Middle Georgia State University 2024

Middle Georgia State University (MGA) is a five-campus institution, providing selective undergraduate and graduate education throughout the middle Georgia region. MGA serves a diverse student body through traditional, online, and hybrid delivery of curriculum. It is the mission of MGA to educate and graduate inspired lifelong learners whose scholarship and careers enhance the region and the state. The institution’s vision is to transform individuals and our communities through extraordinary higher learning. Four core values underscore this vision: stewardship, engagement, adaptability, and learning.   

Middle Georgia State University is an access institution and is offering 27 programs at the baccalaureate level, nine at the master’s level, and two at the doctoral level in the 2024-25 academic year. The University awarded a total of 1,494 degrees, including 992 baccalaureate degrees in FY 2024.   

Census data defined the fall 2024 student body to be White Non-Hispanic (50.5%), Black/African American Non-Hispanic (29.7%), and under 25 years of age (69.5%). 56.5% of the student body was enrolled full-time. Female students comprised 54.0% and male students 46.0% of the student body.    

In fall 2024, 91.1% of enrolled students were Georgia residents, representing 141 counties. 74 out-of-state counties were also represented in the enrolled student body. Out-of-state students came primarily from Texas, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Alabama. International students represented 1.7% of the total fall 2024 enrollment.   

The fall 2024 student body was composed of 3043 Pell recipients (36.2% of Undergraduates), 1,438 (17.1%) first-generation college students, and 2,566 (30.5%) adult learners. There were 241 military students who comprised 2.87% of the total enrollment, and the student population identifying as ethnic minority was 3,647 (43.3%).   

MGA has a blended mission in that it serves both the academically gifted students in dual enrollment, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree programs, while also serving as a point of access to higher education for underrepresented populations. Championing student success is the 2023–2028 strategic imperative for MGA and is dependent on data-driven decision-making, better service to students, executing standards of excellence in all academic programs, more efficient use of faculty and staff resources, growing student engagement at all degree levels, and utilization of tools to measure and communicate performance. Keeping students on track to program completion is the CCG goal most closely aligned with MGA’s strategic priorities. Outcomes for this goal include improved persistence and retention rates and an increase in the number of students completing their degrees on time. To fulfill its vision of “transformation of individuals and their communities through extraordinary higher learning,” MGA has identified several high-impact strategies to enhance retention and graduation.  

Benchmark: Columbus State University
Competitor institution: Valdosta State University
Aspirational: University of North Georgia

Success Inventory

Supporting student success through advising, peer mentoring, and academic support (Middle Georgia State University-2024)

Strategy/Project Name:

Supporting student success through advising, peer mentoring, and academic support

Momentum Area:

Purpose

Pathways

Category:

Peer and Supplemental Instruction

Program Maps

Tutoring

Strategy/Project Description:

Supporting student success is the major focus of all the momentum initiatives at MGA. By building efficiencies into our advising processes, offering peer mentoring to our students, and enhancing our academic support resources, the student success teams that include our professional academic advisors, the Student Success Centers staff, and the academic success coaches, continue to work towards this goal. This activity closely aligns with the following MGA’s ASPIRE/POISED goals: 1) To increase the number of qualified applicants for the Pre-licensure Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) and Associate of Science in Nursing (ASN) programs, by implementing targeted recruitment, outreach, student support, and retention initiatives, thereby ensuring a robust pool of candidates for admission (POISED/ASPIRE initiative); 2) To improve the retention rates of full-time, first-time (FTFT) residential students by implementing comprehensive support systems and initiatives that facilitate their academic and personal success throughout their college journey (ASPIRE only); 3) To improve the success rates of students in ENGL 1101 by implementing targeted strategies that enhance their comprehension, engagement, and performance in the course (POISED/ASPIRE); 4) To optimize the outcomes of the First-Year Experience (FYE) and Knights Academy programs by implementing targeted strategies to enhance academic progress, facilitate general registration, and promote registration for residential students, thereby fostering their transition to college and ensuring holistic success (POISED/ASPIRE).

Some of the activities executed to address these initiatives include:

Targeted outreach campaigns for advising, and tutoring provided by the Academic Success Coaches and the advising team: outreach campaigns are executed through emails, texting, phone calls, on-campus pop-up events, yard signs with QR codes, and visits to classrooms and residence halls to promote tutoring. In Fall’24, sending regular messaging through Salesforce has also been adopted to reach out to students on early alert, probation, or for encouraging registration.

Timely training for new and continuing Advisors and the Academic Success Coaches: Professional development opportunities are provided through online training via D2L, one-on-one sessions, and regular face-to-face workshops. Training has also been offered on new guidelines for Core IMPACTS, and Degree Works Responsive.
Strengthening collaboration between Advising, Student Success Centers, The Writing Center, Mathematics Academic Resource Center, Center for Career and Leadership Development (CCLD), Financial Aid (FA), the Library, Athletics, Residential Life (RL), academic departments and faculty: By collaborating across divisions, the student success teams work to provide engagement opportunities to students through participation in orientation sessions, Student Success Festivals showcasing academic and non-academic support resources, vision board parties, study halls, workshops, individual appointments, and pop-ups.

