University of Nebraska Kearney

First Year Program Assessment Report 2004-2005

Focus of Assessment:

1. Student Outcomes
   • Improve academic skills (e.g., written and oral communication, critical thinking, use of technology).
   • Enhance student involvement in the campus community (e.g., student-faculty interaction, participation in campus activities).
   • Build understanding of campus resources, services and procedures.
   • Integrate Academic Affairs and Student Affairs support for students.
   • Explore the definition of “diversity” as it exists on the UNK Campus.
    

Student Outcome Measures:

1. Indirect Measures
• Student Survey  
2. Direct Measures
   • GPA comparison
   • Persistence rate comparison
   • Writing assignment
    

Summary of Indirect Measures of Student Outcomes:

A.  End-of-semester Survey

The small class environment and personal attention from a faculty member and a student peer leader have introduced students to these goals and helped students become aware of their responsibility for their education at UNK.  The following figures demonstrate:

Taking the top half of student responses (“Very Much” and “Somewhat”), students believed they:

• Improved their written skills (65%)
• Engaged in critical thinking (86%)
• Acknowledged these thinking skills helped in other courses (83%)
• Became aware of library services (77%)
• Became aware of campus student services (85%)
• Become familiar with library resources (84%)

The lower number regarding written skills is due to the wide range of classes offered, classes for which developing communication skills was not a major focus outside of the FY objectives.  For example, several students from Economics and Psychology courses commented that their classes didn’t focus as many on these objectives.

In addition to meeting these academic goals, students indicated they:

• Had the opportunity to explore diversity at UNK (88%)
• Understand student responsibility for learning (94%)
• Became aware of responsibilities as a college student (95%)
• Interacted with other FY students/created student community (82%)

Significant to the First Year Program’s institutional missions:

• 88% of students were satisfied with their First Year experience,
• 92% indicated they were satisfied with their experience at UNK.
• 87% would recommend the First Year Program to incoming freshman

Summary of Direct Measures of Student Outcomes:

A.  Comparison of Fall 2004 First Year Program Students with all 2004 Fall Freshmen

Students who completed the Fall 2005 First Year Program had a

• 89% persistence rate; that is 89% of students enrolled in FY courses enrolled in 2004 spring semester. The persistence rate for 2002-03 was 81%.
• Average GPA after two terms was 3.181 compared with the total freshman average GPA of 2.69 for fall 2004.
• 6% FY students had a first probation flag (21 of 327 students) that is comparable to all freshmen that have 6% probation (64 of 1030 students).

(UNK Registrar’s Office and http://aaunk.unk.edu/factbook/)

Students who completed the Fall 2004 semester of the First Year Program had a nearly .5 higher GPA at the end of their second semester compared to the entire freshman class.  As the annual reporting for academic year 2003-2005 becomes available, annual comparisons will be forwarded.

Appendix  A. 

Student Survey Results