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Kennesaw State University Campus Plan Update 2025

Kennesaw State University (KSU) transforms lives through academic excellence, innovative research, strong community partnerships, and economic opportunity. We empower our students to become thought leaders, lifelong learners, and informed global citizens by cultivating an inclusive environment that encourages free expression and civil discourse. As one of the largest university in Georgia, KSU has 51,375 students enrolled this fall in over 190 undergraduate, master’s, doctoral degree and certificate programs.  Our student body is 57.8% minority, 39.9% Pell grant-awarded, 39.2% first-generation college students, and 6.5% of the undergraduate population are adult learners. These diverse backgrounds and experiences produce a collaborative spirit that opens the doors to new ideas and innovations.  Our graduates are more than career ready – they’re ready to make an impact in our communities, our nation and around the world.  At KSU, students become the individuals that others want as colleagues and as leaders.

Peer and Aspirant

  • Boise State University
  • California State University-Fullerton
  • California State University-Long Beach
  • Florida Atlantic University
  • George Mason University
  • Georgia State University
  • San Diego State University
  • San Francisco State University
  • Texas State University
  • University of Massachusetts - Boston
  • University of North Carolina at Charlotte
  • University of Texas at Arlington
  • University of Texas at San Antonio
  • University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
  • University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Conference USA

  • Florida International University
  • Jacksonville State University
  • Liberty University
  • Louisiana Tech University
  • Middle Tennessee State University
  • Missouri State University-Springfield
  • New Mexico State University
  • Sam Houston State University
  • Stephen F Austin State University
  • University of Texas at El Paso
  • Western Kentucky University
 

Success Inventory

Starting Blocks (Kennesaw State University-2025)

Strategy/Project Name: 
Starting Blocks
Momentum Area: 
Pathways
Category: 
Advising
Co-curricular Pathways
Credit Intensity
First Year Experience
Strategy/Project Description: 

KSU’s “Starting Blocks” project launched in Fall 2024.  Block scheduling serves multiple purposes, all designed to enhance the academic experience and support student success. It streamlines the registration process for easier enrollment, ensuring students make appropriate selections of courses, including introductory English and math, during their first semester. It helps minimize potential credit loss if students change majors, and it provides students with the optimal opportunity to register for a full-time (15 credit hour) schedule. Additionally, block scheduling is meant to enhance social integration, facilitate the formation of study groups, and foster community building.  Additional information is available at https://advising.kennesaw.edu/orientation/starting_blocks.php.

This project is aligned with two of our “Top 5 Strategies,” namely increasing the number of freshmen taking 15 hours or more, and increasing the number of students who have completed 30 hours or more by the start of their second fall.

Activity Status: 
Refining/Maintaining
Evaluation/Assessment plan: 

Assessing the impact of block scheduling will involve various methods to measure its effectiveness in achieving its intended goals and benefits.  Academic performance metrics, course enrollment data, and student feedback around belonging will all be considered.

KPIs:

  1. First-year full-time retention rate (assessed yearly)
  2. Percentage of first-time, full-time cohort enroll in 15+ credit hours  (assessed yearly) – ASPIRE Priority
  3. Percentage of first-time, full-time cohort who have completed 30 or more credit hours by the end of summer semester (assessed yearly) – ASPIRE Priority
  4. NSSE Survey Results (assessed every 3 years)

Baseline measure (for each KPI):

  1. Fall 2023 cohort: 76.7%
  2. Fall 2023: 53.1%
  3. Summer 2023: 58%
  4. 2023 NSSE Survey Results

Goal or targets (for each KPI):

  1. Fall 2026 cohort: 82%
  2. Fall 2027: 76%
  3. Summer 2026: 70%

Next survey: No statistical difference when compared to our R2 peers when first-year students are asked whether they feel like part of the community at KSU.

Progress and Adjustments: 

Block scheduling was successfully launched for the first time in fall 2024. Students enrolled in over 350 blocks.  In total, 83% of first-time freshmen enrolled in one or both blocks.  This widespread participation led to a substantial increase in credit-hour intensity, with over 15 percentage point more students registering for 15 or more credit hours compared to the previous fall (68.5% in fall 2024). Similarly, the percentage of the cohort completing 30 credits hours or more in their first year grew by 5 percentage points to 65% for the fall 2024 cohort.  The first-year retention rate rose by 2.9 percentage points to 79.6%.  