Building success plans for students who are at risk: Individualized Academic success plans are developed for students who are identified as being at high-risk, through regularly scheduled meetings between the success coaches and the students. Students in learning support, those beginning the term on probation, and those identified through faculty feedback early alert system are the focus of this initiative. Discussion is focused on student engagement, student performance in classes, motivation and mindset, resource availability for academic and non-academic support, any other financial or personal concerns that the student may highlight.

Revising program maps to incorporate Core IMPACTS refresh: With assistance from the department Chairs, the Academic Advisors completed a full review and revision of program maps and plans of study for the 2024-25 academic year. These maps highlight milestones, prerequisites, recommendations to promote student engagement, summer semester availability to get ahead, and career connections. Maps also highlight the skills gained as they fulfill Core IMPACTS requirements that can be included in the students’ resume and LinkedIn profile, as well as reminders to apply for graduation. These program maps have been placed on the MGA website and made available for all students.

Offering the ‘Emerging Knights Focus Groups’ for residential students on academic probation: this initiative has been modified to provide one-on-one sessions with the success coaches and two workshops for students each semester.

Offering ‘Roundtable Peer Mentoring’ to all students across all campuses: MGA scaled the peer mentoring pilot into the ‘Roundtable Mentoring’ program that is being offered on all campuses. Peer mentors are offering study sessions in the residence halls and in the Student Success Centers for high-risk students and student athletes. Peer mentors provide academic support, referrals to the success team, orient students to campus and acclimate to college, and model good study skills. Peer mentors enhance campus presence by offering multiple student engagement opportunities, for example, hosting ‘Knights Snack and Succeed’, ‘Plane Talk’, Spring Fling, Friendsgiving fair, hosting student panels e.g. student leadership panel, etc.

Implementing Salesforce to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of advising and success coaching: Communications through Salesforce have been streamlined, and it allows for effective student contact tracking. Salesforce training has been provided to all advisors and the student success staff that form the success team. These staff members open cases in Salesforce for students who need assistance for various reasons including registration, changing majors, etc. and also use Salesforce to follow through and track students who are at high-risk and need assistance.
Identification of high-risk students through Early Alert: The Early Alert system has been transitioned over to a Faculty Feedback form implemented through SSB9 allowing faculty to provide feedback on their students on academic (low grades, absenteeism, lack of engagement) as well as non-academic concerns (financial aid, job assistance, homelessness, etc.) throughout the semester. The information flows into Salesforce as an alert that is addressed by the advisors and the success coaches to support students.

Activity Status:

Refining/Maintaining

Evaluation/Assessment plan:

KPIs:

Number of trainings planned and facilitated for the student success team
Number of projects planned in collaboration with other departments
Percentage of students beginning the semester on probation and completing the semester in good standing 
Percentage of students on probation who persisted for next semester
Percentage of students ending the term on probation
Percentage of students on the early alert list who persisted for next semester
Percentage of students on the early alert for low grades successful in all coursework

Baseline measure from 2023-24:

Five training sessions have been provided for the academic advisors in fall’23 and two training sessions have been provided as of Feb 2024.
Five activities have been completed and another two planned in collaboration with other departments as of Feb 2024.
35% of students who started fall’23 on probation ended the semester in good standing
41.5% of all students on probation at the end of fall’23 persisted for spring’24.
Of the total number of students enrolled in fall’23, 9.2% ended the semester on probation
69 % of students on the early alert report for fall’23 persisted for spring’24.
Of the tutored students flagged for low grades on the Early Alert report, 54.2% in fall’23 successfully completed the specific course on the early alert as compared to 41.1% of non-tutored students in fall’23.

Current/most recent data (for each KPI):

11 training sessions were provided for the academic advisors in 2023-24

22 activities were completed in collaboration with other departments in 2023-24.
132 students who started spring’24 on probation ended the semester in good standing, as compared to 120 in fall’23, a 10% increase.

191 students on probation at the end of spring’24 persisted for fall’24 as compared to 144 students that persisted from fall’23 to spring’24, an increase of 32.6%.

Of the total number of undergraduate students enrolled in spring’24, 5.8 % ended the semester on probation, as compared to 6.2% in spring’23, a decrease of 0.4%
49.7% of students on the early alert report for spring’24 persisted for fall’24 as compared to 56% that persisted from spring’23 to fall’23.

Of the tutored students flagged for low grades on the Early Alert report, 67.5% in spring’24 successfully completed the specific course on the early alert as compared to 42.8% in spring’23, an increase of 24.7%.

