Category: First Year Experience

Umesh Parshotam
Department of Chemistry

To facilitate acquisition of content knowledge in first year students, you need to develop students’ skills sets. Therefore I incorporate things such as a Lego activity, and element autobiography writing exercise to develop writing and information literacy skills; case studies, concept questions and in-class demos to develop problem solving skills and to engage students in class. Teaching first year means covering content and developing skills to help students learn. For teaching students how to focus on details in questions, I use the quote from a friend “Big clues in small places”. Developing skills means “Practice! Practice! Practice!”


Dr. Tracy Summerville
Department of Political Science

Dr. Tracy Summerville is an Associate Professor in the Political Science program and the coordinator of IASK (Integrated Analytical Skills and Knowledge) which is an interdisciplinary curriculum for first year students. IASK is taught to a cohort of students with the intention of creating a safe place where the students feel comfortable to ask questions and take risks.

One of the purposes of IASK is to introduce students to the conversation between scholars in academia to help them understand what scholarship is and what higher education is for. If students can articulate the argument in the article, they are able to synthesize it with other arguments.


Saphida Migabo
Ecosystem Science and Management

Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) is a program for first year students taking Biology104/124. PLTL provides an active, engaged learning environment for students who meet in small, structured groups with a peer leader. Meetings are once a week for 11/2 hours and a group consists of 8-12 students with one leader. PLTL is about students working collaboratively to solve problems provided by the course instructors.

Students learn from each other; peer leaders provide a supportive environment that helps each student participate actively in the process of learning biological concepts. Students who participate in PLTL receive higher course grades than nonparticipants.

Dr. Keith Egger
Department of Ecosystems Science and Management

For Dr. Keith Egger, the first year experience is partly about trying to convey how university is different from high school. In high school, answering questions is important but university is about asking new questions without necessarily finding a final answer.

In Intro Biology, Dr. Egger uses the Aplia textbook to engage students in the classroom. The text provides pre-questions before each chapter which help the students to start the learning process even if they are baffled at first. Students are encouraged to ask questions in class and Dr. Egger models the process of thinking about the question rather than simply providing an answer. Sometimes he brings questions forward to the next class to provide more time for discussion.

Julius Bankole
Lecturer, School of Business

Julius designed an online first year course – COMM 100 – Introduction to Canadian Business with recorded lecture videos to meet the needs of students in the regions and working students that could not make it to classes on UNBC campus.

In the past four years, this online course via lecture videos has been offered to over 150 students across northern regions and beyond. Students’ final exams are proctored at the nearest UNBC campus or at any approved proctor centers in British Columbia and Alberta.

In September, IASK holds a welcoming brunch for the incoming cohort. Each year, the number of IASK alumni who come to share their experiences with the new students grows. IASK alumni are represented on major university committees (Senate; Provost’s Committee on Pedagogical Practices). They visit IASK classes to share their skills (“Sketchnoting” demonstration; IASK peer tutor).

Julianne and Corinna (pictured in the photo) took on an entire session at a recruiting event for area high school students, not only planning an hour-long interactive activity that modelled the collaborative methods of IASK, but recruiting and managing the half-dozen IASK alumni from three cohorts who acted as facilitators.