In Fall 2025, 89% of the cohort enrolled in at least one of the 390 available blocks.  Enrollment growth was again larger than anticipated and this impacted the ability for even more freshmen to enroll in blocks.  Lessons learned over the past year were carefully tracked.  Feedback from the colleges, advisors, and students has been gathered and is being incorporated as we build blocks for fall 2026.  Additional consideration for Advanced Placement/Dual Enrollment credit, as well as changing enrollment trends by major, is also being incorporated.

Plan for the Year Ahead: 

Blocks for fall 2026 are being created. As mentioned, modifications are being made to allow for additional students to participate in block scheduling.  This year, we also plan to engage first-time freshmen starting in summer in block scheduling in the fall.  Students will register for the blocks at orientation.  Enrollment will be closely monitored. Pre-orientation advising materials will be updated throughout the summer.  Lessons learned will be carefully tracked.

Challenges and Support: 

CHALLENGES:

A potential challenge could arise if enrollment patterns differ significantly from projections, resulting in too few blocks being available overall or for students in particular majors.

SUPPORT NEEDED:

We intend to engage with other universities to better understand their approaches to managing seat capacity in block scheduling. Our goal is to learn whether they have mechanisms that seamlessly transition open seats from block enrollment to general availability when demand within a block falls short, while also ensuring that seats reserved for block students are not prematurely taken by first-year students seeking to enroll in individual block-designated sections.

Contact email: 
mlowder2@kennesaw.edu
Primary Contact: 
Lori Lowder, Associate Vice Provost
Lis Hames, Director of Academic Course Scheduling

Academic Coaching and Support (Kennesaw State University-2025)

Strategy/Project Name: 
Academic Coaching and Support
Momentum Area: 
Pathways
Category: 
First Year Experience
Strategy/Project Description: 

The President’s Focused Learner Program (PFL) was a KSU initiative seeking to assist incoming students at risk of “Murky Middle” GPAs with their ability to navigate the academic and personal well-being factors often necessary for a student’s academic success. The PFL Program spanned all majors at KSU.

As of Fall 2024, the services and events previously offered within the PFL program were incorporated into the Academic Coaching and Support office, enabling more comprehensive support for “murky middle” students.

Activity Status: 
Refining/Maintaining
Evaluation/Assessment plan: 

The President’s Focused Learner Program (PFL) was formally retired at the end of Summer 2024. However, the core strategies and student success components of PFL—such as academic coaching, workshops, peer mentoring, and targeted outreach—have been fully integrated into the work of the Academic Coaching and Support office. While no new PFL cohorts were inducted after Fall 2023, the evaluation below reflects the ongoing evolution of support through the Academic Coaching office.

KPIs:

  1. Student Interactions with Academic Coaching and Support 
  2. Enrollment based on engagement
  3. First-year full-time retention rate

Baseline measure (for each KPI):

  1. Fall 2024: 2,796 student interactions
  2. Fall 2024 to Fall 2025 retention of participants: TBD
  3. Fall 2023 cohort: 76.7%

Goal or targets (for each KPI):

  1. Fall 2024: 10% increase in the number of student interactions over baseline
  2. Fall 2026 to Fall 2027 retention of participants: TBD
  3. Fall 2026 cohort: 82%
Progress and Adjustments: 

Despite the fact that the PFL program has merged into the broader services provided by the Academic Coaching and Support (ACS) office, the students who were formerly part of the PFL program continue to be tracked via EAB Navigate and encouraged to engage with ACS’ services, which include academic coaching, peer mentoring, success workshops, and academic enrichment events.

As of Fall 2025 the services and events formerly provided by the PFL program were integrated into the Academic Coaching and Support office (ACS), allowing broader support for “murky middle” students. Although the PFL program has been retired in name, its successful elements designed for “murky middle” students are now part of Academic Coaching and Support. This transition allows us to offer broader support, including academic coaching, success workshops, guided study sessions, registration assistance, enrichment events, online resources, and targeted academic outreach.

Additionally, academic coaching has been expanded. PFL students, along with any student in the “murky middle” GPA range at KSU, now have access to coaching from six coaches, compared to the single coach in the former PFL program. The ACS coaching team also provides targeted outreach to encourage participation in coaching sessions and workshops/events.

As of Fall 2025, there were 1,446 enrolled students from the former PFL program who enrolled for FA25 and who receive support from the Academic Coaching and Support office.

