Engaging first-year students from the first moment of arrival is crucial to support their transition to higher education and facilitate their learning experiences and learning outcomes. Orientation activities offer first-year students important transitional support during their first period at higher education. As students sometimes consider…

We describe one Academic Dean's experience of redesigning academic warning (AW) processes with first-year engineering students in a New Zealand University, after learning, developing, and applying the concepts and techniques of solution-focused (SF) brief therapy. These AW processes were changed from a deficit and failure orientation to a focus on…

As higher education institutions increasingly globalize, international student inclusion in First-Year Experience (FYE) programs remains fragmented and marginal. While many universities offer separate orientations or supplemental support, these efforts often reflect a deficit-based model that treats internationalization as an add-on rather than a…

Adopting corequisite mathematics models to accelerate students' completion of their introductory college-level mathematics course in their first year of college is prevalent across higher education institutions. This systematic review demonstrates the known research, evidence, and diversity of implemented corequisite mathematics models for…

Developmental Education reform has been a vital topic in the field of higher education for decades. There have been several initiatives to further engage under-prepared college students and move them through gateway courses like freshman-level English and Math. One of the more emergent instructional models is referred to as co-requisite…

Effective student onboarding provides a powerful tool for fostering student success, particularly for the diverse community college student population, including adult learners, full-time workers and dually-enrolled students. This brief explores how Catawba Valley Community College (Catawba Valley) redesigned its onboarding process by expanding…

This chapter details the First Year Research Experience (FYRE) program at Montana State University, describing the intent and design of the program, as well as how FYRE participants differed in their approaches to learning from non-participants.

Online collaborative testing is an approach to assessment that emphasizes technology-mediated learning through interaction with peers. As the COVID-19 pandemic prompted exponential growth in online teamwork, skills for online collaborative problem-solving have become essential for today's graduates. As such, online collaborative testing can play a…

This study aimed to rectify the problem of inadequate preparation and support of faculty in the Student Success (SLS) course at Brentwood State College (name of institution changed for reasons of confidentiality) (BSC). This problem of practice is significant because the SLS course is intended to contribute significantly to students acquiring…

First-Year Engineering (FYE) programs are a critical part of engineering education, yet they are quite complex settings. Given the importance and complexity of FYE programs, research to better understand student learning and inform design and assessment in FYE programs is imperative. Therefore, this dissertation showcases various uses of data…

The primary purpose of this study was to determine the differences in the academic outcomes of first-year academically underprepared TN Promise-eligible college freshmen who participated in a college bridge program. A comparative research design was applied to existing data, including first-semester GPA, first-semester credit completion rate,…

This research examined the role of a first-year seminar course in promoting international student learning and academic transition. Through interviews with international students representing different countries and majors, the author investigated how the course can best be designed and taught to overcome the common learning barriers encountered…

Higher education institutions are facing a major challenge in retaining 1st-year college students and engaging them in meaningful activities and programs to promote their sense of belonging (Strayhorn, 2012; Astin, 1993). Though a few belonging intervention practices have been studied (Perrell, 2018; Peck, 2011), there is a lack of understanding…

Effective faculty development programs are essential to improving student success and achieving institutional goals. Yet designing and implementing successful faculty development within FYE programs remain a challenge. We examine these challenges and discuss how a redesigned on-campus faculty development effort, connected to an online course on…

Many peer mentorship programs in academia train senior students to guide groups of incoming students through the rigors of postsecondary education. The mentorship program's structure can influence how mentors develop from this experience. Here, we compare how two different peer mentorship programs have shaped mentors' experiences and development.…