scholarly journals A Comparison of the Effectiveness of Presentation Formats for Instruction: Teaching First-Year Students

2000 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol Anne Germain ◽  
Trudi E. Jacobson ◽  
Sue A. Kaczor

First-year experience (FYE) programs offer librarians opportunities to teach new students in a comprehensive fashion. However, large FYE programs can place demands on user education programs that are difficult to meet. Instruction librarians at the University at Albany sought to address this dilemma by developing a Web-based instructional module for one class session. The module was used by a segment of students in the Project Renaissance FYE program, whereas another segment received instruction by a librarian. The effectiveness of the two instructional methods was compared using pre- and post-tests, and was found to be equal. Analysis of the test scores also showed that instruction, regardless of format, makes a significant difference (p < .05) in the number of correct test answers.

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 128
Author(s):  
Michael Christie ◽  
Sorrel Penn-Edwards ◽  
Sharn Donnison ◽  
Ruth Greenaway

Literature on the support of the First Year Experience (FYE) in institutions of Higher Education provides a range of modelled approaches. However, we argue that institutions still need to selectively plan which approach/es and attendant strategies are best suited to their particular contexts and institutional policy and practice frameworks and how their FYE is to be presented for their particular student cohort. This paper compares different ways of supporting students in their first year in two contrasting universities. The first case study focuses on a first year course at Stockholm University (SU), Sweden, a large, metropolitan, single campus institution, while the second investigates a strategy for supporting first year students using a community of practice at a satellite campus of the University of the Sunshine Coast (USC), a small regional university in South-East Queensland, Australia. The research contrasts a formal, first generation support approach versus a fourth generation support approach which seeks to involve a wider range of stakeholders in supporting first year students. The research findings draw conclusions about how effective the interventions were for the students and provide clear illustrations that selective planning in considering the institution’s strategic priorities and human, physical, and resource contexts was instrumental in providing a distinctive experience which complemented the institute and the student cohort. (212 words)


2009 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adele Baruch-Runyon ◽  
Zark VanZandt ◽  
S. Auguste Elliott

We studied first-year students through an integrated group workshop and longitudinal interviews that focused on students' transitional experience at the university as well as the strategies they developed to adjust to university life. Four themes emerged: the challenges of forming connections to other students with similar interests during the first few weeks on campus, the need to balance competing demands, varied experiences of connection with faculty and staff, and the need for translation of university life for minority students. To address the issues and concerns that emerged from our findings, we offer a number of advisory recommendations and programmatic initiatives. Relative Emphasis: research, practice, theory


Author(s):  
Noemí Merayo Álvarez ◽  
Inés Ruiz-Requies ◽  
Nicole Ávalos Díaz

RESUMENLas necesidades detectadas en los estudiantes de nuevo ingreso de las Escuelas Técnicas Superiores de Ingenieros de Telecomunicación han llevado a plantear iniciativas de mentoría formal en sus grados. Estas carencias están relacionadas con una escasa orientación previa a la Universidad, gran heterogeneidad del alumnado, alto índice de fracaso académico en el primer curso y falta de información acerca de la inserción laboral. Este artículo pretende dar a conocer el programa MENTUm cuya finalidad es que estudiantes de últimos cursos ofrezcan apoyo e incentiven el aprendizaje e integración de estudiantes de primero con el objetivo de detectar las dificultades personales y académicas que presentan y desarrollar competencias instrumentales. La metodología de investigación empleada consiste en un Estudio de Caso desde un enfoque mixto, empleando técnicas tanto cuantitativas como cualitativas con la finalidad de alcanzar la mayor comprensión del programa en una de sus cuatro dimensiones: dar respuesta a las necesidades del alumnado de nuevo ingreso. Para la recogida de información, se han empleado tres técnicas de recogida de datos: cuestionarios, observaciones y entrevistas. Los resultados muestran que las dificultades personales tienen que ver con la falta de concentración, planificación y organización del tiempo, mientras que las dificultades académicas tienen que ver más con la falta de conocimientos previos ante los contenidos de las asignaturas. Como conclusiones hemos constatado que los estudiantes son conscientes desde su ingreso a la Universidad de la importancia de desarrollar competencias instrumentales de aprendizaje autónomo y planificación a medida que transcurre el año académico.ABSTRACT The needs detected in the new students of the Higher Technical Schools of Telecommunication Engineers have led to propose initiatives of formal mentoring in their grades. These shortcomings are related to a poor orientation prior to the University, great heterogeneity of the students, high rate of academic failure in the first year and lack of information about the labor insertion. This article describes the MENTUm program, whose purpose is for senior students to support and encourage the learning and integration of first-year students with the aim of detecting the personal and academic difficulties they present and developing some instrumental skills. The research methodology used consists of a Case Study from a mixed approach, using both quantitative and qualitative techniques in order to achieve a greater understanding of the program in one of its four dimensions: respond to the needs of new students. For the collection of information, three data collection techniques have been used: questionnaires, observations and interviews. The results show that personal difficulties have to do with the lack of concentration, planning and organization of time, while academic difficulties have more to do with the lack of prior knowledge regarding the contents of the subjects. As conclusions, we have verified that the students are aware from their beginning at the University of the importance of developing instrumental skills of autonomous learning and planning as the academic year progresses.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-96
Author(s):  
Nayab Iqbal ◽  
Kaukab Abid Azhar