Since Spring 2025, over 80 workshops and events have been hosted by Academic Coaching and Support to connect students with campus resources. Specific outreach has also been undertaken at key points in spring 2025 and fall 2025 semesters to encourage “murky middle” students to engage with SSP’s academic support services. The continued development of peer academic mentoring for first-year students through “Wing Leaders” initiative has further enhanced support for the “murky middle” population.

As of Fall 2025, there were 1,446 enrolled students who were previously with the PFL program and continue to be supported by the Academic Coaching and Support office:

  • FA20 cohort enrolled in FA25: 162 students
  • FA21 cohort enrolled in FA25: 324 students
  • FA22 cohort enrolled in FA25: 490 students
  • FA23 cohort enrolled in FA25: 459 students
  • Opt-In cohort enrolled in FA25: 13 students 

Data for spring 2025 and Fall 2025 (as of November 3rd 2025) – All Academic Coaching and Support Services:

  • Coaching appointments: 1,825
  • Total programmatic offerings: 80 events and workshops in SP25 (Academic Coaching and Support)
  • Total workshop/event attendance: 1,974 check-ins

Peer mentoring engagement: 1,077 check-ins

Plan for the Year Ahead: 

Beneficial PFL initiatives—such as intensive coaching, guided study sessions, and academic success workshops—are now fully integrated into the offerings of the Academic Coaching and Support office (formerly called Student Success Programs). Academic coaching and mentoring will remain priorities, with an emphasis on collaboration with other campus support offices. The Wing Leaders program continues to develop and thrive, and we aim to continue this upward trend.

Academic Coaching and Support collect more comprehensive data to identify the most impactful activities for “murky middle” students. Academic Coaching and Support will prioritize interventions for these students, including information about academic coaching and student success workshops and events. Efforts will be made to expand academic coaching availability, particularly for “murky middle” students and those facing academic challenges.

Challenges and Support: 

CHALLENGES: 

The voluntary nature of academic coaching, mentoring, and workshops/events poses a challenge in reaching students at their point of need and persuading them to participate.

SUPPORT NEEDED: 

The opportunity to connect with other institutions that offer academic coaching within the system would be beneficial.

Contact email: 
fard1@kennesaw.edu
Primary Contact: 
Franklin Ard, Executive Director, Academic Coaching and Support
Sherrill Hayes, Assistant Vice Provost
Lori Lowder, Associate Vice Provost

Improving outcomes in first-year critical courses (Kennesaw State University-2025)

Strategy/Project Name: 
Improving outcomes in first-year critical courses
Momentum Area: 
Pathways
Category: 
Early Alerts
First Year Experience
Math Pathways
Peer and Supplemental Instruction
Tutoring
Strategy/Project Description: 

KSU has identified courses that are high enrollment courses with significant DFW rates and will continue to ensure that sufficient sections are offered to meet student demand, offer targeted academic supports to achieve greater impacts, and engage faculty in learning communities focused on course redevelopment.

This project is aligned with one of our “Top 5 Strategies,” which is to expand faculty knowledge and practices that support student success.

Activity Status: 
Refining/Maintaining
Evaluation/Assessment plan: 

KPIs:

  1. DFWI rates
  2. Course enrollment and fill rates 
  3. Early Alert engagement
  4. Midterm Grade reporting engagement - ASPIRE Priority
  5. Supplemental Instruction/Tutoring attendance
  6. Faculty engagement in learning communities around first year courses

Baseline measure (for each KPI):

  1. Fall 2023 DFWI rates:-MATH 1111- 35%; MATH 1113 - 40%; MATH 1190 - 43%
  2. Fall 2023 Course enrollment and Fill Rates: MATH 1111 - 4,287, 95%; MATH 1113 – 2,069, 96%, MATH 1190 – 1,632, 99%
  3. Early Alert engagement Fall 2023: MATH 1111 - 71%; MATH 1113 - 84%, MATH 1190 - 81%
  4. Midterm Grade engagement Fall 2023: MATH 1111 - 39%; MATH 1113 - 64%, MATH 1190 - 44%
  5. Fall 2023 Supplemental Instruction /Tutoring attendance: SI 11,915; SMART 10,059  
  6. Faculty engagement in learning communities around first year courses Fall 2024 – 17 participants, representing 15 different departments

Goal or targets (for each KPI):

