First-Year Seminar and Faculty Pivot to Remote Teaching

Rebecca Campbell, Editor, E-Source for College Transitions

First-year seminars are perhaps the most widely recognized strategic initiative within the first-year experience and are a driving force in first-year student success on many campuses. Broadly defined, the first-year seminar (FYS) is a course designed to integrate students socially and academically into the university. Its design is based on Tinto’s (1993) model of student departure, which highlights the connection between student engagement and persistence. The FYS has also been influenced by Astin’s (1984, 1993) work on shaping the college experience to ensure positive outcomes.

In March 2020, in-person classes in higher education pivoted to an online delivery mode in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic. For the FYS, this posed particular challenges because of its mission of social connectivity; the FYS has traditionally avoided hosting its courses online due to the difficulties in fostering engagement and facilitating community and connections within the university context. Similarly, disciplinary faculty historically faced challenges in moving courses online while maintaining the academic rigor that allowed students to meet general education or pre-requisite requirements.

The sudden and swift move to online instruction gave faculty very little time to adapt. Hodges et al. (2020) note the distinction between online teaching and learning and “emergency remote teaching.” To acknowledge the efforts of faculty in making the transition in such a constricted timeframe that limited their ability to carefully design and plan instruction (Hodges et al., 2020), the term emergency remote teaching (ERT) will be used here.

This article highlights how two campuses retooled their FYS for online delivery. It also includes the experiences of two faculty who pivoted disciplinary courses. In each of these situations, creativity, innovation, compassion, and resilience abound.

Two First-Year Seminar Pivots

University of Tampa

Located in Tampa, Florida, the University of Tampa is a private university with more than 9,600 students. It offers 124 sections of its FYS as a required, one-credit, graded course with an enrollment of 2,200. Only 1% of courses were online before March 2020, so many members of faculty were unfamiliar with online pedagogy when the ERT transition came. Nevertheless, their shift focused on maintaining a high standard of social integration despite the potential isolation of the online modality. University of Tampa faculty collaborated online and via email with the local community, alumni, and parents of students. The brainstorming sessions resulted in a novel way to embed social integration into the online FYS by implementing a three-pronged approach: (a) innovative class activities, (b) creative partnerships, and (c) connections.

Innovative Class Activities

Using Zoom, faculty hosted online movie gatherings and “UT Jeopardy” games about the campus and local community. Prizes

were mailed to students’ homes. One instructor held “Waffle Wednesdays” where students enjoyed their favorite breakfast together on Zoom. Others held “bring your dog to class” day, online study sessions, and trivia nights.

Creative Partnerships

Partnerships were also made to build community and further encourage social integration: one with the campus bookstore and another with a prominent, local scholar.

The FYE program teamed with Barnes & Noble to create an online form that allowed faculty to send pre-approved University of Tampa gifts to students. Each gift was accompanied by a note from a peer mentor (e.g. ,“Here is a little something to remind you of your second home.”) This gesture kept the university in the minds and hearts of students.

The university also hosted a COVID-19 Q&A session about the origins, pathology, and threats of the coronavirus with Eric Freundt, an Oxford University graduate, national science scholar, and director of the university’s Office of Undergraduate Research and Inquiry. This event connected 25% of the FYS students to the university’s resident expert, and many students included their parents and other family members in the session.

Connections

Through the use of online technology, parents and alumni were included in class events. For example, one course invited parents to watch students perform brief skits. Alumni with expertise in business, law enforcement, health care, and more were invited to give lectures and demonstrations related to some of the themed

FYS courses. Alumna Gretchen Croton, president of a local American Civil Liberties Union chapter and a nationally recognized legal expert on human trafficking, engaged with the students in a legally themed FYS section. Similarly, a forensic technician gave a demonstration to a forensics themed FYS section, and an art themed FYS section was treated to a virtual painting exhibit from a local artist. Due to statewide disruptions of business, the FYS courses leveraged the open schedules of these experts and built personal connections to content and career pathways.

University of Minnesota Twin Cities

Located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the University of Minnesota Twin Cities is a public university with more than 49,000 students. Twelve sections of its academic success courses (LASK) were quickly moved online. The students enrolled in LASK typically are first-year or transfer students, and the two-credit course is taught by the coordinator of Student Academic Success Services and a team of graduate instructors. The course is based on a holistic model focused on five academic success factors: (a) active learning, (b) study skills, (c) life balance, (d) self-awareness, and (e) campus engagement. With the help of 1:1 academic coaching, students are supported as they identify strategies within the five factors that can help facilitate their academic goals.

A fully online curriculum for LASK had already been developed and piloted, so two sections were already fully online in Spring 2020. This allowed the university to draw from the knowledge and experiences of its online instructors to support colleagues who taught in person. LASK coaching sessions were moved to Zoom and reduced by 30 minutes to accommodate unexpected staffing losses, but this online coaching model allowed more opportunities for commuter and working students to participate. There were also some students who simply preferred the virtual meeting format.

