Great list, Denise! Please let me know how things work for you.
Since the way to a student's heart is not unlike that of the way to a man's heart--food--I am thinking about fruit in the student lounge once a week on Mondays. That is always our worst day for early attendees for some reason.
The electronic newsletter may be a great way for us to go. We found that printing a newsletter got pretty expensive. We can send one to all of our campuses or only to the students on our campus. That might be a neat way to interact between departments and even give students a new forum for whatever they want to share.
I can see some of the faculty training beginning to be put into a handbook that would help new and part time faculty know what is expected. I suspect that some of them are just as overwhelmed as our students when they are told what they will be doing and with whom. A written handbook of schedules, classroom rules, and attendance policies might be very beneficial to everyone.
While it's true that everyone enjoys fresh fruit occasionally, I'm not sure that an apple will be a sufficient motivator to get a student out of bed on Monday morning. Have you asked students why attendance is low on Mondays? You may not get truthful answers if the question is posed directly to offenders behind closed doors, but you may get the information you seek if done in the context of a class discussion?
These are not in priority order:
1. Recommend that other members of staff take this course.
2. Stress attendance during class sessions.
3. Mention more of the student services. Non classroom staff do an intense three day orientation that covers student services and responsibilities. I will mention these more during classroom sessions. Our institution does a good job by offering a variety of student services ie nurse twice a week, financial help and paperwork help, helping students locate a part-time job, matching roommates, furnishing loaner bicycles, food pantry and encouraging carpooling among students.
Good plan, Doug. Making sure students are aware of, and using, the services at your school is great way to keep everyone engaged and show the students how much support your institution provides. That's an impressive list of services.
Three specific steps we can take in the next 30 days will include instructor training on the importance of early intervention and referral for personal and academic issues that have become obstacles in class.
We can also ask our student council to propose an event that will bring students and staff members together in an effort to create a student staff bond.
Lastly, in the next 30 days, key individuals will go out to the classrooms, and introduce ourselves, as well as extend an open invitation to the students for assistance in the area of each person's expertise.
What an impressive action list, James!
Hopefully, you will be able to get others within the organization- particularly the campus president - to become involved and take the lead on some of these initiatives.
Of course, maintaining this focus over the long haul will be a challenge. The outcome of these actions will probably be some significant change in daily life at your school. It is natural for people to resist change si it will take a lot of energy and focus to maintain this momentum.
Good luck; you're off to a good start.
We are fortunate to have a very progressive, supportive campus president. Student success is promoted and supported through all levels of management within our organization.
This has been a great course!
In the next thirty days, I hope to have a listing or directory available for the students and faculty with specific information on department services.
Another aspect is to divise an action plan for the faculty to implement continuing education.
Even though I do not foresee a faculty mentoring program established in 30 days, it is my hope that a program will be in the beginning stages. Faculty members hold the key to student success and in many ways already mentor students.
What are the barriers to establishing a faculty mentoring program? Have you considered using students in a mentor program?
The biggest barrier is going to be time. The instructors at our school are in class everyday 7:00 am - 4:30 pm. Adding mentoring to their already busy day will be tough.
We currently offer peer mentoring and it does work well for some instances. However, there are situations where a paid staff member would be more appropriate.
1. Would determine what exactly is affecting the student's attendance.
2. Check to see if there is something that can be done to have them improve attendance. (i.e. check local bus schedules for transportation)
3. Make sure the student is ok with you helping him/her out.
Three steps I would take to improve retention within the next 30 days would be: 1)Let my students know, through, email that they have access to me at anytime during the day. 2.)Offer tutoring during certain hours. 3.)Provide a mentor to those that have specific needs.
Is that all contact time, Judy? How much of that time is 'lab' vs lecture? How do you handle prep time?
Adding mentoring to that load would be asking a lot.
1. Become more involved with the intervention module we have here.
2. Learn more about how to find out the students hot issues.
3. Become more connected with the first course students and see if I can help them through any issues.
1. Focus attention on weaker student to help drive learning a success for the student.
2. reward the high achievers for outstanding work
3. Tutor more students by reaching out to the student in a more positive light on tutoring./
I am curious as to the possible challenges that Moszetta may be faced with that requires luck when trying to tie in the programs. Can you expand on this a bit further?
During the next 30 days I plan to do the following:
1. Get with the IT and legal departments to further investigate an on-line forum for the students to use as a sounding board.
2. Suggest to my superiors additional training for our instructors in the area of identifying at-risk students.
3. Get with the director of student services to see what student activities are planned.
1.Identify students in trouble sooner by intervention.
2. Fill out all intervention forms when due.
3. Offer tutoring to students that are in need and not wait for them to come to you.
What a great question!
1. Contact Student Services and determine what their source of training and development is for handling student issues.
2. Begin work on a staff directory (photo)
3. Set up a voluntary task force to look at instructor frustrations.