  1. Fall 2027 DFWI rates- MATH 1111 30%, MATH 1113 30%, MATH 1190 30%
  2. Fall 2026 Course enrollment and Fill Rates – No enrollment targets set fill rates are MATH 1111 99%; MATH 1113  99%; MATH 1190 99%
  3. Fall 2027 Early Alert engagement – MATH 80%; MATH 1113  90%, MATH 1190 90%
  4. Fall 2027 Midterm Grade engagement - MATH 1111 80%; MATH 1113  80%, MATH 1190 80%
  5. Fall 2026 Supplemental Instruction/Tutoring engagement – 10% increase over baseline

Fall 2026 Faculty engagement in learning communities around first year courses – 36 different  faculty who have participated in “Block Champion” training, at least one representative each from each critical course department

Progress and Adjustments: 

Overall undergraduate student enrollment in Fall 2025 increased by 7.5 percent (FA 24 42,840 → FA 25 46,069). Enrollment in critical mathematics courses also grew. MATH 1111 enrollment rose by 6 percent (FA 24 4,787 → FA 25 5,083) with a 98 percent fill rate. MATH 1113 enrollment remained steady (FA 24 2,138 → FA 25 2,137) with a 93 percent fill rate, and MATH 1190 enrollment increased by 11 percent (FA 24 1,684 → FA 25 1,876) with a 98 percent fill rate.

DFWI trends across the academic year show incremental but sustained improvement. From Fall 2023 to Fall 2024, DFWI rates declined in MATH 1113 (40 % → 38 %) and MATH 1190 (43 % → 39 %), with a modest increase in MATH 1111 (35 % → 37 %) due primarily to higher withdrawal rates. Across all critical courses, D and F grades declined from 16.6 percent in Fall 2023 to 13.2 percent in Spring 2025, while withdrawals increased from 9.9 to 13.2 percent. The overall DFWI rate remained steady near 26 percent, reflecting a redistribution within that category—fewer failing grades and more timely withdrawals.

Faculty engagement in early alerts and midterm grades has continued to strengthen. Early-alert participation increased from 71 percent in Fall 2023 to 75 percent in Fall 2024, reaching 85 percent of critical-course sections in Spring 2025. Midterm-grade submissions rose sharply: MATH 1111 (39 % → 78 %), MATH 1113 (64 % → 73 %), and MATH 1190 (39 % → 76 %) between Fall 2023 and Fall 2024, and reached 80 percent overall and 83 percent for critical courses in Spring 2025. These increases allowed faculty to provide clearer feedback earlier in the term and enabled students to make informed academic decisions. The USG withdrawal deadline extension further reinforced these efforts by giving students more time to act on performance data before the end of the term.

Academic support utilization also expanded. Supplemental Instruction (SI) participation increased 8.8 percent (FA 24 12,963). Within the critical math sequence, 385 students attended 1,830 SI sessions in Fall 2024, and 344 students attended 1,445 sessions in Spring 2025. SMART Center visits increased 23.9 percent overall (FA 24 12,468) and 4.8 percent in critical math courses (FA 24 5,464), with unique student visits up 17 percent (1,198). Students who used SI or SMART services multiple times consistently achieved higher grades and lower DFWI rates than their peers.

KSU’s ASPIRE Top 5 strategies—embedded within the institutional strategic plan—emphasize sustainability and accountability across colleges. Most colleges have included early alerts and midterm grades in their strategic implementation plans, and several deans now incorporate these measures into annual faculty reviews. Academic Affairs provides biweekly and end-of-term updates on participation rates to maintain consistency and promote continuous improvement.

Plan for the Year Ahead: 

The KSU Strategic Plan continues to guide this work, with most colleges embedding related initiatives into their Strategic Implementation Plans (SIPs) to ensure measurable progress. Early-alert and midterm-grade participation are now standing expectations across colleges, and several deans have incorporated these metrics into annual faculty evaluations. To sustain momentum, Academic Affairs provided regular updates on participation rates during submission windows, maintaining consistent, data-driven engagement with associate deans and faculty throughout the year.

Goals for 2025–2026 build directly on this foundation. The SMART Center and Supplemental Instruction programs will remain central supports for first-year students in high-enrollment courses, each targeting a 6 percent increase in visits over the Fall 2023 baseline.  Colleges will expand the use of these data in departmental reviews and course redesign efforts to identify patterns in DFWI reduction and student persistence.

