Supplemental Updates for University of West Georgia - 2024

Student Success Priorities

2024 Momentum Planning Process Timeline at UWG

1) In December 2023, the UWG Momentum Council considered specific campus priorities for the 2024 Momentum planning cycle. The council recommended that the 2024 Momentum plan focus on actions aligning with UWG’s proposed Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP): Experiential Learning through Career Readiness. The provost supported this recommendation.

2) The Momentum Council coordinated with the Office of the Provost to identify 2024 campus planning team members. The planning team included 28 administrative leaders, staff, faculty, and students across academic and student support divisions (Appendix I).

3) Campus planning team members participated in virtual panel sessions during the live USG Virtual Sessions week. UWG’s Institute for Faculty Excellence also organized a presentation for the USG Virtual Sessions week on one of the action goals from UWG’s 2023 Momentum plan (Clear Pathways inside the Course: Common Course Components at UWG).

4) Two in-person planning sessions were held (February 20 & February 23) where team members utilized the information from the MomentumU course, the live virtual sessions, and the planning team presentations to identify and draft student success priorities for the 2024 campus plan.

5). UWG sent four planning team members (Jennifer Jordan, Tim Schroer, Mandi Campbell, and Crystal Shelnutt) to the USG Momentum Summit at Georgia Gwinnett College to share the campus plan and receive feedback.

6) The 2024 Momentum plan was drafted with feedback from the campus planning team and the provost.

UWG’s campus planning this year focused on priorities related to experiential learning and career readiness to support UWG’s Quality Enhancement Plan (Career Readiness through Experiential Learning) and the development of career competencies in the new USG Core IMPACTS. Work on the development of these priorities began with brainstorming and discussion sessions that created emerging themes prioritized into four connected areas for action and implementation: I) Expand opportunities for students to explore experiential learning and its connections to careers; II) Map experiential learning opportunities to guide students along academic and career pathways; III) Actively connect students to the career competencies in the Core IMPACTS and the proposed QEP; and IV) Leverage virtual spaces to support faculty and engage students in learning about experiential learning and career connections. The graphic below illustrates these priorities and their connections:

UWG’s four student success priorities for the 2024 Momentum cycle are described below, along with updates as of fall 2024.

1. Student Success Priority (Exploration): Expand opportunities for students to explore experiential learning and its connections to careers. 

Rationale: Through the Office of Career Services and other academic and student support units on campus, UWG is actively engaged in helping students with career exploration and professional development. To support the proposed QEP, UWG seeks to extend these efforts further and strengthen the connections between experiential learning opportunities and career readiness.  As one of its student success priorities in 2023, UWG successfully revived the academic majors fair held on campus every fall before the pandemic. The Majors Fair and a Career Fair majors organized by Career Services were coordinated and held the same week. Many students attended both events, and UWG will offer them again next fall with additional opportunities for students to explore experiential learning and career pathways.

Action Plans: 1) Expand the annual Majors Fair and the Career Fair to explore experiential learning opportunities for students connected to career exploration; 2) Foster intentional partnerships between career services and academic programs to strengthen career exploration, professional preparation, and experiential learning. 

Updates: University Advising Majors Fair

University Advising relaunched the UWG Majors Fair in fall 2023, marking the event's return since its last occurrence in 2019. Majors Fair brings together all academic programs and many student support units (advising, career services, education abroad, honors program, first-year experience, etc.) to provide students with information about majors, minors, and other academic opportunities.

The fair is especially valuable for students who are uncertain about their major or who are in transition between majors. Students have an opportunity to officially declare a new major or minor while at the event, assisted by university advisors. For the fall 2024 event, 290 students attended, and student feedback highlighted increased value and enhanced student engagement with the event's content (see Appendix III for the student survey). To boost participation and interaction, the advising staff introduced a Bingo card activity (image left), offering students incentives to engage in various activities at the fair. This year, collaboration with Career Services played a pivotal role in the event's success. Career Services supported the check-in process by contributing both their software and staff, explained and distributed the Bingo cards, and set up an informational table to discuss their services, facilitate appointments, and promote experiential learning opportunities. In support of UWG’s proposed QEP (Career Readiness through Experiential Learning), academic programs participating in the Majors Fair also provided students with information about experiential learning opportunities, including undergraduate research and work-based learning (internships, clinicals, practicums, etc.) available through their programs.

Career Services Career Fair: The All-Majors Career and Internship Fair, organized by Career Services, was held on November 4, 2024, and proved to be a successful event, attracting 29 employers and 133 undergraduate students. Employers in attendance were hiring for a variety of majors, offering opportunities across different fields. Some notable participating companies included Yamaha, City of Hope, Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI), and LocumTenens.com.

Mentoring Program: Starting January 2025, Career Services will lead the UWG Mentoring Program. Career Coaches will identify students who could benefit from mentorship during their sessions as part of this initiative. Additionally, the Alumni Association will play a key partnership role by connecting alumni interested in supporting and mentoring students. This collaboration aims to strengthen student-alumni engagement and provide meaningful guidance to students.

