New Directions in Student Development Piedmont Technical College March 5-7, 2014

1. MTC’s QEP The New Student Experience: Five Years Later New Directions in Student Development Piedmont Technical College March 5-7, 2014 Student Development Services Academic Affairs Division

2. MTC’s New Student Experience: Five Years Later Midlands Technical College’s QEP (Quality Enhancement Plan) • Engaging new students • Creating learning communities Session goals: • Focus on process and development of the QEP • Review QEP goals, challenges, and changes • Focus on best practices • Lessons learned • Plans for sustaining our QEP goals

3. Five Years Later... The New Student Experience 2008 – 2013... 2014 2013 2009 2012 2010 2008 2011 Design & Implementation College-Wide Initiative Learning Communities Student Engagement

4. 2008-2009: Developing The New Student Experience • Findings from College-wide Discovery Process (2008) • Academically and socially underprepared • Retained only some information from New Student Orientation • Failed to access support earlyto influence decisions • Struggled with communication, technology, identifying support services, finances

5. To support new students’ connection and engagement with the college community. To create classroom learning communities (CLCs) that foster student success. To create inquiry-based faculty learning communities (FLCs) that prepare faculty to implement effective CLCs. New Student Experience Goals:

6. Research supports the decision to develop entry-level courses as CLCs: "For students who commute to college, especially those who have multiple obligations outside the college, the classroom may be the only place where students and faculty meet, where education … is experienced. For those students, in particular, the classroom is the crossroads where the social and the academic meet." Tinto, V. (1997). Classrooms as communities: Exploring the educational character of student persistence. Journal of Higher Education, 68(6), 599-624.

7. Research supports the decision to embed success skills in entry-level courses: "The success of underprepared students must be an institution-wide, core responsibility [emphasis in orig.]. • Basic skills cannot be learned -- or taught -- in isolation as a set of discrete mechanical skills … . • The success of underprepared students cannot be the responsibility of a small group of faculty teaching specially designated courses. • It must be an institutional responsibility: given visibility and priority by campus leaders at the highest levels, attended to in every classroom and every interaction with students." Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. (2008). Basic skills for complex lives: Designs for learning in the community college.

8. Pre-QEP Orientation & Advisement Model

9. 2008: Pre-QEP Process Students received letter of invitation to sign-up for New Student Orientation • Signed-up for orientation date or • Elected to wait for advisement appointment – after students who participated in Orientation

10. Fall 2009, the First Step: Intermediate Model Designed to Provide Information Online Pre-Advisement Module (P.A.M.) requirement, with gradual roll-out (New AA/AS students, plus a few Career Programs, who advise their own majors) • Students received letter • Steps for enrollment identified • Link to P.A.M. on homepage

11. P.A.M. Pilot: Fall 2009 – Spring 2010 Developed In-house • Student log-in : Name and D/O/B • Connection with Colleague Database not automatic Five Areas: • College Services and Resources: Counseling and Career Services, Academic Success Center (tutoring), Library, Student Life, etc. • Campus Cruiser™ – Email connection to the college (official notifications) • MTC Online – Portal to manage college business: Academic information (testing, grades, schedule), financial aid, account balance, etc. • College Expectations – Honor Code, attendance, parking, smoking, etc. • Academic Advising Information – Placement results, prerequisites, scheduling, program plan/evaluation, balancing college and other responsibilities, etc.

12. Welcome to Midlands Technical College As a new student at Midlands Technical college, you are now part of a college community dedicated to your success. Being new can mean being unfamiliar with your surroundings. The college offers an abundance of services and programs designed to support you in achieving both your Academic and Career goals. This pre-advisement module will show you how to connect to these resources and people quickly. I wish you the best as you start your college career at MTC. - Dr. Marshall (Sonny) White, Jr. - President MTC Pre-Advisement ModuleA project of The New Student Experience*(read more) Addressing Goal 1: Student Engagement

13. P.A.M. required to participate…at

14. 2009 – 2011: Challenges & Solutions

15. P.A.M. 2.0 – Intermediate Model

16. Intermediate Model Evolution: 2010 - 2013

17. Intermediate Model 2009 - 2013

18. 2011 – 2013: More Challenges & More Solutions

19. 2013-2014 Orientation & Advisement Model Retooling All New Students – All majors

20. Retooling and Upgrading • Students aware of Learning Management System prior to academic term • Address log-in awareness prior to classes • Part of student expectations about technology literacy • Administered within the college

21. NSO 5 Years Later: towards the future • Upon Admission for Fall 2014, students sent communication(s): • “Complete Pre-Advisement Module” with link to sign-up for NSO • Goal: Connection and engagement, upon Admission • Part 1 Completion leads to Orientation, session options • Orientation – • On-campus: Focus on engaging activities and advisement • General welcome session: Essential information, overview of advising and registration process with college representatives present • Concurrent break-out sessions: • Guests: more information (financial aid Q&A, time-management, setting priorities, how guests can become coaches) • Students: Academic advising and time management, setting priorities

22. Goal 1 Outcomes: P.A.M.& Orientation • P.A.M.: increase participation at New Student Orientation • 363 … > 2,000+ • Partnerships – A.A., S.D.S. • New Student Orientation aligned more with Academic Advising process • Buy-in from students and guests (coaches) • Transformation from (just) Advising to New Student Orientation with Informed Advisement • On-campus – addressing concerns of all stakeholders via concurrent sessions

