{"id":646,"date":"2020-01-25T14:35:06","date_gmt":"2020-01-25T14:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/uniquest.xyz\/?page_id=646"},"modified":"2020-01-25T14:43:45","modified_gmt":"2020-01-25T14:43:45","slug":"first-year-seminars-and-experiences","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/uniquest.xyz\/index.php\/high-impact-educational-practices\/first-year-seminars-and-experiences\/","title":{"rendered":"First-Year Seminars and Experiences"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>First-Year Seminars and Experiences<\/strong><br \/>\nMany schools now build into the curriculum first-year seminars or other programs that bring small groups of students together with faculty or staff on a regular basis. The highest-quality first-year experiences place a strong emphasis on critical inquiry, frequent writing, information literacy, collaborative learning, and other skills that develop students\u2019 intellectual and practical competencies. First-year seminars can also involve students with cutting-edge questions in scholarship and with faculty members\u2019 own research. More <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aacu.org\/publications-research\/periodicals\/fostering-student-learning-and-success-through-first-year-programs\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colorado.edu\/student-success-office\/first-year-seminars\">According to the National Resource Center<\/a>, 90% of institutions offered a first-year seminar in 2012.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/collegesofdistinction.com\/advice\/first-year-seminars-the-gateway-to-success-for-college-freshmen\/\">Colleges of Distinction<\/a> identifies several variations:<\/p>\n<p>Some of the common types of opportunities available to first-year students include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>First Year Seminars: Often taught by prominent members of the faculty and focusing on their personal academic interests, these seminars offer students\u00a0small class sizes\u00a0and frequently involve an introduction to college-level writing and research.<\/li>\n<li>First\u2010Year Interest Groups (FIGs): FIGs create small cohorts of students who meet together in a\u00a0weekly seminar\u00a0led by faculty or staff, and may take one or more classes together and\/or participate in a\u00a0residential learning community.<\/li>\n<li>Residential Learning Communities: Residential learning communities bring students together to share a wing or floor of a\u00a0residence hall\u00a0and an\u00a0academic seminar\u00a0or\u00a0shared courses.<\/li>\n<li>Undergraduate Research Scholars: These programs allow\u00a0new college students\u00a0to engage in research, often as a collaborative exercise under the guidance of faculty.<\/li>\n<li>Learning Communities:\u00a0Similar to FIGs, learning communities bring students together for a series of thematically-organized, interdisciplinary courses with collaborative or research focus.<\/li>\n<li>Service Learning: Service learning experiences are course-related opportunities that allow first-year students to participate in\u00a0ongoing volunteer projects\u00a0throughout their first college semester.<\/li>\n<li>Community\u2010Based Projects: Universities host\u00a0campus-wide initiatives\u00a0for first-year students to engage in volunteerism en masse, such as park or waterway cleanup, Habitat for Humanity projects, or similar activities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>US News has recognised <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usnews.com\/best-colleges\/rankings\/first-year-experience-programs\">101 colleges with extraordinary first year seminar programs.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Some examples:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/firstyear.ku.edu\/fys\">Kansas University<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/fys.richmond.edu\/\">UPENN<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dickinson.edu\/homepage\/99\/first_year_seminars\">Dickenson<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/writing-speech.dartmouth.edu\/curriculum\/writing-courses\/first-year-seminars\">Dartmouth<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colorado.edu\/office-undergraduate-education\/programs\/first-year-seminars\">UC Boulder<\/a><\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>First-Year Seminars and Experiences Many schools now build into the curriculum first-year seminars or other&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":632,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-646","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniquest.xyz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniquest.xyz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniquest.xyz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniquest.xyz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniquest.xyz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=646"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/uniquest.xyz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":649,"href":"https:\/\/uniquest.xyz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/646\/revisions\/649"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniquest.xyz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniquest.xyz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}