Career Connections: The Career Connections program is a strategic initiative where Career Services partners with academic colleges to facilitate targeted recruitment efforts. One example is the Richards College of Business Career Connections Company Showcase Series. These programs across campus allow employers to engage with students who align closely with their desired fields of expertise. Employers visiting through this program have these opportunities: 1) Classroom Visits: Present to up to two classrooms, focusing on students in the specific major(s) they are looking to hire. This direct engagement helps students gain insights into industry expectations and opportunities. 2) Tabling Events: Host a table in a common area, allowing students from the specific college and the broader student body (including all University of West Georgia students) to interact with employers. This setting supports informal networking, where students can ask questions, learn about job and internship opportunities, and establish connections. This integrated approach benefits students and employers by aligning academic learning with real-world career opportunities.

2. Student Success Priority (Mapping): Map experiential learning opportunities to guide students along academic and career pathways.

Rationale: Significant work has been accomplished at UWG on expanding high-quality experiential learning opportunities for students. This includes work to encode courses in Banner as part of the University System of Georgia initiative to identify HIPs and provide more structured opportunities for students to reflect on what they have learned in these courses. However, students are not always aware of the opportunities for experiential learning and how they connect to career and professional pathways, even when these are included in program and co-curricular maps.

Actions: 1) Inventory & map curricular and co-curricular experiential learning opportunities, especially undergraduate research and work-based learning, associated with the QEP; 2) Identify strategies to promote and onboard students to available experiential learning opportunities and pathways.

Updates:

HIPs Coding: HIPs attributes were defined and created for Undergraduate Research/Creative Project and Work-Based Learning to track curricular experiential learning in 2022. During Fall 2023, there were 134 courses submitted with the UR/Creative Project attribute and 63 courses submitted with the Work-Based Learning attribute. As reported in the FY 2024 USG HIPs Report, there have been 528 courses submitted with the Undergraduate Research/Creative Project attribute and 180 courses submitted with the Work-Based Learning attribute since Summer 2022. Faculty and academic programs are invited every semester to submit courses to receive the UR or WBL attribute. The coding of courses supports the QEP and allows UWG to track student progression through experiential learning opportunities aligned with courses. While not included in the QEP, UWG also has HIPs attribute coding in place for Service Learning, First-Year Experience, and Study Abroad/Away. UWG plans to add attributes for Writing Intensive courses in 2025.

Experiential Learning Inventory and Communication: An inventory has been created to collect data on experiential learning across campus (both curricular and co-curricular). The QEP champions (faculty representatives from each college and school) assist with the coordination of the inventory. The inventory draws from the established HIPs coding process (see above) and adds other co-curricular and extra-curricular experiential learning opportunities that are not part of courses. QEP champions assist with tracking and managing the collection of experiential learning data within their respective colleges. In 2024, the Office of the Provost hired two student assistants for experiential learning storytelling. Student assistants write and publish stories about other students participating in experiential learning across campus. Stories written by our students are edited by University Communications & Marketing and then shared on the UWG website.

Undergraduate Research: The Quality Enhancement Plan Implementation Team has worked with the Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) to expand access to the Student Research Assistant Program (SRAP). Together, the teams work to identify, promote, recruit, and evaluate students for assistantships, travel, and costs associated with SRAP projects. The QEP Implementation Team also collaborates with UWG’s Faculty Senate’s Faculty Development Committee to publicize QEP Experiential Learning Seed Grant funding information and oversee and review proposal and project submissions to increase student access and participation in experiential learning.

III. Student Success Priority (Connect): Purposely connect students to the career competencies in the USG Core IMPACTS and the proposed Quality Enhancement Plan.

Rationale: UWG seeks to purposely engage students in successfully developing the career competencies identified in the USG Core IMPACTS framework. UWG is also utilizing the career competencies from NACE as part of its proposed QEP. These competencies are related–the USG references the NACE competencies in their introduction to the Core IMPACTS competencies. Mapping these competencies within the core and at the major level will assist both students and faculty in understanding what they are, how they are achieved, and where they appear within curricular pathways (core and major). It will also align the development of the QEP to the Core IMPACTS career competencies.

Actions: 1) Develop curricular and co-curricular mapping of Core IMPACT and NACE career competencies that connect the general education curriculum to academic majors and careers; 2) Create resources to support student engagement with Core IMPACT career competencies.

Updates: Career Services embedded NACE competencies into each career coaching session, workshop, career fair, and each career-related event. Career Services captures metrics for student engagement that represent an understanding of at least two NACE competencies in each career-related experience.  The next phase will incorporate Core IMPACTS career competencies that do not align with the NACE career competencies.

