Undergraduate Education hosted a workshop on “Staying on Target: Fulfilling Learning Objectives in UNIV 101.” The workshop focused on helping professors guide their students to success in their UNIV 101 classes. The workshop, hosted on October 29, 2024, provided professors with an opportunity to ask UE Deans Richard Gill and Jonathan Sandberg questions regarding the course, as well as a discussion over the problems and how to address them in a UNIV 101 classroom.
“What we ought to be doing is acknowledging the miracle that has occurred on this campus, that has put such talented faculty in close proximity to our first-year students,” Gill said. “It’s a true miracle.”
Gill shared elements that every section of UNIV 101 must have to be successful; every professor should love their students, stay close to the readings, and effectively collaborate with peer mentors. Each section of UNIV 101 should be different, as each professor brings their own unique ways of teaching and interacting with students to the classroom.
“If everything else is different between one section and another but that incoming freshman knows there's one faculty member on campus that knows their name and loves them, then we will have succeeded,” Gill said.
Gill invited professors to ensure their classrooms are places where revelatory experiences can happen, as well as being a model and a mentor by showing students how their scholarly pursuits and love of Jesus Christ are tied together.
Professors at the workshop received handouts with a list of concerns raised by UNIV 101 professors and provided potential solutions.
Sandberg presented three case studies of real-life examples of how students may be struggling to engage with the class. First, a student has completely stopped engaging with the course, second, a student is only partially engaged, and third, a student is engaging with the course, but not connecting with the learning objectives and the mission of BYU.
After the cases, professors discussed these concerns with each other, and shared examples of what they have done to help students in each case. Sandberg encouraged any professors who have additional questions or concerns to set up a time to meet with himself or Maria Summers, assistant director of General Education.
Sandberg closed the workshop by sharing what he experiences in his UNIV 101 classes with his students reminds him that his own experiences, thoughts, and concerns are different than those of a first-year student. He encouraged the UNIV 101 instructors to be mindful of student’s needs.
“There’s something about being accessible to them and understanding to them that’s impacting them in ways we don’t even realize,” Sandberg said.