For the past several years, we have been redesigning our large enrollment introductory biology lecture course, Principles of Molecular and Cellular Biology, to decrease our DFW rates for all students. Efforts included active learning lectures, group activities, and increased resources such as peer lead study sessions. Despite these interventions, we continued to hear feedback from our students that they felt unprepared for the academic demands and organizational skills that college-level classes require. Therefore, we intentionally integrated study skill development as part of the class curriculum. We integrated nine study skills assignments which accounted for 5% of the overall summative assignments. These included assignments that focused specifically on academic preparedness (such as note taking, concept mapping, and exam wrappers), reflections on STEM identity, organizational skills, and resource utilization. While there was a small decrease in the overall DFW rates for the class, from 18% down to 14%, we saw a significant overall DFW rate decrease in underrepresented minorities from 36% to 24%. Student evaluations also reflected positively on the inclusion of the study skill assignments with 7% of respondents stating that study skill assignments were most helpful to their learning in the course.