Core IMPACTS in Syllabi: Beginning the spring semester of 2024, UWG Online partnered with academic programs to embed Core IMPACTS information in Concourse, UWG’s Syllabus Management System. The following information automatically populates into all Concourse syllabi for all Core IMPACTS courses offered as part of the general education curriculum: 1) Core IMPACTS Area and Learning Outcome(s); 2) Core IMPACTS Orienting Question; 3) Core IMPACTS Career Competencies. The Institute for Faculty Excellence has also provided orientation to faculty on syllabus development around Core IMPACTS, including access to formatted Core IMPACTS Templates that include the career competencies.

Program Maps: UWG utilizes interactive program maps to support student progression and success. University Advising has worked with academic programs to update all program maps with the new Core IMPACTS areas. The next steps in the revisions will include information on Core IMPACTS career competencies and targeted experiential learning opportunities in the program maps.

IV. Student Success Priority (Engagement): Leverage virtual spaces to support faculty and engage students in learning about and discovering experiential learning and career connections.

Rationale: Increasingly, UWG students’ primary access to all information on campus is through CourseDen, UWG’s Learning Management System (LMS). In last year’s Momentum Plan, UWG successfully developed common course components to promote greater ease of access to navigating CourseDen. For additional information on UWG’s progress with common course components, see ASPIRE II Goal in Section III below. UWG seeks to leverage the work done in CourseDen already to assist students in learning about experiential learning and connections to career competencies. UWG also seeks to utilize CourseDen to assist faculty in developing resources for their courses (all modalities) that support experiential learning and the Core IMPACTS / NACE career competencies.

Actions: 1) Develop CourseDen modules that engage students in understanding and exploring experiential learning and career competencies; 2) Create a virtual resource library for faculty that can be used to develop high-quality experiential learning opportunities and course support for Core IMPACTS and NACE career competencies.

Update: The First-Year modules for CareerDen are now built in CourseDen. First-year students will receive a badge and certificate when they complete the modules. Additional modules (sophomore, junior, and senior years) will be constructed to parallel student progression through the undergraduate experience and include checkpoints for student badging and success.  CareerDen also includes resources for faculty to support work on career competencies and career readiness. Faculty will be able to utilize these resources in their own courses in CourseDen. The faculty resource modules will be hidden from the student view but available for faculty to use as a guide. See Appendix III for an outline of the CareerDen modules.

Section III: ASPIRE - Academic Strategies and Programs for Institutional Relevance and Excellence

ASPIRE Strategy I: National Institute for Student Success (NISS)

Goal: Implement NISS recommendations, including first-year support, proactive data-informed student support through advising, early alerts, and stronger financial aid and wellness interventions.

Update: The National Institute for Student Success (NISS) at Georgia State University provides evidence-based, data-driven strategies for student success. NISS recently consulted with UWG and provided key strategies in academic design and data, academic advising, financial aid and wellness, and first-year support for student success, focusing on improving retention and graduation rates. Following the NISS consultation, UWG launched the JUMP summer success academy for incoming first-year students for FY25. Over 40 students experienced college life through academics, networking, and activities during the week leading up to the start of the fall semester. In November 2024, UWG hosted a day-long campus consultation with NISS that involved faculty, staff, students, and executive leadership to plan next steps for UWG’s NISS recommendations. This included workgroups on data analysis, advising, first-year experience, and financial aid/ financial literacy. UWG is also working to align its work on NISS with its established USG Momentum work, including forming a Student Success Advisory Council.

In addition to the summer success academy, UWG, together with Columbus State University and the University of North Georgia, has been invited to participate in a cohort of USG institutions working with the NISS team to implement proactive advising strategies during FY25. While all three institutions have strong advising structures, the NISS team offered similar recommendations to each, focusing on proactive outreach for early alerts and registration, using predictive analytics in advising, maximizing the use of EAB Navigate, and enhancing holistic advising practices.

ASPIRE Strategy II: Common Course Components

Improve student success by extending Common Course Components (CCC) and identify methods to proactively monitor student progress in CourseDen and respond to students who need assistance.  

Background: In Fall 2023, the Provost encouraged faculty and academic support units to work toward improving students’ experience in CourseDen, UWG's branding of D2L / Brightspace Learning Management System (LMS), the web platform for courses, in all courses, regardless of modality.  This initiative, Common Course Components (CCC), provides a consistent student experience and reduces students' cognitive and technical challenges when accessing different courses within CourseDen. The initiative also offers efficiencies to help faculty build out courses and move to online teaching in the case of emergency closings, building on what UWG learned during the COVID pandemic. The Institute for Faculty Excellence (IFE) and UWG Online (UWGO) were collaborative leaders in this student success initiative. The IFE facilitated information sessions to help faculty understand the goal of incorporating common components in CourseDen for all courses, regardless of modality. The primary reason for asking faculty to organize their courses in a standardized format was to help students navigate their courses and provide students with a consistent online experience. The IFE worked closely with the Faculty Senate’s Teaching, Learning, & Assessment Committee (TLAC) to identify best practices for the organization of courses in CourseDen. The committee members and several other faculty designed their spring 2023 courses to align with these recommendations and piloted courses that semester. They offered feedback to the IFE and the TLAC based on their students’ experiences. The IFE also surveyed UWG students to understand better what their expectations were regarding how their instructors used CourseDen and to learn which components were most supportive of their success. Nearly 1,000 students responded, and their responses helped inform new expectations for instructor usage of CourseDen. Throughout spring and summer semesters, the IFE offered support to faculty via hands-on workshops, on-demand videos, and written tutorials. The Office of the Provost requested that all fall 2023 LMS course sites include a Concourse syllabus, gradebook, and assessments (instructions, submission options, and feedback) when appropriate. The only exceptions to the CCC requirements are some clinical, internship, independent study, and directed reading courses which include some but not all of these required elements. Reports on tool usage were pulled from CourseDen and indicated a high compliance rate among instructors. In fall 2023, UWGO, the IFE, TLAC, and the Office of the Provost continued to develop further expectations for faculty usage of CourseDen to align with student expectations and best practices for supporting student learning and success.

