Hi Dara, is this per month or is this per year (i.e. the overall retention for the year)?
Those are very impressive rates, Dara, particularly for online. Keep up the good work.
Our online retention rates run around 85-89% which is well above the national average of 65-70% for online students. Our overall college retention level (if you average the retention rates of all campus and online students) is around 84-89%.
Sounds like a great environment. How do you and your colleagues keep it going?
Super job, Dara! How do the retention rates at your campus compare to other similar ones?
We have quite a few practices in place to demonstrate school commitment to the students. First of all, we encourage our instructors to be integrated and involved with their students. They contact students by phone, email, and snail mail to follow up with everything from absences to just saying, "Great job on the Unit 5 test!". We also conduct open house or special events at each campus where students can bring their family members to participate. Some campuses host Halloween parties,others have spring or fall carnivals or cookouts, and others just have an open house forum.
Besides the great support our student services team provides, for additional support for students experiencing stress with any of life's issues we use Student Resource Services (SRS). All students are given SRS contact info and we print, post, or circulate the monthly newsletters published by SRS for students to review. These newsletters cover everything from making and sticking to a budget to how to cope with increased gas prices. SRS also offers free counseling sessions either by phone or arranges for students to meet with a local counselor for many personal issues--marriage and family counseling, financial counseling, legal consultations, etc.
Commitment to my College comes from motivated professional instructors(and chefs)and fellow students who have terrific experience and motivation.
It is very contagious.
I feel challenged as an intructor in Math and Environmental Science. I try to motivate and am in return challenged to be more relevant and focused in my ciricullum. They just don't want the same old academic bulshit.
Very refreshing and energizing...
That's the intent Jay - doing something outside the classroom is one that the students look forward to each term. At our school, they get four days and evenings of being treated special...prior to class!
Thanks!
John
Students have copies of the essays since it is part of the application process. All of our files are eletronic, hence students have the originals. We use a document imaging system thus staff with approved permissions from multiple departments are able to retrieve the document and view.
Hi John! Great ideas for student motivation, thanks! Anything that we can do outside of the classroom/lab that further supports students and creates a fun learning environment can have a significant effect on student retention.
Jay
RT101 Guest Facilitator
Great to hear your favorable results, Lewis. Do the students keep a copy of the essay? Who on staff is responsible for filing and retrieving the letter when it's needed?
Your comment about setting your expectations is an interesting one, Anthony. Do you also work to help students set their expections?
Students usually don't like writing essays. How do you get them engaged with the process in a way that makes them excited about coming back the next week?
At my school, we have several programs designed to recognize our commitment to our students. One of these programs involves the school publishing a listing of the students meeting Honors Program grade point averages. These students are recognized on a Wall of Fame type bulletin board on each floor of our building. By being prominently displayed, these students, and their friends, see the reward for doing a good job academically! As we know, most people like recognition and this program ensures that our top performers are recognized. We also have a Student Appreciation Week each term. During this week, there is a free token of our appreciation to students every morning and every evening, capped off by a "cook-out" in the parking lot by the campus president, faculty, and administrative team.
Thanks!
John Maloney
Anthony we also ask students to write out their goals at our orientation sessions. These goals are kept by our Student Services Coordinator and when students meet with her throughout their tenure due to stressors, she reminds them of their goals and hopefully can get them back on track.
On the first day of school each quarter, our school director makes it a practice to sit at the front reception desk to greet all students on the first day of classes; our admissions representatives go around to each class to greet students to make sure they are in classes but to all wish them well on their first day; we publically acknowlege students for perfect attendance; we acknowledge ours students who are doing well academically. Our faculty attend all orientation sessions for new students.
Our university uses a similar essay as well for like purposes. One more than one occasion it has saved students from quitting.
At our school education and admissions works together to set expections that we can deliver. one week before the start we bring in the new student and set our expections, uniform policies, and introduce the faculty and staff. we also have them write a essay on why the choose this career and if the are having problems we have them read what they wrote to remind them why they are here.
Hi Loren, we award students with high attendance, instructors contact those who miss a day, students are referred to Student Services and outside councilors for those with issues and we've recently started a program whereby the Campus Presidents must spend 50% of their day in the classroom so they can 'teach the teachers', get close to the students and identify areas where they can support the instructors and attempt to get ahead of a student dropping.
For a significant period of time, my campus did not provide supporting resources, aside from what faculty could offer, to assist students in academic areas. We had a library and faculty provided tutoring during office hours, but the mantra was "adult self-directed learning" which often was translated as providing those students that requested assistance a plethora of web links to online resources hosted by other institutions. Needless to say, students began to raise the question "why am I at this school and not at that school that provides the resources?" Approximately four years ago, we finally introduced support labs to assist students in general education areas such as mathematics and writing. Today, we offer a multitude of support labs plus a series of tutoring services separate from the office hours provided by faculty members. We are on the cusp of rolling out a success course designed to partner students with minimal transfer credits who demonstrate a need for individualized assistance in areas of mathematics and English with dedicated staff whose positions are focused on serving as coaches for the students. The coaches are in addition to the students' advisors and faculty members. They are specifically trained to not only assist with content knowledge, but also with appropriate positively orientated communication skills.
As I have only been here a short amout of time, I believe that the student services off an extensive amount ot resource to the students here to insure thier success. All instructors offer encouoragement to try and help them through the everyday trials of the class room and testing. People are in place to consult if the student does poorly on more than two tests to see what other measures the school coould take to make sure they acheive their goals. I know that through this training I am re evaluating my person adn attributes to see if I qualify as an aid or an obstruction to student retention.