23. P.A.M. updated…

25. Data – fall 2013 • 2,185 students completed • Nearly 86% persisted spring 2014 (on-campus participants)

26. Collaboration across the College: Moving from Goal 1 to Implementing Goals 2 and 3 • Re-visioning NSO increased college-wide collaborations • Addressing QEP Goals 2 and 3: More college-wide collaboration • Goal 3: Learning communities – faculty & staff – to prepare for teaching new students • Goal 2: Self-contained classroom learning communities

27. Moving toward Goal 2: Classroom learning communities (CLCs) that foster student success. • Modeling and reinforcing academic success skills in CLCs in entry level courses. • Four CLC competencies intentionally addressed: • Connecting students with college resources • Developing information and technology literacy • Making learning visible (metacognition) • Developing classroom skills and behaviors

28. Goal 3Structuring FLCs to Implement Effective CLCs Inquiry semester: Exploring, identifying, and developing ways to integrate course-related student learning outcomes and classroom success competencies. Developing strategies for connecting students with college resources that support course outcomes. Implementation semester: CLCs Sharing results with college community

29. Focus on Goals 2 and 3 • Faculty awareness and appreciation of the whole student • Librarians • Academic resources (especially IT) • Tutorial Services (Academic Success Center) • Student Development Services • Begin with entry-level courses for new students • Cycle 1: ENG 100, MAT 100, RDG 100 • Cycle 2: ENG 101, MAT 101, AHS 102 • Cycle 3: MAT 102, SBS, HUM, some CPT • Cycle 4: MAT 110, more CPT, SBS, and HUMS

30. Student Impact: Some Basic Numbers • 8-9 Faculty LC participants each cycle • Goal of each cycle: 25 CLC sections in targeted courses each fall • Goal: 400-500 students each fall • Additive effect after Cycle 1: • CLCs in Cycle 1 courses (ENG 100, MAT 100, and RDG 100) continue when CLC 2 courses in AHS 102, ENG 101, and MAT 101 added, etc. • Results for each Fall semesters: • Fall 2010 – 27 CLC 1 sections • Fall 2011 – 21 CLC 2 sections (42 in total) • Fall 2012 – 28 CLC 3 sections (58 in total) • Fall 2013 – 21 CLC 4 sections (80 in total)

31. Student Success: Some Basic Numbers • More A, B, and C grades than D and F (W, WF) grades (trend going up for students in CLCs) • SP 2010: 82% > 80%, FA 2010: 88% > 82%, SP 2011: 84% > 82%, … • More students retained over the next two semesters SP 2010: FA 10 50% > 47%; SP 11 45% > 40% FA 2010: SP 11 74% > 70%; FA 11 48% > 44% SP 2011: FA 11 47% = 47%; SP 12 46% > 44%

32. Emphasizing Active Learning Skills Active practice and reinforcement of skills Showing how skills and content translate into “value” Helping students accept transformation and change Active and effective use of course materials “Translation” activities to demonstrate learning (reflection and assessment of learning process) Asking and answering the hard questions: When do you know that you know something? How can we help our students realize this?

33. Lessons Learned from the FLCs Developing Self-Aware & Self-Reliant Learners Build awareness of shared responsibilities using the syllabus and related materials Develop course activities and assignments as faculty-student contract Review course materials, effective use of them Key words: Transparency and Involvement Weeks 1 & 2:Build awareness of membership in a community of learners, with shared responsibility for accomplishing course goals

34. Developing Self-Aware & Self-Reliant Learners Throughout the Semester: Reinforce intentional connections to college resources Make learning visible Make processes explicit, breaking down assignments Assess strategies for approaching assignments Make clear outcomes of actions Create awareness of role and responsibility for learning Create assessment and self-assessment opportunities Provide feedback early, within the first two weeks Promote self-assessment early and at mid-term Provide students with tools and rubrics for self-evaluation

35. QEP Development Activities (Some Examples) Past summer workshops: “Reading and Writing across the Curriculum: Designing Transparent Assignments and Assessments” “The First Two Weeks – Engaging Students and Building Community” “Using Technology to Connect with Students” MTC Assessment Institute (developing learning communities, soft skills) Discipline specific meetings (engaging students with technology) National Learning Communities Conference (embedding success skills, self-contained CLCs, LCs for faculty development) Summer 2014 Workshops: Metacognition and Integrated Learning

36. Challenges to Extending the Learning Community Approach All the challenges we faced when designing the QEP Curriculum and course redesigns need new LCs to identify how to reconnect with the CLC competencies Heavy teaching load limits interactions with students Increase in non-instructional faculty responsibilities Infrastructure and logistic developments Developing better courses with clearer understanding of our students = Time and Focus Continuing the LC approach: A new opportunity each fallto participate in an FLC

37. The New Student Experience Summary: • Self-Study: Data-Driven Discovery & Design Process • Identify Realistic Goals • Develop Pragmatic Strategies • Implementation: Pilot, test, refine and revise (and repeat process again!) • New student orientation and advisement • College-wide engagement: Communication tools, self-management tools, success skill support • Classroom-supported academic success competency goals • Faculty and staff preparation • Identify Lessons Learned and Best Practices • Develop Sustainability and Institutionalization Plan

38. Questions? Barbara Church Orientation Coordinator, churchb@midlandstech.edu Nina Staggers Associate Director, Advisement and Orientation Services, staggersn@midlandstech.edu Robert Stuessy Director, Advisement and Orientation Services, stuessyr@midlandstech.edu Jan Jake English Department Faculty & QEP Director, jakej@midlandstech.edu Thank you!