Goal or targets (for each KPI):

Provide two training sessions per year for the student success team
Collaborate with other departments on two events/projects per semester
Increase the number of students on probation who complete the semester in good academic standing by 2%
Decrease the number of students who end the semester on probation by 0.5%
Increase the persistence of students on probation from semester to semester by 2%
Increase the success rates of students reported for low grades on the early alert report by 2%

Progress and Adjustments:

Outreach to students:

Targeted outreach efforts to promote student success, retention, and timely registration are being executed in AY 2024-25. The visibility of Academic Advisors and Success Coaches has increased across all the campuses. Success coaches visit the residence halls to share information about academic support services available. Special attention is being given to MGA’s athletes to promote registration and retention. Peer mentors also host study sessions in select residential halls and participate in events hosted by other departments. Through emails, phone calls, and texting, focused communications are sent out to students on academic probation to provide support and referrals as needed for academic success. These include referrals to the Student Success Centers, Mathematics Academic Resource Center (MARC), and The Writing Center (TWC) for tutoring.

Early Alert:

MGA met its goal of supporting high-risk students on the early alert report for low grades to successfully complete the course requirements. Of the tutored students flagged for low grades on the Early Alert report, 67.5% in spring’24 successfully completed the specific course on the early alert as compared to 42.8% in spring’23, an increase of 24.7%. The in-house Early Alert system was administered at week three in the semester during 2023-24. Faculty reported students who were at-risk due to no engagement in class, low grades, or absenteeism. The report generated was shared with the Academic Advisors and the Success Coaches to conduct focused outreach and encourage the students to engage and utilize the resources offered. The Coaches worked with students listed on the Early Alert report to develop success plans and regularly monitored progress. These efforts showed an increase in student engagement with tutoring resources and with the academic advisors. The Early Alert reporting system transitioned to a new process in fall’24 through SSB9, allowing faculty to provide input on any student concern using the Faculty Feedback form at any point in the semester.

Collaboration with other departments (Center for Career and Leadership Development, Financial Aid, and Residential Life):

The student success team is housed under Academic Affairs but works very closely with Financial Aid, The Center for Career and Leadership Development, Residence Life, Athletics and Admissions to plan and offer several engagement and informative events for students to help them overcome barriers and succeed. 22 events were offered in 2023-24 in collaboration with other departments/divisions. These collaborations are continuing and expanding in 2024-25.

Focus on high-risk students:

Any high-risk (Early Alert, Probation, Learning Support):

The ‘Roundtable Mentoring’ program hosted 36 academic and student life events in 2023-24 bringing in 676 attendees. During these events, mentors connected with students, while encouraging students to get more involved in the college experience. 95.6% of the students who received one-to-one mentoring in 2023-24 have been retained for Fall 2024. 93.9% of students receiving one-to-one mentoring were in good academic standing at the end of the semester. There are 20 mentors and 93 mentees in this program in fall’24.

Academic Probation:

The student success team provides targeted outreach to students on academic probation at the beginning of the semester. This outreach strongly encourages students to utilize tutoring services so they can achieve good academic standing by the end of the term. Students on probation were identified early in the semester (week 2) and received an email sent via Salesforce to their MGA email. While the total number of undergraduate students who ended the spring’24 on probation decreased by 0.4% as compared to spring’23, MGA has seen a 2.2% decrease in the total number of undergraduate students who ended the spring semester on probation or suspension from spring’23 to spring’24.

Emerging Knights Focus Groups were offered to 122 residential students on probation on the Macon and Cochran campus on a weekly basis during 2023-24. Of those that attended, 47% of the Macon students and 54% of the Cochran students improved their semester GPA from the previous fall 23. 32% of the Macon students and 34% of the Cochran students were able to avoid academic suspension in spring’24. Student attendance and engagement with these sessions continued to remain a challenge inspite of multiple outreach efforts. For 2024-25, this initiative has been modified to offer one-on-one conversations between the students and the academic success coaches.

Plan for the Year Ahead:

Continue to expand the ‘Roundtable Peer Mentoring’ initiative
Provide professional development opportunities for the success team
Develop student success action plans for those at high-risk
Plan several student engagement events involving other departments in student-friendly locations around the campuses
Create an Advising Center in Macon
Expand the use of Salesforce for communication, tracking, and student engagement

Challenges and Support:

Challenges

Staff turnover 
Student Engagement 
Communication gaps
Networking with faculty

Support Needed:

Sharing of best practices across the USG

Contact email:

Sandy.little-herring@mga.edu

Primary Contact:

Sandy Little-Herring

Deneice Bausley

Brock Giddens

Deepa Arora 

Improving student success in learning support (Middle Georgia State University-2024)

Strategy/Project Name:

Improving student success in learning support

Momentum Area:

Purpose

Pathways

Category:

Corequisite Learning Support

Data

Mindset

Peer and Supplemental Instruction

Tutoring

Strategy/Project Description:

MGA admits a significant number of students who need remediation and are enrolled in learning support (LS) coursework. MGA saw a 1.9% increase in the number of LS students from fall’22 to fall’23 and another 1.5% increase from fall’23 to fall’24. In fall’24, 733 students placed into learning support, accounting for 8.7% of fall’24 enrollment.

