Strategy/Project Name:
Supporting student success through advising and academic support
Momentum Area:
Purpose
Pathways
Mindset
Change Management
Data & Communications
Category:
Strategy/Project Description:
Support student success through-
- Targeted outreach campaigns for advising, and tutoring provided by the Student Success Centers (SSCs) and the advising team
- Providing timely training for new and continuing advisors and the student success team
- Continuing existing collaboration between Advising, Student Success Centers, Center for Career and Leadership Development (CCLD), Financial Aid (FA), the Library, Residential Life (RL), academic departments and faculty.
- Revising program maps to incorporate Core IMPACTS refresh
- Strengthening focus on high-risk students by offering structured student engagement sessions for those on academic probation offered by the student success team
- Expanding the peer mentoring initiative to all students across all campuses
- Building efficiency in the advising process
- Piloting use of SPACMNT (Banner) to track student-advisor communications
- Implementing Salesforce to improve efficiency and effectiveness of advising
Summary of Activities:
- Expanded and diversified outreach campaigns through emails, texting, phone calls, on-campus pop-up events, yard signs with QR codes, providing tentative schedules to students in residence life, and visits to classrooms and residence halls to promote tutoring, online workshops for students, faculty, and staff.
- Launched an online D2L training for advisors
- Held Student Success Festivals on two campuses showcasing academic and non-academic support resources available for students
- Advisors and CCLD staff collaborated to support vision board parties on two campuses.
- Initiating review and revision of program maps to incorporate Core IMPACTS
- Offering semester long structured student engagement sessions on a weekly basis on two campuses. Topics range from how to succeed as a college student, study skills, growth mindset, stress management, academic policies, financial literacy, etc.
- Implementing the use of a measuring tool in SPACMNT to track student-advisor communication
- Scaling and maintaining additional focus on high-risk students to include those on probation, those identified on the early alert report, and students with GPA’s between 2.0-3.0
- Offering study sessions in the residence halls and in the SSCs on two campuses for high-risk students and student athletes with the assistance of peer mentors. Peer mentors will also offer multiple student engagement opportunities on all campuses during fall’23
- Initiating the use of Salesforce
Activity Status:
Evaluation/Assessment plan:
KPIs:
- Percentage of students receiving individualized advising communication from their academic advisors
- Number of trainings planned and facilitated for academic advisors and the student success team.
- Number of projects planned in collaboration with the CCLD, the advising team, the SSCs, FA, Library, and RL
- Percentage of athletes completing the semester in good standing
- Percentage of students beginning the semester on probation and completing the semester in good standing
- Percentage of students on probation retained for next semester
- Percentage of students on the early alert list retained for next semester
- Percentage of students on the early alert for low grades successful in all coursework
- Percentage of students on the early alert for low grades retained for next semester
Baseline measure from 2021-22
- 100% of advisees received individualized advising communication every semester.
- 41% of tutored students flagged for low grades on the Early Alert successfully completed the course in Fall’21.
- Training was offered for advisors once a year in 2021-22
- Collaborated with the CCLD and the SSC on one event/project per semester
- 18% of students who started fall’21 on probation completed the semester in good standing
- 87% of athletes finished fall’21 in good standing
- 55% of students on probation at the end of fall’21 were retained for spring’22
Current/most recent data (for each KPI):
- 100% of advisees are receiving individualized advising communication every semester.
- Two training sessions have been provided for the academic advisors in fall’23
- Three activities have been planned in collaboration with the CCLD, the advising team, the SSCs, FA, Library, and RL.
- 89.7% of athletes finished fall’22 in good standing and 85.2% finished spring’23 in good standing
- 36.5% of students who started fall’22 on probation ended the semester in good standing as compared to 18% of students who started fall’21 on probation and completed the semester in good standing.
- 27.8% of students who started spring’23 on probation ended the semester in good standing
- 40.6 % of all students on probation at the end of fall’22 were retained for spring’23.
- 45% of all students on probation at the end of spring’23 were retained for fall’23.
