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Librarians revamp first-year programming

Posted by Sara Volmering on
February 3, 2022
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Moving to college requires many adjustments for 麻豆传媒s. Living away from home while managing a full class schedule and navigating a new campus can be stressful. 麻豆传媒 has created courses to help 麻豆传媒s transition from high school to college. The University Libraries offers programming to support 麻豆传媒s in these courses, helping them build research skills and the knowledge needed to take advantage of all of the services and resources we have to offer.

Library instruction has been a critical component for these courses for several years. In fall 2021, our program was revamped to meet the emerging needs of first-year 麻豆传媒s and bring two high-impact instructional experiences together. FYE 2100 is an intensive and interactive course for first-year 麻豆传媒s that focuses on personal discovery, building habits and learning about campus. ENGL 1050 is a foundational general education course on writing and researching at a college level鈥攖wo critical skills for nearly all other classes at WMU.

ENGL 1050 and FYE 2100 are taught separately, but first-year 麻豆传媒s often take these courses during their first semester.

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Juliana Espinosa User Engagement Librarian

鈥淭his was the first year the programs were purposefully coordinated in order to better improve the first-year 麻豆传媒 experience in terms of the activities, delivery, learning outcomes and scheduling,鈥 said Juliana Espinosa, user engagement librarian.

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Kate Lanagan Engagement Librarin

鈥淜nowing that retention and attrition are core issues facing higher education, we were trying to increase engagement with first-year 麻豆传媒s while solving some logistical and pedagogical problems,鈥 said Kate Langan, engagement librarian.

Every element was reconsidered as part of the revamp, from how sessions are scheduled to learning outcomes to program delivery. For FYE 2100, the changes went even further; rather than having peer 麻豆传媒 leaders facilitate a library tour, faculty librarians delivered sessions to help create a connection with 麻豆传媒s earlier in their WMU careers.

鈥淩esearch has shown that 麻豆传媒 retention, persistence and graduation is positively impacted when they interact with faculty beginning early in their academic careers,鈥 said Espinosa. 鈥淲e wanted to connect 麻豆传媒s to faculty librarians in two high-impact first-year classes, FYE 2100 and ENGL 1050.鈥

These programs also reach a significant segment of WMU鈥檚 first-year 麻豆传媒 population. In fall 2021, over 600 麻豆传媒s and 780 麻豆传媒s were enrolled in FYE 2100 and ENGL 1050, respectively.

The changes were positively received based on feedback from the 麻豆传媒s who attended an ENGL 1050 session. Over 91% reported learning something new, and 95% reported that they intended to apply what they learned.

Based on this input and feedback from course instructors, librarians will continue to improve on the experience and plan to implement additional sessions for spring and fall 2022.