The 2009 National Survey of First-Year Seminars

First-Year Seminar Leadership InstituteColumbia, SC

April 2012

2009 NATIONAL

SURVEY OF FIRST-YEAR SEMINARS

National Survey of FY Seminars• Overview of survey history• Methodology for 2009 administration

– Administration: Oct. 2009-Jan. 2010– Invitation sent to 3,225 institutions in 3 waves:

• Chief Academic Officer• Chief Executive Officer• Chief Student Affairs Officer

– Incentive program– 1,028 usable responses (32% response rate)– 890 with FYS

Survey Respondents

Institution Type Number %Two-year 293 28.8Four-year 725 71.2Public 528 51.9Private, not-for-profit 422 41.5Private, for-profit 68 6.7

Size of First-Year Class Number %< 500 365 35.9501 – 1,000 238 23.41,001 – 1500 107 10.51,501 – 2,000 87 8.52,001 – 2,500 50 4.92,501 – 3,000 37 3.63,001 – 3,500 36 3.53,500 – 4,000 21 2.14,001 – 5,000 32 3.1> 5,000 45 4.4

Survey Respondents

All Types of FYS Offered

EO A-UC A-VC Pre-Prof BSS Other Hybrid0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

62

26 2314

22

3

22

71

12 71

6 4

1991

2009

Primary Types of FYS Offered

41%EO

16% A-UC

15%A-VC

4%Pre-Prof

5%BSS

15%Hy-brid

4% Other

COURSE ADMINISTRATION

Administrative Home of FYSUnit 2009

Academic affairs 37.0%

Academic department 16.3%

Student affairs 13.9%

First-year program office 11.9%

College or school 7.9%

75.1 % of courses have a seminar director

37.9% of courses directors are full time

Administration of Seminars• Average size of seminar program is

around 30-32 sections• A majority (58.3%)of seminars have

classes enrolling 16 to 25 students• Over one-third (39.6%) of institutions

require all first-year students to take the seminar

Grading and Credit Hours• Most seminars (80.5%) are letter graded• 43.3% of seminars are offered for one credit

hour; 31.9% of seminars are offered for three credit hours

• Seminar credit applies toward graduation in most cases– General education: 53.1%– As an elective: 39.8%– To the major: 9.7%

INSTRUCTION

Advice for freshmen from the people who actually grade their

papers and lead their class discussions.

“Ditch Your Laptop, Dump Your Boyfriend”Op-Ed in the September 25, 2010 edition of the New York Times

Who Teaches the Seminar?Instructor %Tenure-track faculty 61.4FT non-tenure-track faculty 54.4Student affairs professionals 48.2Adjunct faculty 46.0Other campus professionals 29.9Graduate students 5.6Undergraduate students 5.1

• 43.7% of institutions have some team taught sections of the seminar

• 8.6% team teach all sections• 31.2% of institutions have some sections

of the seminar taught by the students’ academic advisors

Who Teaches the Seminar?

How Are Instructors Compensated?

• Most frequent compensation is a stipend• The second most frequent responses

were “None” and “Part of overload”• Other forms of compensation

– Graduate student support– Release time– Unrestricted professional development funds

How Much Are Instructors Compensated?

Mean StipendAdjunct faculty 3.82Other professional 3.41Tenure track faculty 3.40Student affairs professionals 3.06Graduate student 2.70

1: $500 or less 4: $1501-$2000 7: $3001-$3500 10: $4501-$50002: $501-$1000 5: $2001-$2500 8: $3501-$4000 11: >$50003: $1001-$1500 6: $2501-$3000 9: $4001-$4500

CONTENT & PEDAGOGY

FYS

Service Learning

Learning Community

OrientationCommon

Book

Online Learning

Residential Life

Top 5 Seminar GoalsMost Important Course Goals %

Develop academic skills 54.6

Develop a connection w/institution 50.2

Orient to campus resources 47.6

Encouraged self-exploration/personal development

28.5

Create common FY experience 23.3

Top 5 Course Topics

Most Important Course Topics %

Campus resources 42.4

Study skills 39.8

Academic planning/advising 35.7

Critical thinking 34.8

Time management 27.6

Course Practices

Practice %Online component 52.9Service-learning 40.3Learning-community 35.7Common reading component 31.0

Online Components• Nearly half of the open-ended responses mention

the use of a course or learning management system

• Most common online components:– Repository for course documents– Discussion boards– Assignment submission– Introduction to online research/information literacy– Quizzes/tests– Assessments

Service-Learning• Service experience varies widely by section and

is often tied to specific course theme• Service is of short duration, usually less than 10

hours, and is on many campuses a one-shot experience or service plunge

• Hunger/homelessness and at-risk youth most common focal points for service

• Reflection includes written papers, discussions, and presentations

Learning Community Structures• LCs designed to serve a variety of student

populations, but most commonly mentioned as either major-specific interventions or interventions for at-risk students

• Seminars frequently linked to developmental course work in English, reading, and math

• Seminars linked to a variety of gen ed courses, but most commonly linked to first-year composition

Learning Community Structures

• LC structures range from block scheduling with little to no course integration to highly integrated thematic course links

• LCs frequently incorporate a residential component

SEMINAR ASSESSMENTHas your first-year seminar

been formally

assessed or evaluated since Fall

2006?

53%Yes

32%No

9% don’t know

Quantitative Assessment

Assessment %Student course evaluation 94.9Survey instrument 75.3

Locally developed 84.0National survey 52.4

Institutional data 75.3

Qualitative AssessmentAssessment %Focus Groups

Instructors 51.3Students 42.6

InterviewsInstructors 45.6Students 30.2

Outcomes MeasuredOutcome %Persistence to sophomore year 73.7Satisfaction with faculty 70.9Satisfaction with institution 65.3Grade-point average 58.0Use of campus services 51.0Connections with peers 49.3Participation in campus activities 49.0Out-of-class student/faculty interactions 47.1Academic abilities 42.0Persistence to graduation 38.4Other 18.5

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Questions?

References

Padgett, R.D. & Keup, J.R. (2011). 2009 National Survey of First-Year Seminars: Ongoing Efforts to Support Students in Transition. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina, National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition.