Increasing First-Year Seminar Quality Through Greater Curricular Flexibility

Daniel B. Friedman, Director, University 101 Programs

Sandy Greene, Program Coordinator, University 101 Programs

University of South Carolina

The University of South Carolina’s hallmark first-year seminar, University 101 (UNIV 101), is an extended orientation course that strives to help new students successfully transition to college, academically and personally. In Fall 2018, 4,500 students were enrolled in 245 sections, taught by 223 instructors. With a course offering of this size, it is critical to strike the appropriate balance between consistency across sections and flexibility for instructors.

In their classic work on college curriculum development, Stark and Lattuca (1997) suggested that course curricula or academic plans contain several elements, including the purpose, content, sequence, instructional processes, instructional resources, and evaluation, as well as the ability to adjust the plan. When navigating multiple section offerings of a first-year seminar, a key decision academic leaders have to make is how much flexibility to give instructors in these areas within their courses.

Some first-year seminars use a standard syllabus for all sections that prescribes not only the outcomes to be achieved, but also the topics to be covered, when they are to be covered, and the assignments to measure what is learned. While our university wants students to have a consistent experience across sections, we recognize the limitations of overly prescribing an academic plan. Though greater restrictions may yield consistency, they may also result in a student experience that is consistently average. In an effort to push classes past average and toward exceptional, we favor flexibility for instructors over consistency across sections.

The course has three broad goals with 10 learning outcomes (see Figure 1, p. 10). Each section has an enrollment limit of 19 students and is co-taught by a faculty or staff member and an upper-division peer leader. While instructors must develop their course around the same 10 learning outcomes, they can select their own content, sequencing, and assignments, as long as they meet those outcomes. We do use a common textbook to help apply some degree of consistency, but instructors can choose the chapters most relevant for their course design and student needs.

This approach has proven successful, as improvements on overall course effectiveness over time indicate (see Figure 1). This construct, from the First-Year Seminar Assessment, a national benchmarking instrument, evaluates the degree that students report the course (a) included interesting subject matter, (b) contributed to their ability to succeed academically, (c) contributed to their ability to adjust to the college social environment, (d) covered topics important to the student, and (e) is one to recommend to other firstyear students. The assessment is administered online to UNIV 101 students at the end of the fall semester. Questions let students indicate their perceptions of the course and their learning, using a 7-point Likert scale (where 1 = strongly disagree and 7 = strongly agree).

Figure 1. Overall UNIV 101 course effectiveness by year, 2008-2017.

UNIV 101 has several reasons for giving instructors flexibility to build their own syllabus and course plan. First, we believe each course is only as good as the person teaching, and that person is only as good as their interest and investment in what they are doing. Allowing instructors flexibility to tailor course material to their interests and expertise promotes creativity, innovation, and an excitement for teaching. While consistency is nice, a “course in a can” model that is overly prescriptive can stifle creativity and diminish instructor enthusiasm. For students to be excited to learn and participate fully in the course, instructors must be excited to teach.

Second, if we required instructors to follow a standard syllabus, it would imply that there is only one right way to teach the course—and that we know what that way is. Both assumptions are improbable. Giving instructors autonomy in determining lesson plans and content, if coupled with assessment and faculty development, allows for innovation.

With this in mind, assessment guides all areas of UNIV 101 faculty development. In addition to occasional direct assessment, the first-year seminar uses two indirect assessment tools. The End-of-Course Evaluation assesses student perceptions of the course, while the First-Year Seminar Assessment measures student perceptions of their learning. While UNIV 101 acknowledges the limitations of using assessment based primarily on students’ perceptions, the results of these instruments guide faculty development in three main ways.

First, they provide helpful feedback to individual instructors and can serve as a coaching tool. Second, the results not only highlight how well the course is working (University of South Carolina, n.d.-a) but also help to determine why by identifying teaching strategies that have been most successful. UNIV 101 staff interview the top-performing instructors for each learning outcome (using both direct and indirect measures of learning) to determine why their approaches were successful. Those strategies (ranging from lesson plans to specific activities) are then shared with instructors through faculty development events and instructor support materials (Friedman, 2012). For example, each instructor receives the Faculty Resource Manual (University of South Carolina, n.d.-b), a guide on “how to design, manage, and teach a first-year seminar and evaluate student work.”

This manual is updated annually by UNIV 101 staff and includes lesson plans, resources, and information about the course learning outcomes (see Figure 2, p. 12). Using the strategies described, instructors can select the methods and topics best suited for their students. In this way, instructor flexibility leads to resource sharing, thus fostering innovation and improvement.