Update: As of fall 2024, the following Common Course Components have been accomplished:

• All courses have at least one major assignment (quiz, discussion, or assessment) housed in CourseDen.
• All courses have a grade book with at least one grade item housed in CourseDen.
• All courses have a complete syllabus (built in Concourse Syllabus Management System) linked in CourseDen. A complete syllabus includes information in all 11 required Concourse sections.
• All courses utilize the calendar in CourseDen to create due dates for all major assignments.
• UWG Online (UWGO) tracks courses to ensure all requirements are met and reports any issues to academic programs & deans. In 2024, UWGO utilized SmartSheets and Data Shuttle to automate reporting. This provided a draft period so deans could work with faculty to ensure courses met CCC requirements before percentages and data were evaluated by academic leadership.
• In 2025, UWGO will launch role-protected dashboards to provide visualizations for academic leadership to better track courses that need revisions or updating. These dashboards will also link directly to CCC resources.
• UWGO is working with ITS to automate notifications (email and SMS text) to remind students of upcoming due dates and to notify them of missing assignments. These automated notifications will also remind faculty when they missed grading an assignment and/or providing feedback. A pilot project for this next stage is planned for Spring 2025.
• UWGO is also supporting enhancements to the learning experience in CourseDen. Beginning in Spring 2025, CourseDen content will have an updated look. The New Content Experience is designed to be more intuitive for instructors setting up their courses, and the organized structure is intended to improve student content navigation. Units (Modules) are color-coded to help create a visual connection between course materials. See CourseDen: New Content Experience  for a detailed overview of the new look with resources.
• UWGO created 10 additional Knowledge Base tutorials to add to faculty resources related to creating courses that include all CCC. For example, UWGO created a tutorial to assist instructors using DayOne (3rd party textbook integration) publishers on how to link grades from their content platforms to the CourseDen grade book.
• UWGO is working to add another section in the syllabus management system for AI policy. All faculty must select from 1 of 4 templates or create their own policy. The AI policies were developed and approved by the Faculty Senate.
• UWG hired a new Academic Instructional Support Specialist, housed in UWGO, specifically to work on projects that support CCC.

ASPIRE Strategy III: Career Readiness through Experiential Learning (QEP)

Goal: Improve the relevance of academic programs and better help students launch their careers before graduation via UWG’s Quality Enhancement Plan: Career Readiness through Experiential Learning.

NOTE: Additional information on the QEP appears in the Momentum Plan updates in Section II above.

Updates: UWG’s proposed Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) was formally presented during the SACSCOC campus site visit in April 2024 and received very positive evaluations from the on-campus SACSCOC evaluation team. While UWG is waiting for the formal approval of its QEP at the SACSCOC meeting in December 2024, the campus and the QEP implementation team have been at work on the next stages of launching the QEP in 2025 after it is approved.

UWG’s proposed QEP—Career Readiness through Experiential Learning—seeks to strengthen the connection between experiential learning and the development of career readiness competencies for undergraduate students, beginning in their very first semester and continuing through their senior-level courses as they transition to their careers. The QEP will focus on two specific types of experiential learning: undergraduate research and work-based learning.  This proposed QEP directly supports the institution’s 2021-2026 Strategic Plan—Becoming UWG. The Strategic Plan aims to “launch or advance each student’s career before graduation” by providing students with access to high-quality experiential learning opportunities. The Strategic Plan further states that UWG will “define pathways to post-graduation through an institutional commitment to elevating and advancing internships, experiential learning, intentional mentorship, and professional and community-based networking for all students.” The proposed QEP will bolster the institutional commitment referenced in the Strategic Plan while helping faculty, staff, and, most importantly, UWG’s undergraduate students to recognize and value the connections between career readiness and experiential learning. UWG currently offers students an array of experiential learning opportunities in areas including, but not limited to, undergraduate research and creative inquiry, internships, work-based learning, and study abroad and study away.

