Do you think contacting students is the primary cause for these improvements?
On our campus we look at several critical points as discussed in this module to intervene before a student decides to quit. The easiest way to quit is alienation they just leave, getting those students back requires a lot of persistance. Getting to know the students early and bulding a strong relationship is critical.
It's impressive that they take this responsibility so seriously. How did you achieve this? What's the consequence if they don't call?
Our phone call proceedure has wprked well for me as an instructor. I have 100% participation from my students and we have a verbal contract that if they are going to be late or miss time I get a phone call from them. I have seen a reduction in missed time to almost zero. There are of course things beyond our control but having a caring voice at the end of the line helps. My past students have confessed to me that they are hesitant to miss time because they know that phone call is coming.
During the course I am inputting grades to the Electronic grade book, The book flags the students that are doing poorly and prompts me to write an advising form and discuss it with the students, During this discussion we talk about tutoring, and study habits. This method doesnt work as well as it could if a counsler took control and talked to the students as well as me.
phone number on file is usually their home number when they enrolled. This way the instructor has their most current number, usually their own cell phone and is readily available. Typically we'll have 25-50% of the students voluntarily participate.At the end of the class cycle we turn those lists in.
We have a great intervention process that starts with our instructor staff then goes thru our studrnt services department and to top it off we have a student sucess advisor.
We have a student success coordinator who is informed by different members of our staff about potential issues that may make a student "at risk". Grades, attendance, professionalism issues, or any other issues that may generalize a student to be at risk. This coordinator then asseses the issues with the student and provides them with a plan in order to make them more successful.
Our attrition rate has dropped steadily; by contacting the students, we are often able to address issues. Attendance is up as well.
What I Do Has Worked In The Past and Still Works Today If A Student Is Out For One Day I Will Write An Advising Form On That Student and Our EM(Education Managers)Will Follow up With The Student....Or If The Get A Failing Grade On A Test I Will Do An Advising Form On That Student So They Will Know Where They Stand In The Class And Also A Member of The EM Team Will Pull The Student And Have A 1 On 1 With Them To See What Can Be Done To Ensure Students Success
Presumably, someone at the school already has the phone number for each student. Why do you ask them for the information again? How many students volunteer the information? Do you match these numbers with the ones on file?
What sort of "intelligence" about school operations is uncovered in the calls made by the Dean and Associate Dean? Has your institution made any significant changes as a result of these calls? Has attendance improved?
We track students' attendance and academic progress very closely. The instructors also post students who are missing class and the Dean of Students and Assoc. Dean of Students contacts them to see what's going on and how we can help. The students that are on probation are met with frequently, so they know where they stand and are offered tutoring assistance.
at the beginning of each course the instructor will send a sheet around so students can voluntarily write down their phone numbers. This way if they are not in school we have a number to contact them. Sometimes alarm clocks fail or are turned off by accident. Better to be late than miss an entire day.
at our school the education manager have been calling student to find out where they are and if they are still planning on coming to school and that they need to be there to first day to get going with a good grade
As an Educational Manager I will go to all my classes, introduce myself and explain my roll on campus. Then I like to perform a mid course feedback. This contains a few simple questions on how the course is going. This method not only allows the student to communicate how things are going, but also gives them a face to face with somebody they know they could reach out to.
The President of the campus has a town hall meeting with the students. He also has instituted a one on one session with all staff. This may take him some time but it shows genuine commitment in my humble opinion.
We have developed a committee to help advise students who want to change their program. They must speak with an advisor, financial aid, accounting, scheduling, and finally speak with an instructor. Instructors are most connected to the industry and can help students understand the state of the industry and the expected changes and growth. Once students understand the consequences of reducing their program, many will stay with their original plans or even add additional training. Some will not, but that’s because life changes and some things are out of our control and they must make adjustments.
If a student leaves our school and wants to return they need to go through a process to see what they need to retake, if they still have enough credit attempts to take class and what their GPA was when they left school. In some cases they have to write a letter stating what is going to be different this time around. When they left they had only payed for the classes that they had already taken, so when they return they need to pay for the rest of the classes that they are going to take to complete their education.
Do the students have to pay retake fees to retake a classes or are those free as well?
