Retention is everybody's job
I believe a school should regularly discuss ways to improve retention rates. Make sure new faculty are trained in where to go to help a student. Good communication is key.
Every member of the institution has responsibility for retention. We should all listen and observe, and when we see a student in need we should get involved.
Nelida, does your institution have an organized professional development program? This might provide an appropriate vehicle to discuss the on-going issue of retention and how to improve.
I agree that a school should regularly discuss ways to improve retention. But everyone should be trained new and old faculty because after awhile people conform and we all must change our ways if something is not working. The student should also be made aware, after all they need to be motivated and aware in order for us to help retain them.
The right people doing the right things at the right time. It's a continuum.
I believe retention should be monitored by all. It should be a slow transition from recruitment to enrollment to instructors and beyond. At each point a need for overlap should exist to ensure someone is watching the students progress.
Great point, Joe. Hopefully some of the material in this course will help write the page and keep everyone focused on the common goal.
everyone needs to to be on the same page of the retention issue.
And what does that mean for the way you go about your job every day, Troy?
I agree, retention is everybody's job, not just the instructors
Jeremy, sounds like an opportunity for professional development. What would have to happen to create an opportunity to share experiences?
I agree that communication is vital. I feel that a more robust system of diseminating information between instructors would help faciltate better communication. Often times other instructors previous experience can be helpful in creating a more supportive enviroment for struggling students.
Klaus, what can you do to get more departments working to improve retention?
Retention is a big problem and if more departments and people are working on that you can improve retention. Communication with the staff who can help and want to help is also importand.
Hello,
I agree that being concerned and interacting with students does not have to lead to a simple documentation exercise-- That is actually the basic assumption that prompted my parting question on the subject.
My concern is that I have seen retention initiatives different schools, and an issue that I see voiced by faculty (and that I partially share) is that while what Instructor X does works for him, it does not mean that what I do to connect with my students has no value-- so I see it as counterproductive to require all faculty to engage in retention activities A,B & C for the sake of consistency, or ease in reporting/documentation/quantification.
I teach online, and a concern raised among the faculty there is that they feel that their retention numbers have dropped since they have been required to engage in certain behaviors at mandated intervals week after week.
While I cannot speak to the bigger picture there, I can say that one of the points in the training feels very true: The time I am engaging in those other activities, is time that I am not engaged on the message boards, or responding to the requests of students who are engaged, and I feel that has to weigh negatively on the equation to some extent.
With that background provided, does that change how you interpret my question? I agree instructors need to be engaged and connect with students, but what systems could those looking at the bigger picture use that can account for personalization rather than demand uniform consistency?
I'm not sure that being concerned and interacting with a student has to lead to a simple documentation exercise. Both sides of the equation can be important, but it all starts with the intention of helping students.
While I agree that "Good" Communication and "Proper" training are preferable to the alternatives, I prefer the approach that was advocated in the training itself, that retention is not a goal in and of itself, but students staying in classes is an outcome that occurs when several parts of the school are doing their jobs well, and consistently over an extended period of time, and those efforts are recognized as being for the student's benefit by the students themselves.
That said, I do not believe that there are any easy answers to the retention question: In my experience, even with the best of intentions, the sharing of "Best Practices" eventually robs the sincerity from the actions taken by many during retention initiatives because the concern for the student can be lost in a perception that the person is more concerned with having a conversation for the purposes of being able to document having had that conversation rather than actually trying to be helpful.
Has anyone here found working approaches that balance the need to hold individuals accountable for making efforts to take action on behalf of students, while remaining flexible enough to avoid requiring compliance to any one set of specific actions?
I think the biggest part of retention is good communication. If there is good comunication there will be the opportunity to identify problems that can affect whether or not a student stays in school.
Retention truly is everyone's responsibility and it is important for not only faculty but every new employee to understand that concept and be given the proper training.
