Georgia Gwinnett College Campus Plan Update 2020

Strategy or activity 

Preview Days

Summary of Activities 

During these events prospective students and their parents had the opportunity to engage with faculty in their areas of interest to learn more about related majors and careers. Students who were undecided about their intended focus area had the opportunity to meet with staff in the Student Engagement and Success to learn about career exploration strategies and resources.

Outcomes/ Measures of progress 

We served 636 students and families in AY 19-20 and had 400+ visits to the online version created in response to COVID-19.

Lessons Learned and Plans for the Future 

Preview Days have served well to convey a sense of GGC’s programs to our prospective students, as they are organized around small group meetings according to students’ interest areas. These broad areas of interest are aligned with GGC’s six Focus Areas so that students and families receive information that is most relevant to them. As the campus has adjusted services in response to COVID-19, Preview Day format has been reimagined as well, as detailed below.

Changes because of COVID-19 

For Fall 2020, two Preview Days were planned: A drive-in Preview Day, which took place on October 17 in the main campus parking lot, staged with tents, was attended by 109 prospective students and their families; and a virtual Preview Day, which is scheduled for October 31.

Strategy or activity 

Grizzly Orientation (GO)

Summary of Activities 

Grizzly Orientation (GO) aims to integrate students into the GGC community and to equip them with practical knowledge to successfully start the school year. GO also offers students the opportunity to discern and affirm their focus areas and major choices. Students are grouped based on focus areas and meet with faculty in their respective areas to discuss related careers and curricula. They decide to keep their focus area/major or change it and receive a color-coded bracelet that symbolizes the affirmation of their choice. Students then attend advising and registration sessions and receive assistance in selecting first semester schedules aligned with Momentum Year goals (e.g. English and Math in the first 30 hours).

Outcomes/ Measures of progress 

For the 19-20 academic year, the redesign and large scaling of learning community (LC) triads and the registration of students into LCs at GO effectively raised credit hour intensity to 13.2 average credit hours for all incoming first year students, up from 12.54 the preceding year. Despite the need to take GO completely online with delivery via Bb Collaborate, primarily, due to the coronavirus, we have kept credit hour intensity at 13.79 for incoming full-time first year students. Importantly, full-time students in their second year are averaging 13.61 credit hours, which tells us the efforts and messaging during year 1 about taking >12 credit hours are sustainable. Following the pivot to online Grizzly Orientation delivery, confirmed registrations for 16 GO virtual sessions via Bb Collaborate, which ran from May 2-August 4, 2020, totaled just over 4,100 students.

Lessons Learned and Plans for the Future 

Key lessons learned and plans for the future for Grizzly Orientation include the registration of more new students into LCs ahead of their orientation sessions. This will enable more focus on acculturation and integration into the learning community at GO.

Changes because of COVID-19 

Fall 2019 and Spring 2020 GO sessions were conducted in person per usual practice. Due to the pandemic, Summer and Fall 2020 GO sessions were conducted virtually through D2L, encompassing both asynchronous orientation content modules and synchronous registration through Bb Collaborate. The registration sessions were supported by the Mentoring and Advising Center’s Student Success advisors, SES and enrollment management staff, and faculty members. All assisted students in learning community and course selections.

Strategy or activity 

CDAC Focus Area Modules

Summary of Activities 

GGC’s Career Development and Advising Center (CDAC) has developed Focus Area modules for its Career Readiness Online course, in which all GGC students are automatically enrolled.

Outcomes/ Measures of progress 

All students enrolled, all faculty received information about deploying the modules in class, with targeted attention to faculty teaching first year classes. We plan a Spring inventory for access and completion rates.

Lessons Learned and Plans for the Future 

With the proliferation of activities happening on learning management software, students and faculty need targeted and repeated messages about the utility of this resource if we want them to utilize it, particularly within the students’ first year, and in the context of coursework.

Changes because of COVID-19 

The Focus Area modules were a response to COVID-19, as our previous model for Focus Area literacy relied on promotion of co-curricular events. This method will persist and offer more equitable, consistent access to the material.

