Using a Seminar to Integrate a First-Year Learning Community: An Action Research Study of Global Humboldt

Abstract

While learning communities are widely recognized as high-impact practices, less attention has been paid to how their curricular, co-curricular, and support components are intentionally integrated in practice. This study examines Global Humboldt, a first-year learning community at Cal Poly Humboldt (then Humboldt State University), following the introduction of a one-unit seminar designed to serve as an integrative hub. Using a bounded action-research design, the study draws on end-of-year survey data from students and faculty/staff to examine perceptions of support, connection, academic and career direction, and program coherence. Participants reported strong levels of relational support and connection, while students expressed greater uncertainty regarding academic and career direction and mixed views about the seminar’s relevance and accessibility. Because the seminar was implemented alongside broader changes in faculty collaboration, advising, and program coordination, the study does not seek to isolate its independent causal effects. Instead, the findings suggest that integration in learning communities is both structural and relational, involving the coordination of courses, resources, and the students, faculty, and staff who participate in them.