Academic Affairs, in collaboration with Data Strategy and Institutional Research, will integrate real-time dashboards into college-level planning to disaggregate outcomes by course, modality, and student population. These dashboards will allow faculty and academic-support teams to refine interventions and document how structured feedback, tutoring, and peer learning collectively strengthen first-year momentum.

Challenges and Support: 

CHALLENGES:

Strong enrollment growth in Fall 2025 (46,069 undergraduates) expanded the university’s impact but also amplified familiar challenges related to class size, scheduling, and faculty workload. Higher demand in gateway mathematics increased pressure on peer-educator staffing in tutoring and SI, requiring ongoing resource adjustments to maintain access and quality. While faculty participation in early alerts and midterm grades continues to exceed expectations, sustaining engagement and course quality across hundreds of sections remains a concern. In addition, D and F rates have declined, but overall DFWI percentages have stabilized near 26 percent, underscoring the need for more targeted, section-level analysis to identify instructional and structural factors that influence student outcomes.

SUPPORT NEEDED:

Additional benchmarking in terms of both policies and data from other USG institutions on similar initiatives would be helpful. 

Contact email: 
shayes32@kennesaw.edu
Primary Contact: 
Sherrill Hayes, Assistant Vice Provost
Lori Lowder, Associate Vice Provost

Evaluation of transfer credit (Kennesaw State University-2025)

Strategy/Project Name: 
Evaluation of transfer credit
Momentum Area: 
Pathways
Category: 
Adult Learners/Non-traditional Students/GBMA
First Year Experience
Strategy/Project Description: 

Students transferring between institutions tend to have unused courses in their new programs. This results in additional time and costs spent at the new institution. There is an articulation agreement for courses in the core curriculum between the University System of Georgia (USG) institutions, but no such agreement exists for private or out of state institutions. The goal of this project is to allow students to transfer to KSU more easily by accepting more relevant coursework into their programs.  KSU is re-evaluating all the general education courses from our top feeder universities/colleges. Rather than evaluating for course equivalency, we will review each course for a match in learning outcomes in each of our general education areas.  Additionally, new and renewed articulation agreements focus on how to maximize credits being transferred between institutions.   

Activity Status: 
Refining/Maintaining
Evaluation/Assessment plan: 

KPIs:

  1. Number of feeder schools 
  1. Number of courses being added to student records  

Baseline measure (for each KPI):

  1. Spring 2023: 18
  2. Spring 2023: 16,056 transfer courses

Goal or targets (for each KPI):

The goal is to expand this initiative to apply to as many feeder schools as possible.

Progress and Adjustments: 

January 1, 2025 to date, the project has positively impacted 3,118 students by accepting 53,366 transfer credit hours without having to go through a course substitution process. We estimate this updated substitution process will decrease the time to graduation for each of these students by at least one full semester of coursework (an average of 17 credit hours per transfer student).  The transfer attributes have been updated to accommodate the core IMPACTS curriculum, and the IMPACTS course substitution process for courses not automatically accepted by the attribute project has been streamlined in the decisions course substitution portal. The course attribute project provides increased transferability within core IMPACTS. During this review period, 2,336 students have transferred 8,631 credit hours into core IMPACTS without having to go through the course substitution process. Additionally, the campus community has the opportunity to request additional review if coursework is not automatically mapped to KSU curriculum using the transfer attribute project. From January 1, 2025 to present, 1,386 such courses from 64 institutions have been reviewed substitution by coverage of IMPACTS learning outcomes. 1,053 (76%) were approved, 250 (18%) were canceled or denied and the remaining 83 (6%) are pending review. The most common reasons for substitution request to be canceled or denied fall in two categories: 1) administrative decisions including the requested course earned an unsatisfactory grade, the requested course would move to an area already satisfied in DegreeWorks, or the requested course is at a level inappropriate for graduation requirements and 2) department or subject matter expert decision where the requested course is not an appropriate match for required course content coverage. 

Plan for the Year Ahead: 

We continuously evaluate transfer credits and institutions that frequently appear on the course substitution portal and investigate modifications to the attribute list and work with the transfer evaluation specialists and advising directors to expand opportunities for substitutions based on course to learning outcome overlap when a direct course to course match is not available within the institutional catalog.  

