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There are a variety of benefits associated with the use of YouTube for learning purposes, such as YouTube is a free open-access tool students can use to facilitate their learning. This study investigates whether an attitudinal factor (i.e. perceived usefulness) and the factor's antecedents, resource quality factors (i.e. credibility, currency, coverage and relevance), normative factor (i.e. subjective norm) and control factor (i.e. perceived ease of use) all affect college freshmen's behavioral intentions to use YouTube for academic learning purposes.

This research employs the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to explore the attitudinal, normative and control factors associated with college freshmen's behavioral intentions to use YouTube for academic learning. After developing a quantitative survey given to 182 college freshmen in a Southeastern institution in the United States of America, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to examine the seven hypotheses and the research constructs.

The results indicate that attitudinal factor (i.e. perceived usefulness) and its antecedents, resource quality factors (i.e. currency, coverage and relevance) and normative factor (i.e. subjective norm) have a statistically significant effect on college freshmen's intentions to use YouTube for academic learning purposes.

This study suggests that individual motivations (i.e. perceived usefulness and subjective norm) and resource quality factors (i.e. currency, coverage and relevance) play into college freshmen's decisions to use YouTube for learning purposes, while other research indicates that the system or application itself factors into students' decisions to use technology for learning.

This study suggests that college freshmen are more likely to use YouTube for academic learning purposes when the freshmen hold favorable attitudes about the platform and when the freshmen believe the freshmen's peers are also using YouTube to supplement in-class learning.

This is an initial study that focuses on college freshmen's behavioral intentions to use YouTube for academic learning purposes. This research demonstrates the roles that peers as well as resource quality factors play in students' decisions to use specific technology to enhance the students' learning.

This longitudinal study assessed student perceptions of sustainable design issues in the context of an accredited interior design program. Although literature exists documenting the integration of sustainable strategies into interior design curriculum, more analysis is needed to determine the impact of program experiences on students’ attitudes.

Over a four-year period, a questionnaire was administered to 245 freshmen in an introduction to interior design survey course and to 122 seniors enrolled in a professional practice in interior design seminar. In addition to statistically analyzing category responses between the two subject groups, the authors also looked for patterns in responses within each subject group.

Results indicated that the seniors were significantly more aware of the term “sustainable design” than the freshmen were. Understanding the students’ perceptions of more specific principles including life cycle thinking, environmentally and socially responsible materials sourcing and sustainable design practice required a more nuanced discussion. Although statistical significance of differences between the two groups was small to moderate throughout the survey categories, the seniors tended to be more deliberate in their responses.

This study is the first of its kind to conduct a longitudinal investigation of an interior design student body from freshman through senior cohorts regarding perceptions of sustainable design. Findings from the large sample size provide direction for interior design programs and form the basis for further study.

The aim of this paper is to compare the effectiveness of library research consultations for freshmen and senior undergraduate students, to determine if freshmen or seniors benefit more from these sessions.

This study looks at the results of a survey conducted with students enrolled in a senior level capstone research course and in a freshman level composition course who were required to attend library research consultations.

The study finds that freshman students can be overwhelmed by the amount of resources a research consultation may help them locate, and research consultations for freshmen should be conducted with this in mind.

Because the size of our study was small, further research with a larger sample size should also be conducted.

If librarians experience high demand for required research consultations, and have difficulty scheduling sessions, then they may take into consideration that senior students benefit more from consultations than freshmen. Research consultations should also be designed to take student class rank into account.

This study shows that upper-level students benefit more from research consultation than freshman students. Librarians should take this research into consideration when consulting with faculty about the most effective methods of instruction for students.

Structuring a sound freshman‐year experience has become an important retention and orientation tool on many campuses, and there are many different approaches; having a program of instruction for the incoming first‐year class is not unique at top liberal arts universities. But Southwestern University chose in 1985 to begin providing its first‐year students with a common intellectual experience that goes beyond a three‐day or even semester‐long orientation to the university or college life. Southwestern chose rather to address a different scholarly topic each fall semester and to have all first‐year students attend the same lectures, do the same assignments, and break into smaller faculty‐led groups for discussion and class meetings. Library instruction has become an integral part of the university's Freshman Symposium, with library literacy a goal of the program and coordinated library involvement in at least one common assignment each year.

We describe an introductory class in biological engineering that uses project-based and mentored inquiry to create a supportive, exciting, and effective learning environment. Freshman students at MIT work in small teams and with senior MIT students to design a biotechnology that addresses a real-world challenge of their choosing. Students gain familiarity with the tools and vocabulary for biodesign first through some hands-on experiences with synthetic biological systems and later by working in teams to define, present and then refine their ideas. A multiyear study of the class experience and impact included postsurveys and semistructured interviews of two freshman cohorts and a retrospective survey of three freshman cohorts. Data support the claim that students perceive academic gains through their project-based classroom experience. Freshmen reported they are better able to understand content in some of their other MIT courses, are better able to read scientific articles, and now think differently about biology. Moreover, they indicated the class was valuable in learning technical content and synthetic biology. We find this project-based class helps students make meaningful connections to scientific ideas, to personal goals and to a vision of their future selves.

