If a student doesn't show up at Orientation or at class start, the Admissions Team contacts the student to discuss this. When students are absent from class, instructors and the Education Department contact the student.
When a student is lagging, instructors, registrar and Ed. Manager all try to help.
But School Commitment goes farther than this. All of us see it as our responsibility to be available to students, and to interact with them throughout the day. If we see a student who looks as if he's having a bad day - be concerned! Ask him if there's something on his mind, some way we can help.
You might think of starting this self affirmation in the admissions process, Paula. Having that perspective from the outset may provide an opportunity to correct any misconceptions about your field. Do you envision this exercise as an assignment within a course and for a grade? Have you figured out the logistics of storing this information?
We have not started this yet, but some of my colleagues and I feel that we should implement it. We have Diploma programs that are 8 mths. or 12 mths. long. We need to have students write a couple paragraphs on why they have chosen this field and why they came to this school. They should do this every few months and before they complete let them review all and see if anything changed.
It may also help for students that stop making a committment to get them back on track. I would like to have your feedback.
Andrea, does the school have a formal policy about follow up calls? Are procedures different for substitutes than full time staff?
As a substitue I don't get to see many school policies in action. However, I did recently overhear an instructor call a student to see what they were not in class. WOW! That is commitment in action. She acutally called the student, not just emailed her.
We have a good team and I would like to say we do pretty well at keeping them. However many times the student just doesn't want to or can't be here.
Paul, what level of success has your retention team had? It would seem that with this much attention and discussion you should have seen a significant improvement in student success.
Thanks, Cynthia. Do you have students who withdraw before the end of the academic period because they are failing, and then ask to re-enroll? Is this allowed?
Some of the practices that we do on our campus to help show school commitment are that we have a retention team that meets every Tuesday. We go over attendance for the previous week and reach out to those that are on the list. We have members from each of the departments so we are able to have feedback from all potential aspects in the hope that we are able to see an issue prior to it presenting itself or be able to react before too much time passes. Daily the instructors share with the retention group any concerns that they may have about their students.
During longer breaks such as Christmas we have made youtube videos to tell the students that we look forward to them coming back after break.
We no longer have a remediation policy meaning that if students fail out of classes there is no opportunity for them to stay in our program. This is why we have academic advising at weeks 3, 6, and 9 out of 10 week terms to catch the at risk students before it becomes a major issue. We institute tutoring, peer studying, reading etc ... plans of action so the student can reapply themselves and do better.
Roshally, how frequently do you upgrade equipment to reflect changes in the industry? Some equipment is very sophisticated and expensive. Do you use simulators in place of these pieces?
Cynthia, what do you mean by a no remediation policy?
Sebastian, what percentage of your students actually take the initiative to contact you after an absence? Is this standard procedure at your school and thus, part of the culture? It certainly isn't "natural" for the student to take this responsibility?
How much time does it take to meet with all your students at the 2 week point? Is this done during class time or by appointment? Seems like a very time consuming process.
Sebastian, what percentage of your students actually take the initiative to contact you after an absence? Is this standard procedure at your school and thus, part of the culture? It certainly isn't "natural" for the student to take this responsibility?
How much time does it take to meet with all your students at the 2 week point? Is this done during class time or by appointment? Seems like a very time consuming process.
Tracy, does every instructor do this for every absence? Sounds like a lot of work. What happens when you don't reach the student?
Our school demonstrates its commitment by modeling our equipment and curriculum after the health care field our students will enter and provides hands on learning to attain our students goal. Our school strive for superior outcomes in student satisfaction, program completion and career placement.
Developing students sense of responsability by including homework, tests, take home exams and projects, proper grading and constant challenge is what most of students think they are getting into when they enroll.
In our department we have a no remediation policy ... in order to help students feel more comfortable and less stressed about where they stand academically, we have created academic advisors and assigned them to the students. They are available for trouble shooting and just shooting the breeze as well as making grade status reports every third week in the term to keep students aware of their standings but with comments from the individual instructors. This sees to have helped with reinforcing the student's commitment as the term moves along.
If one of my students is absent or late to class I expect the student to call me,or email me the reason he/she is running late or is absent for the day. I always remind my students to consider coming to class every day , as if they are going to a work place.If a student doesn't call or email me ,I would call the student to find out the reason for an absence, when the student expects to return tom class, and definately discussing with the student the options to solve an attendance issue.
In terms of the students' academic progress ,at the school I work at ,every 2 weeks we discuss with the students besides the grades, their attendance, their professional attitude,and definately I always like to find out how each of my students feel about the training they get in my class. Also, the student surveys at the end of each 4 week course, gives me a great feed back to always improve my performance as an Instructor.
One thing that our facilitly does is if a student is absent we call the student the same day after class. We give them a brief description of the material that was covered and go over any assignments that need completing. And let them know that we are available for any questions they may have about the missed material. This is a practice that continues from their first semester until they graduate.
