of shared reading? Just implement for everyone at once or pilot? If pilot, which students participate in the pilot?