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Northern Arizona University: A suite of initiatives to help first and second-year students

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As part of our e-Literate TV series of case studies, we had a chance this fall to interview faculty and staff at Northern Arizona University about, well, a lot of stuff. ((Disclosure: Our e-Literate TV series of video case studies and explainer videos is funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.)) Rather than highlighting a specific program or course redesign, NAU has invested in and implemented a suite of initiatives focused on improving student learning and success by rethinking the experience of (mostly) first-year students.

The core challenge NAU faces is to make these student-facing changes while facing growing enrollment, particularly for full-time undergraduate students.

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To make matters more interesting, more than 40% of first-year students are first-generation – a demographic group that can be fully capable of getting a degree but with an uphill climb in the first year. These challenges lead to a somewhat unique situation for a large research university. In this first episode, we highlight the suite of initiatives and how they fit together.

(Video source: https://youtu.be/UirXLm7kd1o)

In upcoming videos we’ll take a deeper look at two programs. In episode 2 we’ll look at NAU’s student support outside of the classroom, driven partially by the Integrated Planning and Advising for Student Success (IPASS) initiative. In episode 3 we’ll look at NAU’s use of a modified emporium for first-year math courses.

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6 responses to “Northern Arizona University: A suite of initiatives to help first and second-year students”

  1. […] In episode 1 of our e-Literate TV case study on Northern Arizona University, we gave a broad overview of the suite of initiatives (primarily) targeted at helping first-year students amidst the tensions coming from growing enrollments.[1] In episode 2 we covered their advising and student support, including work with IPASS initiative. In this episode we look at their modified math emporium approach leveraging the Lumberjack Mathematics Center. […]

  2. […] In episode 1 of our e-Literate TV case study on Northern Arizona University, we gave a broad overview of the suite of initiatives (primarily) targeted at helping first-year students amidst the tensions coming from growing enrollments.[1] In this episode we look outside of the classroom to see how they’re approach advising and student support. […]

  3. […] week I published three e-Literate TV episodes on Northern Arizona University and their suite of initiatives aimed at […]

  4. […] Northern Arizona University implemented a suite of student success initiatives…all while facing growing enrollment.  […]

  5. […] week I published three e-Literate TV episodes on Northern Arizona University and their suite of initiatives aimed at […]

  6. […] In episode 1 of our e-Literate TV case study on Northern Arizona University, we gave a broad overview of the suite of initiatives (primarily) targeted at helping first-year students amidst the tensions coming from growing enrollments.[1] In this episode we look outside of the classroom to see how they’re approach advising and student support. […]