Admission have all details about the students. it can help the Faculty to know the background of the students ( Family or siblings in the business)as well as their ambitions, and sometimes where they come from and what is their motivation to attend the School.
Currently we do not collect information from admissions for use during class, but from now on I will procure this information.
I will also institute a time during the first day of class (class orientation) for everyone to give a brief background of themselves and why they came to choose this as a career path.
in the end I plan on taking a class picture both on the first day of class and the last day of class, this is a good buy in factor and allows students to feel connected to the institution the class and each other.
Contact information is what I find to be most useful. Often times the student's cell phone may go to voice mail, and after several tries to contact them, they realize how much we are concerned with their success when we make a call to one of their friends or family they listed with admissions.
We have a system when we can see information of each student everyday. But, as an instructor I get student information at the beginning of each class and try to call students that don’t show up for the day. We check that they are fine and let them know what they missed in the class and what we will be doing next day. Students start telling us in advance that they are not going to be in class or they might be late.There are sometimes when they send emails or text a classmate and have the classmate let us know what has happened.
I post all the information I get into this system every day, with this faculty, deans and admissions are daily updated about each student.
I believe our online admissions team does gather information from students on a survey, but it is more challenging to conduct orientation in a virtual setting when we don't see our students at all. We are currently working on revising our orientation, so I would be interested in ideas about how to include faculty information or interaction. Right now, our orientation is totally asynchronous with focus mainly on how to navigate within the online classroom.
In my department we have a "Getting to know you" worksheet, where they can share their hometown, family and job situation,professional experience, and what they hope to achieve after graduation.
Their professional and educational background, if they have attended school, if they have a job that is related etc.
Also, they may know about their goals and dreams and that inforamtion would help instructors tailor a welcome package for the student.
Student introductions are a great way for the instructors to analyze the students and their learning needs or wants.
Paul--
I agree! Most people do not believe we are that diligent that we would chase them down by contacting other friends and relatives. It does send a great message though about how much we want them to be in class and how important they are that we even noticed they weren't there!
Susan
Fortuna--
This sounds fun...and it might be fun to keep them and then give them back to the students at graduation.
Susan
We can get some prior info about the student, family background, interest, ethnic background, and necessary info about student, if he has any need a special attention. (i.e. allergies, medication, etc.)
We can utilize this info to handle effectively the student, and help us strategically approach individual students. Also we can keep on eye of particular student need to get fair attention.
It is very important to publicize the catalog of the college, very important that our students know Administratium department and the department of the Dean's office where they are studying. This will allow them to take better steps when you can face different situations within the university.
In orientation we gather information from each student such as if they have transprotation and other obticuls they may have this way we can healp.
We collect their work experience as well as their goals for their career.
We required placement testing at orientation and the lower performing students deserve a discussion related to expectations and abilities.
Faulty collects lots of information from the students before orientation,in order to help them adapt to the school system.
Some of this information concerns students responsabilities outside of the classroom so that we can help them in time of need,and when they face outside challenges,
We collect as much information as we are able to. One of the areas that we focus in is future career plans and goals. As an instructor, I keep this information in the forefront all term long in order to use it as a motivating tool to keep students focused on the task at hand.
Personal information, list of hobbies, favorite recipes,favorite past time,cultural background short term an long term goals.
One item that would be of great benefit to all who interact with students is their answer to the question: why do you want to become a (fill in career). I would like to have this answer entered into our contact manager for each new student to help guide all from admissions to faculty to student services to the department of graduate employment. Knowing someone's motivation can help reinforce their decision.
Students complete an entrance essay - what they want, why they are good candidates, and so on. This information could be used by faculty to facilitate discussion and to identify common themes with which to unite the students of the course -- while respecting student privacy of course.
