DRHEA Teaching fellows 2012
“What Makes the Best First Year Learning Experience?”
DRHEA
• Dublin Regional Higher Education Alliance
DIT
IADT
DCU
NUI Maynooth
IT Blanchardstown
TCD
IT Tallaght
UCD
DRHEA Fellows
Fellow
Michael Carr
Institute
DIT
Discipline
Maths
Tara Cusack
UCD
Physiotherapy
Yseult Freeney
DCU
Psychology
Mary Gilmartin
NUI Maynooth
Geography
Rebecca Roper
IADT
Film, Theatre and Performance
Studies
Introduction
• Higher Education institutions have
become increasingly more aware of the
importance of the first year experience.
• .....as a foundation for educational
persistence, completion and life long
learning
• Higher education institutions have a
responsibility to:
• The individual
• To society
The DRHEA project is underpinned by our
intention to ask and answer the question:
•‘What type of
initiatives foster the
best possible first
year experience?’
Copyright: San Diego City College
First Year Experience
• What is being done
internationally ?
• What is being done in the Dublin
Region ?
• What are the issues in Higher
Education Institutes in the Dublin
Region ?
First Year Experience
• What is being done
internationally ?
• Lit Review (Tara Cusack)
First Year Experience
• What is being done in the Dublin
Region ?
• Website/Case Studies from the
Dublin Region (Rebecca Roper)
First Year Experience
• What are the issues in Higher
Education Institutes in the Dublin
Region ?
• Focus groups from each of the 8
institutes in the DRHEA (Mary
Gilmartin and Yseult Freeney)
A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF INSTITUTIONAL
INTERVENTIONS INTENDED TO ENHANCE
THE FIRST YEAR EXPERIENCE
Tara Cusack
Introduction
• Higher Education institutions have
become increasingly more aware of the
importance of the first year experience.
• .....as a foundation for educational
persistence, completion and life long
learning
• Higher education institutions have a
responsibility to:
• The individual
• To society
The DRHEA project is underpinned by our
intention to ask and answer the question:
• ‘What type of
initiatives foster the
best possible first
year experience?’
Systematic Literature Review
• The purpose of this literature
review was to examine
systematically international
research relating to the FYE
in terms of:
• Institution wide
interventions
• Outcomes
Methods
Search string developed
Web of science
ERIC
British Education Index
Australian Education Index
Academic Search complete
Psych Info
Scopus
Inclusion Criteria
• Published from the year 2000 onwards
• Published in English
• Concerned first year students in third level education
• Implemented and measured the outcome of interventions
designed to enhance the first year experience.
Initiatives
Academic
Social
Practical
Intersectional
n=6
n=6
n=22
n=13
Initiatives
Academic
• 13 studies primarily from US (GPA and retention), nonrandomised controlled trials (specific course, mentoring
programmes, learning communities).
• 10 studies administered to all first year students.
• 3 targeting academically ‘at risk’ students (poor engagement
behaviour, low entry level).
• In the majority of studies it is reported that participation in an
academic intervention resulted in improved GPA and student
retention when compared to non participation.
Social
• 6 studies, primarily non-randomised controlled trials (GPA,
retention rates)
• 4 were mentoring studies.
• 1 was a counseling study.
• 1 examined a skills course.
• No significant difference (n=3) following interventions in terms
of GPA, no change in terms of retention rates (n=2). Retention
rates significantly improved following skills
course.
Practical
• 6 studies in this category (alcohol consumption (n=3), nutrition
(n=2), financial (n=1).
• 2 studies concerning alcohol showed a decrease in
consumption, while 1 showed no change.
• 2 studies concerning nutrition (prevention of weight gain)
showed limited success.
• 1 study, financial aid led to significantly increased GPA.
Intersectional
• 22 studies in total, mainly non randomised controlled trials.
• 14 examined the value of a specific module/course for first
years (6/14 significant change)
• 7 examined learning communities
• 1 examined a first year drop-in centre (significant change
0.02)
• All studies examining learning communities (n=7) reported
benefits across a wide range of academic and social domains
with n=4 reporting significant improvement in social abilities,
collaborative learning and knowledge of wellness.
Discussion
• Much of the institutional scale
initiatives relating to FYE are based
in the US.
• Focussed on a limited
understanding of academic
achievement (retention rates,
graduation rates, GPA)
• Initiatives seen across the world
were in the main small scale,
exclusive to particular disciplines,
or had limited student access.
Copyright: Ferris State University
Discussion
• Growing emphasis on intersectional
approaches.
• Academic achievement receives
most attention however increasingly
social interventions such as learning
communities are being used for
which there is strong evidence.
• Limited emphasis on solely practical
or social interventions despite
evidence supporting their success.
Discussion
• Orientation programmes demonstrate
limited success in terms of academic
performance
• Practical interventions had limited long
term benefit in terms of student
behaviour
Copyright: Humber College,
Lakeshore ·
http://www.humber.ca/first-yearexperience
• Conflicting evidence as to the benefit of
First Year Experience programmes or
seminars.
• Most consistent evidence is in favour of
learning communities. Statistically
significant positive impact on student
academic and social engagement.
Review
Institution initiatives are
frequently unclear or limited and
outcomes are frequently easily
measurable outcomes (retention,
GPA) as opposed to appropriate
measures of enhancing the FYE.
Website and Case Studies: Audit of Practice
Rebecca Roper
Website
• Concept
• Current Content includes:
• Background to the Project and the
Fellowship.
