Presented by:

John Lanning, Ken Bettenhausen,and Nadine Montoya

30th Annual Conference on the First -Year Experience

Using Workshops to Extend Academic Skills

UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER

An urban research university located on the Auraria campus shared with the Community College of Denver and Metropolitan State College of Denver, and consolidated with the Anschutz Medical Campus

14,000 students in six colleges; 9,000 undergraduate students

1,100 Fall first-year freshmen; 30% freshmen live in on-campus housing

common general education ‘core’ across all colleges

1,300 Fall transfer students, ~35% from community colleges

history as both transfer-in and transfer-out institution

UC DENVER FYS PROGRAM

1988-2000Required seminar of first-year students in College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

2005Quality Undergraduate Education initiative for improved student retention

2006Initiated campus-wide FYS program

2008FYS Course meets Core Curriculum requirements 2009

Initiated Skills Workshops

2010Initiated Peer Advocate Leader (PAL) Program

UC DENVER FYS FORMAT

3-credit hour – one course in Core Curriculum Core requirement – critical thinking and writing

Faculty taught – tenure-track, instructors, and staff Class size – limited to 24 students Campus-wide – encouraged for all new freshmen

Academic content varies – 70-80% In-class, out-of-class academic skills – 20-30%

Engagement through workshops, campus activities, service learning, and academic advising

UC DENVER FYS COURSES

ARTSSources of Creativity

BIOLGlobal Health

Crisis

CHEM Science Behind Environmental

Headlines

COMMEvaluating

Contemporary TV

CRJULaw and Order

ENGRPsychology of

Technology and Industry

GEOGGlobal Climate

Change

HISTFinding Your Way Around Denver

MATHMathematics of Sports, Games and Gambling

MGMTGet Rich or Die

Trying

PSYC What

Psychologists Do

TCEDLearning for the

21st Century

UC DENVER FYS ENROLLMENT

Year,Fall Sections

FYS Enrollment

Average Section

% FY Students

2006 7 99 14.1 10.4

2007 11 190 17.3 17.2

2008 14 289 20.6 26.1

2009 15 358 23.9 32.7

2010 16 378 23.6 34.4

INTEGRATION OF ACADEMIC SKILLS Faculty Expertise

pre-semester training

Skills Text standard text – Ellis, Gardner, Carter, etc. custom text – Carter

Campus Resource Scavenger Hunts Workshops

in-class skills presentations from support offices large-scale presentations by support office staff in/out-of-class workshops from student support offices

VARIATIONS OF ‘WORKSHOP’ CONCEPT

Pre-conference sessions at regional and national meetings FYE, AACU, NACADA, FoE, etc.

Pre-semester faculty or staff development individuals preparing to teach a first-year seminar course

Limited number of required workshop sessions in-class and of out-of-class sessions for FYS students

UC DENVER FYS WORKSHOP CONCEPTThe UC Denver workshop concept is a large number of optional sessions sponsored by student support offices and focused on academic or personal skills.

supplement required in-class skills in Carter text utilize student support office staff for skills expertise extend campus resources beyond orientation increase faculty mentoring in selecting workshops provide student choice to support learning needs improve student satisfaction and retention for FYS students

FALL 2009 WORKSHOPSBeginning with Fall 2009, FYS courses required students to participate in skills-oriented workshops of the student’s choice.

•alcohol

•study skills, test taking

•major selection, career options

•essay support, citations, effective writing

FALL 2009 WORKSHOP ASSESSMENT

overall student evaluation of

3.3 on 5-point scale

positive student comments about mentoring and choice of skills

increased student use of

support offices

lack of registration system led to over

and under subscription of

sessions

too few workshop sessions caused

several skills sessions to be oversubscribed

FALL 2010 SKILLS WORKSHOPS13 support offices provided 145 workshop sessions covering 56 topics.

wide range of academic and personal skills registration system developed by each support office workshops available to FYS and non-FYS students reliance on existing workshops FYS faculty agreed to require three skills workshops FYS faculty had option for in-class skills workshops FYS program provided modest funds to support offices FYS web site to provide list and calendar of workshops

