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At the end of every term the students are asked to complete a survey. And quarterly they are asked to complete a student satisfaction survey.
we hold weekly orientation classes for all incoming students that help them prepare
At enrollment the student provide an essay which should provide information about the students expectations of the program they are enrolled - What they want and why they chose our institution. This is to be reviewed by admissions to confirm that the student does not have unrealistic expectations. The student is oriented by our student services team at which time the students expectations are discussed again. At the end of each module are students are surveyed for course content, student services interaction, instructor performance satisfaction. These surveys are reviewed by administration and education.
We have two surveys each term. The first survey generates feedback about the facilities and equipment available to the students. The second survey is a chance for the students to grade and comment on each of their instructors.
We provide ongoing training to faculty and staff that cover topics dealing with student success and advising. Student are assigned adviors/student success coordinators who communicate with the student throught thier time here. This communication can be done on a daily/weekly/monthly basis depending on the need of the student. This allows the student to create an ongoing relationship with thier advisor and a person to "go to" if they have questions about topics relations to school, work, and home life. We also make resources available to the student, which may include tutoring, career serivices, financial serivces, couseling on or off campus. At the end of each term, students take surveys and critiques so that thier voice can be heard. Once the results are in, the surveys are read and suggestions from the students are implemented in the favor of the student. Is there anyone who has a similar process, like my institution or can someone suggest other ways that I can meet the needs of students at my institution?
Interesting, Susan. How does that work? Who is "they"?
There seems to be a lot of emphasis on student expectations, Jan. Have you found that they usually have realistic expectations? Do you revisit them at any other points throughout the program to see have they've changed?
That seems like a surveying, William. Do the students take the process seriously? Has the institution gotten actionable information from this process?
You have described a very thoughtful and thorough process, Karitsa. Of course, the proof is in the results. Are you pleased with your student success rates and utilization of the services that you provide? Do you track effectiveness?
Because we have improved the services we provide we have seen an increase in retention. Our problem area is students who attend in their first sememster. These students are more prone to dropping out so we have monitored that over the last few years and have seen a increase in retention. We plan to look at other areas where students may loose focus dring thier program and figure out wasy to increase retention. We track effectiveness through the use of what we call retention software.
Karitsa, is there any particular service that was most effective in improving retention? It's good to hear that you are tracking performance so closely.
Yes, we have a few support services that we offer students. One in particular allows students to better communicate with faculty and staff; and for staff to better communicate with students. It also allow us to track students at risk students to increase early intervention.
We take special care training recruiting staff and on advertisement material to make sure students get the right information about our institution. It all starts before student even begins to take classes.
Surveys are done after each module is completed to evaluate the course material, instructor's knowledge of the material, delivery methods used, and several other parameters.
Prof. Kroh,
That is an excellent question, I have found that most expectations are realistic when they are verbalized. And we haven't revisited what the students expectations are throughout their program to determine if they have changed.
We have students complete a survey following each module and use this to gauge many things but not their expectations. By not knowing if they change how do we know we are still meeting that expectation?
Jan
We query potential students during their initial contact with our Admissions Department to better understand what they expect from their experience with us. After enrollment, to ensure that their expectations are met during their tenure we encourage open communication between students and representatives of Admissions, Student Services, Instructors, Program Directors, Academic Dean, Financial Aid, or other department heads as may be required. All students are surveyed at the conclusion of each mod and their responses are reviewed and action taken where warranted.
Every term we have an Instructor In-Service to discuss how each administrator, instructor, existing students etc. play a major role in accepting new students and assuring they will fully participate upon graduation. Each instructor is asked to make personal calls to those students are who are absent as this shows the school cares when we do not see their important faces during class time. We hold simulations that places the staff in situations they may face to overcome any challenges or obstacles of students who may drop prematurely. And we also use attendance points as part of the overall grade and we track attendance electronically to make sure our numbers are accurate for reporting purposes and for areas of improvement regarding retention.
There is course evaluation that the students can fill out near the end of each term for each course taken. I believe there is a separate one for the overall of the school.
The college I work at they give out surveys when graduating. Also end of 10 week sessions they get feed back from students on how they feel they are getting there education and how the instructors are doing with teaching styles.
