First-year experience: building a learning community

The following article is a preview from the New Student Orientation Issue that will hit the stands this summer

BAISHA KREUZER
THE SIGNAL

The transition to a university can be a little overwhelming. Back in high school, seeing familiar faces in class was the norm; but in college, students can start every semester without recognizing a single person in their classes.

As part of the UHCL core curriculum, freshmen will be required to take a course to assist in the development of college-level skills and competencies. Not only will this class help students directly apply the skills they learn to their studies, but it will also help connect you with your peer classmates.

“[The course is] a one-hour credit class that will meet for two hours per week” said Yvette Bendeck, associate vice president of enrollment management.

The first-year experience course will be linked with a core curriculum course that all freshmen are required to take.

“We are using political science and history for these courses,” said Rick Short, dean of Human Sciences and Humanities. “For example, incoming freshmen will enroll in a required introductory political science course. The first-year experience course will be attached to that course, so that these students will automatically sign up for a section of that course as well. They will complete both courses in the same semester.”

The purpose of UHCL’s first-year experience course is to teach students how to apply basic college survival and study skills learned in the course to a core curriculum class, creating a direct transfer of these skills to an actual college course. By drawing a direct connection to a content course, such as political science and history, to the first-year experience course, instructors can coordinate assignments and expectations so that students can actually apply what they learn in class.

“Once [the freshmen] master the skills, they will be able to apply them to all of their college courses…also students in the first-year experience course will have additional support in that class to help them through any hard spots in the content course,” Short said.

Short also points out that similar courses at other universities traditionally focus on basic survival skills for completing college, such as study skills or using the library or time management.

“The problem with the traditional approach is that often there’s not much direct transfer of these skills to actual college courses,” Short said. “It has been typical that students might learn something like study skills that never get applied to their courses.”

Short believes UHCL’s new and direct approach to the first-year experience will teach students how to properly develop the skills they need to be successful,” Short said.

“The transition from high school to college sometimes is challenging.”

“Expectations for the two levels are very different. The first-year experience provides important support in making the transition – support that is immediately available and applicable in a real content class. Skills developed in the class are all about being successful in school all the way to graduation.”