First-Year Experience (FYE) Seminar

The Fitchburg State FYE seminar is a course designed for incoming first-time and transfers students in their first year. Each section is arranged thematically, with faculty choosing the topics.

The course helps students build academic skills and mindsets, and it prepares them to become effective self-advocates in a college setting. The core skills include:

• Self-reflection and self-advocacy
• Active reading and listening
• Information literacy
• Intentional planning
• Effective communication

Official Course Description from the Fitchburg State Catalog

This seminar prepares students for a successful college career and the world of work. The course develops students’ habits of mind, reading, and information literacy skills in a small-class setting. Students become engaged thinkers, learners, and members of the university community. Topics vary by instructor. 

Course Learning Outcomes (CLO’s)

CLO #1: Given direct instruction and opportunities to practice throughout the semester, students will demonstrate improvement in multiple habits of mind that support academic success and persistence as measured by pre- and post-self-assessments and reflections.

CLO #2: Given direct instruction and opportunities to practice throughout the semester, students will demonstrate the use of multiple metacognitive reading and listening strategies as measured by direct and indirect assessments, including potentially text annotations, notes taken from readings, lectures, and other media, comprehension assessments, and/or self-reflection.

CLO #3: Given direct library instruction and opportunities to practice throughout the semester, students will locate, evaluate, and use information effectively and ethically through the use of citations, search engines, and databases, as evidenced potentially by reflective research strategy journals and assignments requiring differentiation between popular and scholarly information.