Bainbridge State College-[node:field-date:custom:Y]--Tracking Student Success (DegreeWorks), -Timely Interventions, -Early Alerts

High Impact Strategy

Establish criteria for identifying students who may need special interventions in the semester.

Goal

Provide intrusive advising to keep students on track to graduate.

Summary of Activities

• Continuation of Always Alert and re-launch of Early Alert systems.
• Early Alert process requires that students be contacted earlier in the semester after the drop/add period
• Always Alert and Early Alert processes include a comment section on the alert file that provides instructors an opportunity to clearly explain the student’s needs and weakness; while also providing valuable information to advisors to assist students in developing a more specific success plan
• Have embedded peer mentors in some Learning Support and DFW courses; plan to add to FYE courses but need increased funding for peer mentors
• Plan to continue success coaching in online courses
• Have implemented proactive advising model for first-year students with professional counselors
• Plan to fully implement Degree Works for use by students, faculty, and advisor
• Degree Works to be fully accessible to all students, staff, and faculty by August 19, 2015
• Plan to implement a second-year faculty advisors model for students with 31 or more credit hours under the leadership of the director of College Completion

Baseline Status

The institution’s Early Alert and Always Alert initiatives was fully implemented in Fall 2012, with continual updates to the process since inception.  (See Appendix D)

• Reported alerts included
  
  • 2012-13 à Strategy implementation
  • 2013-14 à 484 alerts report; 346 negative _ 138 positive
  • 2014-15 à 1834 alerts reported; 1,404 negative + 403 positive
    • Total alerts include students that may have received more than one negative or positive alert from one or more faculty members
• Number of students with reported alerts (duplicated)
  
  • 2013-14 à Data not available
  • 2014-15 à 1,459 students
• Faculty participation in the alert system included
  
  • 2012-13 à Implementation year
  • 2013-14 à Data not available
  • 2014-15 à 58 faculty
• During the 2012-2013 academic year the embedding of peer tutors was piloted. The college has continued this process, identifying and then embedding peer mentors into courses that have significantly higher D,F,W rates
  
  • 2012-13 (Implementation year)à 46 sections had embedded peer tutors
  • 2013-14à 84 sections had embedded peer tutors
  • 2014-15à 58 sections had embedded peer tutors (for Fall 2014 and Spring 2015; Summer 2015 not available)
• Success coaching in online classes has also been implemented at the college and has proven successful.
  
  • Fall 2014 there were 127 online classes in which a success coach was present
  • Spring 2015 included 112 online classes with a success coach
  • Summer 2015 included the involvement of a success coach in 88 online classes
• In Fall 2015 the college will implement a faculty advising model that places students with 31 or more hours with a faculty advisor in their discipline. Information gained beginning in Fall 2015 will serve as the initiative’s baseline for subsequent years.
  
  • In Spring 2015 1,189 students were identified as enrolled and who had more than 31 hours. These individuals will be paired with faculty advising and be granted priority registration beginning Fall 2015

Interim Measures Of Progress

• Partial implementation of Degree Works accomplished. Additional implementation will follow after training in Fall 2014
• Percentage of faculty reporting Early and Always Alerts
• Student success in courses with Peer Mentors
• Student engagement in Student Life activities and clubs/organizations
• Percentage of students using Degree Works
• Percentage of faculty using Degree Works
• Number of at-risk students contacted and counseled
• Number of students contacted with positive feedback
• Number of courses with peer mentors
• Number of online courses with success coach
• Number of students with more than 31 credit hours who are registered during the early registration
• Satisfaction of students with advising model
• Satisfaction of faculty advisors with advising model

Measures Of Success

• Number of degrees and credentials conferred
• Time to degree
• Percentage of credits successfully completed (A, B, C, S)
• Percentage of online credits successfully completed (A, B, C, S)

Lessons Learned

• By working together as a collective unit we were able to reach more students. Students were contacted by his or her academic advisor, reducing the amount of confusion for students. By requiring the student to meet with his or her academic advisor there was a level of comfort when discussing their academic difficulties.   Students could also see that someone other than their instructor was monitoring and holding them accountable for their academic progress.
• The earlier students are contacted the better chance there is for them to receive the help needed for the student to get back on track.
• Improving the communication between professional advisors and faculty members has provided beneficial in holding the student accountable for responding to the alert.
• Increased communication with faculty results in a significant increase in the number of faculty using the alert system processes.
• An increased emphasis on communicating with students receiving negative alerts remains an important factor because it is these students who are at risk and are in danger of not successfully completing the course
• Implementation of the Degree Works has proved to be long-lived; however, the college is excited about the progress and set implementation date for Fall 2015. Post implementation, we anticipate being able to determine and use clear criteria for identifying students who are off track as we continue to develop and use our Student Educational Planner via Degree Works