To improve LS student success outcomes, several initiatives have been implemented that include course redesign, adding growth mindset activities, introducing early alert reporting and outreach, and peer mentoring, supplemental/embedded tutoring.  The LS Coordinator, faculty who teach LS courses, the departmental Chairs, student success coaches, peer mentors, and the academic advisors collaborate to work towards this goal. Data-driven decision-making drives the planning and execution of these initiatives.

This activity is aligned with the following MGA’s ASPIRE goals: 1) To improve the success rates of students in ENGL 1101 by implementing targeted strategies that enhance their comprehension, engagement, and performance in the course (POISED/ASPIRE); 2) To enhance the success rates of students in LS ENGL and LS MATH courses by implementing targeted interventions and support systems that promote academic achievement and mastery of course content (ASPIRE only).

Activity Status:

Refining/Maintaining

Evaluation/Assessment plan:

KPIs:

Number of LS students passing gateway English and math courses 
Number of LS students remaining in good standing at the completion of the semester
% of LS students who were on probation at the beginning of the semester and finished the semester in good standing
% of LS students who were in good standing at the beginning of the semester and finished the semester on probation.
% of LS students who persisted next semester

Baseline measure (for each KPI):

51.5% of LS students successfully completed ENGL 1101 in fall’23 and 46.8% in spring’23.
58.8% of LS students successfully completed MATH 1001 in fall’23 and 52.7 % in spring’23.
45.0% of LS students successfully completed MATH 1111 in fall’23 and 47.6% in spring’23.
30.9% of LS students who were on probation at the beginning of fall’23 finished the semester in good standing while 10.4% of LS students who were on probation at the beginning of spring’23 finished the semester in good standing.
41.7 % of LS students who were in good standing at the beginning of fall’23 finished the semester on probation while 13.5 % of LS students who were in good standing at the beginning of spring’23 finished the semester on probation
46.1 % of LS students persisted from spring’23 to fall’23

Current/most recent data (for each KPI):

51.9% of LS students successfully completed ENGL 1101 in spring’24
58.9% of LS students successfully completed MATH 1001 in spring’24
58.3% of LS students successfully completed MATH 1111 in spring’24
17.8% of LS students who were on probation at the beginning of spring’24 finished the semester in good standing
32.0% of LS students who were in good standing at the beginning of spring’24 finished the semester on probation
46.8 % persisted from spring’24 to fall’24

Goal or targets (for each KPI):

2% increase in the number of LS students passing the gateway English course 
2% increase in the number of LS students passing gateway math courses 
2% increase in the number of students who are on probation at the beginning of fall’24 and finish the semester in good standing 
2% decrease in the number of students who begin fall’24 in good standing and finished the semester on probation 
1% increase in persistence from fall-to-fall and spring-to-spring

Progress and Adjustments:

English department continues to refine the LS design to improve their success rates. The department is participating in the POISED initiative to focus on the course design for English Composition I along with additional success strategies.

MGA met its goal as there was a 5.1% increase in the number of students who successfully completed English Composition I in spring’24 as compared to spring’23.

The English department has introduced the following initiatives in 2024-25: 

The departmental early alert implemented in 2023-24 transitioned to a new institutional early alert system using the Faculty Feedback form to report academic and non-academic concerns at any point in the semester.
Changes to the final grade essay assessment have been initiated in fall’24
‘Prepping for Success’ workshop was offered for all LS English students before the start of classes for fall’24.
Peer mentors will host a writing workshop for students in fall’24 to prepare for the final exam in English Composition I.
Success coaches reached out to students in learning support who began fall’24 on probation or were reported by faculty through the faculty feedback early alert system to develop success plans.

The math department continues to refine the LS design to improve their success rates. MGA met its goal as there was a 6.2% increase in the number of students who successfully completed Math 1001 (Quantitative Reasoning) in spring’24 as compared to spring’23. The success rates for Math 1111 (Algebra) also increased by 10.7% comparing spring’23 to spring’24 data.

Math department has implemented the following initiatives for 2024-25: 

The mindset module in the Math 1001 course structure as part of the Mindset Learning Project has been transitioned into the Knights Academy which provides a guiding pathway to students for the first year of college at MGA.
The same instructor has been assigned to teach the co-requisite and the gateway course for fall’24
Success coaches have reached out to students in learning support who began fall’24 on probation or were reported by faculty through the faculty feedback early alert system to develop success plans.
All sections of learning support and gateway Quantitative Reasoning course (Math 1001) have been assigned embedded student success coaches, peer tutors and peer mentors (success team) for timely interventions for at-risk students reported by the instructors. Coaches and mentors also paid class visits to reach out to the students. This initiative involved significant collaboration between the faculty instructor and the success coaches.
MATH 1101-Mathematical Modeling with co-requisite Math 0998 has been reinstated for STEM majors with High School GPA <3.4
Targeted marketing of the Mathematics Academic Resource Center for high-risk students has been implemented.
The final high school GPA cut-off for exempting learning support was revised: Quantitative Reasoning (3.1 or greater) or Algebra (3.4 or higher)

Overall, comparing spring’24 to spring’23 data, there was a 59% increase in the number of LS students who began the semester on probation but ended in good academic standing. The number of LS students who were in good academic standing at the beginning of spring semester but finished on probation decreased by 37.7% comparing 2023 to 2024 data. The overall persistence of LS students from spring to fall semester increased by 0.7% comparing 2023 to 2024 data.

