Ami Gates

Identify 3 specific steps you will take within the next 30 days to improve retention at your institution. Step 1: Contact each learner in one’s classroom in at least three different ways each week. This might include an email, an Announcement, and a response to a discussion posting. Other options include assignment feedback or emailing an Adviser if a student has stopped participating and responding. The key here is to either know that all students are participating, or to alert the student’s Adviser that the student may need special attention. Step 2: At the start of each term, send out… >>>

Academic Erosion (AE) and Academic Stagnation (AS) Instructors can offer significant assistance to help students to avoid AE and AS. When I look back at my PhD program, I can remember moments of struggle, of frustration, of stagnation, and of apathy and erosion. Achieving and adhering to a long-term academic program, completing each progress, adapting to new requirements, avoiding GAS, and maintaining confidence and determination can prove to be one of the largest struggles a person might face. Yet, students face these struggles every day. They wonder, “am I doing the right thing?”, “am I not spending enough time with… >>>

General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) So often, we find that low retention and GAS can coincide, and can create strain. The first step is to recognize that GAS can occur at any time and to any learner. While we cannot always stop GAS, we can certainly offer methods to lessen its affects both on the learner and on others. It must be realized that GAS can not only affect a single learner, but can create a cascading effect that can result in lower spirits. For example, many courses contain teams or groups. If even one learner in a group is suffering… >>>

A Commitment to the Students Academic Institutions generally offer wonderful resources and services for students. These include Student Services Offices, Student Learning Labs, Student centers, Student Teams and Clubs, Student Outreach groups, Student Financial Aid programs, Student tutoring, and more. Most Academic Institutions spend a considerable amount of resources on creating a student-centered learning environment with mutual respect, flexibility, clarity, special programs, and a multitude of majors and learning options. Similarly, students often have the choice to attend school traditional, online, or a combination of both – depending on the program. Many schools offer short term lengths and accelerated programs.… >>>

What does your institution do to assure that student expectations are being met and that they are satisfied? First, it is important to define student expectations. In most cases, students have realistic, important, and progressive expectations. They expect clarity, communication, honesty, integrity, flexibility, and availability. As such, many Academic Institutions take special care to talk to each student personally and help them enter the program. Next, most Academic Institutions offer or require a student orientation; an area in which a student can learn about the platform, the expectations, the requirements, the navigation, etc. Students are general told that they can… >>>

Teaching to Motivate Motivation is a group effort. Motivation can be offered and encouraged, but motivation also must come from within. For a student to truly own their goals, education, accomplishments and success, they must share and participate in the motivation process. So, let us consider the instructor half of the motivation circle. An instructor has the opportunity to show learners how useful, interesting, applicable, and exciting their subject is. For example, I teach math and statistics. These are not commonly “loved” subjects. However, I love them both! I read math, statistics, and physics for fun each day to improve… >>>

Refocus: Sometimes we need to restart Teaching is a wonderful, rewarding, exciting, challenging, and energizing profession. Teachers have the unique privilege to share learning, engender confidence, and promote creativity and success. As such, teachers are always “on”. Teachers are energized, excited, motivating, encouraging, empathetic, present, and available 24/7. However, teachers are also people, and people with the type of expectations placed on teachers, must recharge, re-energize, restart, refocus. No matter how dedicated a teacher might be, a day might come when that teacher feels frustrated, defeated, or even worse, apathetic. However, it is important to realize that these feeling are… >>>

Understanding Retention What is retention with respect to education? The concept of retention is to retain or keep the learner both in class and in the Academic Institution. In the past 20 years of teaching, I must first observe that retaining a student within a given class at all costs can both compromise the integrity of the institution as well as the success of the learner. In some cases, it is best for the learner to wait until a following semester to complete a course. Class retention is some cases can actually result in an institutional loss of the learner.… >>>

Instruction is the act of bringing information into a realm that can be absorbed and understood by others. This process is invasive, active, and cooperative. A teacher cannot force a student to learn, but a teacher can certainly offer an environment in which learning is available, interesting, and obtainable. Knowing and understanding your learners will help with the preparation of an instructional and learning environment. For example, when I had the privilege of teaching a group of students who each already had a Master’s Degrees in Math Education, I tailored by classroom setting to the assumed average knowledge level of… >>>