Practical things to try

Educators involved in developing and running First Year Experience (FYE) or Student Success programmes may benefit from the following tips: 

1. Bring a variety of stakeholders into the implementation of the programming. Try to break through the “silos” and involve departments such as advising, counselling, financial aid, career support, and academic departments. Students benefit from greater connection and perspective as well as variety, and stakeholders see the results of their efforts as students move through the college/university experience and use resources.
   
2. Design coursework appropriate to the hours to be expended, especially if they are academic credit-bearing. If the course is low or has no credit, ask students to do no more than two hours of work outside of the class. Students who feel overloaded by coursework for these programmes are more likely to disengage.
   
3. Select topics carefully. Consider the student population, their needs and challenges and construct the course to address them. There is a wide “menu” of topics that can be presented in FYE or Student Success programmes but there is no need to cover them all. Better to cover fewer topics in more engaging depth.
   
4. Bring students in to co-create whenever possible. For example, you can have students working in groups or as a class to create a classroom code of conduct, ask students to present on various topics that may be areas of expertise for them, or use polling software at the beginning of a course to ask students what topics they need the most help with. 
   
5. Try to create activities and materials that have relevance to student issues and lives as students are more likely to find the whole programme meaningful. Weave required student activities, such as registering for coursework, visiting the library, etc., into the curriculum so it helps them achieve tasks they need to do. Assign activities that apply course content to personal needs, such as practicing e-mails to instructors, solving a real-life problem with a heuristic, or taking notes for an existing course using a particular note-taking strategy. 

Programmes vary in size and character. Here are five examples of First Year Experience programmes in different institutions:

• The University of Texas at Austin, USA, four-year large public university.
• Wake Forest, USA, medium-sized private university.
• El Camino College, USA, smaller public four-year college.
• Brookdale Community College, USA, smaller two-year institution.
• Cuyaghoga Community College (Tri-C), USA, smaller two-year institution.

DISCUSSION

What ideas for your First Year Experience programme could you take away from the five programmes referenced above? What about them struck you as particularly good or inspiring?   

Please share your thoughts and questions in the comments section below.