Published in partnership with NACADA, The Global Community for Academic Advising

As the focus on college completion and gainful employment intensifies, the stakes for students entering higher education and the institutions that serve them have never been higher. Yet, new students and their families may not understand the value of an educational plan for helping them stay on track and achieve their goals. They may have even less knowledge about how to create one. This brief guide focuses on the role of academic advisors in helping students chart a course for success and suggests how parents and family members can be partners in the journey. A glossary of key terms and list of frequently asked questions help demystify the college experience and highlight the many purposes of the academic advising relationship. A particularly useful resource for the families of first-generation college students and ideal for distribution at recruitment events, orientation, or parent and family programs.

$4.50 each when purchased in multiple copy pack of 100.

Higher education institutions are more diverse than ever before, as are the students they serve. Because of this great diversity, there is no silver bullet—one approach—that will work for teaching all students in all circumstances. This book offers a succinct description of several pedagogical paths available to faculty that can actively engage all students. In addition to providing the most recent information on learning and assessment, individual chapters tackle different approaches, including critical pedagogy, contemplative pedagogy, strengths-based teaching, and cooperative/collaborative learning. While the discussion is grounded in theory, authors present examples of applying these approaches in physical and virtual learning environments. Paths to Learning is a valuable overview of engaging pedagogies for educators seeking to sharpen their teaching skills, which in turn, will help students become more confident and successful learners.

For a quarter century, the National Resource Center has been examining the prevalence, structure, and administration of first-year seminars on American college campuses. The 2012-2013 administration of the National Survey of First-Year Seminars was expanded to explore the connection between the seminar and other high-impact practices in the first college year, including learning communities, service-learning, common reading programs, undergraduate research, and writing instruction. Findings are disaggregated by institutional characteristics and seminar type so that readers may easily identify the course features with the greatest relevance for their own context.

The transition from high school to college is an important milestone, but it is only one of many steps in the journey through higher education. Interest in the many other transitions students make—through the sophomore year, from one institution to another, and out of college—has grown exponentially in the last decade. At the same time, educators recognize that each transition experience is unique, shaped by the individual student context. A new annotated bibliography helps researchers and practitioners navigate the emerging literature base on college student transitions beyond the first year, with special focus on adult learners, student veterans, and those studying in different cultures.

Surveys of employers continually highlight the need for better communication skills among recent college graduates. Yet writing instruction in higher education serves far more than a transactional purpose. Writing facilitates learning, helps students gain skills in analysis and synthesis, and supports a range of other personal and intellectual developmental outcomes also important to employers. To that end, Writing in the Senior Capstone offers the rationale and practical guidance for infusing writing into culminating academic experiences for college seniors. Recognizing that writing-intensive capstones already exist on many campuses, the authors also offer a range of strategies and activities to support the development of independent senior projects, while honing students’ thinking, writing, and presentation skills. A valuable resource for any educator seeking to improve the writing and critical thinking skills of college seniors.

Guided by an understanding of adult development, the authors suggest strategies for designing and presenting a comprehensive faculty development program in support of the first-year seminar. Chapters focus on the organization of one-shot and ongoing development efforts, content for training programs, evaluation as a development activity, and strategies for recruiting and maintaining a dedicated instructor team. While focused on the first-year seminar, the volume offers useful insight for anyone charged with designing faculty development initiatives for first-year instructors.

The First-Year Seminar: Designing, Implementing, and Assessing Courses to Support Student Learning and Success which includes all 5 volumes in this series is available as an eBook ISBN 9781942072652.

In an effort to capitalize on some of the more positive aspects of peer influences, colleges and universities have created a wide range of peer-to-peer education, leadership, and mentoring roles—especially in the first college year. Yet, the use of peers in first-year seminar instruction is still far from commonplace. Latino and Ashcraft offer guidance on defining the role of peers as co-instructors; recruiting, selecting, and training peer educators; facilitating relationship building within the instructional team; and assessing the impact of peer leaders on the course, the students served, and the peers themselves. Sample training agendas and activities, course syllabi, and evaluations are included.

The First-Year Seminar: Designing, Implementing, and Assessing Courses to Support Student Learning and Success which includes all 5 volumes in this series is available as an eBook ISBN 9781942072652.

Increasing pressures on colleges and universities to ensure degree completion and job placement as measures of success make it imperative that the path to graduation is clear and that seniors receive the support needed to earn a degree and make a successful transition to life beyond college. This new edited collection describes today’s college seniors and offers strategies for supporting them to graduation through high-impact educational initiatives. Contributors also address issues related to career development; workplace transitions; and opportunities for integration, reflection, closure, and ongoing engagement as students leave college. Educators charged with improving the end-of-college experience will find this an invaluable resource.

Offering a primer on action research methodologies and examples of practice, Students in Transition: Research and Practice in Career Development responds to a dual challenge facing career development educators -- designing cutting-edge career development interventions and demonstrating their effectiveness. Overviews of quantitative and qualitative measures and career development instruments are presented to assist educators in documenting the outcomes of their programs and initiatives. The case studies in the final sections of the volume describe the delivery and evaluation of a wide range of career initiatives offered in diverse settings and spanning the transition from high school to college through the senior year. Career services professionals and educators at all types of institutions will find empirical evidence, research methodologies, and practical strategies to guide program design, implementation, and evaluation.

Designed for students and educational professionals researching students' movement into and through higher education, Crafting and Conducting Research on Student Transitions is a concise resource, describing both qualitative and quantitative methods. The authors walk readers through the process of selecting a topic, designing a study, and disseminating the research results on explorations of the college student experience from the first college year to beyond graduation. Ideal for use in graduate programs or professional writing groups and by educators who wish to contribute to this growing subspecialty of the higher education literature.