Strategy or activity 

Learning Communities tied to Focus Areas

Summary of Activities 

A fusion of block scheduling processes and learning communities pedagogy supports efforts to connect new students to a focus area. First-Year Learning Community triads are based on focus areas and include nine credit hours. During the GO registration session, students select a triad based on their focus area and are guided by faculty mentors to add two additional courses, totaling 15 credit hours for the semester. Triads provide common experiences anchored in the focus areas and allow for affirmation or continued exploration of the focus areas and majors. Additionally, these grouped courses foster a sense of belonging as there is intentional interaction around common interests and experiences.

Outcomes/ Measures of progress 

Lessons Learned and Plans for the Future 

Key lessons learned through Fall 2020 regarding the learning communities fall into two main categories: Maintaining the integrity of learning communities will be challenging as we look to balance flexibility for students with the need to promote strongly integrated learning community in the LCs. Secondly, wraparound services, such as advising and tutoring, along with peer supplemental instruction (PSI) and peer mentoring opportunities, will be an important part of helping to support productive academic Mindset and social belonging among the learning community students. For the future, beginning Spring 2021 with goal to expand in Fall 2021, GGC aims to expand LCs to more upper-division students, in collaboration with degree programs. Another key plan is the expansion of LC pedagogy to our on-campus Residence Life in thematic living-learning communities (LLCs), which we plan to pilot in Spring 2021.

Changes because of COVID-19 

A key challenge introduced by the coronavirus pandemic has been the shift in modalities for a number of the triad courses in the learning communities. For Fall 2020, this meant adjusting LC schedules so that students could make changes to the courses they were enrolled in based on the new information on course delivery made available to them via Banner.

Strategy or activity 

Curriculum Maps and Pressure Tests

Summary of Activities 

During the AY 19-20, we completed the process of producing, remediating for compliance, and publishing 4yr program maps for every GGC program. With that task completed, several of our programs began pressure testing their maps, in some cases running complex data analysis to determine optimal sequencing of both GenEd and major course work.

Outcomes/ Measures of progress 

The 6 programs that ran pressure tests all made substantive adjustments to their maps.

Lessons Learned and Plans for the Future 

The work of pressure testing itself not only expanded literacy among chairs about data access and the impact of course sequencing, it produced quick changes in this student resource.

Changes because of COVID-19 

Strategy or activity 

Advising and Mentoring Campaigns

Summary of Activities 

ASA and SES partnered on several targeted advising and mentoring campaigns during the FA20 semester, aiming both to support faculty during a challenging student engagement semester, and to emphasize the importance of making transparent students’ optimal curricular steps. We increased communication across several channels and hosted “open lunches” by school for faculty to watch a brief presentation, then discuss resources and concerns.

Outcomes/ Measures of progress 

 150+ faculty attended open lunch events.

Lessons Learned and Plans for the Future 

The work of advising and mentoring is complex and high stakes in the best of circumstances, and more so now; faculty will generally welcome the chance to discuss solutions with colleagues.

Changes because of COVID-19 

Most broadly, a pandemic environment has made the connections necessary to good advising and mentoring somewhat harder to achieve. The more we discuss the high stakes of the work, the better we keep focused on the task.

Strategy or activity 

Mindset Survey and Interventions

Summary of Activities 

Mindset survey distribution was targeted via ENGL 1101 classes, and extensive data analysis infrastructure was built in collaboration with our USG partners. Survey completion was high in FA19 and we expect similar or better results for FA20. Based on survey data, we worked with ENGL 1101 instructors to deploy specific mindset interventions from Motivate Labs.

Outcomes/ Measures of progress 

Outcomes with respect to students’ Positive Academic Mindset and the related interventions being implemented at GGC will be measured by referring to the results of the annual Mindset Survey, as well as by following closely the disaggregated performance results of students as they progress as GGC. After our first year of large-scale learning communities (LCs) and much higher levels of completion for the Mindset Survey in 2019, we have not yet observed. 

Lessons Learned and Plans for the Future 

Our Mindset survey results show little change in students’ mindsets over the course of a semester. We understand this to be not unusual over the course of a single fall semester, ad so want to focus some on interventions that may affect change in a short period of time, but more on what we learn about our students’ baseline from the survey. We know, for example, that our students tend to view English class as more “costly” than the long-term benefits are worth. We can address this with strategic messaging from faculty about the utility of the class. 