Challenges and Support: 

Currently the decisions workflow requires advisors to submit course to course substitution requests rather than course to IMPACTS domain. In cases where an appropriate course to course match is not available in the instructional catalog, this can cause confusion and initial rejection at the department review. A project request to modify the course substitution portal is in process and will reduce barriers to course to IMPACTS domain substitution approvals. The workflow will close the loop by adding new attributes to approved course to domain substitutions such that the total number of future substitution requests should decrease. The revised workflow in the decisions course substitution portal is scheduled to go live near the end of the fall 2025 semester.

Contact email: 
cdockery@kennesaw.edu
Primary Contact: 
Chris Dockery, Faculty Director of General Education

FLIGHT (Kennesaw State University-2025)

Strategy/Project Name: 
FLIGHT
Momentum Area: 
Pathways
Category: 
First Year Experience
Orientation
Transition to College
Strategy/Project Description: 

FLIGHT is a class-year connections program designed to support Kennesaw State University students throughout their collegiate journey. Using an innovative four-year framework, FLIGHT fosters community, belonging, and student engagement while helping students build a distinct identity within their class cohort. Through targeted programming and developmental milestones, FLIGHT addresses the social, personal, and academic needs of students, promoting retention, progression, and deeper connections to campus resources and the KSU community.

Activity Status: 
Refining/Maintaining
Evaluation/Assessment plan: 

This year marks an important step forward in FLIGHT’s assessment strategy through new partnerships with the Strategic Planning, Assessment, and Analysis (SPAA) Division of Student Affairs and Institutional Research. Together, these teams are developing a comprehensive data collection method to evaluate engagement, retention, progression, and graduation outcomes for students who actively participate in FLIGHT compared to those who do not. The formal data request for this project has been submitted and is currently pending, positioning the department to conduct more robust, longitudinal analysis in the coming year.  In the meantime, FLIGHT continues to assess student engagement, belonging, and persistence through a combination of participation metrics, developmental outcomes, and emerging longitudinal data. This multi-layered approach allows the program to connect individual engagement opportunities with broader indicators of student success and institutional impact.

New and ongoing measures include:

  • Signature Event Participation: Attendance and outcomes tied to each phase’s milestone event (First-Year Convocation & Runout (Foster), Sophomore Social (Focus), Junior Jump (Flourish), and Senior Cookout (Finalize)).
  • Scrappy Hour & Pop-Up Engagement: Number of students reached, repeat participation, and collaborative partners engaged.
  • Orientation Engagement: Attendance and feedback from FLIGHT29 students and families during New Student Orientations.
  • Hub Integration: Number of FLIGHT students engaged in hub-specific programming and outcomes linked to milestones.

Longitudinal Tracking: Persistence and GPA comparisons of students engaged in FLIGHT programming vs. non-participants.

Progress and Adjustments: 

Now in its fourth year, the FLIGHT Program has reached a significant milestone: for the first time, all four class years are actively represented on campus. This achievement highlights the program’s sustainability and its growing influence on student belonging, engagement, and persistence at Kennesaw State University (KSU).

FLIGHT is KSU’s class-year connections initiative, intentionally designed to provide distinctive experiences that foster the social, personal, and academic development of every student. Guided by a four-phase developmental framework—Foster, Focus, Flourish, and Finalize—the program ensures that students feel seen, supported, and connected to the broader campus community from their first semester through graduation.

During 2024–2025, the department completed a strategic reorganization that expanded staff capacity, clarified roles, and enhanced alignment between programming, assessment, and student development outcomes. This restructuring supported the implementation of the FLIGHT Plan, organized around four progressive phases and four core pillars: Community, Connections, Engagement, and Support. Together, these pillars ensure that students receive the resources, relationships, and guidance necessary to succeed in college and beyond.

FLIGHT’s collaborative and holistic approach has become a cornerstone of KSU’s student success ecosystem. In the most recent academic year, the program led or co-hosted 71 collaborative events, generating more than 19,000 student check-ins across both campuses. Signature milestones such as First-Year Convocation, Runout, Sophomore Social, Junior Jump, and Senior Cookout have deepened class-year identity and connection, while events like Scrappy Hour and the Student Support Fair have expanded outreach and increased access to campus resources.

Partnerships with Housing and Residence Life, Orientation, Career Planning & Development, Alumni Relations, and Student Leadership have further extended FLIGHT’s reach. The redesigned Leaders in Kennesaw (LinK) Weekend engaged 88 upper-division students, including 12 Ambassadors, in leadership development and community-building activities. These collaborations demonstrate how shared programming and intentional design can foster a culture where belonging, engagement, and achievement are mutually reinforcing.

