Office of Student Success and Advising
Before the pandemic, advisors were engaged in multiple projects related to enrollment, student progress, and student learning intended to continue to empower students in taking ownership of their academic journey. In mid-March, advisors were informed on a Wednesday that due to the COVID-19 pandemic they would need to start early registration for fall classes the following Monday via a completely remote process, something they had never attempted before.
In response, a core team of experienced advisors sprang into action, assembling a rapid plan for helping the whole team transition as smoothly as possible. They took one day (Thursday) to plan a full-day training for the rest of the advising team under the leadership of the Director, Assistant Director, and AVCAA. That training and a full technology setup for all advisors was completed in an all-day meeting on Friday, and the following Monday the whole team launched into all-remote advising. Daily morning meetings allowed for processes to be redesigned and refined as needed, and by the end of the first fully remote week advisors had seen more student appointments than in a typical early registration week (249 vs. 226 in 2019).
A new form of “drop-in”-like Zoom advising availability called Same-Day Virtual Visits (SDVV) was also implemented in a consistent way for all advising centers, allowing students more convenient and efficient advisor access than in-person, first-come-first-served drop-ins allowed at peak times. Advisors continued to serve students via Zoom advising through the Spring, supported S/P grade requests and petitions for students in the same time window that they also completed graduation certifications, and reviewed hundreds of records for incoming 2020 students to make appropriate course recommendations for each new first-year student. As always, they also served transfer and prospective student needs, and met individually with 90% of newly registered freshmen before the first day of class.
By late Spring, advisors were adept and comfortable enough with their new way of working that they began to return to their previous projects, but often took them further than originally planned due to the needs of students. For example, one group of advisors focused on crafting especially clear communications for students to meet various needs; another worked on an outreach campaign to struggling students and helped the Resource Navigator create a new website of campus and community resources; and a third assisted the AVCAA with developing a new suite of 10 Canvas modules built to help students learn about academic policies and spring registration processes (our new Wayfinding modules).
Several advisors also presented in trainings to other IU campuses on coaching and to NACADA audiences on our advising as coaching initiative. Under extremely trying circumstances, we found that students learned a great deal, but we also saw the needs of students grow vastly. We did our best to support them throughout and found that having a literal window into students’ lives via their webcams often helped advisors and students to develop trusting relationships quickly. We are certain that remote advising will remain an important part of our services from this point forward.
New Student Orientation
Prior to 2020, our NSO process was based on in-person events of 70-80 students each, featuring group advising in a classroom-like setting. With the pandemic hitting us in March 2020 just three weeks prior to our first scheduled event, the Admissions and Advising staff and leadership worked tirelessly on a complete redesign of our communications, records review, and registration process for new students. We trained a team of 6 reassigned staff with no advising or registration experience to serve as our new Cougar Crew to meet with students via Zoom and administer our advisor-designed process.
We created a new pre-registration survey and ALEKS math placement process to provide advisors with all crucial information to make appropriate course recommendations to each student. We built a new Canvas site to orient students to core advising, financial aid, campus resource, and necessary setup steps (such as IU-Notify and obtaining a parking pass); and created new electronic forms to make communications among parties efficient and accurate. It was a monumental achievement that was resoundingly successful – indeed, all of us involved continue to look at this achievement as a major point of pride for 2020. We are continuing many of our new practices into 2021, and we have seen such good results in regard to student confidence with advising technology and other IU tools that we believe we will retain it even after the pandemic ends.
KEY Summer Institute
In 2020, we designed the first on-campus experience for students after the outset of the pandemic, in the form of an abbreviated (8 hour) orientation experience that was modeled after the core curriculum of the KEY Summer Institute. The main goals of this year’s KSI were to help students learn to navigate campus, learn our COVID protocols, become familiar with our main teaching approaches and tools, and develop relationships with our faculty and with one another. We planned for full capacity – that is, for every new freshman student to attend if they chose – and 384 new freshmen (61%) did attend at least one of their assigned days on campus. Students were assigned to groups that corresponded to their first-year seminar, most often taught by their fall instructor.
The program was very well-reviewed, with over 90% of students rating nearly all parts of the program as Good or Excellent, and many commented how much they appreciated the opportunity to have a safe and enjoyable on-campus experience prior to class start. As we are continuing our NSO registration process through summer 2021, we plan to offer similar on-campus visit days in July and August modeled after the 2020 KSI.
