DESCRIPTION
Post-secondary institutions offer expansive student services to assist in retention, graduation, and employment. Offering the full range of services equivalent to those that are offered to the on-ground students should be a goal of any institution offering off-campus degree programs. Computer-based technology available today allows students to be connected to their institutions in ways never before available. As such, an off-campus student's educational experience can be engaging with many non-educational opportunities.
QUALITY INDICATORS
1. The institution offers academic advising for students.
2. The institution has early alert notifications and follow through contact with students.
3. Students have access to success/academic coaching.
4. Students have access to counseling and health services.
5. Students have access to personal development opportunities.
6. Students have access to tutoring services.
7. The institution offers students access to academic proctoring
8. Students have the choice to participate in student/campus organizations.
SUGGESTED PRACTICES
EXAMPLES
Indiana University Southeast: FYRST program was designed to support students in the murky middle, who were not being retained into the second year. Students were often leaving because they could no longer afford to stay due to the loss of crucial financial aid. These students needed guidance in managing their time and money. Incentives were offered to students to make-up course credits over the summer to ensure they were able to keep their financial aid (UB Business, 2016).
University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Academic Probation Recovery Program is designed for students who are on probation. Students are not allowed to register for future classes until they meet plan requirements and talk with academic recovery coaches. The plans are developed with an academic advisor and entered into an advising system. Other tools are used to track the student’s participation in workshops and tutoring sessions. (UB Business, 2016).
Middle Tennessee State University: REBOUND program sends a letter to the students, who have lower than a 2.0 grade point, inviting them to attend a two-day REBOUND event. During the workshops, students learn about financial aid, study skills, time management, tutoring, and personal accountability (UB Business, 2016).
University of Florida and Florida State University: Publish all degree plans in a common format hosted on the registrar’s website. The documents prescribe course progressions which can be used by departments to standardize advising, research opportunities, careers, and other pertinent major information (EAB, 2013).
Saint Leo University: Assigned a full-time, program specific online advisor to serve as the primary institutional point of contact through graduation. The online advisors typically have a master’s-level experience in education or social work allowing them to be coaches if needed. These advisors work evenings and summers to provide support when students are focused on their coursework. The advisers call 30 to 40 students a day. Students receive a welcome call and a check-in call two weeks into the term. They also monitor LMS activity and grades for early alert signs that indicate the need for intervention EAB, 2015a).
SUNY Empire State College: Create a trained, volunteer student monitoring program for students on academic warning. The volunteer mentors called assigned students weekly during the course of the term. Between calls, the mentors also send emails. The mentors addressed financial, personal, and other risk factors during the calls. The mentors connect the student to other resources on the campus (EAB, 2015a).
SUNY Empire State College: Built in tutorial support in the LMS created easy access to student success tools. The faculty member can refer the students to specific tutorials based on assignments, observations, or conversations. The referrals to the tutorials are monitored. If the same tutorial was flagged by multiple instructors for the same student or if an instructor refers a specific student to several tutorials, an advisor contacts the flagged student for further intervention (EAB, 2015c).
Rio Salado College: Identified four, easy to track, highly-predictive variables to flag for instructors’ attention in the LMS. The variables are LMS log-in activity, participation activity, and course load. A score is created based on the variable which is displayed in the LMS. As instructors hoover over the students’ name, the score is displayed. The instructors can decide the best intervention based upon the score and knowledge of the student (EAB, 2015c).
UF Online University of Florida: Provides an online community called UF Plaza through Salesforce. Students enrolled into UF Online automatically become members of the community. The community is password protected for students who may feel uncomfortable in participating in a more open system such as FaceBook. Through the online community the student support staff can communicate with the online students and create online activities for the students to participate in. For example, the students participated in online tailgate party for homecoming. Additional communities were added based upon degree program allowing the student to share common experiences with each other. Future plans include development of geolocation communities so student could meet other UF Online students where they live.
Florida Atlantic University: Appreciative Advising is a six phase model for advising that provides nonlinear scaffolding to intentionally use positive, active, and attentive listening and questioning strategies to promote student success. The approach has been expanded beyond the advisors to include other student services support areas (Bloom, Hutson, & He, 2008).
Proactive Advising: Concepts were first presented by Earl in 1988 as intrusive advising revised into proactive advising. This method is a deliberate, structured student intervention method used at the first indication of academic difficulty. The strategies are designed to motivate students to seek assistance. The technique combines prescriptive advising with developmental advising (Varney, 2012).
Florida Atlantic University: The Center for Learning and Student Success (CLASS) offers extensive tutorial services for both the on-campus and off-campus students. In addition, student supported instruction, peer lead learning groups, were available through interactive video conferencing system into a live session and was also recorded for the off-campus students, who may not able to attend in person. A coordinator works with individual students to provide individualized tutoring and assistance with technical issues. Tutors were also embedded into classes with high DFW rates.