High Impact Educational Practice through First Year Experience: Case of Undergraduates in UNIMAS

A compulsory course known as Soft skills and Basic Volunteerism offered at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) adopted the High Impact Educational Practices (HEIPs) through First Year Experience. This course aims at imparting soft skills among all students in UNIMAS, taken in their first semester of their program. The main course learning outcomes are to develop personal and social skills, academic skills, and conduct volunteerism activities. The course learning units were designed to assist students adapting smoothly to the new university environment while improving academic and people skills. A survey to gauge students’ perception about their learning skills was conducted before the course began and another survey was conducted after the course ended. In the assessment, the students reported group activities relating to meeting faculty members and academic advisors as reflections in e-portfolio platforms. In terms of personal gain, the majority admitted to increased self- confidence to communicate in English as a result of participating in public speaking, presentations and a variety of volunteering projects. Suggestions for future include out campus activities, use of high technology digital training materials and diversification of assessment reflective of the complete soft skills course.