The first year is known to be challenging for students at university. If students fail to transition to college successfully, it can result in a low GPA and they may eventually drop out of university. Fortunately, higher education systems opt to add various types of support for students during this important transition. One possible support is to implement a first-year seminar course, a hybrid-course which teaches academic and non-academic skills that help students to be successful. Optimally, teaching students’ skills for college success might help them manage their academic needs and increase retention rates. Following this proposal for best practice, Qatar University added a compulsory first-year seminar course in six colleges across different programs. The course included cognitive, non-cognitive and performance skills. In this retrospective study, we assessed the impact of this course on the retention rate at the university and students’ academic performance over time. We reviewed a large sample of over 3000 students who started their college journey at Qatar University over four consecutives semesters. Students were classified into two groups to allow for comparison between those who took the first-year seminar course and those who did not take it, in terms of their retention rates and GPA. Our findings show that students who successfully completed the course had a higher retention rate, especially in the first semester. Furthermore, the GPA, for those who took the course and continued to attend the university, was higher across semesters. In conclusion, within our sample, the first-year seminar course was successful in supporting student success as evidenced by higher GPAs, and an increased retention rate.

Abstract:The current study investigated the use of ICT within the schools and higher education sectors in the eastern province of kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The objective is to evaluate how computer literacy and the implementation of e-learning could contribute to the learning and teaching process within the education sector in this area. A cross sectional survey was carried out among students. A website was designed to gather the data through questionnaire and interview. The data was analyzed with routine statistical tools. The results show that the students favorite place to get access to a computer is their home. High percentages of students were capable of working with windows functions and affirmed that computer programs and models helping a great deal in understanding the courses. The study revealed that secondary schools students were hardly using e-learning technologies compared with higher education sector. The research implied fairly good mastery of ICT and student interest in following the development in computer education which opens new outlook to the education sector in this area. However, effective measures to promote the usage of e-learning facilities should be provided and more efforts should be made to improve e-learning facilities in schools.