As FLIGHT enters its next phase, the program will continue to refine class-year milestones, expand data-informed assessment dashboards, and strengthen cross-campus collaborations that connect students’ engagement with their academic and professional growth.

Plan for the Year Ahead: 

As FLIGHT enters its fifth year, the program is shifting from growth to refinement—strengthening alignment between its four developmental phases (Foster, Focus, Flourish, Finalize) and continuing to build belonging through class-year traditions and engagement milestones. The focus will be on deepening consistency, enhancing data-informed decision-making, and ensuring every student’s FLIGHT journey remains intentional and meaningful from entry to graduation.

  • Advance the FLIGHT Framework: Further define each phase of the four-year model with distinct developmental outcomes, reflection touchpoints, and engagement milestones.
  • Enhance Signature Milestones: Continue refining and scaling First-Year Convocation, Runout, Sophomore Social, Junior Jump, and Senior Cookout to strengthen each class year’s sense of identity and connection.
  • Broaden Engagement Opportunities: Expand mid-year and co-curricular programming that reinforces FLIGHT’s pillars of Community, Connection, Engagement, and Support.

Implement Data Dashboards: Collaborate with SPAA and Institutional Research to visualize participation and belonging outcomes, aligning engagement data with retention and progression metrics.

Challenges and Support: 

As participation grows across all four class years, maintaining the personalized, high-quality experiences that define the FLIGHT model will require continued strategic management of scale, staffing, and data capacity.

  • Sustaining Quality During Growth: Increased event participation and expansion across both campuses create logistical and facilitation challenges.
  • Resource Capacity: Additional staffing and funding are needed to sustain event execution, assessment, and student leadership development.
  • Assessment Infrastructure: Continued refinement of engagement-tracking systems and survey tools is needed to connect belonging outcomes to academic performance.
  • Balance of Breadth and Depth: With 40+ annual events, prioritizing experiences that deliver the strongest developmental impact is essential to maintain focus and relevance.

To build upon FLIGHT’s success as a comprehensive class-year engagement model, external collaboration and benchmarking will be key to sustaining quality, expanding reach, and enhancing evaluation capacity.

  • Peer Benchmarking: Collaboration with institutions that employ class-year or cohort-based engagement models to compare frameworks, staffing, and assessment structures.
  • System-Level Data Access: Access to USG-wide belonging and engagement metrics to contextualize KSU outcomes within the broader student success landscape.
  • Funding and Sustainability Guidance: Consultation on scalable funding models that support tradition-based programming and student leadership pipelines.
  • Evaluation Alignment: Support in refining longitudinal assessment frameworks that connect engagement, belonging, and retention outcomes across the four-year student journey.
Contact email: 
sturn173@kennesaw.edu
Primary Contact: 
Sierra R. Turner, Executive Director, Student Engagement and Support
James Stinchcomb, Director, Student Engagement and Suppor

Learning Analytics (Kennesaw State University-2025)

Strategy/Project Name: 
Learning Analytics
Momentum Area: 
Data & Communications
Category: 
Data
Faculty Development
Strategy/Project Description: 

KSU aims to take full advantage of data gathered through the LMS, D2L, for a faculty audience. Our online learning unit, Digital Learning Innovations, has revised their mission to support faculty in using the LMS to manage learning in all modalities and using the data to identify problems, diagnose root causes, and take targeted actions during the semester to impact student success within the semester. The learning analytics solution, uHoo Analytics, is available to all faculty. Additionally, faculty are provided professional development in tool use and data interpretation.

This project is aligned with one of our “Top 5 Strategies,” which is to encourage faculty to utilize student course data to improve student performance.