In recent years, UWG, under the guidance of the University System of Georgia, developed methods for tagging courses that allow the institution to track the integration of experiential learning opportunities into the undergraduate curriculum. Further, UWG has implemented first-year seminar courses and capstone courses or other culminating experiences as part of its extensive work on High Impact Practices (HIPs) since 2015. The proposed QEP strategically builds upon UWG’s existing frameworks for experiential learning. For that reason, its purpose is not to significantly increase the number of experiential learning opportunities available to students; however, adding new opportunities may be one effect. Instead, the QEP aims to increase undergraduate student access to existing opportunities and, crucially, to enhance those opportunities by more explicitly connecting them to the development of career readiness competencies as defined by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). The QEP will ensure that students reflect on the career readiness competencies that they develop through participating in experiential learning. Some current experiential learning opportunities at UWG include this reflection type, but others lack this step or have only an implicit connection to career readiness. This QEP aims to fill that gap by helping students, faculty, staff, and other stakeholders to identify and value clear connections between experiential learning and the development of career readiness competencies. UWG’s proposed QEP sets forth the following goals and outcomes to direct the plan’s work.

Each goal or outcome is summarized by an action verb:

Institutional Goal 1 – ACCESS: Increase student access to experiential learning opportunities.

Institutional Goal 2 – CONNECT: Improve teaching and learning effectiveness by explicitly connecting experiential learning opportunities to the development of career readiness competencies as defined by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

Student Learning Outcome 1 – ENVISION: Within their first year, students will identify experiential learning opportunities and career readiness competencies relevant to their professional goals.

Student Learning Outcome 2 – ENACT: Students will describe the career readiness competencies cultivated through their participation in experiential learning opportunities.

Student Learning Outcome 3 – SHOWCASE: Before graduation, students will be able to present evidence to potential employers, graduate schools, or professional schools that their participation in experiential learning enhanced their career readiness.

Student Success Outcome – ACHIEVE: Increase the percentage of graduates who pursue employment, additional education, or other experiences that make use of career readiness competencies.

The plan below identifies baseline data, target goals, and actions needed to assess UWG’s progress toward the institutional goals and student success outcomes. Additionally, it identifies key points for collecting and evaluating data to assess progress towards the student learning outcomes (SLOs)—namely, the first-year seminar courses, experiential learning opportunities available to students throughout their undergraduate career, and capstone courses or other required 4000-level courses typically taken by students close to the time of graduation. The instruments and rubrics detailed below will furnish UWG with quantitative and qualitative data to evaluate student achievement of the SLOs while offering opportunities for formative and summative assessment. UWG will commit resources to make Career Readiness through Experiential Learning a transformative QEP for the institution and our students. The QEP’s design reflects a realistic, pragmatic understanding of the available resources and the resources required to make this QEP meaningful and sustainable even in the face of changing budgetary circumstances. As part of a larger reorganization in 2021-2022, UWG created and filled the executive director of accreditation and quality enhancement position to direct proposal development and implementation. In addition to existing offices, positions, and resources that will contribute to the QEP’s success, the plan proposes the creation of an institution-wide QEP Faculty Fellow and six QEP Champions affiliated with each of the university’s colleges and schools. UWG solicited substantive contributions from across the institution during the topic selection and development process. The identification of a QEP Champion from each degree-granting college/school will further ensure broad-based representation and support throughout implementation and assessment. Since the SACSCOC site visit in April, the QEP Implementation Team has continued its ongoing work, including the formation of two sub-work teams on Implementation and Data/Assessment.

To better assist students in launching their careers before graduation, the QEP Implementation Team has collaborated with the Director of Academic Transition Programs to include a link to a survey assessing students’ perceptions of their career readiness in all First-Year Seminar Cornerstone courses. This survey, developed by the QEP Team, fulfills Student Learning Outcome 1: Envision. The assessment instrument for this SLO comprises three sections: career goals, experiential learning, and career readiness. Students are asked to identify general educational and professional goals, while in the second section, students will connect goals to available experiential learning opportunities and envision their participation in these activities. The final section lists the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) competencies, identified as job skills, and students select three that seem most relevant to their career goals. As of fall 2024, the Academic Transition Program reports 47 sections of First-Year Seminars, reaching approximately 850 students.

Further, the QEP Team, in collaboration with UWG’s Career Services and Institute for Faculty Excellence, is creating a self-paced career course in our learning management system, CourseDen, that will host three discrete modules focusing on three QEP student learning outcomes: Envision, Enact, and Showcase. Each module will include a scaffolded series of instructional materials, resources, and activities to guide students through the stages of developing career competencies, all as they journey through the academic phases of envisioning their careers, enacting upon those goals through participation in experiential learning, and showcasing by way of reflections and artifacts demonstrating the connection between their experiential learning opportunities and the NACE competencies developed as a result of their participation. Campus updates to the QEP are featured in the QEP monthly newsletter.

Aspire Strategy IV: Belonging & Placemaking

Improve belonging and placemaking and increase retention/graduation via increased face-to-face course offerings and a standardized schedule of courses.

