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Degree

Master of Education, University of Toledo, Higher Education, 2004.

Abstract

A general assumption in higher education is that students who do not make a successful transition to college life are more likely not to be retained for the second year. Historically, colleges and universities have implemented programs and courses that assist first-year students in developing academic and social skills. Developing these types of skills allow first-year students the opportunity to make a transition to college life. Undecided students are at-risk students, and it is important for a college to provide a support system to these students through effective advising, and courses that are concentrated on first-year success. Orientation courses have been a part of the overall first-year experience for students in large numbers of colleges and universities. This quantitative study investigated the perceptions of 322 first-year undecided QUEST students, enrolled in an eight-week orientation course at the University of Toledo (UT). The orientation instructors’ perceptions were also investigated in considering the effectiveness of the course in achieving first-year objectives. Students and instructors recorded their agreement or disagreement with the statements on the opinionnaire. The statements concentrated on the objectives that would allow first-year students to make a transition to college life. Opinionnaire statements were constructed using the QUEST orientation course syllabus, an informational flyer provided to students during the Fall 2003 registration, and other QUEST FYE documented objectives. The data from the opinionnaire responses recorded on a Likert scale were machine scored, and summed using the numerical values assigned by the students and the instructors to each opinionnaire item. The sum of the numerical values established a rating hierarchy of agreement or disagreement for each objective and the objectives were ranked. Course objectives that were ranked high included the first-year objectives of academic advising, balancing campus life, resource discovery and utilization, and having a learning community present in every class meeting. The orientation course currently being implemented provides first-year students transitional guidance. The findings revealed that seventy percent of the course sections resulted in significant differences when comparing the students from one section with their instructor from the same section to the extent to which course objectives were perceived as being achieved.

Keywords

first-year students; First Year Experience; Orientation course; successful transition to college; Likert scale; first-year objectives; rating hierarchy

Advisor

Richard R. Perry

Pages

95p.

Document number: toledo1083072363
Permalink: http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1083072363

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