Changes because of COVID-19 

Mindset survey and consequent interventions unaffected by COVID-19.

Strategy or activity 

Expansion of TILTed Assignments

Summary of Activities 

In conjunction with other initiatives on campus, including the TS3 HIPs project and G2C (Gateways to Completion), we have expanded the use of TILT (Transparency in Learning and Teaching) assignment design, in GenEd and upper-division across campus, and in all English 1101 courses.

Outcomes/ Measures of progress 

We will look to the next round of G2C data to evaluate impact in ENGL 1101.

Lessons Learned and Plans for the Future 

As with all efforts whose success depends on broad faculty adoption, initiative leaders need to think carefully and strategically about their messaging and messengers. Throughout our efforts, we have made adjustments that allowed us to keep focus on the low-cost high-impact nature of this intervention.

Changes because of COVID-19 

TILT is well-suited to a pandemic environment and helps students find their way through coursework in a more uncertain environment.

Strategy or activity 

GGC 1000 First-Year Seminar

Summary of Activities 

Outcomes/ Measures of progress 

Student achievement of learning outcomes related to the activities above is measured through three assignments—the campus resource quiz; campus scenarios; and career research assignment. In FA19, students scored an average of 93% on the 20-question resource quiz, which asks them to use their information literacy skills to find responses to questions via the GGC website. Students scored an average of 69% on the campus scenarios activity, which provided them with 15 common college scenarios and asked them to use critical thinking skills and resources to identify an appropriate office or service to assist them. Students received an average score of 89.3% on the career research assignment, which requires students to look at degree program plans and career research sources to answer career exploration items. Students also complete a 12-question attitudinal survey to measure their familiarity with campus resources, relationships on campus, time management, financial literacy, wellness, and other key success area metrics. Students rated their familiarity with these items at an average of 71%, with 9/12 statements rated as “strongly agree.” These scores suggest students actively participating in the FYS are successful in meeting course objectives. The FA19 pass rate was 76% for this course, also underscoring students’ general success.

Lessons Learned and Plans for the Future 

Student attendance and engagement, whether face-to-face or online, remain ongoing challenges. Students who attend and participate in the course activities generally do very well; those who do not struggle significantly and fail. We have noticed a percentage of students resist attending and engaging, despite all efforts, and would like to explore further how to involve that cohort.

Changes because of COVID-19 

Most FYS sections remained in hybrid delivery mode, although about 30% were offered either virtual synchronously or asynchronously in FA20. Faculty were encouraged to attend USG’s webinars and GGC’s Center for Teaching Excellence workshops on best practices in hybrid and online instruction, as well as student engagement. Student engagement was also the subject of the summer professional development session for GGC 1000 instructors. A template course was built in D2L over SU20 to facilitate more consistent delivery of core course components regardless of modality; instructors received this resource positively. The Grizzly Pawsport student engagement project, where students complete engagement activities in wellness, career readiness, academic success, and Grizzly Spirit (campus involvement/sense of belonging), were moved mostly to online offerings—both synchronous and asynchronous.

Strategy or activity 

Mindset Training for PSI leaders

Summary of Activities 

GGC’s ongoing, successful Peer Supplemental Instruction program for STEM class support was awarded a three-year STEM IV grant by the USG to incorporate academic mindset elements into training for the peer leaders, as well as during each PSI session. The Division of Student Engagement and Success’ Academic Enhancement Center staff partnered with the School of Science and Technology’s PSI faculty to build the training program, relevant mindset interventions, and assessment surveys, and began piloting FA19. Mindset interventions in select PSI sessions began in SP20 and scaled up to implementation over six weeks in the second year of the grant period (AY20-21).

Outcomes/ Measures of progress 

Mindset training is now a regular part of the PSI leaders’ onboarding and ongoing training, raising awareness of the concept. Leaders are encouraged to develop discipline-appropriate intervention activities that encourage the development of session participants’ academic growth mindset. The STEM IV team is discussing the most effective methods of measuring participants’ mindset development

Lessons Learned and Plans for the Future 

The greatest challenge in terms of mindset promotion is how to accurately and effectively measure it, a conversation that is ongoing on our team. Growth mindset training for leaders and inclusion of positive promotional activities in sessions will continue. Depending on COVID conditions, online-only PSI may continue through AY ‘20-’21. Since attendance has been variable in those online sessions to date, we continue to work on how to encourage participation.