Activity Status: 
Refining/Maintaining
Evaluation/Assessment plan: 

Evaluation Plan and measures as of Fall 2025:

  1. Micro-learning completion rates by badges awarded:
    Introduction to uHoo Analytics: 340 issued
    Learning Analytics 101: 118 issued
    Course Optimization: 92 issued
    Student Support: 96 issued
  2. Faculty system engagement metrics:
    590 faculty have requested access to uHoo Analytics
    131 unique users over 30 days (September-October 2025)
Progress and Adjustments: 

Faculty access to uHoo continues to grow, but average engagement per user has plateaued—likely due to delays in implementing requested dashboard updates. Users submitted dozens of feature requests, signaling strong interest. The next release—now in testing—includes visual refinements, a simplified dashboard set, and a predictive dashboard that offers machine-learning–based action recommendations for faculty. These enhancements are expected to improve perceived value and ease of use. Professional-development uptake has been strong, with 340 badge earners completing the introductory course. Following the upcoming January rollout, we will survey instructors to assess impact and guide further system improvements and training. The program coordinator dashboards are still used by the pilot program coordinators; however, no new developments have been made in the past year due to capacity. The platform development work focused on moving the system into Microsoft Fabric which has provided the capacity to integrate artificial intelligence, both machine learning and generative. This will allow the system to provide both predictive and prescriptive information to instructors.

Plan for the Year Ahead: 

In the next year, the uHoo development team will release version 2.0. This version will include faculty-requested revisions to the original dashboards as well as the addition of a simplified set of dashboards, a new measure of student engagement, and a student outcome predictive report.  The development team will release and promote the new version in January 2026. Professional development is being revised to reflect the changes within the system. This programming will be delivered through custom college-specific support events and training. Revision of the program coordinator dashboards will restart in Spring of 2026.

Challenges and Support: 

CHALLENGES:

Human resources in our Digital Learning Innovations team are limited and saw significant turnover with the requirement to be on campus. Ensuring we have the time and human resources to be successful is important. Currently we are working on backfilling several positions. Additionally, we are shifting our development work from our 3Cloud partners supported by KSU’s UITS team to KSU’s Data Strategy team supported in part by 3Cloud.

SUPPORT NEEDED:

We have been able to work with the USG UIT team as well as the D2L developers. Their engagement continues to be valuable to troubleshoot and advance the uHoo Analytics. We do not require additional support beyond this continuance.

Contact email: 
avega4@kennesaw.edu
Primary Contact: 
Anissa Vega, Associate Vice Provost

Supplemental Updates

Observations and Next Steps

What strategies and activities have been most successful? What have been least effective? How has your institution made adjustments to your completion activities over the past year? Where would you want to see student success efforts shift in the coming year(s)?

Over the past year, Kennesaw State University has made intentional progress in advancing student success through a coordinated set of initiatives that connect engagement, academic support, and data-informed decision-making. Efforts such as FLIGHT, Academic Coaching and Support (ACS), and block scheduling have strengthened belonging, improved course outcomes, and enhanced persistence.

The FLIGHT program’s four-phase engagement framework—Foster, Focus, Flourish, and Finalize—has evolved into a defining feature of the KSU student experience. By emphasizing structured connection and developmental growth across all class years, FLIGHT fosters a sense of community that complements students’ academic progression and supports long-term retention.

At the same time, Academic Coaching and Support has continued to build a comprehensive and personalized student success ecosystem. Through holistic, strengths-based coaching, students have developed greater confidence, organization, and motivation. The integration of mentoring programs, such as Wing Leaders, and targeted outreach using Navigate 360 has expanded engagement among first-generation students and those in academic recovery, while group workshops have strengthened academic skills such as time management and test preparation.

KSU has also strengthened its capacity for data-informed intervention. Tools like uHoo Analytics now provide timely insights into course performance and engagement patterns.  This along with Early Alert and Midterm grade engagements are helping faculty and staff coordinate outreach.  However, at the same time, manual and fragmented processes have proven less effective, often slowing response times and making it difficult to see patterns across units. When information about student performance, engagement, or outreach resides in separate systems, faculty and staff must rely on time-consuming data pulls and individual follow-ups to coordinate support. This reduces our ability to respond quickly to emerging concerns, leads to inconsistent communication, and limits our capacity to fully measure the collective impact of student success efforts across multiple areas.

To address this, KSU is developing more robust data dashboards that will provide quicker access to real-time insights into enrollment trends, course and program performance, and student engagement. These tools will enhance our capacity for data-informed decision-making and allow continuous monitoring of progress toward key student success metrics.

Looking ahead, our focus will be on integrating systems and fostering earlier engagement through coordinated academic support that improves course outcomes—via teaching enhancements, tutoring, Supplemental Instruction, advising, and coaching—and through Student Affairs initiatives that build connection and engagement outside the classroom. These combined efforts will ensure students are supported academically and socially from their first semester through graduation.