Worldbuilding, Gaming, and Multiliteracies in an Online First-Year Seminar

This chapter provides a case study of the use of worldbuilding for role-playing games as the foundation for a first year multiliteracies seminar. The author provides an overview of teaching and learning during the pandemic in the Irish context. The chapter provides practical advice on using a MediaWiki installation as the infrastructure for worldbuilding projects. The author shows how this imparts important digital literacies and allows for a critical apprehension of Wikipedia itself. The author argues that online learning and professional development benefit from a multiliteracies approach and, furthermore, that worldbuilding is a useful strategy for overcoming the limitations of online learning while at the same time achieving rigorous learning outcomes.

Motivations for Continued Use of Critical Thinking Skills among First-Year Seminar Graduates

Many first-year seminar courses, as well as other programs aimed at first-year undergraduate students, actively incorporate critical thinking into the curriculum. What factors motivate students who purposefully develop these critical thinking skills to continue using them during subsequent semesters? This article discusses results of a study on this topic. Twenty-four students participated in a study approximately one semester after completing a first-year seminar at their university. The study uses mixed methods to (a) discuss students’ self-reported responses regarding nine potential motivating factors for continuing use of critical thinking skills, (b) examine correlations with critical thinking performance on a writing sample, and (c) briefly compare students’ self-reported motivating factors for continued use of critical thinking skills with parallel self-reported motivating factors for continued use of information literacy skills. The article ends with recommendations for applying the findings in the undergraduate classroom.

A Quasiexperimental Analysis of First-Year Seminar Outcomes at a Large University

First-year seminars (FYS) comprise one of 11 researched interventions in postsecondary education known as High-Impact Practices, but few rigorous studies report significantly high impacts. This study examined a FYS employing propensity score matching to link cases and controls in a quasi-experimental design. One semester later cumulative grade point average (GPA), cumulative hours attempted, and 1-year later indicators (hours earned, hours attempted, and term GPA) were statistically different between the two groups. Three freshman survey items were also statistically significant and differences were observed within the same semester of the program. Quantitative differences did not appear immediately but appeared one term and 1 year later. Mean differences did not appear to diminish between groups over time. This analysis helps to fill a void in the paucity of studies clarifying the relationship between FYS participation and outcomes using comparison groups.

The Second-Year Retention Effect of Early Enrollment in a First-Year Seminar

Is early enrollment in a qualified first-year seminar (FYS) positively associated with second-year retention rates of new community college students? A large mid-Atlantic community college (MAC) believes that it is, and this belief is the basis for the hypothesis being tested in this research. Beginning in 2010, new first-time college and degree-seeking students were required to enroll in the newly developed FYS course in the first semester of attendance. Students who complied with this policy over the years 2010-2013 were matched on an array of observable and unobservable variables with similar students from the prior years 2006-2009 using the propensity-score matching (PSM) method. Using a logistic regression model, it was estimated that average treatment effect was a statistically significant positive impact of a 6.07 percentage-point increase in the likelihood of being retained into the second year. This result is in line with a common, but not universal, belief in the theory and other research that suggests that enrollment in a FYS would have such an effect. Although there are clear limitations to this result, the implications are positive for the community college that adopted this new policy and for the students it serves.

The Effect of First-Year Seminar Classroom Design on Social Integration and Retention of STEM First-Time, Full-Time College Freshmen

Classroom design is related to student satisfaction and learning, but its effect on student retention is unknown. This exploratory study compared the impact of classroom design on social integration and retention among STEM first-time, full-time college freshmen in a first-year seminar course by comparing classroom sizes (large (LL) vs. small (SL) lecture), classroom formats (lecture (SL) vs. flipped classroom (FC)), and classroom student composition of students at risk of attrition based on low math placement scores (combined low math (CLM) vs. separated low math (SLM)). To capture social integration of freshman after their first semester, students completed a survey for course credit. Retention rates of freshman returning to the university for their second year were included. Almost all students in all classrooms had made friends in college; most had made friends with peers in the course and were spending time with them outside of class. Compared with LL students, SL reported lower satisfaction with their overall social life. More FC students were satisfied with their social life, and fewer found making friends to be harder than expected. These findings showed even greater disparities between groups for at-risk students. SLM students exhibited lower social integration than CLM students. The CLM flipped classroom retained the highest percentage of students at the university into the second year. Findings from the present study suggest that integrating at-risk students into a first-year seminar flipped classroom that matches student composition of the major benefits social integration and retention into the second year, for all students as well as those with low math scores.

Moving from consciousness

This past fall semester, I had the idea to lead a small group of graduate students in offering a First Year seminar for new computer science and informatics majors that focuses on ethics. Feeling clever, I themed our sections: "What makes a 'good' computer scientist?" Together, my students and I taught nine sections under this label. It was a learning experience teaching this one-credit course alongside this brilliant group of MS and PhD students, two of whom had been in my undergrad courses previously. We learned very quickly that right now, in our large public university, in our fairly well-funded state, that our first-year students' primary concern was finding a good job. Many selected our seminar because they thought it was going to be about how to make them the best - how to set themselves up to have the best chance at economic success after college. While we were initially surprised at how these first-year students defined our seminar topic title, it makes sense that they would see being 'good' as being best evidenced by achieving financial success.