Trudi Jacobson, Distinguished Librarian at the University at Albany, SUNY taught a first year experience (FYE) course this fall, one which concentrated on introducing students to topics such as selecting a major, time planning, study skills, financial literacy, and of course metaliteracy. Students worked through the SUNY OER Services’ iSucceed College Success course which includes a robust metaliteracy module (another version of Lumen Learning’s College Success doesn’t contain the metaliteracy module). In order to give students an opportunity to put what they were learning into practice, Trudi asked them to work on creating helpful content for other first-year students. This information would be added to a website that can be shared with other first year students. Groups of three students tackled an FAQ and a number of zines providing tips for this particular population. Extra credit assignments yielded two more helpful resources, one in audio and one in video format. Five examples of a course infographic project were also added to the site. A student took photos for the header for each page. Students not only had become information producers, but also teachers as well.

The site is being promoted through social media, and soon will be shared with other instructors in the program as well as students in the University at Albany’s Writing and Critical Inquiry Program (another first-year course). Most of the advice on the site is not specific to UAlbany, so please feel free to share it with others who might be interested. Take a look!