This initiative centers on training advisors to help students create fuller schedules (15 or more hours) and complete essential skills mathematics and writing requirements within 30 hours, aided by the use of scheduling tools and success markers in Navigate.
This initiative centers on training advisors to help students create fuller schedules (15 or more hours) and complete essential skills mathematics and writing requirements within 30 hours, aided by the use of scheduling tools and success markers in Navigate.
Evaluation Plan and measures: Review number/percentage of students enrolled in 15 or more credit hours; track number/percentage of first-time full-time students completing essential skills courses within 30 hours.
KPIs: Rate of enrollment in 15 or more credit hours and rate of completion of essential skills requirements for FTFT students
Baseline measure (for each KPI): fall 2020 percentage of students enrolled in 15 or more credit hours was 17.01%; percentage of students completing essential skills courses within 30 hours was 57.04%.
Current/most recent data (for each KPI): The fall 2024 rate of enrollment in 15 or more credit hours was 12.16% of total enrollment, significantly down from the fall 2023 rate, which was at a 5-year high of 19.48%, and also far lower than the fall 2020 baseline rate of 17.01%. As is noted elsewhere in this report, at the beginning of fall 2024 the disastrous effects of Hurricane Helene appear to have caused a decline in student credit hour enrollment; therefore, the fall 2024 credit hour data may be an anomaly, rather than a trend.
At the same time, however, the fall 2024 rate for essential mathematics and writing skills completion within 30 hours for FTFT students was a 5-year high of 70.52%. All credit hour and essential skills courses data can be found in Appendix Tables G, H, and I.
Goal or targets (for each KPI): Percentage of students enrolled in 15 or more credit hours, 25% of total enrollment; percentage of students completing essential skills courses within 30 hours, 80%. Both goal targets to be achieved by 2029.
Time period/duration: Measured each Fall
A number of factors, not the least of which was budget cuts that led to a loss of advisor positions and cancellation of the contract for the Navigate platform, necessitated a complete overhaul of not only academic advising but also course scheduling practices, all of which we are currently undertaking. The USG’s revision of the core curriculum structure contributed to the need for a new approach to advising that incorporates much more than creating fuller schedules and promoting essential skills course completion. A Course Analysis Committee was formed to study course scheduling practices in an effort to ensure that students have the ability to enroll in 15+ hours each semester, that course sequences are appropriately offered, and that students have enough information to make purposeful choices along their academic pathways. A new approach to advising with the collaboration of faculty and student success staff in a centrally located Advising Center is being piloted on the Waycross Campus. Tools in the Banner 9 platform are being used to replace those lost when Navigate was discontinued. New program maps are in development. All of this constitutes a culture change for students, staff, and faculty.
Our Course Analysis Committee will persist in analyzing data, surveying students and faculty, and making informed recommendations on course scheduling. Faculty will be required to spend a minimum of one hour per week in the Advising Center to provide academic advising to students. Student success staff will provide referrals to services, offer skills workshops, and support students’ specific needs. We will reexamine our currently paused strategy of concierge coaching to determine if it should or could be improved and resurrected.
Major challenges include convincing mid-level administrators, some faculty members, and some students that recommended schedule changes are in the students’ best interests. Faculty buy-in is essential for the Advising Center model to be successful.
Scheduling software would be a great help to increase the effectiveness of our course scheduling practices.
