Transcript Executive Summary (Powerpoint)

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
 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:
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BG Perspective (gen ed)
BGeXperience
Springboard
UNIV 100
Residential Learning Communities (9)
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
Three Critical
Transitions
 Transition to college
 Finding a major
 Preparing for life after
college
 Address all three transitions in
a coordinated, thematic way
Special Issues for the
First Year
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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
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
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”
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
Administrative
Structure
 Central oversight is necessary
to ensure consistency and
coordination
 Formal structure (such as
undergraduate college) is
unnecessary and undesirable
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