I was invited to the First Year Interest Groups (FIGS) faculty orientation to this to give our usual short presentation about how the library can support FIGS courses, and I did speak for a few minutes about how the library can work with faculty to design support the kind of inquiry-based learning experiences these faculty were hoping for. I showed examples of a Library Course Page, an Undergraduate Research Guide for a FIGS class, and talked about library instruction. Janice Rice joined me to talk about how College Library supports new students, and how she sees students using College as a place to get together to work, which faculty were interested in because community-building is such an important part of these courses. A few faculty members talked about how much working closely with the library’s instructional staff (College in one case, Steenbock in another) had helped their class and improved student success, and they were so eloquent that I may contact them to get them to share these stories in other venues.
By sitting in on the full event, I learned quite a bit that others may already know:
- FIGS students have higher GPAs over time, even though they begin with a lower “academic profile.”
- Effects seem particularly remarkable for students of color. Each year, FIGS partners with other units to promote enrollment by students of color, who are 25% of the students in these classes.
- A survey of “FIGsters as Seniors” is underway and we got a handout with some of the early responses. An analysis will be published at the end.
- Brad Hughes from Writing across the Curriculum is great at these faculty presentations… less handouts, message more customized to what UW faculty care about. Interesting discussion about how to talk to students about seeking out support services — should be normalized, not depicted as remediation. Did you know the Writing Center sends TAs out to work with classes, but also to make a short presentation to classes about how to use the Writing Center?
I see that we already have great relationships with FIGS and that many faculty do see the library as a partner in promoting student success and learning. It would be great to be able to show new faculty examples of research assignments or short activities that worked in this context, so I’ll work on that.
I also see some things about FIGS as a program that we should emulate. They are doing a great job at publicizing their program (great web site) and its impact on students (assessments that go beyond numbers to tell a story about student success).
