High Impact Practices

This initiative will expand the utilization of an academic chatbot in core courses.  The chatbot provides basic academic information, utilizes intelligent agents in the LMS to monitor student engagement and prompts as necessary, evaluates readiness for quizzes and reminds students about assignments and deadlines. GSU received a $7 million Post Secondary Student Success grant from the Department of Education to launch this technology in introductory English and Math courses in Fall 2024.  Chatbot technology is already used in American Government, Macroeconomics and Chemistry.

The EXACT Plan consolidates GGC’s existing experiential learning resources and practices, expands upon that campuswide inventory by fostering a culture of curricular practice, strengthens practices through focused faculty training that integrates ePortfolio and critical thinking pedagogies into GGC’s expanding experiential learning profile, and operationalizes strategies for ensuring access to all students. 

Experiential learning and critical thinking are the topics of GGC’s current QEP.

At Georgia College, Community-based Engaged Learning (CbEL) courses require student participation in service projects or community engagement (either on campus or through institutional partnerships with off-campus organizations) and integrate the service experience into course content.

The Office of Leadership Programs maintains institution-wide responsibility for management, coordination, and development of all Georgia College leadership programs and initiatives. Beyond Georgia College’s core leadership programs, which are directed and administered by the Office of Leadership Programs, the staff works collaboratively with members of GC's faculty and staff to develop affiliate programs.

Students are required to sign up and complete an approved internship experience for academic credit at GCSU. These may be supported by the academic department or may be secured with assistance from GC’s Career Center. The Career Center advises students to begin their internship search at least 4 – 6 months before their desired start date.  The Career Center uses Handshake software to promote local, regional, and national internship opportunities to students.

GCSU aspires to graduate students with creative and problem-solving dispositions that prepare them to be the next leaders of the free world. Georgia College connects teaching excellence with learning beyond the classroom to provide unique undergraduate research experiences for students. Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) defines undergraduate research as, "an inquiry or investigation conducted by an undergraduate student that makes an original, intellectual, or creative contribution to the discipline(s)."

The Capstone is the final embedded experience built into GC Journeys. To “Complete Your Journey” for Capstone, students must successfully complete the capstone course for their program/major. Experiences will be determined by the requirements of the department/major.

The Bobcat Summer Leadership Program (BSLP) is open to all first-time full-time freshmen planning to attend East Georgia State College immediately after high school. The program is designed to provide the student with an opportunity to build a strong academic foundation to ease the transition from high school to college. In addition to taking courses for credit toward their degree, the student will connect with support services and engage in a range of leadership development activities.

Student Learning Communities consist of courses in which a common theme or themes are utilized in order to create opportunities for students to explore these themes in more depth and see how the theme (s) crosses different disciplines. In addition, SLCs encourage a sense of belonging and student engagement since students may share two or more courses together which focus on the same theme

Redesign content and format to improve transition experience for students and increase student success and retention