By Nancy Trojanowski, EdD, Chair, First Year Experience, UMGC

At University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC), student success begins with designing every touchpoint around the realities of adult learners balancing careers, families, military service, and education. Through its evolving First Year Experience (FYE), UMGC is advancing a learner-centered model that reduces friction, strengthens belonging, and accelerates progress from enrollment to completion.

“As higher education continues to evolve, our responsibility is to meet learners where they are, with flexible pathways, proactive support, and clear, transparent guidance,” said UMGC President Gregory W. Fowler, PhD. “Our innovative First Year Experience reflects that commitment, helping students build confidence early and stay on a path to achieving their goals.”

Nancy Trojanowski, EdD, department chair of the First Year Experience (FYE), explains how.

One of the first steps on the FYE journey is to enroll in a Program and Career Exploration (PACE) course. How have these courses evolved?

We strongly encourage degree-seeking undergraduates to complete PACE in their first term to ensure a strong foundation for success. When I arrived in 2023, it was evident that we did not have enough instructors. Teaching novice learners requires a particular skill set and a high-touch disposition. During my first year, we hired approximately 180 adjunct faculty members, and I also taught the course myself.

We realize that one size does not fit all. We’ve increased the offerings to suit the unique paths that students take, with tailored PACE sections for transfer students, English Language Learners, and six disciplines: Business, Communication and Humanities, Multidisciplinary Studies, Public Safety, Health and Sciences, and Technology.

We’ve also built a lot of dashboards and systems that provide real-time feedback for teachers, which enable us to move the needle before the session ends. We can take action in the moment, which has been really helpful.

How did an InScribe community grow from the PACE courses?

We noticed that belonging was a gap. In a primarily online institution, it was a big challenge. So, we piloted a PACE course community using the InScribe digital community platform. Learners needed a space to chat with peers, ask questions, and make connections. It was so successful that the same platform is now used for the UMGC student community and many clubs and organizations.

How has that community changed since the pilot?

In the beginning, we’d have university administrators present in the discussions, and we heard from a lot of students that that was intimidating. Students are there because they want to chat with other students. So we hired peer leaders—fellow students who post content, respond to questions, do live events—and they are phenomenal. They might have a live event on a subject like time management, or just “ask me anything.” We also run weekly live events, in collaboration with our tutoring services, writing center, office of student success, and PACE faculty.

What does the first year experience look like at UMGC?

We do a few things that are unique. One of them is an instructor connection, a one-on-one meeting that instructors have with each student. It builds that relationship, answers questions, and gets new learners over the fear of talking to someone.

We also created an assignment where students talk to their Success Network Partner—success coach, military education coordinator, advisor, or program coordinator.

We also reinvented Virtual Orientation to focus on what students need in their first 30 days to be successful—the basic tenets. And we’ve worked to customize that in a way that’s seamless for students. For example, if they are military and in a graduate program, they’ll see content that fits with that. We’re creating consistency, but at the same time, offering the customization and individualization students need without them having to think about it.

What do you find is the biggest challenge new students face?

One of the things we heard frequently in our new student surveys is that they have low confidence in their ability to master the technological aspects of online learning. We provided that feedback data to the Tutoring Services & Resources office, and they hired classroom technology tutors who are trained to help students master that aspect. We’re also working to create a new PACE offering that builds that technology-readiness piece right in.

With PACE and FYE morphing so quickly, how do teachers stay current?

We have around 600 adjunct faculty teaching PACE, so it’s a large volume, and while we can’t closely monitor what’s happening in 600 different sections, we can use our real-time dashboards to look at faculty performance and engagement. And then we have faculty coaches who have taught the course before and can offer feedback; they have been instrumental in helping us raise the bar. We also work closely with the Office of Student Success and our Digital Student Experience team to understand the student perspective with the hope of initiating proactive support.

Have you found any trends around when students are most likely to be successful?

“Happy Path” is a strategy that promotes taking PACE as the first course and two classes in Session I and two in Session III. Students who do this seem to hit the sweet spot. A lot of students, especially just starting out, don’t realize that at UMGC, session II straddles both session I and III. They can get overwhelmed pretty quickly. Encouraging students to follow the Happy Path strategy, along with providing course suggestions, yields higher student success and a faster path to graduation.