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…

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…

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…

In large, introductory courses, instructors and teaching assistants often struggle to provide detailed feedback on student homework in a timely manner. Here we describe a peer-reviewed homework system that provides quick turnaround while offering flexibility in the construction of homework problems. Homework is administered through a cycle, which…

Fidelity is an important factor in the assessment and delivery of programs. However, few researchers have examined predictors of fidelity. In this study, we examined the relationship of fidelity to facilitator characteristics in a leadership program oriented toward the development of new university students. The study consisted of 25 program…

Learning communities have increasingly become a mechanism for education reform in elementary, secondary, and postsecondary education. Recognizing that learning occurs both inside and outside the classroom, their emergence is partly a response to the critique that undergraduate education at American research universities lacks integrated and…

A place-based learning community called "Klamath Connection" was designed to improve the academic performance of freshman in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) majors at Humboldt State University, a midsize public institution in a location geographically and culturally unfamiliar to the majority of its students. The…

This paper presents the design, implementation and assessment of the Columbia River Basin Environmental Research Project (CERP) curriculum. CERP is an online inquiry-based, regional geographic curriculum designed to improve technology skills and content knowledge about water quality and watershed-level processes. Student attitudes and knowledge…

College and university learning communities build a sense of group identity. Institutions are establishing them for varied purposes and student populations, including first-year interest groups, general education core courses, gateway courses, developmental and basic studies, honors programs, and work in the major or minor. For implementation,…