Paula Miller

The Mary Lou Fulton College of Education has blended the best of its long-running and highly regarded student success course with the concepts of the university-wide ASU 101 to create a comprehensive freshman experience course that exposes students to the unique culture, challenges and opportunities available to them at ASU and within the field of education.

ASU 101 “The ASU Experience” debuted in the fall of 2007 as a required, one-credit course designed to help all ASU freshmen learn what is expected of them as college students, how best to take advantage of all that the New American University has to offer, and how to succeed academically and in life. Presented in small class environments capped at 19 students, ASU 101 was designed in a modular format to enable individual colleges to customize the curriculum and include additional material relevant to their students.

The newly blended course introduced by the Fulton College this fall, presents ASU 101 in two distinct parts. The first six weeks of the course are taught by a staff instructor from the college and emphasizes the key concepts and strategies for achieving success in and outside the classroom such as: academic integrity, stress management personal learning styles, academic advising available within the college and the many resources available to all ASU students.

The second six weeks of the course are taught by a Fulton College faculty member and concentrate on the field of education and the social, political, and cultural contexts of teaching. The Bill Ayers book To Teach is used as a reference point upon which to explore and discuss these topics.

Both instructors are paired with an undergraduate teaching assistant who serves as a student mentor to the freshmen throughout the ASU 101 experience.

Nineteen sections of the blended course have replaced DCI 194, which was introduced five years ago within the Fulton College as a one credit student success course taught by academic advisors within the college. When ASU 101 debuted last year, the Fulton College wrapped the DCI 194 course around ASU 101 as the College moved to fully transition the academic success concepts from the earlier course into a more comprehensive and customized model within ASU 101.

“This year, to combine the best of both worlds, we are only going with ASU 101 with two distinct components with six weeks taught by staff instructors and six weeks taught by faculty instructors, which will allow the incoming students to connect with a faculty member they will be working with over the next four years,” said Scott Correll, academic success specialist in the Office of Student Services and ASU 101 staff instructor.

During the semester, the participants are also required to schedule their priority freshmen advising session and attend three Evenings in Education events, a series of enrichment activities often led by distinguished members of the faculty.

“Historically those students who took DCI 194 persisted (in their progression toward graduation) at a higher rate than others within the university,” Correll said. “We’re hoping to capitalize on that trend and increase our freshmen to sophomore persistence rates through our ASU 101 model.”

The heightened and early exposure to faculty, staff, and the wide array of college and university resources provided to all freshmen through the ASU 101 course is critical to student success, said Gia Taylor, assistant dean for student services with the Fulton College.

“This course allows us as staff instructors to interact with freshmen on a weekly basis as we help them acculturate and make a successful transition to being a college student,” said Gia Taylor, assistant dean of the Office of Student Services and ASU 101 staff instructor. “Our course is exciting because we interact closely with students in that critical first semester and help them make connections to our college and the teaching profession. We’ve made it fun, we’ve made it relevant, and we’ve introduced them to people who care about their success.”

Sarah Hudelson, professor of curriculum and instruction with the Fulton College was among the faculty members who debuted the ASU 101 course during the 2007-2008 academic year. She looks forward to working with the incoming freshmen class again this year.

“In my interactions with students, I am able to demonstrate the values of openness to other opinions, respect for others, concern for others as human beings, enjoyment of learning, commitment to diversity, and genuine concern to improve the quality of what happens in Arizona classrooms. I think that these values are shared by many of my colleagues, and ASU 101 is a place to begin sharing these values with our students,” Hudelson said.

For many of the faculty at the college, the experience of teaching an ASU 101 course is a collaborative learning experience.

“Being a teacher means opening doors to innovation and creativity, and in facilitating ASU 101 I will learn from our freshmen while also sharing my own motivations for a profession in education,” said Tirupalavanam Ganesh, assistant dean for information systems and ASU 101 faculty instructor.

ASU 101, presented within the context of the field of education, also promises to help cultivate a sense of community among the freshmen students early in their college careers around a shared professional interest.

“Students will have the opportunity to dialogue with their peers about the many critical variables involved in the teaching experience. This will include the need to use students’ unique experiences as a foundation for learning,” said Maryann Santos de Barona, senior associate dean for academic programs and personnel and ASU 101 faculty member. “This dialogue hopefully will highlight the need for them as future teachers to engage their own students in ways that will be both meaningful and motivating.”

Undergraduate teaching assistants will receive three credit hours and invaluable teaching experience while providing a helping hand to members of the freshmen class as mentors within the ASU 101 program.

“I think the most important role we have is bringing our own individual background and past undergraduate experiences to help lead these freshmen toward successful college experiences,” said Daniel Hill, a teaching assistant and senior studying secondary education.

“I’m really excited to be a teaching assistant this year and to be a role model to the freshmen students,” said Ashley Davis, an elementary education student. “I’ve never had any teaching experience before in a classroom setting until now, so I wanted to take full advantage of this opportunity.”