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Connecting the First Year:

Connecting the First Year:. The student’s whole BGSU experience. The Problem. Many good programs, but too many Lack of centralized coordination has detracted from overall effort Redundancies and gaps Difficult for students to navigate. Existing Programs.

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Connecting the First Year:

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  1. Connecting the First Year: The student’s whole BGSU experience

  2. The Problem • Many good programs, but too many • Lack of centralized coordination has detracted from overall effort • Redundancies and gaps • Difficult for students to navigate

  3. Existing Programs • Many programs affect first-year students • Some for special subpopulations • Some also for sophmores, juniors, seniors • There are only five programs that are designed for first-year students: • BG Perspective (gen ed) • BGeXperience • Springboard • UNIV 100 • Residential Learning Communities (9)

  4. Building on Success • While existing programs have had success, they lack coherence and distinctiveness • Coherence: thematic connections across all four years, and spanning academic and student affairs • Distinctiveness: Framing around the University Learning Outcomes, of which Critical Thinking About Values plays the leading role

  5. Three Critical Transitions • Transition to college • Finding a major • Preparing for life after college • Address all three transitions in a coordinated, thematic way

  6. Special Issues for the First Year • Enhancing social integration • First-year transition issues • Building academic skills • Critical thinking about values • Multicultural competence • Intentional retention • Navigating the system • Engagement with external communities

  7. First-year Seminar • Address the “transition to college” issues • Build academic component • University Learning Outcomes • Electronic portfolio use • Must be part of BG Perspective • Multiple versions possible

  8. Transition to Majors • For students who have decided on a particular major • Courses that explore how the major connects to issues of the day • For students who want to explore • Inter- or multi-disciplinary courses designed around topics such as “AIDS,” “Sustainability,” or “Oil”

  9. Reflecting and Looking Ahead • Capstone courses in every major • Synthetic, project-based demonstration of learning • Culmination of electronic portfolio, with purposeful connection to career or further study

  10. Administrative Structure • Central oversight is necessary to ensure consistency and coordination • Formal structure (such as undergraduate college) is unnecessary and undesirable

  11. Related Concerns • Comprehensive curricular review: For the “transitions” approach to be most effective, the University Learning Outcomes should be intentional themes for all courses • Overlap of A&S “group requirements” with BG Perspective is confusing and counterproductive

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