- 9.1% of the students ended fall’22 on probation as compared to 8.4% in fall’21 and 11.0% in fall’20. MGA was implementing lower GPA thresholds per USG policy in 2022-23 to exempt students from learning support. This could be one of the factors influencing the success of students who did not receive co-requisite support as was provided prior to the lowering of the GPA.
- 36.5% of students who started fall’22 on probation ended the semester in good standing as compared to 18% of students who started fall’21 on probation and completed the semester in good standing.
- 27.8% of students who started spring’23 on probation ended the semester in good standing
- Of the total number of students enrolled in spring’23, 5.93% ended the semester on probation.
- Of the tutored students flagged for low grades on the Early Alert report, 43.3% in fall’22 and 42.8% in spring’23 successfully completed the specific course on the early alert as compared to 29.9% of non-tutored students in fall’22 and 38.5% students in spring’23.
- 56.0% of students on the early alert report for spring’23 was retained for fall’23.
- 53.8% of students on the early alert for low grades in spring’23 was retained for fall’23.
Goal or targets (for each KPI):
- Develop comprehensive Advising resources and training courses in D2L
- Provide two training sessions per year for academic advisors
- Collaborate with the CCLD and the SSC on two events/projects per semester
- Provide training to all current and new academic advisors and the student success coaches
- Increase success rates of students flagged for low grades on the EA report by 2%
- Increase success rates for students on probation by 2%
Time period/duration: 2023-24 academic year
Progress and Adjustments:
Outreach to students:
- Targeted outreach efforts to all students to promote student success, retention, and timely registration are being executed in AY 23-24.
- Projects to increase advisor and student success coach visibility across all the campuses have been planned and implemented in AY 23-24.
- Focused communications are sent out to students on academic probation to provide support and referrals as needed for academic success (referrals to SSC, Mathematics Academic Resource Center (MARC), The Writing Center (TWC) for tutoring) through emails, phone calls, and texting.
- “Emerging Knights Pathway to Success” initiative has been redesigned and reimagined into the Academic Communities initiative.
Early Alert (EA):
- A communication plan has been implemented to include specific touch points with students on the EA list.
- Academic Success Coaches have been hired to work with students on the early alert report to develop success action plans
Centralized management:
- A Communication calendar has been developed for Advising and SSCs for outreach campaigns for AY 2023-24.
- A comprehensive Advising resource and training course has been launched in D2L.
Collaboration with SSCs, CCLD, FA, and RL:
- Events to promote student success, e.g. student success festivals, are being offered in collaboration with Advising, Financial Aid, SSCs, CCLD, Residence Life, and Admissions.
- Opportunities for success coaches to engage with residential students on probation have been increased from one to seven every week.
- SSCs staff visits residence halls to meet with students and share information about services available. These efforts will continue and include academic advisors and Financial Aid personnel in 2023-24.
Focus on high-risk students:
Any high-risk (Early Alert, Probation, Learning Support):
- The Peer Mentoring pilot implemented in fall 2022 for learning support students has been considerably expanded to any student requesting peer support. Currently, there are 29 mentors and 56 mentees in this program in fall’23.
Academic Probation:
- Advisors and the Student Success Centers staff provided targeted outreach to students on academic probation. This outreach included strongly encouraging students to utilize tutoring services.
- Weekly student engagement sessions are being provided to residential students on probation in Cochran and Macon.
Plan for the Year Ahead:
- Expand the peer mentoring initiative
- Provide training on Core IMPACTS for advisors and student success centers staff
- Provide professional development opportunities for academic advisors and success coaches
- Develop student success action plans for those on probation and on the early alert list
- Offer structured student engagement sessions for residential students on probation
- Plan student engagement events involving Advising, SSCs, CCLD, FA, the Library, and RL in student-friendly locations around the campuses
- Review and revise program maps to include Core IMPACTS
Challenges and Support:
Challenges:
- Staff turnover
- Student Engagement
- Communication gaps
- Networking with faculty
- Centralized database listing best practices followed by other USG institutions
Support Needed:
Sharing of best practices across the USG
Primary Contact:
Sandy Little-Herring, Deneice Bausley, Brock Giddens, Paul Johnson, Jeannie Ruggerio, and Deepa Arora