Plan for the Year Ahead:

ENGL 1101

Strengthen ties to outside-of-classroom support structures
Build Writing Center “field trips” for face-to-face classes
Include virtual Writing Center field trip to promote virtual tutoring
Continue participation in the USG POISED initiative

LS MATH

The Mathematics department will evaluate the data obtained from the new initiatives introduced in fall’24 to assess their impact on student success. Based on data collected from fall’24 and spring’25, the initiatives will be scaled, maintained, or revised.

Challenges and Support:

Challenges:

Lack of engagement of LS students

Lack of utilization of academic support resources

Varying levels of under-preparedness in students

Support Needed:

Resource sharing and additional ideas/strategies employed by other USG institutions

Contact email:

brock.giddens@mga.edu

Primary Contact:

Benita Muth (English)

Richard Kilburn (Math)

Brock Giddens (Student Success)

Deneice Bausley (Advising/LS)

Deepa Arora

Providing student success content through Area I (institutional Priority) (Middle Georgia State University-2024)

Strategy/Project Name:

Providing student success content through Area I (institutional Priority)

Momentum Area:

Purpose

Category:

Career/Major Exploration

Curriculum Design

High Impact Practices

Mindset

Orientation

Strategy/Project Description:

Designing and integrating academic success content into all sections of Area I (formerly, Area B) courses, regardless of session length or modality. Because this activity has been brought to completion, the project will now focus on cohesive guidance on instructional practices shared across all faculty teaching Area I courses. This guidance aligns with evidence-based practices for creating welcoming, encouraging, and navigable courses.

Activity Status:

Refining/Maintaining

Evaluation/Assessment plan:

Evaluation Plan and measures:

Student academic success indicators in Area B courses (semester-over-semester)
Completion of academic success content

KPIs:

ABC rates in the academic success content portion of the course
Completion rates of newly embedded academic success content

Baseline measure (for each KPI): based on data obtained from Area I sections with embedded academic success content during the 2023-24 academic year:

Average score of academic success content quizzes from all sections was 91%
Completion rate of the academic success content quizzes was 94%

Goal or targets (for each KPI):

70% of the students will complete the assessment for the academic success content.
Of those who complete the assessments, 70% will achieve an average passing grade of C or better in the academic success content.

New Project Evaluation Plan and Measures:

Student academic success indicators in Area I courses (semester-over-semester)
Completion of academic success content

New Project KPIs:

ABC rates in Area I courses
Completion rates of academic success content

New Project Baseline Measure (for each KPI): Based on data obtained from Area I sections with embedded academic success content during academic year 2023-2024:

Average combined ABC grades: 73.01%
Completion rate of the academic success content quizzes was 94%

New Project Goal or Targets (for each KPI):

Combined ABC rates in Area I >75%
Completion rate for the academic success content >95%

Progress and Adjustments:

Duties of Area I Coordinator (faculty member with partially reassigned time) has expanded to review all sections of Area I courses for accurate syllabi, correct grade schemes, academic success content completion, and oral competency assignment rubric.
Ensure continued emphasis on academic mindset in the academic success content with the additional emphasis on creating a welcoming learning environment in Area I courses.

Plan for the Year Ahead:

Study the effects of newly distributed guidance on instructional practices in Area I courses on ABC rates
Provide additional faculty development on mindset, sense of belonging, and creating a welcoming learning environment in Area I courses.

Challenges and Support:

Challenges:

Full participation of Area I faculty in faculty development
Widespread adoption of newly distributed guidance on instructional practices in Area I courses

Supports Needed:

Sharing ideas and resources used by other USG institutions related to student success initiatives.

Contact email:

Rod.mcrae@mga.edu

Primary Contact:

Rod McRae

Supporting student success through career preparation and leadership opportunities (Middle Georgia State University-2024)

Strategy/Project Name:

Supporting student success through career preparation and leadership opportunities

Momentum Area:

Purpose

Category:

Career/Major Exploration

High Impact Practices

Strategy/Project Description:

This project is promoting career readiness by: 

Engaging first-year students in the Focus 2 Career Assessment and career option discussions with career advisors. Career and academic planning is a major focus of the student success content in Area I courses. Students are encouraged to take Focus 2 Career Assessment, register for a Handshake account, attend a career event or meet with a career advisor, and complete readings and quizzes about career exploration and planning.
In the Area I student success module, students take quizzes for the following career competencies: communication, self-awareness and career management, and professionalism.

