A Case Study: Assessing the Successes of a First Year Experience Course

First-Year Experience programs have existed within higher education for decades. Specifically, the University of South Carolina’s University 101 (c.1972) serves as the gold standard for such programs. Best practice examples will indicate how years of implementing such retention efforts such as the First-Year Experience programs have “made the connection” between student and institution.
However, it is not until recently that many community colleges have realized their own need for change in their institutional focus from one of access to that of completion. Research pertaining to how community colleges have distinctively approached engaging their students in an effort to address student retention is in its infancy.
This study examines the effectiveness of the newly created First-Year-Experience (FYE) course at a small, public, Midwestern community college. Key findings concluded that the college’s first-year experience course was effective in meeting the four institutional goals and the research questions of this study. These research questions center on the course’s ability to engage the students into their new academic surroundings, and therefore, add to the possibility of retaining students through completion of their academic degrees.