STUDENT SUCCESS TOP PRIORITY FOR 2017
Regardless of content and aims, it typically takes a village to create and implement student success programs. In a separate UB survey of 74 admissions, enrollment and financial aid administrators, 55 percent say they will be crossing department lines to bolster student success and completion in 2017.
PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS MATTER
Learning is about personal relationships. Deep learning doesn’t happen through reading or rote memorization online any more than in the physical world. It is the experiences and meaningful conversations (or maybe human interactions) that enable students to critically reflect, and deepen their learning. All too often, online students feel isolated, which can decrease motivation and increase attrition.
STRENGTHENING AMERICA’S ECONOMY BY EXPANDING EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR WORKING ADULTS.
It’s Time to Focus on Adult Students (Again)….Higher education certainly is more accessible to adult learners. Most individuals are within driving range of a community college. However, access is about more than having an affordable seat in a classroom. How can we create new University forms that meet students where they are and that wrap higher education around their lives, rather than asking them to leave their lives to access higher education?
WHAT IS AN EXPERT NETWORK?
In the December 1999 publication, “Knowledge Evolution: Tools of the Trade,” clients were advised to utilize Expert Networks to “Understand who the experts are throughout the organization (including the extended organization), and more appropriately employ that expertise within a broader range of contexts.
EDSURGE: GOODBYE COLLEGE ADVISING, HELLO COLLEGE COACHING
Traditionally there has been academic advising here, and career advising over there, and financial aid advising over there. We have known for a long time that doesn’t work from a student point of view. As we move to an integrated tech system where an advisor is thinking about a holistic approach, advising isn’t even the right word. It’s a coach.
– Melinda Karp, Assistant Director at the Community College Research Center (CCRC)
CALIFORNIA REGULATIONS MANDATE ONLINE STUDENT SERVICES EQUALITY
California higher education regulatory policies mandate that online students receive support services equitable to those provided to students taking on campus courses. As such, the California Community Colleges Online Education Initiative (OEI) is developing a system-wide network of trained online advising and community college counselors. Working in collaboration with the Foundation for California Community Colleges; the OEI which is funded by the California Community College Chancellor’s Office.
DRIVING TOWARD A DEGREE 2016
The practice of planning and advising is under mounting pressure to better serve the post-traditional student. Planning and advising departments have limited resources and high expectations for improvement. They are expected to be the primary channel for the application of predictive analytics – a technology with much promise but few established best practices. With all of the attention, many planning and advising teams face initiative fatigue and administrations face unreasonably high expectations about how quickly results can be produced. As a result, many administrators and leaders in higher education are examining the way their campuses approach academic advising.
RELATIONSHIPS KEY TO COLLEGE COMPLETION RATES
Which of your students have a strong personal support network of mentors from home, school or work? Which have positive peer relationships and have a real sense of belonging at your institution? Which have professional guides and strong relationships with their faculty advisors? If you don’t know, you have no hope of helping them fill in the gaps and reach higher.
BETTINGER: COLLEGE STUDENT COACHING IMPROVES RETENTION AND GRADUATION RATES BY 10 to 15%
The results are clear: coaching had a clear impact on retention and completion rates,” Bettinger said. “And not only does coaching improve the likelihood students will remain in college, but expenditures on coaching are much smaller than the costs of other methods to encourage persistence in college. Coaching can have a 10 -to 15-percent increase in retention and graduation rates among those in the coached group.
STUDENT SUCCESS – LOOK OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM TO PREVENT DROPOUTS
For adult learners, who increasingly make up the majority of students in postsecondary education, the biggest barrier to graduation is balancing work, family and other commitments with school. For traditional students it’s more abstract: they drop out when they lack connection to the school community.
LUMINA FOUNDATION: THE FUTURE OF STUDENT NEEDS: INNOVATIVE RESPONSES TO EMERGING STUDENT NEEDS
As technology gets smarter we could outsource much of this mentoring to our digital counterparts. Our need for re-skilling is growing in tandem with the capabilities of AI. Why not take advantage of this fact and help students of the future meet their emerging need of mentoring head on with every tool at their disposal?
MENTORING – A CRITICAL COMPONENT OF STUDENT SUCCESS
The data underscore this importance: Vulnerable young adults who had a mentor are 55 percent more likely to enroll in college, 78 percent more likely to volunteer regularly, 90 percent are interested in becoming a mentor and 130 percent more likely to hold leadership positions.
NACE: CONNECTIONS, EVALUATION KEY TO CAREER COMMUNITIES MODEL
We needed to provide a direct connection between students and their opportunities. The new model features 10 communities so students can explore how their discipline relates to industry-specific opportunities. This will enable students to align their academic interests with their career interests and to connect with alumni employed in a broad array of fields.
– Joe Lovejoy, Director of Career Services for the Walter Center for Career Achievement
THE POWER OF MENTORING
We are living in times of great change and advancement of uplifting leadership that’s demanding more meaningful relationships with colleagues and other managers. Our careers and relationships go hand in hand. We can’t ignore one or the other. If you are a manager, chances are that you are either mentoring or coaching someone on a daily basis. It may not have all the flare of the word and title of a mentor, but you are influencing another person on your team.
PERSONAL PSYCHOLOGY: HIGH-QUALITY MENTORS AND OTHER SUPPORTIVE WORK RELATIONSHIPS AS BUFFERS TO AMBIENT RACIAL DISCRIMINATION
Mentors offer many benefits to protégés: they may be role models who sponsor and coach protégés, offer them guidance, help them advance in the organization, and promote their careers (Ragins & Kram, 2007). Our research revealed yet another important benefit: mentors can buffer employees from the negative effects of ambient racial discrimination.
– Belle Rose Ragins, Professor of Management at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, et al
GALLUP: WELCOME TO THE EXIT ERA OF HIGHER EDUCATION
Historians of higher education may one day come to describe recent decades as the “Entrance Era” of higher education. But findings from the Gallup-Purdue Index 2016 report suggest that a new era is on the horizon: the “Exit Era” of higher education, in which the ultimate accomplishment will be the successful transition from college to life outside of college.
– Brandon Busteed, Executive Director, Education & Workforce Development
GALLUP-PURDUE INDEX REPORT 2015
The Gallup-Purdue Index examines two important questions: Do U.S. universities provide students with opportunities equal to increasing college fees? And: Do students graduate well-equipped to find good jobs and prosper financially, as well as pursue their passions and lead healthy, fulfilling lives?
EFFECTIVE PRACTICE WITH ENTERING STUDENTS
When students describe their early college experiences, they typically reflect on occasions when they felt discouraged or thought about dropping out. Their reasons for persisting almost always include one common element: a strong, early connection to someone at the college.
