Kansas State University is working to make the transition from high school to college easier by implementing first-year seminars of special classes for incoming freshman that are capped at 22 students.

A pilot study, which started this fall, will examine the feasibility and effectiveness of the first-year seminars program in enhancing the learning experience of first-year students at K-State.

The pilot study consists of 16 sections of first-year seminar courses in five K-State colleges.

The idea originated in 2006 when a task force brainstormed ways to create a unified, first-year experience for K-State students. The task force discovered through research that first-year experiences help students succeed by keeping them interested in college and on the path toward degree attainment.

The first-year seminars are taught by some of the most outstanding faculty across campus. The classes also aim to connect classroom learning with campus events and activities outside of class. This year, all of the sections will be attending an election watch in the K-State Student Union on the night of Nov. 4.

Several criteria are being used to evaluate the effectiveness of the first-year seminars program. K-State has enlisted a team of outside scorers who will be looking at anonymous samples of student work and scoring it in terms of how well the work exhibits critical thinking.

Students who were enrolled in a first-year seminar course this fall will be taking part in a survey at the end of the semester. The survey will help determine their level of engagement, including their involvement in the course work and campus life combined. Students also will take part in small group discussion with project leaders to assess the effectiveness of the smaller class size.

The pilot study will continue into next year with the addition of a few more classes. After this two-year period, project leaders will begin to track students as they move on in their college careers to determine if the first-year seminars were beneficial in their success.