First-year courses have been used to bolster college student success, but empirical evidence on their efficacy is mixed. We investigated whether a first-year science of learning course, focused on self-regulated learning, would benefit first-generation college students. We randomly assigned students to a treatment condition involving enrollment in the course, a comparison condition in which students had access to online course materials only, or a control condition. From this larger study, we recruited 43 students to participate in a laboratory task involving learning about the circulatory system with a computer. We found that treatment and comparison students experienced greater changes in conceptual knowledge than the control group, and we found differences in the enactment of monitoring and strategy use across conditions.
Self-Regulated Learning and Ethnic/Racial Variables: Predicting Minority First-Generation College Students' Persistence
