The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between participation in an extended orientation course and student academic performance, student retention, and student graduation. Ten years of participants in Ohio University's freshman "University Experience" course were compared with comparable nonparticipants. In the comparison of student academic performance, the effects of students' prior academic achievement and students' measured academic aptitude were controlled. First-year retention and four-, five-, and six-year graduation rates were compared. In most years of the study, participating students' year-end GPAs were higher than nonparticipants', retention rates were higher, and four-, five-, and six-year graduation rates were higher. The purpose of the course is to help students adjust to the demands of the university environment and develop long-term academic skills, which these results support. Student motivational effects are also discussed.Over the past decade, research on extended orientation courses for first-year students has supported the hypothesis that such courses help new students adjust to college life (
This chapter describes Ohio University's transition from curiosity about the institution-wide impact of assessment on students to program-and department-based assessment for improving teaching, learning, and student services.Ohio University' s Multidimensional Institutional Impact and Assessment Plan
A. Michael WillifordThis chapter describes an institutional commitment on the part of Ohio University to assess its students that began in 1981 and has grown steadily for over fifteen years. Ohio University' s assessment program, the Institutional Impact Project, has evolved from general curiosity about program quality to a commitment to assess its students continually. Although the state of Ohio has never mandated assessment in any form, since 1981 Ohio University has been using student assessment.In 1981, Ohio University made an institutional commitment to using student assessment information in program review, curriculum planning, and academic program planning. Academic colleges, planning groups, individual departments, and trustees rely on outcomes information for both short-term and long-term planning and decision making. One purpose of student assessment in Ohio University' s planning processes is to assist in improving the performance of programs and students. This is accomplished by providing academic units (colleges, schools, and departments) with regular updates on the progress of students and an assessment of their programs.Through its planning and information systems, Ohio University regularly makes available to its units institutional, college, and departmental data. It has an ongoing system of quality improvement that has become part of its institutional culture. For example, the Office of Institutional Research provides the colleges and departments with data on student demographics, course enrollments, and faculty staffing and productivity to assist them in their program evaluation and planning needs.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.