ARKADELPHIA, Ark.—This fall, Ouachita Baptist University added a new class to the core curriculum designed specifically for freshmen. The OBU Experience, an eight-week course held one hour each week, is required of all incoming freshmen.
“First-year seminar classes are recognized nationwide as having a positive effect on student retention,” said Dr. Keldon Henley, vice president for student services and one of the primary organizers of the course.
The OBU Experience consisted of 22 sections with all but two meeting each Thursday at 10 a.m. One class was offered Friday at noon and another on Thursday at 1 p.m. to accommodate students with scheduling conflicts.
“We took a collaborative approach by involving both faculty and administrative faculty,” Henley said. “We also used current students through the Ouachita Student Foundation as teachers’ assistants.”
OSF members helped with the course by producing videos and providing a student perspective on the course’s diverse topics.
“One of the overall goals of the class was to introduce freshmen to Ouachita and all of the different facets of the university,” said Dr. Deborah Root, chair of Ouachita’s Rogers department of communications and one of the instructors for The OBU Experience.
Issues addressed in the course varied from the social aspects of college life, such as Tiger Tunes and social clubs, to academics, such as pre-registration and choosing a major. Ouachita’s history was also highlighted to give the students a sense of school pride and awareness.
“My favorite part about the class was being able to learn more about Ouachita’s traditions,” said Gretchen Gosser, a freshman psychology major from Coppell, Texas. “It helped freshmen feel more involved.”
The course materials for each session of the course were prepared by various faculty members, who then distributed the information to the class instructors. To ensure that each instructor was on the same page with each topic, faculty and staff members met prior to each class and discussed that week’s material.
“These meetings gave us a focused effort so that we could know that all the freshmen were getting the information they needed to fully integrate themselves into the Ouachita community,” Root said.
While the instructors came from a variety of departments and used various teaching styles, the freshmen response to the course seemed to be very similar.
“It taught me that I was part of something bigger than myself,” said Luke Smith, a freshmen Christian studies major from Little Rock, Ark.
Emory Clayborn, a freshman communication sciences and disorders major from Camden, Ark., said she enjoyed hearing about the different ways to get involved on campus. She also said that she thought that her instructor, Dr. Keldon Henley, did a great job of making the topics exciting each week.
“We played a game with Skittles to get to know each other,” Clayborn said. “It was a fun way to help us feel comfortable with our new surroundings.”
Students in The OBU Experience had the opportunity to get to know each other prior to the beginning of school. Each section was also grouped together for freshman orientation, Welcome to Ouachita’s World (WOW). This meant that the relationships that began prior to classes started could continue to grow throughout the fall semester. For some groups, such as Root’s, their instructor for The OBU Experience welcomed them for dinner during WOW.
“I got the opportunity to meet students on campus that I would not have known otherwise,” Root noted.
The class of 2014 was the first to complete The OBU Experience course. Henley said he is excited about what the future holds for the benefit of incoming students.