Changes because of COVID-19 

In response to the COVID pandemic, all PSI sessions from late spring through fall of 2020 went completely online and were facilitated through BbCollaborate within GGC’s LMS, D2L. PSI leaders underwent training in Bb Collaborate, Zoom, and other online tools to engage students in active learning. The faculty/staff leadership team also developed online peer-mentoring leader training in lieu of full-day training workshops.

Strategy or activity 

First-Generation Student Programming

Summary of Activities 

Over 37% of GGC students self-identify as first-generation (FG). (Data is from FA19, obtained via FAFSA responses.) GGC is committed to serving the needs of this special population, creating more equitable access to college knowledge, and promoting progression and student success. To these ends, faculty and staff provide several initiatives to develop self-efficacy and establish a strong sense of Grizzly community with our first-generation students: Grizzly First Scholars (G1) learning community program; Bears Engaging and Mentoring (BEAM) peer mentoring (as of FA20, supported through Mentor Collective); and National First-Gen Celebration week activities (Nov. 8). In AY19-20, the Make Your Mark Student Success fair, encompassing time management and financial aid workshops, Focus 2 career readiness and resume building activities, discussion of the GGC Reads book Educated, and tabling from campus partners (Honors program, the Academic Enhancement Center, and Advising) was held November 5 in observation of National First-Generation Student week. 95 students attended.

Outcomes/ Measures of progress 

Attendance and access data are used to track the reach of this programming. As of October 2020, 1043 first-year students have been matched with an upper-division peer mentor as part of the BEAM/Mentor Collective program.

Lessons Learned and Plans for the Future 

Grizzly First Scholar learning communities will continue to provide wrap-around support for incoming FG students. Student success fairs and targeted workshops will also be provided. FG student engagement will be promoted through social media and social gatherings (F2F when safe again, virtual for now). Further outreach to incoming and current FG students at GGC will build a stronger sense of community support. FG Faculty and Staff outreach will be renewed. Further faculty/staff development efforts may be pursued through the Center of Teaching Excellence (e.g. imposter syndrome workshop).

Changes because of COVID-19 

The main changes due to COVID were moving FG-targeted success workshops and panel discussions to a virtual environment.

Priority Work

Career Readiness Modules – Focus Areas
Student Employee Self-Reflection Portfolios

Description of Activities

The Focus Area modules are described above.
This year also finds us rolling out an initiative that will eventually have all GGC student employees engaged, as a function of their campus employment, in regular self-reflection on the connections among their coursework, their campus employment, and their career development. These reflections will be part of an outward facing ePortfolio. All student employment at GGC will be part of an integrated education experience. 

Activity status and plans for 2020

Presently, we are piloting the program with student employees in the Academic Enhancement Center. Spring 2021, we will expand to student employees in Health and Wellness and Career Development and Advising Center.

Lessons Learned

Early pilots and discussions have reminded us of the importance of training student employee supervisors, not just on the ePortfolio platform, but on guiding students in reflective writing

Priority Work

Living-Learning Communities

Description of Activities

Beginning in Spring 2021, we are programming Living-Learning Communities (LLCs), which feature linked and integrated courses in the GenEd core, supplemented by campus co-curricular programming and support services, offered to students living on campus. 

Activity status and plans for 2020

Classes and faculty have been identified as of October 2020. Two pilot LLCs feature linked courses in the GenEd core: “Spanish Language and Culture” includes ENGL 1101 + SPAN 2001. “Composition and American Government” includes ENGL 1102 + POLS 1101. A third, more thematic, LLC is available to all interested residents with the theme: “Diversity and Equity.” For upper-division residents in the School of Business, an associated linked pair of courses is available: BUSA 4700 + SOCI 3201.