Introducing first-year students to the NACE Career Competencies so that they are aware of the skills employers want to see them build before entering the professional workforce.
Planning and implementing a centralized process for promoting and preparing students for internships (both credit and non-credit) to increase student participation.

Leadership promoting activities:

Knights LEAD has students participating in sessions led by community, faculty, and staff leaders who discuss how career competencies have impacted their professional and leadership journey. Students will put these skills into practice through service projects and case studies.
Emerging Leaders is a co-curricular leadership development program for upper-level students that helps them expand their campus, civic, and professional involvement within the context of the Social Change Model of Leadership Development.

Activity Status:

Refining/Maintaining

Evaluation/Assessment plan:

KPIs:

Number of students completing Focus 2 Career Assessment and a quiz
Number of students participating in Knights LEAD
Number of students participating in Emerging Leaders
Number of students engaging in career and leadership development programs and advising appointments
Number of students participating in internships through Knights@Work

Baseline measure (for each KPI) from 2022-23:

771 students completed at least one career assessment in Focus 2 in fall’22
12 students participated in Knights Lead
20 students participated in Emerging Leaders

Goal or targets (for each KPI):

Increase the number of students participating in Focus 2 by 20%
Increase the number of students participating in Knights Lead by 10% 
Increase the number of students participating in Emerging Leaders by 10%

Current Status:

Number of students completing at least one career assessment in Focus 2 in 2023-24 was 79
651 Stepping Blocks accounts were created and 338 Personality tests were taken as of September, 2024.
During the 2023-24 academic year, 12 students completed the Knights LEAD activities, and 13 students completed the Emerging Leaders program for a total of 25 students.
25 students participated in a corporate tour, a Leadership & Service Day, the Student Leadership Conference and the Leadership Challenge.
In 2023-24 academic year, 1727 students participated in events planned by the CCLD.
To promote the opportunities provided by the CCLD, a statement highlighting the resources linked to career preparation and readiness has been introduced in all course syllabi.

Progress and Adjustments:

Changes to the Student Leadership Programs in 2023-24 resulted in improved participation and retention. Changes implemented will continue in 2024-2025 so that completion/retention can be tracked rather than participation.

Participation and interest in Emerging Leaders for Cochran has increased to 10 for 2024-25 so the program was not moved to Eastman. Currently, the plan is to design and implement a general first-year Leadership LLC in Fall 2025 in Macon and Cochran so that interest in leadership is increased and Emerging Leaders can be recruited for the following year.

Completion of Focus 2 assessment within the Area I module has seen a decline in 2023-24. This challenge is being addressed in 2024-25.

413 career advising appointments were completed in the CCLD for AY2024.

62 students reported internships through Handshake Experiences in AY2024. The new Knights@Work program and more faculty getting students to report their academic internships could increase this number in the future. This number is one of the metrics in MGA’s the university’s new strategic plan.

In fall 24, Mocktails and Majors event was hosted to share career planning resources in collaboration with Academic Advisors. 38 students attended.

Plan for the Year Ahead:

Implement the new Knights@Work Internship Program which allows students to get recognition on their transcript for completing a non-credit internship.
Work with Housing & Residence Life to design a general Leadership LLC for first-year students in order to scale participation in the student leadership programs.
Implement and assess the new career resource liaison model that aligns each career development advising staff member with a specific School.
Develop a resource list or repository for Core IMPACTS courses that can be used in D2L.
Use Knights@Work to promote early career preparation by working on the application process to participate in internships. This promotion will include the Career Ready Toolkit, the Virtual Internship Series, Career Fairs, and the Knights@Work Internship Program.

Challenges and Support:

Challenges:

The CCLD has 5 staff members aligned with 6 schools (1 staff member is a coordinator who has 2 schools). One challenge will be determining what is manageable for a staff member to take on in these new roles.
CCLD will collaborate with academic departments to promote Handshake experiences for internship reporting and supporting students who are searching for internships - the new career resource liaison model that is being implemented in Fall 2024 has the most potential to make this happen.
Discussions between the CCLD and the Area I administrator are necessary to assess how Area I student success content is impacting career development participation.
CCLD is finalizing a contract with Big Interview to scale interview and resume development across the student population. Including this platform with others in a D2L module that can be used in any course, particularly Core IMPACTS, could increase participation.

Support Needed:

Sharing ideas and resources used by other USG institutions related to career services.

Contact email:

Mary.roberts@mga.edu

Primary Contact:

Mary Roberts

Heather McIntosh 

Promoting First Year student success through virtual academic communities-Knights Academy, Knights Journey, and Knights of Success (Middle Georgia State University-2024)

Strategy/Project Name:

Promoting First Year student success through virtual academic communities-Knights Academy, Knights Journey, and Knights of Success

Momentum Area:

Mindset

Category:

Data

First Year Experience

High Impact Practices

Mindset

Strategy/Project Description:

MGA’s FYE initiative encompasses three elements – academic success,, character development, and community engagement.

