Packing Slip 
item |
GWCC First Year Experience |
contact |
Denise Bowman (GateWay Community College) denise.bowman@gwmail.maricopa.edu |
credits |
Barbara Grady Lauren Yena Mathew Jolly Elizabeth Skinner Kelly McPhee |
college(s) |
GateWay Community College |
discipline(s) |
English, Psychology, Humanities and College Success/Orientation Courses |
summary |
The GWCC First Year Experience is a cohort program desgined to help first year college students cope successfully with the demands of the first year college experience, to aid in retaining these students, and to contribute to their continued success with the support of a learning community of students and faculty. |
details |
The six project goals and objectives forming the vision of GWCC's First Year Experience initiative are: 1. Awareness of the College Understand the characteristics of college life Understand the organization structure of the College Recognize the responsibilities of students to the College Recognize the responsibilities of the College to the students 2. Awareness of the learning partnership Demonstrated critical thinking skills in the classroom as well as in the reflective essay Examined personal learning attitudes, habits, and learning style Developed memory techniques Recognized the importance of, and utilize, textbooks in college classes Improved reading, writing, listening, and note taking skills Developed test taking sophistication 3. Strategic planning for personal development and growth Set personal, career and academic goals Developed time management skills Recognized and understood their personal value system Recognized the appropriate use of passive, assertive, and aggressive behavior Developed inclusive relationships with others Developed stress management techniques Developed a plan for holistic wellness 4. Sense of academic community and sense of belonging because of an awareness of and how to use: All academic and personal support services: Academic Advising, Student Financial Aid, GWCC Library, Computer labs, Learning Center Services, Office of Admission and Records, Student Placement/Testing Services, Bookstore, Cashier, Counseling & Career Planning Service, Disability Support Services, Parking and the Center for Student Life. 5. Preparation for the future Understand their interests, skills, aptitudes, and personality traits as related to selecting a career Understood how to use the information available to them to help them choose a career Explored career possibilities during the semester Learn how to make informed career choices 6. Enhance Retention, Completion and Persistence Rates Track students to determine student success Provide personal counseling and coaching to students To strengthen the safety net by encouraging campus wide involvement ------------------------------------------------------------ How did the project improve, advance, or enhance student learning? Please provide specific examples. ------------------------------------------------------------ 80% of the students interviewed from the FYE learning communities felt the experience increased their opportunities for success. Pairing ENG101 and PSY101 allowed students to write meaningful and rigorous essays about the content they were learning in the other class. The students enrolled in the developmental learning community had much higher completion rates than their peers enrolled in other developmental English and Reading courses during that same semester. ------------------------------------------------------------ How did you evaluate your project's success? What did it tell you? ------------------------------------------------------------ The two measures that we looked for in evaluating the success of the project were student completion rates and student persistence rates. The greatest success was shown with the students who enrolled in the developmental learning community of ENG071 and RDG091. This group had a 94% completion rate and of that group 66% of them enrolled in the follow-up ENG101 FYE learning commuity for the Spring semester. This compared with a completion rated of between 67-85% for students who enrolled in devlopmental English courses that were not part of the FYE learning community. Of the students in the PSY101 and ENG101 FYE learning community, 86% completed the program. This was in the same range as students who took ENG101 independantly. In this learning community only 33% rolled over into the ENG102 Learning Community that was offered in the spring. In our third Learning Community that paired CPD150 with CIS105, 78% of the students completed the program and 50% of the students continued. ------------------------------------------------------------ What is your plan to share this project with others? ------------------------------------------------------------ I may present this at a conference sometime in the future. ------------------------------------------------------------ What, if anything, will happen in the future with this project? ------------------------------------------------------------ GWCC has offered all of the FYE learning communities for Fall 2007 semester. ------------------------------------------------------------ What, if anything, would you do differently? ------------------------------------------------------------ I think that this program would be a lot more successful if we had a full-time staff person to oversee it. This was done with a lot of faculty and staff who were accountable in a lot of other areas as well and as a result could not give this program their full-time attention. Given the increased number of students testing into developmental classes, I would like to see some one who worked as student success coordinator on a full time basis Note! As a professional courtesy to the owner of this package, if you use some aspect of this package or have some thoughts about it, please share your feedback via the comments form below. |
web links |
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/learngrant/ |
supplements |
FYE Report (document) Note! As a professional courtesy to the owner of this package, if you use some aspect of this package or have some thoughts about it, please share your feedback below. |
shareback |
A "Shareback" cites the places on the web that mention, reference, or use this MLX package, and "shares" that information back here (more about shareback...) Sharebacks can be generated automatically by weblog tools. |
extra |
Last modified: Jun-28-2007 Date created: Jun-07-2007 Visitor count: 1185 Dublin Core Metadata record  This package is included in the Maricopa Learning Grants special collection. |
Maricopa Learning eXchange
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/mlx/slip.php?item=1964
