First Year Experience Learning Modules, 2nd edition

Abstract

The First-Year Experience (FYE) is programming at colleges and universities that is designed to help students with the transition from high school to post-secondary education. The gold standard of FYE programming is the First-Year Seminar, a credit course taken in the first semester of college or university. These courses are designed to help students explore learning skills, life skills and study skills, reflect on their own practice and put into place and monitor plans for future success. Such courses are prevalent at many American colleges and universities but are not common in Ontario. Alternative models of delivery are needed.

We have designed 19 standalone learning modules on a variety of learning skills, life skills and study skills. These courses are built using the H5P Studio and can be easily integrated into your first-year course. They have been designed by a team from Mathematics and Statistics departments from three Ontario universities, so they will occasionally have a mathematical flavour, but they are still appropriate for a wide audience.

The modules are grouped by Martin and Marsh's 5C Model of Academic Buoyancy as follows: 1. Confidence (Growth Mindsets, Values Affirmation)--2. Coordination (Asking Questions, Effective Study Sessions, Exercise and the Brain, Professional Communication)--3. Control (Chunking, Exercise Solving, Grade Calculator, Learning by Teaching, Notetaking, Spaced Retrieval, Test Wrapper)--4. Composure (Academic Honesty, Managing Academic Stress, Managing Perfectionism, Test Writing Strategies)--5. Commitment (Procrastination, Staying on Task)--

Each module can be incorporated two different ways into your course: Option 1: The modules are strictly participation-based. Each module has completion trackers and interactive components that must be completed by the student. The H5P modules then return these completion metrics to most Learning Management Softwares. Option 2: The modules have a manually graded component. Each module contains an opportunity for students to write a reflection or set goals. These submissions can be exported by the student for submission as part of an assignment or as part of a participation component of your course. You are encouraged to edit and adapt these modules to suit your preferred course design!

If you have any comments or suggestions, please don't hesitate to reach out to Andrew Skelton at askelton@yorku.ca.

These modules are Version 2.0 - there are still many improvements to come!