The Knights Academy (KA) is an online academic community focused on increasing first year student academic success by engaging the student in a variety of learning activities. These activities seek to assist students develop critical student success skills by participating in quests and engaging with other students through discussion posts. Topics covered in the Knights Academy include the following:

Motivation
Resilience
Habits
Study Skills
Mindset
Economic Literacy
Media Literacy

The Knights Journey is an interactive fiction role play game intended to assist students in character development and 21^st-century competencies. Students embark on quests as a modern-day Knight, solving a variety of societal, economic, technical, and environmental problems.

The Knights Community Crew (formerly Knights of Success) is a university-sponsored student organization focused on community and campus service. Students who complete quests in the Knights Academy and the Knights Journey qualify for advanced standing in the Knights Community Crew.

The Knights Academy, the Knights Journey, and the Knights Community Crew combine into a system of programming focused on creating an engaging co-curricular experience for freshmen transitioning into college. This co-curricular programming is in addition to the First Year Seminar currently embedded in our institutional priority courses.

This activity is closely aligned with the following ASPIRE goal: To optimize the outcomes of the First-Year Experience (FYE) and Knights Academy programs by implementing targeted strategies to enhance academic progress, facilitate general registration, and promote registration for residential students, thereby fostering their transition to college and ensuring holistic success.

Activity Status:

Refining/Maintaining

Evaluation/Assessment plan:

KPIs:

Student engagement with the KA (freshmen)
Student content completion in the KA (freshmen)
Student participation in co-curricular activities (all students)
Student participation in character development programming (Knights Journey)

Baseline measure: This initiative was piloted in fall’23.

Student engagement: 28.2% of 1260 freshmen completed content within the KA; 8% average weekly engagement observed.
Student content completion: 4.9 content items completed per participant; 1.5 quests (content areas) completed per participant
Student participation in co-curricular activities: Total participants 4743 (fall 2022) and 7976 (fall 2023); Unique participants 1834 (fall 2022) and 2354 (fall 2023)
Knights Journey is being piloted in fall 2024

Goal or targets (for each KPI):

20% improvement in student engagement in fall’24 as compared to fall’23
20% improvement in content completion in fall’24 as compared to fall’23
10% improvement in student participation in co-curricular activities in fall’24 as compared to fall’23

Current/most recent data (for each KPI):

Spring’24 update:

Knights Academy Student Engagement – 28.7% of the 1,260 students engaged in the Fall or Spring content. Spring 2024 participation accounted for a small 0.5 % improvement over Fall 2023.
Knights Academy Content Completion – Content completion in Spring 2024 increased to 1,814 over Fall 2023 content completion for an increase of 4.1 percent.
Co-Curricular Participation – 28% increase from 1,171 in Spring 2023 to 1,504 unique students in Spring 2024.

Progress and Adjustments:

After a review of the data from the Fall 2023 and Spring 2024 pilot, the decision was made to expand access to Knights Academy material beyond the Freshman class. This expansion allows students entering into their second year continued use of the material. Also, it allows the material to be used in the development of Student Success Plans and other interventions for students throughout their studies with the university.

To facilitate this broader use of the information, the Knights Academy content was moved to a more dynamic student-facing platform during the Summer of 2024. As part of the move, the Knights Academy and Knight’s Journey quests were upgraded to include improved tracking and the use of generative AI. In addition, live seminars are added to the program and coincide with the online Knights Academy quests. This move also allows for the delivery of a co-curricular transcript.

To increase participation, a digital Knights Academy campaign is also being created in Salesforce Marketing Cloud. These campaigns send content to students via a targeted email and web-based pages. This new technology allows the university to deliver needed content directly to the student, thus reducing any barriers to access.

Finally, the Knights of Success organization became Knights Community Crew, which is a student organization focused on community service. Upon completion of the Knight’s Journey and Knights Academy experiences and participation in the Knights Community Crew, students can become a Distinguished Knight.

In progress is the creation of a student recognition program. The Distinguished Knight Experience is created to encourage high achievement and student engagement in the FYE programming as well as reward students for their engagement in co-curricular activities.

Plan for the Year Ahead:

MGA will focus on growing the engagement within the Knights Academy. A Director of First Year Experience was hired in April 2024. The focus during the 2024-25 academic year is to grow participation in the programming offered through the use of digital technologies currently available in Salesforce Marketing Cloud. MGA also wants to increase access to this material by embedding access to this information through student success plans and knowledge base articles available in the Student Success Hub portal. Finally, the plan is to continue growing content available to students. All these efforts should increase participation rates as compared to the previous year pilot.

Challenges and Support:

Challenges:

Student participation in the Knights Academy

Student engagement with advisors, coaches, and faculty

Academic Affairs, Student Success, and Student Affairs program availability

Support Needed:

Sharing ideas and resources used by other USG institutions related to student academic communities.

