University of Mary Washington’s (UMW) 2013 Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP)—“UMW’s First-Year Seminar: Research, Write, Speak”—was developed to enhance the first-year seminar experience. UMW had established the First-Year Seminar (FSEM) requirement, in 2008, based on NSSE results indicating lower levels of engagement among first-year students. Designed as a three-credit course and featuring a student/faculty ratio of 15:1, FSEM focused on building a skill set for success in a rigorous academic environment to be learned in a content-driven context of mutual interest to the students and faculty. Topics of these FSEM courses have included Game Theory, Making a Difference, and Race and Revolution.
Since the creation of the required course, student learning at UMW has been monitored via institutional surveys and data, along with NSSE findings. Continued evidence indicated that FSEM could be improved, and this became the focus of the Quality Enhancement Plan advanced as part of UMW’s 2013 reaffirmation of accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. For example, results from NSSE 2010 and 2012 indicated that, in most cases, UMW firstyear students perceived that their institution contributed less in the areas of writing and integration of ideas compared with first-year students at peer institutions. Other institutional data, such as surveys of admitted students and graduating seniors, corroborated these findings.
In response to the concerns about student writing, the faculty-authored QEP established uniform and measurable learning outcomes for all FSEM courses including, “Improve development and organization of written arguments” and “Demonstrate the ability to edit and revise in the writing process.” Also, under the direction of the QEP office, staff in UMW’s academic learning centers (writing, speaking, and library) developed online learning modules to support student development in the areas of information literacy, writing proficiency, and oral communication. Instruments to measure student learning across FSEM courses included embedded assessments of core learning modules (information literacy, writing, and speaking) and standardized rubrics. Lastly, UMW identified resources to support faculty development in adopting course learning outcomes, incorporating online learning modules, and implementing assessment tools such as rubrics to evaluate student work. To further support this ambitious initiative, the institution made FSEM a premier experience for first-year students by moving all seminars to the fall semester, having the first-year seminar instructor serve as the student’s first-year academic advisor, and attaching a learning community based on the student’s FSEM course assignment. As a result, almost all first-year students live in a residence hall community built around the FSEM course. Results following these changes show increases in student GPA and retention.
University of Mary Washington has a culture of positive restlessness—continually looking for ways to improve the student experience and monitor interventions. As a demonstration of this culture, UMW participated in the NSSE Academic Advising Topical Module in 2014 and 2016, and results indicate strong improvement in advising experiences since involving faculty as advisors for first-year students. Future UMW improvement efforts will include examining changes in behaviors related to the Academic Challenge Engagement Indicator and increasing opportunities for faculty to speak with students regarding career plans.
