My school uses a monthly student satisfaction survey (of the Instructor and course itself) to discover how students are feeling about their scholastic experience.
This student survey allows the students to feel heard. It allows us Instructors to find out if there are any further ways we can make our students feel as though they are learning, and that their opinion matters.
Ceola,
Attention equals retention. It is a simple concept but it is true.
Jeffrey Schillinger
Here at our college we have Program Directors. The directors will let each instructor in their program know who the new students are. We are assigned a student to meet with on a weekly basis or more if needed to see how the student is doing and if they have any concerns or needs. This gives the student a contact person and so far it has worked out really well. The instructor will call the student if they are absent etc.
Abundio,
I hope you find some god advise from your peers.
Jeffrey Schillinger
We do work close for the student, and being available for the student every time they have question, seems working, the other we follow up call or e-mail when they missing class. Also I utilized other student to communicate with a student tend to lost interest of returning to class. But I still a lot to learn from all of you, so I am very much interested to read all of your comment and advices.
We are a small campus, so the 10' foot rule applies. Asie from this we are constantly involved daily with all students wether we are directly in class withthem or not. We are able to learn a bit about each of them and this helps with them wanting to attend, and feel comfortable on campus. Direct results are seen thru our retention numbers.
Rawn,
What does your college use the information garnered through observations and surveys to improve outcomes.
Jeffrey Schillinger
We have classroom observations every session, as well as student survey's every six weeks
Toni,
Thanks for this post. What you describe here is the way a career college must operate to be successful.
Jeffrey Schillinger
Julia,
This is a common concern at career colleges. Some colleges have moved away from phone calls and relay on text messaging and emails.
Jeffrey Schillinger
We may be the only positive support system some of our students have. I know students who spend a lot of time on campus before and after class because it is the safest and most comfortable place for them to be.
We are focused on customer service and have the expectation that any staff member or faculty will assist students with questions or concerns, even if it means directing them to the correct department for that help. Our instructors are at their classroom doors 15 minutes before class begins to greet their students. The Program directors are in the classrooms and hallways throughout the day to greet students or observe classroom behavior. We all share in the successes of individual students, whether it is for passing a test, having a baby, or overcoming a personal obstacle.
Due to our privacy laws, we can't do anything other than leave a generic "Please call me" message unless the student identifies himself/herself on the voice mail. So most of the time, we can't say they were absent and we missed them, and we can't give them the assignments they missed. It's a pretty useless phone call.
Christopher,
Career Service professionals, when engaged with academics in a systematic way, can make a HUGE dufference in retention.
Jeffrey Schillinger
At my school, from an academic perspective, there is academic counseling and tutoring sessions which are offered.
In the department in which I work, Career Services, we offer numerous lectures on job search skills and resume creation. We actively follow up with students on their job search status and skills throughout the students program.
At our school all of our instructors are tasked with keeping tabs on our students. By this I mean looking for changed attitudes, attendence rates and general well being of the students. We have also created several positions that are called "Student Success Instructors." These guys have had training on the various resources that are availabe to help the students with life issues. They can help the students reach out to food banks, additional funding, car pools, room mates and mental health resourses. We also have our own licensed mental health professional on campus. We realize that our students have a lot of "life" coming at them. By trying to help with these life problems we have maintained and improved our retention.
I pay attention to student. I let them help with ice carving and carving at the park.They like me i give them cell phone number if they problems.
In my school we are very much hands on in demonstrating and then following up by watching the students preform the same task. Taking time to show them the different ways to come up with the correct end product.
Cory,
You are on the correct path. The personal attention, when paired with excellent teaching of a well-designed curriculum, is what makes a career college great.
Jeffrey Schillinger
We do the little things like calling each time they miss a class, but also make sure to say hello to students in the hallway and ask how they are doing. THis includes students that we may not personally know and we truly listen to the answer when we ask them how they are doing instead of just asking to ask.
