Tracking academic buoyancy after embedding a transition to university learning component into a first-year calculus sequence.

Abstract

Not knowing how university learning is different from high-school learning often introduces challenges that can have a negative effect on first-year student wellness [1]. One alternative to help students develop the required learning skills is to embed this content into regular first-year courses [2]. We deployed screencasts on transition to university learning and student wellness (previously developed by Ostafichuk [3]) in a first-year calculus sequence for engineering students, and measured student academic buoyancy through the yearlong intervention [4]. Our aim was to investigate whether academic buoyancy increased through the year, and whether watching the screencasts correlated with any increases in academic buoyancy. Results show that student academic buoyancy increased through the year. The increase was statistically significant and had a large effect size for students who completed all three surveys during this period. The increase was not statistically significant and had a small effect size for students who completed any two surveys, but our analysis suggests this increase was not by chance. Although the intervention was well-received by students, our data did not show a correlation between the intervention and the increase in academic buoyancy. Limitations of this study include a small sample size, and our academic buoyancy data having been collected during the 2020-2021 remote learning year.