I beleive that we as instructors should seek out ways to help the students feel the sense of belonging. These tools are many such as role play, Q and A etc... Build your own toolbox. Ask the students what would make teir stay more pleasant.

Young adult students, as are found at vocational schools, Gen Y if you will, seem to be buddied up already. But they may not have buddied up with the most helpful buddy. Students missing the first day or strudents more at risk of failure may benifit more from being grouped with more successful "coaches". It's OK to influence the formation of lab or project groups.

There are always a few students who do not like thier pictures taken, they hide or have to do something goofy during the picture. I used to take a class picture after the first week of class. Many students did liked it. I would make a few copies on our black and white printer on plain paper and pass them out. What is harder is taking individual pictures. I won't try that one again! Some students flat refused to have thier picture taken. Most students liked a class picture but I dropped the practice because of the objection of a few.

How has retention via mentoring worked at your campuses?

I have found that finding out early in the block each student’s ability and potential to successfully complete the class is crucial to retention efforts. Students who are not sure of themselves and lack the prerequisite skills needed for success must be coached and encouraged on a daily basis. With this help, support and commitment students begin to feel confident in themselves and their achievements.

Students need to feel a sense of belonging. This can be achieved in orientation through utilization of all persective staff memebers.

A major part of the instructors job is to help the students understand what can be expected as they journey through their training. How they will be observed by other students staff and education managers. Clear concise communication.

Is that what it's like or is that what you say it is like? The first day is intimidating. Some of the fears of the new student are unfounded but some of them are true. I believe a good orientation should include seeing what the actual class are like and how the subject matter will be presented.

At a vocational school the student is attending for a new career. He wants to be "just like me"; a career professional that has done the job that he wants for XX years. Remember that your subject matter expertise is in the profession that you are teaching.

Any suggestions on how to build a sense of community in an online program ???

During the course, little was mentioned about thrid party, in dealing with retention.

talk with the student when you have the opportunity. Call them by name. Ask the student how they are doing. Even call the student Mr. or Ms. and their first name. Respect to the students goes further than, negative communication. Never turn your back on the student or walk away whenthey are speaking. Face-to-face communication is the best way to get their attention and obtain their respect for you.

Students as well as the Instructors have outside problems. We as instructors cannot bring those propblems to the classroom, nor do we want to. The students will not concentrate or dio well when they have other issues on their minds. We as Instructors need to help them through these times and find a way to keep them in school.

The first or second of class, I have the students write down their short and long term goals. Than we stick them to the inside of their textbooks. I want the students to see these goals every time they open their books. This will give them the incentive to continue.

I like for students to work together on projects of the objectives for that day. Students have many ideas and like to tell the other students about them. learning is not just from the Instructors. I monitor the projects and make sure everyone is participating.

I am a Program Chair in Online Program. I enjoy a good relationship with Admissions. Without violating compliance, what can I do to impove the quality of our relationship with Admissions even further.

Are retention and education enemies? The simple answer is no. Retention is a product of quality education. I have a recurring nightmare in where a teacher grants grades based upon effort rather than production. To make matters entirely more scary, the towns people are storming room teaching across the hall because the monster teaching that class allowed some of his students to fail. Just for sake of being lonely, I hope there are others out there who share in my horror. To be fair, I have never heard anyone on this site state that we need to lower standards to improve retention; however, I'm not seeing anyone say that standards of quality education cannot be sacrificed to the gods of retention. To me, that is a message that should be repeated with every discussion on retention. To be unfair, the found that the question in the quiz regarding a positive correlation between retention and how well someone is doing in the class to show, at minimum, a structural bias toward retention. I grant considerable benefit when doubting that it was instrumental. The truth in education is that quality and retention can be friends when we examine why we teach. That is an important question, and one that impacts retention far more than any other question out there. A lot of teachers know what they teach and some even know how to go about doing it. The teachers that I remember, admire, and still look up to are the ones that knew why they were teaching in addition to the how and what. It is the why that drives us to push our students beyond where they thought it possible to go. It is the why that demands we be compassionate while still holding students accountable to the highest quality of work. It is the why that encourages us to work far beyond our pay and be there for students. Trust me, as a sociolgy teacher, I understand the importance of socialization to any new environment, but I see that as just one of the functions of a quality education. Part of college should be the education of how to succeed in college, but success cannot be measured by retention alone because it is a function of education, not the other way around.

yes I do believe that first impressions are the most important. but its awful hard to recover when admin reps tell prospective students one thing and then the students find out that it doesn't happen that way. Good reason to be on the same page from the front office to the lab floor. No misconceptions of what they will be doing and or recieving

School uniforms /dress code we start in the class room prepping our students for the work place, coaching and reminding them to be professionals at all times.

We have various student activities at our campus. We have a student bike show with various vendors.Since it is during Daytona bike week, several out-of-state freinds and relatives attend this event with our students. We have open houses with students invited to attend. We have as many student oriented functions as possible.