being up to date with the industry, along with good training aids.
Well...
One thing that we've done is to create a Retention Sub-Committee, and I am its chair-person. I feel priveledged to serve in this role, and I take it very seriously.
Those who serve on the committee represent different areas of our college, such as Admissions, Trades and Administration. However, the one thing that we share in common, is a genuine regard for our students and a desire to help them to succeed.
We tackle many difficult students concerns, such as inappropriate faculty and staff behavior, which alienates our students, facility comforts...everything from vending machines to benches in break areas, extra curricular activities, and more.
I am also the faculty advisor to our student government, and among other things, I help them to monitor the suggestion box, and to provide solutions and responses to student concerns.
I feel that we take a very proactive approach to retention; however, I am always disheartened when we lose any student, even when it is beyond our control.
Heart, caring, apathy, engagement, challenges, recognition... and creating an environment and culture that students are excited to be a part of... that is always the goal, albeit that sometimes we may falter.
self evaulations,by making sure all the objectives are being met on the syllabus.
We go over thier expectations in orientation...then review them periodically to be sure they are getting what they need and want out of the course.
I call day 1 of being absent and try to establish the problem and a sensible solution. We have several on campus resources & lists for referring them for help.
Our institution assures students expectations are met in several ways. First, in keeping with accreditation standards, they measure student satisfaction through multiple surveys performed quarterly and annually. They also have an open door policy, where students have access to instructors, program directors, and administrators who will listen to their concerns. Instructors are also encouraged to measure student expectations at multiple points throughout the quarter.
In my own class, I have students brainstorm short lists of their expectations for both the course and me, as the instructor. We put together a list of expectations as a class, and I explain how I intend to meet their expectations. This is also when I express my expectations for them. After the first day, I have them evaluate me at the midterm and again at the end of the quarter using surveys. However, I think the most effective tool I use is the daily log I exchange with each student at the end of each class. In the log, the student is asked to explain something they learned in class that day and also to raise any concerns or express what they need to know more about. I read them after each class and provide feedback. I think students bring up issues in the log that they would not feel comfortable expressing otherwise.
The institution has spent a large amount of time and focused on informing instructors of resources and support employees to direct students to when issues arise. They diligently check attendance sheets daily and follow-up when a student is absent without contact with the instructor.
I am new to my institution. There is a lot of "doing" there, i.e. meetings with students, raffles, surveys, and writing commitment statements.
I gathered from the reading that it is easy to get so focused on the doing that we miss being fully present when working with students or co-workers. We are so focused on accomplishing some task that someone who is above our pay grade wants us to do.
In the day of accelerated learning schedules, instant messages, and constant access to family and the world(thanks to cellphones), there are plenty of things to keep us busy. However, retention is about building relationships. It does not happen overnight.
One of the posts mentioned first day intros as insight into the lives of the student that may indicate problems in the future. I never looked at it that way before. I guess I also assumed that since the admissions dept works with students on planning for daycare issues that the plans were sound. So if they did mention something about daycare problems, I figured they had a plan and were putting it into play. I did not take their casual comment as a request for help. There is more psychology in this than meets the eye.
We work closely with each student in and out of classroom. We recognize issues early because of interaction with students and getting to know them at various levels. Faculty, Program Chairs, Director of Education, Student Services etc are all involved with each student.
Student surveys of both academic professionals and student support staff are taken at the end of every quarter. As a faculty member I am particularly intersted in the feedback regarding teaching style, ease of comprehension and implied usefulness to their career. Further at the beginning of each new class I outline my expectations for each student and ask them to tell me theirs.
Student surveys of both academic professionals and student support staff are taken at the end of every quarter. As a faculty member I am particularly intersted in the feedback regarding teaching style, ease of comprehension and implied usefulness to their career. Further at the beginning of each new class I outline my expectations for each student and ask them to tell me theirs.
Staying abreast of ever changing technologies in our field.
Quarterly we have instructor evaluations. These evaluations are the reviewed with your Department Chair to find areas in need of improvement.
Provide feed back on how they are doing. Treat every student fairly. Let them know that their needs and satifaction is our goal and theirs.
I believe our school matches student expectations by clearly communicating with the students. This plus frequent interactions through career development seminars, financial aid updates, program updates, etc give the students a feeling there is excitement and energy at the school.
At the institution that I work for, we do quite a fews things to ensure that the student's expectations. First thing we do is to meet with the students at least once a quarter and ask them how things are going and if they have problems. Also we have an open door policy that students are able to come in and talk to us anytime about anything that there is a problem.
We have several practices that are interrelated to the approach that we take to demonstrate, and celebrate success, and our commitment to them.
1. We celebrate a student of the month every month in our newsletter; that student is nominated by other students and is recognized for their achievements.
2. We have a " Success Board " in each of our campuses; we post a picture of all of the students that have taken and passed any exam associated with their training, as well as putting up the student of the month's picture.
3. We have monthly feedback sessions with our students to discuss any issues or concerns that they feel we need to be aware of. We then summarize the notes of those sessions and publish them in our newsletter with a committed plan of action to address the items taht we have agreed to focus on.
We have the students fill out an evaluatiom form once a quarter, so we recieve input on the instructors, faculty and the school as a whole.
touching base with their efforts and how we can improve for them.
We do several things in order to assure we are meeting student expectations. We are an accelerated school where some of our courses are only four (4) weeks long where as others are 10 weeks long. At the end of every course, we present the students with Classroom surveys, Instructor surveys as well as clinical surveys to capture there concerns as well as their accolades. We also conduct quarter surveys with very different questions. This survey measures ALL campus departments and facilities
Students surveys are done one each instructor at the end of the class, and quarterly for the entire institution.
Additionally, I make my contact information through email, phone, social media, and in person available to all students both at orientation and throughout the program for any problems that students are having.
I stress in my portion of the orientation program the importance of being proactive and letting me know any issues they may need assistance with as early as possible, but I know that frequently these students still do not notify anyone until there is an issue. While I track attendance for students daily, and have a system in place to monitor students academically, so that they can be referred to me with any problems, often times they are gone by the time I even get notification.
I am curious how to pick students out that may be considering leaving sooner. I often have a student who I am notified of their second consecutive absence, and already I am unable to reach them. These students may have already, in such a short time, made this decision, without anything of note having gone on in the classroom to point them out as at-risk. Many times these students have a phone shut off or changed number at this point, or just will not return calls. Short of pulling each student out of class individually and making sure they are happy, how might I be able to identify them before they are out the door?
I try to peak into classrooms on occasion to remind students of my availability, and just to be an active presence, and this does help sometimes. But I cannot volunteer in each class each day for each student! I also think it is important for the students to see me coming into classrooms not just to feel out if they are going to leave, but to genuinely make myself available to them. How can this be done without appearing self-serving, and as a premeditated attempt to keep the numbers where we want them?
