Friday, March 13, 2015

So, tell me about your first-year experience course...

Yeah, I know I've been a terrible blogger lately, and that it's probably bad form to break radio silence by asking one's remaining readers for help. However, I seem to have been handed a committee that is supposed to be redesigning our one-credit, introduction-to-college-life course for first-time freshmen, and it's already turning into a snarl of competing interests and desires, so I have come here seeking clarity.

Tell me, if you should feel so moved, about freshman seminar / college life skills / first-year experience courses at your institution. Do you have one? Is it primarily academic, or primarily orientation-focused? Is there a common reading book of some sort? How are students organized into sections, and do all of the sections necessarily do the same thing? What do you or don't you like about it?

Or, if you feel like playing fantasy course design, what should an ideal course of this type look like and do? (Assume a smallish regional university with students who are all over the map in terms of academic preparation.)

7 comments:

Fie upon this quiet life! said...

Our FYE class is getting a make-over as we speak. Previously, it had been an orientation course that was graded pass/fail. Now, it's being transformed into seminars with a theme chosen by the faculty person who will teach it and students will choose the class based on their interests. So, for instance, I could teach a drama themed class or something. There is one common book, suggested by faculty, and then the rest of the course is up to the instructor. But I think the instructor is responsible for pointing students in the right direction if they need orientation-type stuff.

Many people are looking at it as a way to recruit new majors out of the undecided. The courses were piloted this fall. I did not teach one, and I don't really know how it's gone. But I'd be willing to teach one over a composition class, I think.

Fretful Porpentine said...

Thanks, Fie! That's actually pretty much the direction in which I'd like this course to go, although selling it to other people is going to pose a problem. Do you know what sort of arguments got used in favor of the makeover at your campus?

Bardiac said...

I used to teach at an SLAC, which had a three credit first year seminar taught by a wide variety of faculty. The faculty got together every year and chose a group of common texts, and had speakers associated with each text. The idea was to get a start on understanding liberal arts, so we'd have math, science, religion, philosophy, history, and lit sorts of texts. The faculty from a given field would help others teach their text, so the religious studies faculty would help us understand how we could help students understand the religious studies text and not teach it as religion, if that makes sense. We writing folks helped others work on writing assignments and grading and such. (We often also had one text that was the individual instructor's choice.)

It was academically focused, and expensive in a lot of ways, but it really helped the students a lot! You'd be advisor for the students in your course until they declared a major. We'd get two or three speakers that semester on campus, people who had some expertise related to the readings, and all the students would be required to go (the talks were held during a class meeting time when no other classes on campus met).

I like the idea of a themed class, too.

The way it used to be done here was as an add-on to a regular first year course (math, writing, whatever), with lots of extra work for the faculty member for no credit. The class would be smaller, so people signed up and some did and some didn't bother with the extra work, which mostly felt like BS anyway. We've dropped that, mostly.

Fretful Porpentine said...

Bardiac, I would LOVE it if we could do something like that. LOVE. Alas, I fear that there are going to be time problems, resource problems, and attitude problems like crazy.

Sisyphus said...

I am not teaching anything like that, but I was recommended this book for my comp class and I think it would be interesting to use as the heart of a 3 unit intro class where you talked about what critical thinking means to citizens in general and in different majors:

Becoming a Critical Thinker, Sherry Diestler (is that spelled right? No clue.)

Fie upon this quiet life! said...

I don't really know much about the arguments made to support it. One of my friends is responsible for the make-over. I could put you in touch with her if you'd like. Email me if you're interested.

Fretful Porpentine said...

Thanks, Fie, but I fear that after our latest meeting it may be a moot point. SO frustrated and demoralized at the moment.