I have learned several ways to help retain students and better ways to assist students.
The importance of monitoring student expectations and satisfaction. Emphassis on all student services necessary as ameasure of these two key elements.
Stident Rentention is everybody's business on campus.
The systems set up to identify 'at risk student', bored student versus the over-achiever is composed of the attention that is given to Attrition and an intention goal when grasping for students not to leave the educatonal institution.
I have learned that retention has different definitions for different parts of the school and what makes it important for financial aid, or teachers, etc.
All the staff and instructors play a role in retention
A lot of the elements from this retention module are situations and observations I have made over many years of working with college students. No surprises but I truly appreciated the well thought out and well written introduction to these concepts.
I learned that retention is a campus-wide effort. And while students sign up to be successful, that may not always be the case. It is important to create an individualized experience for each student in order to build rapport, so they are comfortable discussing issues while they are manageable.
The importance of regular progress tracking and student communication to identify issues early.
I think that the information that I have learned will help me look at our retention statistics and surveys critically think about what changes to implement.
I learned that retention is a complex issue for a campus and requires consistency from every department in how students reflect their experience with an institution. I learned that gimmicks and activities don't matter if students do not truly feel that we are here to help and support them.
Retention is everyones responsibility and we must take into account the student needs overall. We must be accessible to students and create systems and resources that help students navigagte their college experience from admission to graduation.
I've found adult learners want to know "why" they are taking my class. The class is called College and Career Readiness, so quite a few students start with a negative opinion of the course. The majority end up appreciating the class, so I have to figure out other ways to describe the course and why it's important.
If the student does not feel they are capable of passing, a suggestion from the instructor would be to drop the course and pick it back up next term Keeping students informed of their grades and meeting each student right where they are helps in retaining the students and helps you continue to be engaged with the students. It is significant to know the needs of your students so you can help them be successful in their academic career and prepare them for success.
Retention is everyone's responsibility. We all need to come together to help ensure students feel supported all the way to graduation
Retention is everyone's responsibility. Attrition can be curtailed with analysis and discussion with the student body.
I like the definition of retention as, "the by-product of doing the right things the right way, of having the right people in the right place at the right time." This really sums up the idea that it is a group effort as opposed to being the responsibility of a single department.
I have learned that retention is truly a campus effort, sometimes it can feel like it's your own department since you may be working with the students closely but everyone plays a part in students wanting to stay in school and feeling like it's a place they will get the most out of.
Everyone at the school from the receptionist to the admissions to the instructors and even the janitorial staff has a role in helping maintain student retention. I have been in many work situations where folks indicate that "is not their job," but retention is everyone's job. As a student services representative, it is disconcerting when we lose students based on the fact that they felt they were not listened to and that their concerns were not addressed. It seems that communication breaks down and questions are not asked to find out what the issue is as to why students are not succeeding. Case in point, a student reached out saying that they could not get into their student portal and when the IT kept addressing the issue via email, the student was not able to get what they needed. The case of the matter is that the student did not mean portal, but meant LMS. Once the phone call was made, the issue was resolved and the student was able to get what they needed. But it took several attempts on the part of numerous people to see what she actually needed. Unfortunately by this time the student was already behind and ready to quit. Better training is in place to avoid these issues, but it boils down to communicating directly with the student and asking questions.
Retention:
Every organization tries to keep their students, so faculty, staff etc. have to look very carefully how to deal with the problems of their students when the occur. Many things can happen, illness, family issues, falling back in homework, missing classes. The organization and the Teachers have to find a solution to solve these problems. Some can’t be fixed. Working together with the students, to figure out a way to keep them in school is important.
We as teachers need to teach the skills what are required to make them successful to pass the classes. In order to do so we can’t be harsh nor mean, we have to create a good class environment and a good teaching strategy. Good communication with our students is a must when the problems occur.
I learned that retention is not something that is something easily solved. it takes a proactive stance in order to prevent those students that can be saved from dropping while also recognizing their are those you cant.
