I think I am going to ask my students the question..... If you were an employer, how would you review yourself as an employee?
We are working on retention at our school. We are a school of girls, with only three boys in our population. Drama runs rampid and we are constantly counseling our students and redirecting them toward their future. It is a rewarding yet daunting task at times. I have the freshmen class and I am working on self image, perfessional image. We are working on the question, "How can I change myself to improve my situation or surrounding?" This question takes the focus off the "drama" or what they view as the "problem" and puts the focus on themselves. It allows them the power of choices they make for themselves and power over their reactions to whatever it is their reacting about. It's been a week since I presented this to them and I have to say I have seen alot of improvment from my students this week. I can only hope it keeps moving forward.
TJ, I agree with you. With a global recession, many problems are financial. After discovering students with problems, I bring problems to the attention of administrators or staff responsible. I personally see what I can do outside of the institution to see what I can do to help them.
Sometimes my church will help people outside of membership, with certain situation - food bank, utilities etc. Students are so grateful!
Tiffany
In addressing stagnation and/or erosion, our university's focuses on attendance, tardiness, using advisors and counselors, and pre-post test scores. However, website is now becoming popular as the first “port of call†for enquirers and inquiries, as a 'shop window' through the Internet. But exploiting the growing market our university is expaning to international regions with the use of campus-based, hybrid, and online learning to meet the needs of students. They’re using online enrollment, new asynchronous technologies, advising, access to online forms, tutorials, keynote speakers, advisory boards, and IEP.
Tiffany
Academic stagnation is rectified by improving the course content. It is important to update the material presented to make the learning materials more applicable to the area of specialization for the students.
The intervention process our college uses is discussing and listening in which we have discussion questions which will allow the student to voice any difficulties they are having in the course. It is then my responsibility to pick up on the ques and follow up with the student in an email to see how we can understand the course better. We also use a follow-up in which we have to create weekly reports and let the advisors know who is at-risk for failing by telling them what assignments they have missed and their test scores. The advisor then follow-up with the students weekly to see what can be done and encourage them to continue the course.
At our school, faculty maintain close contact with student advisors so any issues that arise can be addressed promptly. Student advisors communicate with individual students on a weekly basis, depending on the issues they face and how much assistance they require. The role of the student advisor is emphasized from enrollment through graduation, and students are constantly reminded of services available to assist them, thus providing somewhat of a safeguard from academic erosion. Our constant efforts to maintain contact with the students reinforces the idea that they are important, that they are in school for a reason, and that their hard work now will pay off in the future.
What we do at our institution is we track the students attendance and behavioral tendencies so to speak. Once we notice that there are unfavorable patterns we sit them down to talk. We being me the Associate Dean, Program Coordinator, or the Dean. We find that once we give them a genuine ear to listen to their issues, this sometimes rectifies the problem. Sometimes they just want to be heard. If the issue requires other strategies we have a student go to guide where they can attain different things from food pantries to free attorney assistance. Lastly, if the situation merits a higher or more complicated response we refer them to a company that we contract that has licensed counselors.
As an academic advisor we are trained to keep track of our students attendance, and also e-mailing them on a weekly basis to make sure that they are successful in school.
if a student is absent for 3 or more consecutive days, the information is passed on to a Dean to contact the student (in addition to the professors having daily contact attempts).
We have a student services department that deals with behavioral patterns of the students and then in weekly meetings with the deans discuss situations that arise and find ways to help the students that are in trouble
Actually, I was surprised to see how many students are receptive to these calls. Of course, some students do not respond, but I feel if I get even one to respond, I have made some progress. It's like being a nagging Mom who occasionally gets some response.
Mainly at our establishment they try to reach out to students before they reach this point. But if it does happen they sit with the student firstly with the instructor, to find out exactly what the student feels about their progress and how they are doing. The next step is for the student to talk to the faculty administrators who in turn listen to all the students concerns.
They then determine together if the student is correct in their thinking, or just need more individual attention and feed back , to get back on track.
This is one area that the establisment is very good communicating with the students and fixing problems.
At our institution, we take a team approach to address this in our student population. The instructors serve as a first line of defense. We keep track of attendance and grades and talk to students on a weekly basis. We then identify students that are struggling and create action plans in order to help them succeed.
The outside resource depends on the type of help needed. Our college has partners in each region that are professionals that help with student issues.
We use instructor generated written advisings to discuss and correct issues and problems that have appeared during their academic process.
Do you find that new students are more responsive to these calls than students who are nearing graduation? I can imagine students who are frequently missing classes getting cynical about the calls, perhaps feeling that they are just scripted conversation done to satisfy a requirement.
Any thoughts?
Sounds like a well thought process, Dan. What sort of outside services are available and how often are they used? Are these typically professional counselors or more related to social services like housing and transportation?
Are you expected to submit periodic reports of meetings with your advisees? It sounds like your system is a bit loose and informal. Does it meet your students' needs?
What role does your Student Services Director perform? Is he/she focused on support services or social activities? How often do advisor make referrals to this person?
We start off immediately with attendance and call the students as soon as they miss 1 day. We also frame our messages so that the students feel a real concern for them rather than just doing what we are required. For example, we say, "I missed you in class today and I am concerned about you. Is everything OK?" I get many students to return my calls using this method and they often thank me for calling them. This also works because it is easy for the students to wake up and say, "I missed yesterday, I could miss today." But when you call them and they know that you expect them (or they promised you) to be in school, they are more likely to attend.
