Brave to the Student Affairs staff and to you for making the contact. It sounds like your admissions people truly have a counselor component to their job. How is that working?
Amy, as a work in progress, have you identified the inputs you need and/or where to find them? Do you have a mentor that could provide guidance?
From day one, our students are given the course descriptions, syllabus, and class expectations. I perform classroom observations to make sure that instructors are staying on task and meeting the needs of the students, and we survey the students 8 weeks into their program and 8 weeks before graduation to make sure they are satisfied with the school, program, and delivery of education. We also have an "open door" policy so that a student with concerns can talk to anyone the feel they need to.
Yes, I mentioned to the student that there are academic advisors, academic affairs assistants, as well as the associate dean that can assist students with comunicating and working with their instructors. For example, some students ask for tutoring to one of these advisors and I will have an email addressing any issues so that I can work with my any of my students' needs and concerns.
~Theresa
I am not aware of all of the activities in this area but I am aware of several things:
1) Each student stays with the Admissions Counselor assigned to them when they enrolled. This gives them a consistent point of contact when they have questions.
2) Our Dean of Students is very visible and approachable. He is often approached by students and I have interacted with him as a result of them making him aware of their concerns.
3) One of my students was planning to drop out because her lights were turned off. Student affairs staff members were able to assist in resolution of this problem and the student finished the term.
As I am still a work in progress I am still trying to figure out what will be useful input to help the students and what will be helpful to me and my instructors.
Theresa, did the student share the reasons she wouldn't reach out to the other instructors? Hopefully, you were able to give her encouragement to get the help she needs in the future.
I'm not sure I understand the question, Marion, but my answer would depend on what you mean by unnecessary attrition. A thorough, thoughtful admissions process can avoid a lot of problems that lead to a student withdrawing. For example, one of the most common reasons given by students for dropping out is financial. Often this is a convenient excuse but this careful financial planning prior to the start could reduce this cause. However, if someone lost a revenue source that may not be unnecessary attrition.
Stephanie, who runs the meetings? Do the meetings include any training or sharing of best practices?
Amy, how do you know which practices are useful to the students, or to you?
Jaime, that's a lot of surveys. Are the surveys voluntary? Don't your students complain?
And how successful are you in accomplishing this? What happens if you don't?
Billy, how do you measure the changes from the first to second round of surveys? Are these on an individual course basis?
Gina, is there a point where the program director and individual instructor can review/discuss the results before they are presented publicly. I can imagine a situation where there is a reasonable explanation for aberrant survey results and an advance review could avoid unnecessary embarrassment.
What is the thought on what does not contribute to unnecessary attrition? I first thought it was a medical emergency.
In my own course it is necessary to have tutoring sessions in order for some students to succeed. Students are eager to learn and are very appreciative for faculty who give them more guidance. I had a student tell me she would never ask another instructor for tutroing and that she would not even email the instructor. A student should always be able to communicate with an instructor. I wonder if other students feel this way. Students should be able to be comfortable with each instructor.
Currently we survey the students at 8 weeks into their course and then again at 26 weeks. We have fairly short courses that are 7 and 9 months long, so this can give us a good indication of how they are feeling at the beginning of the program and toward the end. They have the chance to make comments and suggestions to the School Director on their surveys. Once they are evaluated by the School Director, they are then gone over with the instructor. There have been times that an instructor did not realize they were not performing the way the students expected. This gave them the opportunity to regroup and change up a few things in order to meet the students expectations and continue to follow the accreditation guidelines.
We have weekly meeting to discuss our retenion rate and how can we asa campus improve them, while helping the students. .
We do several things from meeting with the program director during the initial visit to the campus to surveys at the end of class and we build in explanations for clinical and the boards as part of the program.
We make sure that admissions is giving tours, and updated on new implementations. Also we have a New Student Orientation where nre students know where to turn. Addtionally, we engage with events through student services, and stay in contact with our students.
