The impact of participation in a first-year seminar on increased usage of campus resources, academic and social integration and first-to-second-semester persistence at a two-year community and technical college.

Abstract

Lafferty, Kaye 1964-, "The impact of participation in a first-year seminar on increased usage of campus resources, academic and social integration and first-to-second-semester persistence at a two-year community and technical college." (2015). Eric, you are truly the APA king and I will be forever grateful to you for all your writing and editing advice.I will be forever thankful for Dr. Suzette Scheuermann's positive optimism and passion, insightful discussions, and suggestions. Her enthusiasm is truly contagious. Dr.Scheuermann, I will cherish you and all you have done for me during this dissertation journey. You have sacrificed many hours of your life to help me accomplish my goal.Words cannot express the gratitude that I have for you. Please continue to be a supporter to doctoral students as they embark on this long journey. I hope this is the beginning of many special future working opportunities coming our way together. Student attrition has been a focus of college administrators for many years and will remain a critical concern for higher education (Bean, 1985; Tinto, 1987). The problem of student attrition is more severe at community colleges than at four-year institutions (Andreu, 2002;Lundberg, 2002;McCabe, 2000). Many institutions are implementing first-year seminar programs to increase persistence during the first year of college. The purpose of this study was to ascertain whether participating in a first-year seminar course will increase a student's academic engagement and attachment to the environment, usage of campus resources and participation in campus events, use of the counseling center, and commitment to complete, as well as decrease outside barriers compared to students that do not participate in a first-year seminar course. This study utilized the theoretical frameworks from Tinto's (1993) student integration model, Bean benefits from the first-year seminar than Caucasian students and that greater benefits were reported by full-time students and older students (>25) than part-time and younger students (18-25). Limitations, implications for practice, and recommendations for future study are presented.

Impact of first-year seminar on student engagement, awareness, and general attitudes toward higher education

“…However, the utilization frequency of campus resources did not reveal any significant differences between the two groups, which appeared to be related to the number of credit hours completed by each group, as the C group hours were significantly higher than the S group's. The impact of the first-year seminar on student awareness was consistent with most previous research, except in terms of the utilization frequency of campus resources, which was not consistent with Yale (2000) or Lafferty (2015).…”

“…The third part of this study explored the effect of the seminar on general attitudes toward university education in three sectionsgeneral satisfaction, commitment and capability to finish college, and citizenship responsibility behavior. It was found that the seminar had a clear positive influence on student perceptions of education quality, and more S group students expressed a greater commitment to continuing their studies at this university, as well as greater awareness of how to develop their own leadership skills using the available training opportunities; however, there was no clear significant difference between the two groups in terms of citizenship responsibility behavior, all of which were in line with the results in Sanchez et al (2006), the National Survey of Student Engagement (2005), and Lafferty (2015), but were contrary to Hendel (2007), which found no impact on overall satisfaction for first-year seminar students. Overall, the results showed that the first-year seminar significantly increased positive attitudes toward the college.…”

“…Similarly, studies by Sanchez et al (2006), Hendel (2007), and Jamelske (2009) reported that seminar participation was associated with overall satisfaction with the first year of college, as well as increased involvement in campus activities and events. Some more recent studies by Laudicina (2014) and Lafferty (2015) also found that first-year seminar attendance led to higher academic skills and better social integration. The National Survey of Student Engagement (2005) revealed that, compared to non-participants, first-year seminar participants "a. were more challenged academically, b. were more likely to be involved in active and collaborative learning activities, c. interacted more frequently with faculty, d. perceived the campus environment as being more supportive, e. gained more from their first year of college, and f. were more satisfied with the college" (National Survey of Student Engagement Report, 2005, p. 15).…”