Freshman Learning Communities: Thirteen Years of Data and Lessons Learned

1. Sally K. Murphy Director of General Education and Freshman Year Programs California State University, East Bay Julie Stein, Instructor, General Studies and General Education Advisor Freshman Learning Communities: Thirteen Years of Data and Lessons Learned

2. Agenda • Workshop Context: High Impact Practices and Your Goal • The Story of Freshmen General Education Learning Communities • 13 Years of Learning Community Indirect Assessment Exercise • Lessons Learned and the Critical Importance of Data • Some Assessment Data Sources

3. High Impact Educational Practices

4. Freshmen General EducationLearning Communities Prior to 1998 1998-2012 General education learning communities or clusters where: freshmen in cohorts of about 90 students take GE classes throughout the year that are integrated by a common theme WASC report CSUEB • make G.E. more coherent • increase retention • provide increased academic support to freshmen such as more lower division G.E. courses

5. Sample First Year ScheduleAncient World Cluster: Humanities

6. Sample 1st Year ScheduleAncient World: Humanities

7. Assessing General Education Learning Communities Standardized assessments Authentic assessments

8. Freshman Learning CommunityImpact of Data Exercise • The goal of this exercise is to see how survey data can tell a story about the impact of a program or practice. • Data Set Perceived Needs • Data Set Retention and Remediation • Data Set Perceived Improvement

9. Freshman Learning Community Impact of Data Exercise • Open Folder #1. In your group, analyze the data for the Freshmen Learning Community program from 1998-2011. • What conclusions could you draw about the program with the data provided?

10. Freshman Learning Community Impact of Data Exercise • Open Folder #1. In your group, analyze the data for the Freshmen Learning Community program from 1998-2011. • What conclusions could you draw about the program with the data provided? • Next, open folder #2 and overlay the transparency on the data chart. • What other conclusions could you draw about the program now?

11. Additional Data Still Needed Where to Deepen Learning/ Provide Support? • Data tells some of the story • Still need a “finer grained picture” for measure of direct learning. For example a portfolio assessment with 2nd-4th year writing and other academic markers to identify development over time • Other relevant data (class size, socioeconomic)

12. Lesson’s Learned • Start now • Ideal to collect direct measures • Your program is unlikely to receive long term support unless success is measured • No matter what your program is, you need to collect, analyze, and compare over time whatever meaningful data is available • Examine interrelationships between data • Avoid the danger analyzing limited data

13. Some Assessment Data Sources General data Standardized Assessment instruments Entering Student Survey (ESS) The College Student Experiences Questionnaire (CSEQ) National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) Faculty Survey of Student Engagement (FSSE), College Assessment of Academic Proficiency (CAAP) Collegiate Learning Assessment CLA • Institutional • Self Reporting • Qualitative • Authentic Assessment

14. High Impact Educational Practices

15. Freshman Learning Communities: Thirteen Years of Data and Lessons Learned Sally K. Murphy Director of General Education and Freshman Year Programs Julie Stein, Instructor, General Studies