Student Learning Communities consist of courses in which a common theme or themes are utilized in order to create opportunities for students to explore these themes in more depth and see how the theme (s) crosses different disciplines. In addition, SLCs encourage a sense of belonging and student engagement since students may share two or more courses together which focus on the same theme
General Evaluation Plan and measures: See pg 55 of the QEP: https://www.ega.edu/about/sacscoc/qep/files/egsc-quality-enhancement-plan-2020.pdf
KPIs: (pg 34 of QEP)
- Success-rate: Percentage of passing grades (ABC)
- Average Cumulative GPA for participants in SLCs
- Retention Rates
Baseline measure: page 34 of QEP)
https://www.ega.edu/about/sacscoc/qep/files/egsc-quality-enhancement-plan-2020.pdf
Goal or targets (for each KPI): pg 34 of the QEP:
https://www.ega.edu/about/sacscoc/qep/files/egsc-quality-enhancement-plan-2020.pdf
Time period/duration: The QEP was implemented in 2020. The QEP is currently in its refining and revising stage. The new thematic approach to SLCs was approved at the end of April 2023. The first thematic approach to SLCs was implemented and piloted in spring 2024. During summer 2024, the Summer Leadership Program was created. Fall 2024 led to the official launch of the thematic approach with SLCs on each campus. There were around 48 students who were considered participants at the start of the fall 2024 semester.
Spring 2024 data:
| SLC v Non-SLC Grade Performance |
Grade |
ABC Grades | DFWI Grades | ||
| Count | Percent | Count | Percent | ||
|
Spring 2024 (Thematic Approach) |
|||||
| In Equity SLC | 16 | 8 | 50.0% | 8 | 50.0% |
| Not in Equity SLC | 669 | 389 | 58.1% | 280 | 41.9% |
|
Summer 2024 (Thematic Approach) |
|||||
| In Leadership SLC | 38 | 38 | 100.0% | 0 | 0.0% |
| Not in Leadership SLC | 253 | 169 | 66.8% | 84 | 33.2% |
| Grade Point Averages | SLC Students | Non-SLC Students | ||
| Term GPA | Overall GPA | Term GPA | Overall GPA | |
| Spring 2024 | 1.65 | 1.69 | 1.97 | 2.16 |
| Summer 2024 | 3.57 | 3.46 | 2.31 | 2.44 |
|
Fall 2024 Retention |
SLC Students |
Non-SLC Students |
||||
| Not Retained | Retained | % Retained | Not Retained | Retained | % Retained | |
| Spring 2024 | 4 | 4 | 50.0% | 295 | 272 | 48.0% |
| Summer 2024 | 0 | 11 | 100.0% | 58 | 136 | 70.1% |
Summer 2024 data:
During summer 2024, the Bobcat Summer Leadership Program was implemented. This program ran as part of an SLC thematic group which focused on the theme of leadership. Please see results from the Bobcat Summer Leadership activity.
When comparing the spring 2024 and summer 2024 SLC data, we can see that there were two extremes. We went from not meeting any of the KPIs to meeting all of the KPIs. We are currently running three SLC thematic groups for the fall 2024 semester. It is my hope that the thematic approach will balance itself out from these two extremes and become more accurate since we will have more participants, and a more diverse group of students registered for the fall thematic groups.
Since we had good feedback and success rates for the Bobcat Summer Leadership Program, we would like to continue working with the summer program and make some adjustments. For instance, some possible ways to improve the BSLP would be to make the 4-week intensive program into 6-weeks since we are looking to expand the participant numbers to 20-24 instead of the 11-15 that we expected last summer. We would also like to move the leadership theme into the fall and spring course offerings to further expand on and build campus leaders.
Housing Director Gage Dowling agreed to work with Professor Todd on trying to create a residential community for fall 2025 since the fall 2024 enrollment numbers were a little low when considering non-athletes.
Professor Todd also reached out to faculty who were teaching fall 2024 SLCs to see if they were willing to teach the same SLCs in the spring 25. We currently have 5 professors who have agreed to teach as part of the Literacy and Equity groups.
Professor Todd is currently working with the EGSC Library staff to create a LibGuide for faculty who are interested in teaching and incorporating Literacy into their courses. This will be available to all faculty, but it was inspired by the Literacy SLC group since this group focuses on the various types of literacy.
For Summer 2025, we would like to continue our partnership with the Summer Leadership Program if possible. We would also like to create an SLC based on the Leadership theme for fall 2025 and spring 2026 to help assist with creating campus leaders.
Faculty participation, course scheduling, and student enrollment will all affect our ability to implement the SLCs on each campus. It is especially difficult to have SLCs in Augusta due to the limited number of faculty on the Augusta campus.