FYS WORKSHOPS - UE WEBSITE

drop-down menus by Officeand interactive

calendar

FALL 2010 WORKSHOPSAuraria Library (9)•MS PowerPoint, data base searching

Career Center (2)•major selection, workforce, 1st resume

CLAS Advising (2)•degree planning, early alert

Commun. Stand. & Wellness (1)•alcohol awareness

Counseling Center (5)•Strengths Quest, emotions, counseling basics

Experiential Learning Center (1)•learning outside classroom

Financial Aid (3)•personal finance, financial aid basics

Health Center (7)•healthy moves, STD prevention, sleep

Learning Resource Center (12)•studying, test taking, learning styles

Phoenix Center (2)•violence prevention, love/sex/lies

Scholarship Office (5)•basics, searching, online application

Student Life (1)•first generation, transforming perspectives

Writing Center (6)•citations, literature reviews, effective writing

Other (?)•Health Careers, Writing Process, Professionalism,

FYS SURVEY ASSESSMENT310 (84.7%) FYS students completed an end-of-semester survey on all aspects of the FYS program. 848 workshop participations – over reported strong student evaluation of workshops – 3.3 to 4.2 (5-pt) workshops contributed to out-of-class engagement activities

workshops – 97% participation rate with 3.7 average evaluation activities – 90% participation rate with 3.6 average evaluation advising – 88% participation rate with 4.1 average evaluation service learning (optional) – 28% participation rate with 3.8 evaluation

workshop skills scored higher than text – 3.7 versus 3.5 89% returning for Fall 2011 – self-reported retention 79% recommendation of FYS to incoming freshmen

WORKSHOP PARTICIPATION ASSESSMENTEach FYS student attending a skills workshop completed a participation/evaluation form.

492 workshop participations – under reported

strong evaluation of individual workshops – 4.3 (5-pt)

several not well attended – 6 of 56 with zero FYS participation

significant variation between FYS sections – grading, mentoring, encouragement, use of peer mentor

in-class workshops scored well, but not above out-of-class Career Center: in-class = 4.2, out-of-class = 4.3 Writing Center: in-class = 3.8, out-of-class = 4.4

student confusion between office ‘visit’ and ‘workshop’

WORKSHOPS – STUDENT COMMENTS

negative comments required aspect of workshops three workshops viewed as excessive workshop participation was part of course grade excessive amount of outside class engagement activities

positive comments workshops listed as best aspect of FYS course learned about campus resources, how student fees used strengthened campus engagement wanted more workshops, especially at end of semester

WORKSHOPS – FACULTY COMMENTSFaculty response to skills workshops is overall very positive.

workshops complement Carter skills text workshop participation is supported by faculty mentoring option of in-class workshops – career, writing, study

difficulty of engaging students in workshops in-class testimonials extra credit when take FYS classmate

positive feedback to faculty from students who participated student confusion from large number of workshops

WORKSHOPS – STAFF COMMENTSOffice directors and support staff were generally supportive of the FYS workshops. increased student exposure to campus resources significant student participation in workshops

participation extends beyond FYS semester strong support for in-class workshop presentations registration systems presented issues

e-mail reminder not available too many no-shows

weak enrollment in several workshop sessions staff time commitment and space can be significant issues workshop content overlap between offices

WORKSHOPS – UE PERSPECTIVEThe Office of Undergraduate Experiences provides an overview of the UC Denver skills workshops.

Increased Communication

FYS faculty and student support offices

Student-Selected Workshops

tailored to interests; avoids negative aspect of required

participation

Faculty Buy-in

integrate student skills with academic content through

mentoring and assignments

Strengthened Engagement Culturestudent engagement outside FYS

classroom

Workshop Success

faculty, student and staff communication

FALL 2011 MODIFICATIONS

Number of workshop sessions

90-100 sessions

Differentiationbetween workshop, activity, and

office visitation separate participation forms

Faculty Commitment stronger and more consistent to

support workshop concept –culture change for some FYS

faculty

Workshop Selectionstronger faculty, and possibly peer

mentor, role in helping students select workshops

Coordinationbetween student support offices for combined workshops around

central topic

Workshop Topicseliminate ineffective workshopsadd health careers workshops

IMPLEMENTATION SUGGESTIONSIf considering using optional skills workshops, please keep the consider the following:

FYS Faculty support is essential for workshop success. Significant staff time is required to coordinate, schedule, and

promote skills workshops. Communication before and after the semester is crucial. FYS website is needed for workshop promotion and calendar

development. Small financial support is very helpful. Culture and communication changes are slow.

CONCLUSIONS Optional skills workshops are the most effective format used at

UC Denver to augment skills in the content-oriented FYS program.

Optional workshop concept should work for both skills- and content-oriented FYS programs.

Communication between academic and student affairs improved significantly.

Space and staff resources may preclude every student support office from participating.

For additional information or details about skills

workshops at UC Denver, please contact:

John Lanning Assistant Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate Experiences

303-315-2134 John.Lanning@ucdenver.edu

Nadine Montoya Program Coordinator,

Undergraduate Experiences 303-315-2133

Nadine.Montoya@ucdenver.edu