You may be surprised to learn the origins of the humble freshman seminar or first year 
experience course: they were created by the University of South Carolina as a means of addressing student unrest after campus riots in May of 1970. The university president, Thomas Jones, established a course called “University 101” to integrate new students (especially those not coming from backgrounds which traditionally sent students to college) into the university system, and to radically change how undergraduate students were taught, a course which began in 1972. The program was so successful that in ten years the university was hosting an education industry conference on how to hold such a program. Over time, First-Year Experience courses became more commonplace in US universities as a means—demonstrated by statistics—of improving student retention rates, student success, and student well-being.
As these courses became commonplace, they diversified into many different forms, some more useful to students than others. A brief survey of college students and recent graduates on their first-year experience or freshman seminar, and you’ll find a host of complaints, mostly that these courses were irrelevant, unhelpful, or problematic. Oftentimes these programs do not offer guidance on selecting classes, completing work on time, or any other difficulties of beginning a college career, but instead seek to unite students based on common interests so that they can understand the community around the college or make friends. Of course, students form cliques well enough on their own, and any program which does not actually address shortcomings in student preparation for college-level work risks becoming three credit hours of burden to its students. Many a college freshman has wound up failing an FYE course because they did not complete the final paper or project due to having weightier projects in other courses that they were having trouble finishing or coping with—exactly the kind of situation these programs were designed to counteract.
In light of these issues, many have been calling for years for an end to such courses. But no set of college courses has ever been evaluated more thoroughly or stringently. From their beginnings as an unusual step in reconciling student-administration conflicts, first-year experience courses have been reviewed and critiqued, and the rates of retention, overall GPAs, and many other metrics relevant to student success have been followed for the over four decades these courses have been offered. So, what do the metrics say?
Researchers have found a statistically significant increase in retention and GPAs for students attending FYEs, but these come with a caveat: there are reasons for why a freshman seminar will benefit students (and these are not unknown, nor are all of them mysterious: for one thing, if you make your “University 101” class actually about how to study at a university, so much the better.) Especially key is addressing students’ needs in a comprehensive way, from considering emotional and psychosocial needs of students to teaching them how to handle midterms just before their midterms arrive. Even though this is approach is described as being “student-centered,” it requires what is very much an academically rigorous approach that can be documented over time as enhancing student success and providing value to the university. The key is first asking, “Why?”
What is the point of your First Year Experience course? Why does it exist? And what should it do?
In order to answer these questions, join expert speaker Joe Cuseo for his webinar, “3 Key Elements of an Effective First-Year Experience Course: Design, Delivery & Assessment.” From a research-backed viewpoint, learn a framework for building a successful FYE course that focuses on content, student experiences, and useful metrics. Learn how to create a gateway experience to help students transition to college, and to promote their persistence through college. Plus, a Q & A session will allow you to sort out your best answer to that “Why.”