• Video Interviews with the 5
Teaching Fellows and Elizabeth
Noonan.
• Video Interviews with 6
International practitioners,
including Cathy Bouvill.
• Toolkit brochure.
• Case Studies.
www.drhea.ie
Launch: mid December, 2012
Case Studies
• Background and Questionnaire.
• Currently, 12 case studies from
established First Year Initiatives have
been submitted from 5 of the DRHEA
Institutions.
• Range of Studies, from Peer Mentoring to
Proximal Learning.
• Call for other participants via the website.
FOCUS GROUPS
Yseult Freeney, Mary Gilmartin
Focus Groups
• To be held in all 8 DRHEA institutions
• Participants include:
• Academic staff
• Professional, managerial and support staff
• Student union representatives
• Key themes emerged across all
institutions
STRATEGY
Responsibility for the First Year Experience
Planning and Co-ordination
Responsibility for the First Year Experience
• ‘Your job is to go in and
teach class and that’s it.
The other stuff is not your
responsibility’
• ‘There is no coherent
articulated plan for the first
year experience’
Planning and Co-ordination
• ‘there is disconnect between the different areas’
• 'we're all going around and probably asking the same
question...and yet there is no place we can go to say
well what are the results'
• where is the space to make 'good practice common
practice’?
TRANSITION: ORIENTATION
The importance and value of orientation for students
Elongating transitional orientation initiatives and embedding
transition in academic programmes
The importance and value of orientation for
students
• ‘all of the research is telling us that that first semester is a critical time for
embedding them and making them feel that this is their university and then
holding on to them.’
• ‘just an awareness that there is something that they have to do as a learner, to
move from a passive experience, to a more active experience. That’s a huge jump
for someone, because, the idea that the responsibility lies with them, is
something that can be quite a shock to the system, to begin with.’
• ‘...there is such a different atmosphere if they’ve been through orientation… they
come down to me and say it was brilliant, we made so many friends and they’re
so excited about college. It does work…’
Elongating transitional orientation initiatives
& embedding into academic programmes
• ‘…it’s a little bit cramped, the induction itself… the strategy that we all came up
with is that we would elongate it into maybe six months and embed it into
different courses…studies suggest that is the best way to do it… to drip feed them
into it’
• ‘I just think that there is so much information to hit the ground running with, and
while there is a lot of support, there is such a complexity to first year’
• ‘..we spoke of putting together a XXX101 module, based on study skills, orientation,
integration, telling them what the university is about… would be built into each
programme…we didn’t seem to be able to find five credits… it just seems mad’
SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT: COMMUNITY
The importance for students of feeling part of a community
Identifying with other people in their programme confirms their
choice of course
Being part of a social community supports their academic
engagement
The importance for students of feeling part of a
community
• “I mean the aim is to try and make students feel as welcome as possible, to
help them settle in, and to build a foundation that they can build on in second
and third year as well”
Identifying with other people in their programme
confirms their choice of course
• ‘It’s not just making friends, but feeling comfortable within their
programme in particular… being able to spend time among 20, 30, 40
students who they will have a sense of belonging with over the next four
years… it’s the comfort of knowing someone that is on the same path as
you are’
• ‘…students who are able to identify themselves within a particular class
setting, settle in a lot better quickly because they are forced together for
those first few weeks and they get to know everyone at the table and it
really makes a big difference.’
• ‘.. They are more confirmed in their choice of programme.’
Being part of a social community supports their
academic engagement
• ‘a person may disengage because they’re not socially embedded in the
programme…’
• ‘… integration of 1st year students with students from other years is
absolutely critical… we learn through informal interaction with any
community… you actually learn through the informal networks…’
• ‘there is such a different atmosphere if they’ve been through
orientation… they come down to me and say it was brilliant, we made so
many friends and they’re so excited about college. It does work…’
• ‘… integration of 1st year students with students from other years is
absolutely critical… we learn through informal interaction with any
community… you actually learn through the informal networks…’
ACADEMIC ENGAGEMENT: RETENTION
Why students drop out
Improving retention rates
Why do students drop out?
• ‘there is almost an acceptance of a level of loss across the
[institution] that is acceptable, unreported and unanalyzed’
• 'we put a lot of resources into recruitment. If we were to look at
how [much] we spend per student we recruit, versus how much
we spend per student we have and lose, I'd ask is the mix
correct?'
Improving retention rates
• Assessment, early warning, identifying ‘at-risk’ students
• 'I think lots of students rather than shouting and kicking and
screaming...just quietly fade away'
TEACHING AND LEARNING
Support for academic staff
Policy-practice disconnect
Support for academic staff
• 'What supports are there for
academics to support the
students?'
• 'there is almost a sense of
well that's easy enough
delivered‘, yet a 'massive
massive job‘ that requires
being in 'survival mode'
Policy-practice disconnect
• ‘we have lots of policies in this institution…[but] I’d say very few
of our lecturers have read them. And, that’s not a fault of the
lecturers…’
• 'There is fantastic work being done within a set of walls, but the
set of walls just don't work for what we're trying to fit into
it....[W]e've decorated and decorated and repapered the walls
as much as we can. But now actually we have to admit that no,
the shape of the room doesn't actually work‘.
Conclusion
Acknowledgements
• Elizabeth Noonan
• Christina Quinlan
• Noel Brady
• Niamh Moore and Amanda Gibney
• Mary Antonesa and Ciaran Quinn
• Daibhi O’Deorain
• Focus Group Participants
• Case Study Volunteers
The First Year Experience
UCD November 30th
2012