This study aims to examine the effects of participating in physical activities on female college graduates' starting salaries. We used an instrumental variable (IV) approach to address the possible endogeneity problem. By using the Taiwan Higher Education Dataset, we discovered that participating in physical activities during college increased an individual's earnings by 3.06%. The significant positive effect of physical activity on salary demonstrated in this study is consistent with that in other relevant studies. This study also discovered that both the intensity and the persistence of participation in physical activities affected salary outcomes. Individuals earned 0.17%–2.41% more if they exercised for an additional hour per week, suggesting the importance of the intensity of participation in physical activities. In addition, persistent participation in physical activities was associated with a 3.08% higher salary.

The first year of college is a stressful life period connected with the experience of loneliness, isolation and depression since the majority of freshmen can no longer maintain an equally close relationship with school friends and family. Social networks have become a significant part of students' daily lives and might be an effective tool for maintaining relationship and reducing loneliness. There are contradictory results concerning the relationship between social networks sites (SNS) use and feelings of loneliness.

A four-week experiment was conducted to study the effect of SNS on feelings of social and emotional loneliness across freshmen. The treatment group (n = 40) took a break from SNS, while the control group (n = 37) used SNS as usual.

Comparison of the treatment and control groups showed that quitting SNS does not change either feeling of social/emotional loneliness. This paper also found that feelings of social and emotional loneliness did not depend on freshmen's positive/negative attitudes toward being alone.

This study is one of the few that uses experimental design to study the effects of using social networks on the psychological state of students in the context of higher education. The results showed that refusing SNS use can have a positive potential for psychological well-being of freshmen since solitude can be used by them as time for self-discovery and self-development. According to the results, social networks neither increase nor decrease the feeling of loneliness, and offline learning and communication environment plays a more significant role in the adaptation of freshmen. These results allow to take a new look at the studies related to the relationship between SNS use and loneliness and the role of social networks in the adaptation of freshmen.

This study aims to examine the instruction of basic information literacy (IL) skills taught to the socio‐economically disadvantaged students in the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) at Rider University in summer 2011. The study set out to determine how the beginning IL levels of EOP freshmen differ from those of other freshmen, their learning outcomes, and retention of IL as a means to improve future research instruction.

Faculty of a speech communication class and two librarians collaborated in integrating IL in the class assignments of the 2011 summer EOP program. The assessment tools include identical pre‐ and post‐tests, a second post‐test with different multiple correct answer questions, a survey about students' perceptions of their IL training, and the teaching faculty's observations of EOP students' research skills.

EOP freshmen are equivalent to the peer freshmen in their low levels of IL skills. The findings suggested that EOP freshmen complete IL instruction with stronger IL skills. The second post‐test revealed that many students were confused about some basic IL concepts. Faculty's observation of students' information literacy skills concurs with the pre‐ and post‐tests.

This study fills a void in the literature on recent research of information literacy skills of socio‐economically disadvantaged college students. The multi‐correct answer questions employed are valuable but rarely employed in studies or discussed in the literature. The collaboration of faculty and librarians in assignment design is valuable as an increasing number of faculty are utilizing librarians to teach the necessary IL skills needed in today's curricula.

Conceptual physical education (CPE) classes have been widely offered to promote a healthy lifestyle in higher education settings. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of a CPE course on health-related fitness (HRF) levels among college freshmen.

A pre- and post-test research design was used. In total, 50 freshmen in a US university were enrolled in a 13-week CPE course. Their HRF levels were assessed by the Fitnessgram at the beginning and the end of the course.

Students significantly enhanced their aerobic capacity, upper-body muscle strength and endurance, abdominal muscle strength and endurance, and decreased body fat percentage. No significant improvement in flexibility was found among the total sample. However, non-kinesiology students significantly enhanced their flexibility while the opposite trend was found among kinesiology students. Female students reduced more body fat percentage, while male students increased their aerobic capacity more rapidly than their female counterparts.

The CPE course could yield significant improvement in HRF among freshmen, regardless of sex or major. Universities may consider offering CPE courses for all students and mandate such courses as a degree requirement.

This empirical study investigated HRF level changes that occurred after a CPE course intervention among college freshmen. Sex and major difference in HRF changes were revealed. The interventions included in the CPE course could help improve freshmen's HRF levels in future intervention programs in a similar setting.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the inequality in career constructions among freshmen in an elite university in Shanghai, China. The authors first investigated whether rural students and those from municipalities (zhi xia shi) and provincial capitals differ in their career awareness when arriving at college. After finding the difference, the authors explored how this initial difference in career awareness evolves and influences the career construction process in the freshman year.

This study used a complementary mixed-methods approach to monitor a cohort of students’ career construction process and the evolvement of their career awareness throughout the freshman year (n=210). Data collection included two surveys: students’ self-reflections and in-depth interviews to capture a holistic story.

The findings revealed that students differed in career awareness when arriving at college. This initial difference further evolved in the first year of college: students from municipalities and provincial capitals considered college a part of their career paths and began timely to construct their careers, whereas students from rural areas lagged behind. This study suggests that college maintains inequality, reinforcing the initial gap in career construction based on students’ family background.

College students differ in career prospects and associated skills when transitioning from school to work. Only a few studies have explored the role of college in shaping the career construction process during the college years. By exploring the process of career construction among freshmen, this study contributes to the growing literature on school-to-work transition and educational inequality in China.