Updates:

1. Standardize Course Schedules: UWG identified inconsistencies in course scheduling as a barrier to student success. Depending on the day of the week, classes start at different times. This often means that students have difficulty getting from one class to another or students are unable to enroll in a course because it conflicts with the start/conclusion of another course. Course scheduling is complicated because of accreditation and course requirements in different colleges and schools. UWG established a scheduling task force in 2024 that consisted of representatives from the colleges and schools, faculty senate representatives, and university leaders. The task force surveyed both faculty and students to get input for both scheduling needs and interests. In fall 2024, the task group presented recommendations to the faculty senate, which included new scheduling templates. The purpose of the scheduling revisions is to reduce the number of start times, align start times, and mitigate class time conflicts. The new schedule will begin in fall semester 2025. See Appendix IV for additional details and the new templates.

2. On-Campus Courses: Over the past two years, academic programs have worked to increase the number of in-person classes offered on campus at UWG. As with many colleges and universities, online courses increased during COVID, and now UWG is committed to helping students return to the on-campus residential experience that distinguishes UWG. Over the past two years, on-campus courses have increased. While UWG will continue to support students who need online courses, UWG will continue efforts to increase courses offered in person on campus.

During Fall 24, UWG launched a new initiative for UWG students enrolled in eCore courses, inviting them to switch and enroll in either an in-person course at UWG or a UWG Online course taught directly through the University of West Georgia. This campaign yielded 338 individual course enrollments. Advisors encouraged students to consider the benefits of UWG courses: 1) Taught and mentored by UWG Professors; 2) Access to In-Person and Virtual Office Hours; and 3) One Platform for All Courses. This initiative will continue during upcoming semesters. 

3. Momentum Center: The University of West Georgia opened its signature Momentum Center (MC) in September 2020, right at the heart of campus, to give students one welcoming place where they can get the support they need to succeed. At the MC, the commitment is for every UWG team member to take personal ownership of each student's questions and concerns, building a lasting service culture dedicated to student success. The Momentum Center continuously adapts to meet the needs of students and break down barriers to student success. At the MC, students have access to support from Academic Advising, Registrar, Financial Aid, Student Accounts and Billing Services, Campus Services, and the Student Solutions Team. The MC also contains flexible work spaces so additional campus partners can be available in the MC during peak times when students need them most. For example, the UWG Online Team may assist students from our open concept computer lab when student registration opens or the Financial Aid Team may host Extended Hours programming events within our building.

Last year, more than 8,800 students visited the Momentum Center. As a whole, the Student Solutions Team connected with our community over 62,000 times across phone, in-person, and live chat services—helping answer questions, guiding them to resources, and providing personalized support. When asked to rate the friendliness of our team, UWG students gave us an average score of 4.61 out of 5. This feedback is a testament to the welcoming environment we strive to create—a place where students feel they truly belong.
 

Aspire Strategy V: Dual Enrollment

Increase access, affordability, and enrollment for local school district dual enrollment partnerships

Updates: The University of West Georgia (UWG), Coweta County School System (CCSS), and Carroll County School District (CCSD) are united in their vision to be nationally recognized as a student-ready and regionally engaged partnership that empowers high school students for economic and social mobility. This program aims to expand innovative educational opportunities for a diverse range of students, foster integration within schools, and provide a thematic approach to education that aligns with market needs and offers real-world applications. It is designed to provide personalized coaching, equipping students with essential knowledge and skills for educational success while fostering their ability to make informed financial decisions. As a regional and national leader, this partnership aspires to be an exemplary collaboration model between P-12 and post-secondary institutions. Additionally, the program offers students the option to complete a bachelor’s degree at UWG with two more years of study following their early college experience.

To support student success, Go West Early (GWE) provides students with a structured early college pathway that improves high school graduation rates and increases college enrollment and degree completion. GWE students receive transportation from their high schools and attend specialized dual enrollment courses designed by the partner counties, exclusively for dual-enrolled students. The program includes support from a dual enrollment liaison who collaborates closely with the school districts and UWG, as well as proactive, personalized advising from UWG’s professional advisors. The program offers concierge services tailored to meet both high school requirements and future educational aspirations.

This partnership has resulted in an overall dual enrollment student enrollment growth year over year between Fall 2023 and Fall 2024. As a result of the Coweta County partnership, the UWG Newnan location has grown on-site dual enrollment from 116 to 206 (+78%), added the Go West Early partnership (resulting in 65 new students engaged), and is now serving 427 Coweta County students.  As a result of the Carroll County partnership, the UWG Carrollton campus has grown on-site enrollment from 115 to 215 (+60%), added the Go West Early partnership (resulting in an additional 100 new students engaged), and is now serving 516 Carroll County students (additional 100 new students engaged). 

Other UWG Student Success Updates Connected to USG Momentum

First-Year ENGL and MATH: When first-year students enroll at UWG and attend orientation, they are provided with a pre-made, first-semester schedule, customized for their unique educational experience. Students are enrolled in first-year English and Math during their first year as part of this orientation and advising process, and advisors track completion of these courses in the first year. AY 2023 results show that out of 1361 FTF students, the following numbers of first-time full-time students attempted ENGL and MATH courses during the academic year. Dual enrollment has impacted these numbers over the past several years since these courses are usually completed before full-time enrollment at UWG.
 

