First-Year Seminar: Using Technology to Explore Professional Issues and Opportunities Across Locations

Abstract

First-year seminars are designed support the transition of entering students into the university environment. Yet, students are diverse; they enter college with varying levels of skills and abilities. Therefore, within the context of an institution's mission and culture, the first-year semi nar serves as a key element around which students may structure a quality educational experience. The seminar can serve as a student's initial step toward developing cognitive skills: to reason critically, communicate clearly, or solve problems (Ratcliff, 1997). The semi nar provides an opportunity for focused, directed learning for students at the beginning of their undergraduate experiences. Although first-year seminars vary across universities and disci plines, their common purpose is support the incoming students' transition into the university's academic, social, and cultural envi ronment. A national survey of first-year seminar programs (Bare foot & Fidler, 1996) found that academic skills, orientation cam pus resources and programs, study skills, increased faculty-student interactions, life skills and Wellness issues, as well as communica tions skills and career exploration are common topics for such semi nars. Improving academic success and student retention are two key expectations for first-year seminars (Fidler & Hunter, 1989). Evaluating a first-year seminar for business students, Lamb (1997) determined that the majority of students enrolled in the seminar performed better academically than those who did not enroll. Many students share similar educational interests and goals. First-year seminars are used introduce these students the breadth of knowledge, issues, and opportunities across their com