The research paper aims at studying the attitudes of the students of Islamic Learning and Education Faculty towards English Language at the University of Karachi. It is based on testing the hypothesis that the students of Islamic Learning Faculty have less positive attitudes towards English language as compared to the students of Education faculty through a survey on first year students of both the faculties. A five point Likert scale was used to conduct a survey on 151 students of the Islamic Learning faculty and 135 students of the Education faculty. The results were calculated using an independent t-test and standard deviation which reveals that there is a minor difference in the attitudes of the student of both the faculties. The students of the Education faculty show more positive attitudes when asked about the importance of English language as compared to the attitudes of the students of Islamic Learning Faculty. However, the difference in their attitude is negligible. As the results reveal minor association between the attitudes of the learners and their faculty therefore, the study proves the null hypothesis which says that there is no significant difference between the attitudes of the students of both the faculties.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-188
Author(s):  
Aulia Faqih Rifa'i ◽  
Sumarsono Sumarsono

As an impact of Covid-19, the learning methods is shifting from conventional into e-learning. Therefore, UIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta as an educational institution have to implement online lectures for all students. This event causes the first year students to not having the opportunity to understand how lectures work. On the other hand, lecturers and the university did not yet have a picture of the readiness of new students to study with e-learning method. For that case, the university needs to know if the students are ready to be doing e-learning lectures. This descriptive quantitive research uses a questionnaire and e-learning readiness factors by Chapnik [1] to see the readiness of new students. As a result, the score of new students e-learning readiness is 45.09. Thus, new students of UIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta are not ready enough for studying in e-learning methods. This research also provides suggestions about how e-learning methods should be done for the lecturers.


2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 455-470
Author(s):  
Matthew P. Schunke ◽  

This article argues that integrating philosophy courses and the first-year experience can address the problem of attracting students to the philosophy major and make philosophical material more accessible and engaging. Through a reflection on teaching a first-year honors seminar on the topic of meaning in life, I show how we can use the philosophical tradition to help students with the transition into the university environment and, in the process, give them a sense of the value of philosophy as a tool to think through and evaluate their current experiences. The article demonstrates the value of philosophy to first-year students and shows how philosophy faculty and departments are well-suited to contribute to first-year programming at their institutions. Furthermore, it shows how addressing these issues can help departments recruit students into their major and minors while also sparking a genuine interest in philosophical inquiry.


Author(s):  
Ruth Gannon Cook

This is a case study of a class of first year traditional college-age students enrolled in a class that assessed measures to orient new students and enlist them in becoming committed to completing their degrees. The motivation of the university that designed the course was two-fold: to help students develop good time management and study skills; and to nurture student loyalty to retain them through graduation at this university. The study followed a small class of 18-20 year old first year students through their first semester at a mid-sized western public university. The results of the study indicated that while many factors affect students’ attitudes and retention throughout their college years, simple measures of enlistment and peer-mentoring fared best to positively influence student attitudes and responses in the college-orientation class; and, peer involvement offered the most promise of future brand commitment to student retention at the university.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 116
Author(s):  
Maryam Alharthi

Transitioning from secondary to higher education is not a natural step for many first-year university students. Most female students who join Taibah University did not have the chance to visit the university and get to know the programs offered there before they applied. Therefore, the Childhood Studies Department within the College of Family Sciences has initiated the present program – My Uni-Buddy. The program was applied on a small scale to create connection between first-year students and their fellow students in the third year. The aim of the program is to support new students and help them adjust quickly to their new life. The study employs a qualitative approach in which interviews were carried out to collect the relevant data. The findings show that first-year students hughly benefited from the program in the academic and social aspects.


2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 638-664
Author(s):  
Pieter Blignaut ◽  
Engela Dednam ◽  
Tlholohelo Nkalai

Most of our first-year students were born after 1995 and belong to the generation of “digital natives”. They are perceived as being comfortable with technology and active on social media for a large part of every day. However, students at the University of the Free State (ufs) come from diverse backgrounds and the typical characteristicsof their contemporaries do not necessarily apply to them.Students completed questionnaires about their experience with and exposure to various software applications before commencement of the first computer literacy module at the mentioned institution. Students’ performance in three formal assessments during the semester were used as dependent variable to determine whether prior ownership and exposure to computers gave them an advantage over their peers who did not have access to computers.Students owning a computer or who had access to someone else’s computer performed significantly better than those without access to a computer. The Internet andmsWord were found to be among the most used applications prior to entering a university, and they also proved to be predictive of the performance of students in a computer literacy module throughout the semester. The amount of usage did, however,not make any significant difference with regard to the students’ performance.


Author(s):  
Ruth Gannon Cook

This is a case study of a class of first year traditional college-age students enrolled in a class that assessed measures to orient new students and enlist them in becoming committed to completing their degrees. The motivation of the university that designed the course was two-fold: to help students develop good time management and study skills; and to nurture student loyalty to retain them through graduation at this university. The study followed a small class of 18-20 year old first year students through their first semester at a mid-sized western public university. The results of the study indicated that while many factors affect students’ attitudes and retention throughout their college years, simple measures of enlistment and peer-mentoring fared best to positively influence student attitudes and responses in the college-orientation class; and, peer involvement offered the most promise of future brand commitment to student retention at the university.


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