February 23, 2021

Occasion: Presentation to Messina staff

Presentation Details:

• Brief overview of the study & explanation of the project’s roots

• Discuss current recruitment ideas (as listed in 2/5/2021 blog post)

• Gain feedback and advice regarding first-year engagement/recruitment/retention

Takeaways:

• Whether or not Summer Orientation will be in person is still undecided. Like last year, the staff is anticipating a more “self-guided” experience as compared to the traditional setup

  • Note from Katie: This shouldn’t really impact the Summer Orientation recruitment strategy, considering the survey will be conducted online regardless.

• Over the summer, first-years are also invited to partake in an essay contest, and the winners are celebrated during the first week of the fall semester (Fall Welcome Weekend)— participants likely have some form of interest in a writing study

  • Note from Katie: My only hesitation is that this will skew the data toward students who are already interested in writing, rather than forming a random sample.

• Ahead of their first year, students are also surveyed on their Messina course preferences. There was mention of adding an additional component to this selection, where first-years would also rank the resources they’d like to partake in in college. This study could potentially fit there.

Recommendations:

• Mary Ellen Wade, Associate Director of Messina, is also the co-chair of the Research Consultation Group. Come August, she will have a better idea of what other surveys will be put in front of first-year students (Housing, Messina courses, etc). I will circle back with her before then.

• Mike Puma, Student Development Co-Director of Messina, also (potentially) has access to previous longitudinal research on the effectiveness of core classes. If possible, I will review to get a better understanding of the researcher’s study design, what worked, and what didn’t.

• Reach out to Dr. Peggy O’Neill, whose research background is in writing assessments.