First Year 30 Hour Completion: Credit hour completion has remained relatively consistent since UWG first emphasized completing 15/30 credit hours in 2015 as part of USG Momentum. In Spring 2019 UWG transitioned to pre-made schedules that include 15 credit hours for entering students, which has helped with this process, along with more consistent messaging and advising about the value and importance of attempting 15 credit hours each semester.

Corequisite English and Math: AY20 was UWG’s first year offering corequisite learning support courses (ENGL 0999, MATH 0997, and MATH 0999). UWG also participated in the Statistics Pathway pilot to offer MATH 1401 (Elementary Statistics) in Area A2. MATH 1401 and MATH 0996 were offered for the first time in F20. In designing learning support courses, UWG followed the USG best practices criteria. UWG corequisite learning support courses are one credit hour but two contact hours per week. The one credit hour ensures that learning support does not negatively impact students financially, while the two contact hours provide students with the instructional time they need to support learning in the core course. The same instructor teaches the core section and the corequisite learning support section. English and Math faculty designed the learning support course following USG guidelines. At the same time, professional staff in Admissions, Advising, Registrar, Academic Success, and the Provost’s Office developed processes for advisement and placement of students in learning support. UWG has a designated Learning Support Coordinator and has sent implementation teams consisting of Math and English faculty and professional support staff to each USG Learning Support Academies.

In AY 2023, corequisite faculty extended ongoing work to support student mindset by implementing the USG Mindset Modules in MATH sections, implementing their own mindset activities, and actively encouraging students to take the USG Mindset survey.  Four First-Year Mathematics faculty members have implemented the USG’s Mindset Modules in CourseDen in their fall 2022 courses.  All corequisite faculty address mindset explicitly in their courses.

From fall 2023 to spring 2024, 55.2 percent of students in learning support courses were retained.  In the prior three years, the impact of the COVID pandemic could be seen on many levels. This is consistent with data from across the USG on the continuing impact of COVID. In Fall 2021, 14% of admitted first-year students were identified as needing Learning Support. In Fall 2022, there was a significant increase to 30% of admitted first-year students needing Learning Support. This is due primarily to the test-optional policy for admissions, leaving only high school GPA (and potentially ACCU-PLACER) to be exempt from the Learning Support requirements. The requirements were changed again in March 2023, as seen in the data below. The table below outlines the comparative analysis over the past two years.

*Learning Support Requirements changed in March 2023. The new requirements were increased GPAs and test scores of previous semesters.

First-Year Seminar: First-Year Seminar (Cornerstone) courses support students throughout their first semester of post-secondary education, providing them with a faculty mentor who can answer questions and lead them through the transition into university life. Informed by the Momentum Year approach, Cornerstone courses center around a special topic so students may gravitate toward what interests them and engage in a common intellectual experience. Shared curricular components include Growth and Academic Mindset, Career Readiness (utilizing Steppingblocks with a focus on the NACE competencies), and Belonging function as collaborative learning experiences. The overarching idea of Cornerstone courses is that they function as small-scale learning communities. As such, they reflect the Momentum Initiative’s engagement with High Impact Practices designed to facilitate student success.  

FYS Shared Labs: The First-Year Seminar course’s Career Lab connects with our QEP's focus on career readiness and experiential learning. Over the semester, faculty recursively emphasize the NACE competencies (such as professionalism and communication, critical thinking, and self-development) that are an intrinsic part of the QEP. In keeping with the QEP priority of motivating students to begin thinking about their career path in their first year, Cornerstone students explore potential career and major options via Steppingblocks, which guides them to match their skills to options for career paths; likewise, all sections engage in a discussion about additional factors for consideration in choosing a career path, such as their individual values and motivation, their short- and long-term goals. Following an in-class discussion guided by representatives from the Academic Transitions program, students then complete a survey centered on NACE competencies, prompting them to reflect on their career goals not just in their first year of college but in their first semester. These surveys provide crucial data for assessing not just the Cornerstone class itself, but how well it adheres to the QEP’s priorities.   

Cornerstone students are encouraged to participate in on-campus activities to fulfill their Belonging Lab requirements. They choose from a list of ongoing campus events, attending at least one before midterm and one after; a component of the Lab necessitates that they write a reflection about their experience. The reflection prompts them to move beyond merely summarizing the activity: “Reflective writing needs to go beyond simply summarizing what happened. Your reader needs to understand what the experience meant to you, how it connects to other things you’ve experienced or studied, and what you plan to do in response.”

At the beginning of the semester, students also participate in a Growth Mindset lab, which introduces students to the different types of mindsets (fixed, purpose), foregrounding the science supporting the importance of a growth mindset. Students participate in a hands-on activity led by a representative from ATP, which serves as an illustration of neuroplasticity and the very real impact of a growth mindset.