Contact email:

James.blackburn@mga.edu

Primary Contact:

James Blackburn

Campus Plans Supplemental Sections

The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) at MGA has been well-established with the hiring of additional staff to disseminate effective practices in teaching and learning for new instructors and for the continued professional development of full- and part-time faculty. It provides regular programming to support how faculty enrich their practices in order to enhance student learning. The CETL coordinates its training, consultations, and outcomes to promote stronger student success, stronger design of courses and online instruction, and continued emphasis on Momentum strategies for improving student retention, progression, and graduation rates.

Salesforce: MGA adopted the platform Salesforce in the past year and provided several training sessions for various stakeholders including the academic advisors and the academic success coaches. The initial rollout of Salesforce Student Success Hub in Phase 1 has centralized student support services, creating a seamless digital portal where students can access information, receive assistance, and engage in success plans. With integrated case management across Academics, Financial Aid, Bursar, and Registrar offices, students can navigate campus resources with ease, benefiting from improved response times and support. Automated communication and data-driven student journeys enhance engagement by proactively delivering critical updates and reminders via email and SMS, helping students stay informed and involved. This foundational phase improves student access to resources, raises awareness of available services, and supports consistent engagement, setting students on a successful academic path.

Observations and next steps:

In the past couple of years, Middle Georgia State University (MGA) has made great strides in helping our students succeed by planning initiatives to build the persistence, retention, and graduation rates. This is evident in improved one-year retention rates for FTFT bachelor’s degree seeking students from 60.9% fall 2022-fall 2023 to 65.30 % from fall 2023-fall 2024. Retention rates for first time freshman (increase from 58.4 to 60.20%), students who began full-time (61% to 64.3%), and for students who began with LS requirements (40.8 % to 44.9) also improved. This incremental progress seen across various metrics reflects the institution’s emphasis on student success.

MGA has strengthened its support structures in the past academic year by hiring academic success coaches, additional academic advisors, expanding peer mentoring, and strengthening the services provided by the CETL to provide faculty development in course redesign, new pedagogies for enhancing student success, and strategies for promoting a growth mindset in students. The Academic Advisors, Success Coaches and the Peer Mentors work collaboratively as a “success team” to support students. Early identification of at-risk students and specific populations like athletes, residential students, students on probation, etc., allows for focused outreach by the success team and a holistic proactive intervention strategy for advising, tutoring and mentoring. An outcome of this approach is that of the total number of undergraduate students enrolled in spring’24, 5.8 % ended the semester on probation, as compared to 6.2% in spring’23, a decrease of 0.4%. Additionally, there was a 10% increase in the number of students who started spring’24 on probation and ended the semester in good standing, as compared to fall’23. These efforts will continue to be strengthened and coordinated with implementation of Salesforce for case management, communication, and timely intervention.

Students in our Learning Support English and math classes need additional help to improve the course success outcomes through course redesign and academic support. To improve success rates in the LS courses, the English department is participating in the POISED initiative to implement a course redesign in English 1101. The math department has embedded success coaches in every learning support section of Quantitative Reasoning that are in weekly communication with the faculty for early identification of high-risk students to allow for timely interventions. The success coaches work with individual students to build success plans after assessing their needs followed by regular monitoring and feedback. The data obtained at the end of the semester will be analyzed and the approach expanded or modified for spring’25. Data for students in LS co-requisite section of Algebra has shown significant improvement in success outcomes. With the proposed changes for fall’24, further improvement in success rates for STEM majors in LS are anticipated. Persistence from the spring to the fall semester, however, remains a challenge for students at-risk and discussions to provide support to specific populations during the summer are ongoing to improve persistence rates. This is especially important as the percentage of students who placed into LS in Fall’24 increased by 1.5%, from 579 to 733.

Student engagement with the resources offered to provide academic and non-academic support remains a challenge. A big push in this direction has been the launching of the FYE initiative which has shown promising progress in its first year, highlighting its potential to significantly impact first-year student success. For example, the Knights Academy's (KA) engagement rate of 28.7% and a slight improvement from fall to spring participation indicate that students are finding value in the program’s content. This is crucial, as increased engagement is directly correlated with higher academic success and retention rates. With targeted interventions and enhanced support, the engagement rate is projected to rise by 20% in fall 2024. Additionally, the content completion rates within the KA have seen a steady increase which reflects the program’s effectiveness in encouraging students to actively participate in their learning journey and develop critical success skills.

The co-curricular activities facilitated by the Knights Community Crew have also shown substantial growth. This surge in participation underscores the program’s ability to foster a sense of community and belonging among students, which is essential for their overall development and well-being. The Knights Journey pilot in fall 2024 aims to integrate character development and 21st-century competencies into the student experience. This innovative approach to education not only prepares students for academic success but also equips them with the skills needed to tackle real-world challenges. The interactive nature of the Knights Journey is expected to drive high levels of engagement and participation, further enhancing the program’s overall impact.

MGA will continue to focus on our high-risk populations to help them succeed and improve their academic standing, persistence, and retention rates. Following a holistic approach and forming collaborations with other Divisions including Student Affairs and Enrollment Management, MGA will continue to work towards its goals of championing student success.

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