The University of Minnesota Twin Cities’s academic success course is based on a holistic model that focuses on five academic success factors. A fully online curriculum for already been developed and piloted before the pandemic, which helped staff quickly move 12 sections online.

Two Disciplinary Pivots

Arizona State University

Arizona State University is a public institution located in Tempe, Arizona, with more than 74,000 students. Clinical assistant professor Jill Oliver moved online five sections of Introduction to Educational Psychology for upper-division students in Arizona State’s professional education program. Immediately there were logistical issues, and solutions were needed for identifying resources that could be made available asynchronously within the university’s learning management system. These included additional readings and out-of-class activities.

This ERT pivot also prioritized fostering community, so in-class discussions were moved and translated to online discussions. Faculty used Zoom to connect with students, but the disparities between students’ living environments quickly became a challenge. For synchronous class sessions, things like crying children, barking dogs, the stress of maintaining attention, and the anxiety related to reliable Internet became substantial obstacles. Synchronous class time was reduced as a result. The conflict between encouraging community and accommodating stay-at-home challenges made for difficult and painful decisions.

Merrimack College

Located in North Andover, Massachusetts, Merrimack College is a private institution with more than 3,700 undergraduate students. Professor Jimmy Franco moved his chemistry courses online using Zoom. Because of the problem-solving nature of the chemistry courses, Franco experimented with the Zoom’s whiteboard feature but found it too cumbersome. Instead, whiteboard applications for the iPad became a valuable teaching companion. Franco also used virtual office hours to maintain support and connect with students during stay-at-home mandates.

Merrimack College also added opportunities for student coaching and tutoring. Coaches reached out through Zoom specifically to support students’ transition to online learning, but wellness checks and personalized coaching were included. Tutoring was also moved to Zoom, and students appreciated how that allowed them to “finish off the semester strong.”

Lessons Learned

Common themes emerged from these ERT transitions, regardless of institution type, size, and course. Each pivot included connectedness, student support, and the spirit of experimentation.

These ERT pivots demonstrate the institutions’ desire to facilitate both faculty–student and student–student connections. The strategies implemented to maintain these connections included activities that were playful and social (e.g., Waffle Wednesdays, “bring your dog to class” day) as well as activities that shifted traditions online (e.g., office hours, class discussions). The shared commitment to connectivity is a testament to higher education’s ethic of care and compassion.

Similarly, each of the narratives included details about how students were supported during their ERT transitions. Those supports included personal and academic efforts. Wellness checks, deadline extensions, and other tactics were used to ensure that students were able to thrive. Tutoring, office hours, and online study sessions were used to make sure students were academically able to complete their coursework.

Finally, each of the narratives included a spirit of experimentation that speaks to faculty’s ability to quickly adopt, test, reflect, and advance, all within a context of stress and uncertainty. For example, Franco piloted the Zoom whiteboard and quickly adopted an iPad application instead. Oliver experimented with synchronous course delivery but modified her approach to accommodate crying children, and she mitigated the social disparities visible in students’ homes by asking them to use generic backgrounds.

This experimentation is different from traditional higher education course design where a course is typically taught much like it was before, with few changes. However, in Spring 2020, higher education found itself in a grand pedagogical experiment as it pivoted to ERT. What is striking in these accounts is the faculty’s resiliency in accomplishing not just the massive shift to online but also how they managed multiple, micro-pivots to ensure the wellbeing and academic success of their students.

Note. Special thanks to those who contributed to the development of this article: Anthony P. LaRose, Associate Professor, Political Science & International Studies, University of Tampa; Edesa Scarborough, Director of First-Year Experience, University of Tampa; Jenny Steiner, Coordinator of Student Academic Success Services, University of Minnesota Twin Cities; Jimmy Franco, Associate Professor & Chair of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Merrimack College; and Jill Oliver, Clinical Assistant Professor of Teacher Preparation, Arizona State University.

References

Astin, A. W. (1984). Student involvement: A developmental theory for higher education. Journal of College Student Personnel, 25(4), 297-308.

Astin, A. W. (1993). What matters in college? Four critical years revisited. Jossey- Bass.

Hodges, C., Moore, S., Lockee, B., Trust, T., & Bond, A. (March, 2020). The difference between emergency remote teaching and online learning. Educause Review. https://er.educause.edu/articles/2020/3/the-differencebetween-emergency-remote-teaching-and-online-learning

Tinto, V. (1993). Leaving college: Rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition (2nd ed.). University of Chicago Press.

CONTACT

Jimmy Franco: francoj@merrimack.edu

Edesa Scarborough: escarborough@ut.edu

Jenny Steiner: stei1169@umn.edu

Jill Oliver: joliver@asu.edu