Enhancing Student Retention: Impacts of a First-Year Seminar Course

1. Enhancing Student Retention: Impacts of a First-Year Seminar Course Dixie Watts Dalton and Mary A. MarchantNACTA Conference Dept. of Agricultural and Applied Economics Penn State Virginia Tech June 2010

2. Today’s Presentation • Introduction • Data methods • Results • Conclusions • Questions and discussion

3. Introduction • Student retention and graduation are important outcomes for undergraduate programs • President Obama’s stated goal: “By 2020, America will again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.”

4. Introduction (cont’d) • A sense of “connectedness” can improve retention (Tinto) • “Lack of attention” is a source of the problem of “too low” graduation rates (Bowen, et al.)

5. Motivation for Virginia Tech’s AAEC First Year Seminar • Senior exit interviews indicated that students wished they had met more faculty earlier • There was a lack of departmental connection with students until the junior year • freshman courses were large and impersonal • few AAEC courses were taken as sophomores

6. The Solution In 1998, the department created a one-credit First Year Seminar for all entering freshmen and external transfer students

7. AAEC First Year Seminar (FYS) Three primary goals: • To assist students in transitioning to a four-year university while creating a sense of community • To introduce students to the breadth and depth of AAEC discipline • To provide a forum for meeting faculty and learning of teaching/research/ outreach interests

8. Data methods: Quantitative Analysis of Survey Conducted alumni survey to determine benefits of FYS course • Emailed through Alumni Association, with one electronic reminder • Likert-scale questions on usefulness • 20% response rate

9. Data methods: Quantitative Analysis of University Data Utilizing data from Virginia Tech’s Institutional Research Division (IRD) • Compared retention and graduation rates, pre- and post-seminar course • Compared post-seminar rates for AAEC, college, and university

10. Results: Alumni Survey Survey question and percent of respondents indicating “somewhat” or “very helpful”:

11. Results: IRD Pre- & Post-FYSRetention & Graduation Rates Following implementation of the First Year Seminar, retention (freshman to sophomore) and graduation (4- and 5-year) rates improved

12. Results: IRD Dept. vs. College and University Rates Post-FYS, departmental retention and graduation rates exceeded those of the college and exceeded 4-year graduation rates for the university overall

13. Conclusions • Student retention is an important issue for higher education • Creating connectedness makes a difference • A first year seminar course creates connectedness and improves retention and graduation rates

14. Working Paper:http://purl.umn.edu/56476

15. References • Bowen, W.G., M.M. Chingos, and M.S. McPherson (2009). Crossing the Finish Line: Completing College at America’s Public Universities, Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press. • Obama, B. (2009). “Remarks of President Barack Obama – Address to Joint Session of Congress.” Text of a speech released by the White House Press Office, February 24, 2009. • Tinto, V. (1993). Leaving College: Rethinking the Causes and Cures of Student Attrition (2nd ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

16. Enhancing Student Retention: Impacts of a First-Year Seminar Course Dixie Watts Dalton and Mary A. MarchantNACTA Conference Dept. of Agricultural and Applied Economics Penn State Virginia Tech June 2010