The third reason such flexibility is important relates to the diverse needs of learners. While instructor excitement and enthusiasm are important, the experience is not about what gets instructors excited, but about meeting students’ needs. As noted in the UNIV 101 course requirements (University of South Carolina, n.d.-c), the broad nature of these outcomes signifies that no one approach may be appropriate for all students. The content, topics, and methods used to achieve outcomes should be tailored to the needs of the students in a given section and to the strengths and expertise of the instructor. With such a large enrollment, one size will not fit all. Instructors can gauge their students’ needs through a variety of methods:

• Journals. When assigning journals, instructors can either ask specific, open-ended prompts or allow students to free-write. Both ways allow students to reflect on and write about their experiences and can give instructors valuable insight into students’ needs. Since journals are informal and are only shared between student and instructor, students are more likely to disclose openly.

• Check-ins. Along with helping to build community at the beginning of class, check-ins are a helpful way for instructors to gauge how students are doing. Instructors can use a variety of prompts to facilitate a check-in (e.g., asking students to share the high or low moments of their week, asking them to use a hashtag to describe their week). Such activities often highlight the needs of individual students as well as those of the class as a whole. When individuals share this information, instructors can also see other students in the classroom agreeing, either verbally or through body language.

• Syllabus quizzes. Giving a syllabus quiz at the beginning of the semester measures students’ understanding of the syllabus and can serve as a needs assessment. When instructors ask open-ended questions (e.g., “Why are you taking this course?”, “Which topics are you most excited to discuss?”), students’ answers can give valuable insight into what they would like to learn or experience throughout the semester.

• One-on-one meetings. Meeting one on one allows instructors to get to know students on an individual level and to dive deeper using follow-up questions. Additionally, as students grow more comfortable through these meetings, they are more likely to share their experiences, successes, and challenges.

“The content, topics, and methods used to achieve outcomes should be tailored to the needs of the students in a given section and to the strengths and expertise of the instructor. With such a large enrollment, one size will not fit all. ”

Finding Appropriate Balance

While providing autonomy to instructors to develop their own course and lessons, the university is careful not to let them teach whatever they want. We will not mitigate course integrity and efficacy by sacrificing what students need to learn to accommodate what faculty want to teach. We have found that a set of broad common learning outcomes and course requirements makes for a suitable compromise between flexibility for instructors and consistency across sections, with the idea that the UNIV 101 course provides an opportunity for outcomes to be achieved rather than simply topics to be covered.

UNIV 101 Course Goals and Learning Outcomes

I. Foster academic success

As a result of this course, students will

• adapt and apply appropriate academic strategies to their courses and learning experiences;

• identify and apply strategies to effectively manage time and priorities; and

• identify relevant academic policies, processes, and resources related to their academic success and timely attainment of degree requirements.

II. Discover and connect with the University of South Carolina

As a result of this course, students will

• identify and use appropriate campus resources and engage in opportunities that contribute to their learning within and beyond the classroom;

• develop positive relationships with peers, staff, and faculty; and

• describe the history, purpose, and traditions of the University of South Carolina.

III. Promote personal development, well-being, and social responsibility

As a result of this course, students will

• clarify their values and identity and articulate how these shape their perspectives and relationships with people who are similar to and different from themselves,

• explore the tenets of the Carolinian Creed,

• examine and develop strategies that promote well-being and explain how wellness impacts their academic and personal success, and

• initiate a process toward attaining personal and professional goals and articulate potential pathways to employability.

References

Friedman, D. (2012). The first-year seminar: Designing, implementing, and assessing courses to support student learning and success: Vol. V. Assessing the first-year seminar. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina, National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition.

Stark, J. S., & Lattuca, L. R. (1997). Shaping the college curriculum: Academic plans in action. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

University of South Carolina. (n.d.-a). University 101’s impact on academic success & persistence. Retrieved from https://sc.edu/about/ offices_and_divisions/university_101/ research_and_assessment/impact/index. php

University of South Carolina. (n.d.-b). Instructor development. Retrieved from https:// sc.edu/about/offices_and_divisions/university_101/instructors/instructor_professional_development/

University of South Carolina. (n.d.-c). University 101 requirements. Retrieved from https:// sc.edu/about/offices_and_divisions/ university_101/courses/university_101_requirements/index.php

Contact: Dan Friedman, friedman@sc.edu

Related Articles in E-Source

Bledsoe, R. (2014, October). The studentfaculty connection: Establishing relationships in the first-year seminar. 12(1), 14-16.

Haug-Belvin, T., & Baranovic, K. (2017, December). Faculty see benefits of teaching first-year seminar. 15(1), 5.