Lessons Learned

The LLC planning process has confirmed that there is demand for thematic communities in campus housing. Challenges suggested based on prior efforts to implement more highly integrated learning communities are expected to be in the areas of active recruitment of students for participation and in the logistics of adding students to the individual LLCs. This recruitment and logistical challenge is most likely to occur in cases where the LLCs may not fit easily into the current practice of blocking LC ‘triads,’ necessitating more individual approaches to adding students to these LLC sections.

Priority Work

Assign accepted students 15 credit hr schedules at admission, expansion of spring semester triad schedules

Description of Activities

Collaborative meetings across Academic and Student Affairs, Student Engagement and Success, and Enrollment Management divisions led to an actionable plan for Spring 2021 in which new first-year students will be guided through targeted questions to select their academic Focus area and from there, an appropriate learning community (LC). For this first pilot group, we will be reaching out to approximately 100 students in the BUSI and HEPR Focus Areas. 

Activity status and plans for 2020

Among all GGC enrolled students, Fall 2020 average credit hours are 11.68. This is a small decrease of .05 average credit hour intensity from Fall 2019 (11.73). Among all first-year students at the college, the Fall 2020 average credit hour load is 12.20, which is a comparable level of credit intensity with Fall 2019 at 12.29 average credit hour load for all first-year students. In both years, credit intensity for new (first-time), full-time first-year students was higher in Fall 2019 – at 13.2 average credit hours (up from 12.54 in 2018), and in Fall 2020 – at 13.79. These higher credit hour intensity rates for new first-time, full-time freshmen are due to the redesign of learning community triads and their centrality as part of Grizzly Orientation in 2019 and 2020. Despite the challenges presented by the coronavirus, GGC aims to keep levels of credit hour intensity up by offering more students the ability to make a purposeful choice of LC prior to GO.

Lessons Learned

Pointing to an area for improvement as we prepare for Spring 2021, for GGC’s Black/African-American first-year students (includes both new and returning first-year students), the Fall 2020 average credit load is 12.00, which is down from the average credit hours of 12.14 in Fall 2019. In both years, that average credit intensity is below the campus average for all first-year students. Among GGC’s Hispanic/Latinx first-year students, the average credit load in Fall 2020 is 12.24, which is down from the 12.32 average credit hours for the 1430 first-year students among this group in Fall 2019. In both years, however, the Hispanic/Latinx average credit intensity exceeded the campus average for first-year students. GGC will work to ensure equity across all first-year students by relentlessly focusing on providing students with expanded opportunities to make purposeful choices, develop a strong sense of belonging at the College, and fostering a Growth Mindset, leading to resilience and persistence.

Name

Title

email

Dr. T. J. Arant

Provost

provost@ggc.edu

Dr. Marie-Michelle Rosemond

Vice President for Student Engagement and Success

mrosemond@ggc.edu

Dr. Rachel Bowser

Associate Provost for Strategic Initiatives and Associate Professor of English

rbowser@ggc.edu

Dr. Justin Jernigan

Sr. Associate Vice President/Dean of Student Success and Associate Professor of Linguistics

jjerniga@ggc.edu

Dr. Tom Lilly

Director of Academic Assessment and Associate Professor of English

tlilly@ggc.edu

Dr. Catherine Thomas

Associate Dean for Student Success and Professor of English

cthomas30@ggc.edu

Dr. Karen Jackson

Associate Dean for Advising Programs and Assistant Professor of Education

kjackson5@ggc.edu

Dr. Tyler Yu

Dean of School of Business

tyu@ggc.edu

Dr. Bernard Oliver

Dean of the School of Education

beoliver@ggc.edu

Dr. Diane E. White

Dean of School of Health Sciences

dwhite9@ggc.edu

Dr. Teresa Winterhalter

Dean of the School of Liberal Arts

twinterhalter@ggc.edu

Dr. Sonal Dekhane

Interim Dean of School of Science and Technology

sdekhane@ggc.edu

Dr. Rudy Jackson, Jr.

Director of Co-Curricular Assessment

rjacks10@ggc.edu

Dr. Austen Krill

Research Associate II

akrill@ggc.edu

Dr. Renee Hayes

Director of Academic Enhancement Center

rhayes8@ggc.edu