USG Mindset Survey: Since implementing the USG Mindset Survey in 2017, UWG's student completion rate has been very low.  Before fall 2024, the highest completion rate was 452 students in 2022. This year, the Momentum Council identified campus-wide strategies to increase student completion rates. The strategy included more targeted communication during fall orientation, in CourseDen, in First-Year Seminar, and on visual display boards across campus. Flyers that included a QR code were also distributed to students during the first week of class so that students could more easily access the survey on their phones. These strategic efforts resulted in 1288 students completing the survey in fall 2024, the largest response rate for UWG since the survey’s inception. The student response rate at UWG was also among the highest in the USG across all sectors. More significantly, the survey results indicate improvements in student responses in major areas related to student growth mindset, belonging, persistence, and motivation. With more students responding, the data from the survey becomes more valuable in informing our student success work on campus.

University Advising: All advisors now complete a standardized advising PDF, capable of projecting six semesters ahead. This includes detailed advisor notes, referrals, anticipated graduation dates, and registration dates. This document is shared with students via email or in person and uploaded into EAB. Course recommendations and key points are mirrored in Wolf Watch to ensure a cohesive support network where advisors, student affairs, and academic leaders can quickly review and tailor support for each student. University Advising transitioned from Google Sheets to Smartsheets for student tracking this year. This shift enhances data protection and automates several processes, reducing repetitive data entry for advisors. Additionally, Smartsheets' dynamic dashboards provide real-time data views, enabling advisors to stay current with minimal manual intervention.

EAB Campaigns: EAB is used for targeted advising campaigns. As of October 28, 2024, every undergraduate student has received outreach through these campaigns. With 79% of students already advised, University Advising has successfully met with 5,703 out of 7,348 students.

Advising Appointment Campaigns:

Unenrolled Campaigns: This program encourages continuing students to enroll and continue their progress toward graduation. Below, we present the number of students contacted and the number of students who enrolled as a result of the campaign.  This provides strong evidence of what information students will open and act upon. This Spring campaign ran from November 2023 to January 2024:

This Fall campaign ran from May 2024-August 2024:

Center for Academic Success

Early Alerts and Supplemental Instruction: In the Center for Academic Success, Supplemental Instruction (SI) focuses on supporting “high-risk courses” with a 20-25 percent or more DWF rate. Once these courses are determined, Supplemental Instruction is available to students enrolled in these courses. Students attending at least two to three (2 to 3) SI sessions per week significantly outperform non-SI participants. To support our adult learners who may not be able to attend SI sessions on campus, each SI leader offers online support and hosts at least one session each week virtually. Student Success also makes this SI available to dual enrollment students.

While SI supports core courses and covers many more courses than those listed below, the following courses were identified as high impact with substantial improvement ranging from nearly one-and-a-half letter grade improvement to one-fourth letter grade improvement. The retention rate of students receiving Supplemental Instruction in Fall 2023/Spring 2024 is 91% and exceeds the UWG average retention rate.

Course Alerts: Course Alerts are a primary tool for identifying students at risk of not being academically successful during the specific reporting period of the academic semester. One-thousand nine-hundred and twenty-six unique students appeared in 2777 course alerts were identified in fall 2023 and spring 2024. Of these uniquely identified students, 1612 (or 83.69 percent) engaged with our Student Success Services. Increasing this percentage of student interaction/engagement with any and/or all success services is a paramount goal for the Department of Academic Excellence. Follow-up interactions based upon Early/Course Alerts include:

Based upon course alerts, 73.7% of this high-risk student population were retained for Fall 2024 (1420/1926)

Registration Incentive Campaigns: In Spring 2024, the Center for Academic Success launched two targeted campaigns to encourage students to register on time and resolve any holds blocking their enrollment. As an incentive, participants had the chance to win a $250 gift basket and a $500 scholarship for each campaign. The registration campaign saw significant engagement, registering over 31,473 undergraduate student credit hours. Additionally, the hold-clearance campaign was effective, with 417 students successfully resolving holds that would have otherwise prevented their enrollment for the term.

Acknowledgments

UWG achieved most of its Momentum goals for this reporting year or made significant progress in achieving them.   Planning is already underway for the next cycle of action-goals to support students. Momentum is embedded on the UWG campus as a broad, collaborative, cross-divisional partnership that works toward identifying and implementing specific, evidence-based student success actions. Many academic and student support units, administrative leaders, faculty, and staff at UWG contributed to UWG’s Momentum work this year and the updates in this report. UWG thanks the following colleagues who have contributed to writing and/or editing sections in this year’s report: Jon Preston, Elaine Harper, Jennifer Jordan, Monica Smith, Dawn Tatum, Ashlee Pollard, Tim Schroer, Mandi Campbell, Bonnie Jett, Amy Ellison, Jennifer Jordan, Joy Ginther, Ashley Leggett, Meggie Miller, Shelby Scott, Suzy McCorkel, Amanda Wright, Crystal Shelnutt, Sharmistha Basu-Dutt, Jason Swift, and David Newton.