KEY Summer Mentors/Faculty Ambassadors
Because NSO was not in-person, the Faculty Ambassador program for 2020 was not needed in its typical form. Therefore, FAs were utilized in two new ways: as mentors for groups of incoming students (the KEY Summer Mentors program) and as contributors to the teaching materials for the KSI. Nine resident faculty conducted outreach and held group mentoring meetings over Zoom with groups of about 3-10 students each. Students who had indicated interest in mentoring on their intake survey were assigned a mentor, and groups met about 4 times from mid-June to the start of classes. Four additional faculty created teaching materials for the KSI instructors to utilize as part of the standard curriculum. We found that the faculty mentors loved their role and found it more rewarding and effective than their previous role at NSO. Therefore, we will be continuing this opportunity for students this summer.
HSS-A101 Student Success Seminar
In Fall 2020, we implemented a completely redesigned first-year seminar for new students that was created to help students build close relationships with one another while supporting the campus wide pandemic protocols for in-person classroom capacity. I worked through summer converting the course to utilize Team-Based Learning, and designed materials to support students attending class every other week with a set learning team of fellow students. In class, students discussed topics relevant to the transition to college with their team, and outside of class they completed online work on discussion boards and Canvas modules.
We also arranged for a wide range of Zoom guest speaker workshops featuring Deans and Chairs of different majors, staff from various offices on campus, and other students which students could select from to learn about the campus. More than 400 of the 629 new students on campus enrolled in a section of this course, our largest enrollment ever. Course evaluations for the class were generally positive, and students especially appreciated the group discussions and opportunities to talk with other students during class. Based on student and instructor feedback, we plan to retain team-based learning work while expanding the social connection aspect of the course into the future.
Freshman Learning Communities
Six Freshman Learning Communities were offered in fall 2020, mainly including Humanities and Social Sciences and Education courses. Each instructor of course adjusted their teaching to respect COVID protocols, but also worked to integrate their courses across disciplines to enhance student learning and connections. We used our typical travel budget to purchase treat bags for students and encourage them to keep their spirits up through the fall semester. At the end of Fall the AVCAA and Director met to review the position of the Directorship considering recent movement towards first-year seminar classes, which has reduced the Director workload. It was agreed that the FLCs can be adequately supported by a faculty member receiving one course release per year rather than two going forward, so that is what will be proposed for the 2021-22 budget.
Strengths-Based Education Faculty Learning Community
The AVCAA for Student Success led a grant-supported faculty learning community focusing on Strengths-Based Education through the 2020 calendar year. Participants from all IU regional campuses joined this effort whose goal was to implement principles from SBE into gateway courses to promote student success. We launched in early March with a kickoff event on IU Kokomo campus, but then saw our work disrupted by the pandemic. We resumed FLC activities over summer, meeting via Zoom with teams of faculty planning to use SBE in their Fall 2020 courses. Twenty-one faculty ended up completing all requirements of the FLC, meaning that our work impacted the learning experience of approximately 700 students across the regional campuses. We are preparing to share our learning with the IU teaching community via build of a Canvas module to be included in the Teaching for Student Success series.
Academic Success Coaching
Academic success coaching continued to fulfill its niche on campus of supporting students with high levels of identified risk at the start of college, and who experience academic obstacles as they progress through college. Our team of 4 part-time coaches (3 who exclusively work as coaches, and 1 who is our ScholarCorps member who coaches 21st Century Scholars in need of ongoing support) reached out via email, phone, and text to students who started Spring 2020 on academic probation, as well as incoming Fall 2020 students who enrolled late in the season or expressed an interest in coaching to their academic advisor.
As always, they also fielded individual referrals from academic advisors who recommended coaching to students. Student response to coaching is most effective when students speak with their advisor about the service prior to outreach, so our current system of focusing on those students is the best use of coach time and has yielded steady caseloads of 8-20 students per coach throughout each semester. As much as we have tried over the last several years to use coaching in a preventative fashion, we just have not seen the yield we would like to with that approach.
Student Engagement Roster
Our campus continues to lead IU in consistent utilization of the SER for student success efforts. Over the spring and summer AVCAA and AVCAA for Student Success became increasingly aware of faculty questions and concerns about the SER, so we held open feedback sessions with faculty targeted at getting the faculty perspective on our approach and how it dovetails with the efforts individual faculty make to provide students guidance in their classes. We discovered that many faculty offer ongoing feedback to their students via Canvas, and that they were unaware of the many ways the campus uses SER to drive action.
Now that IU has rolled out new Progress Report functionality in SER (which allows for select groups of students to be selected, and only their faculty to receive a notification to update the SER on only those students), we have the power to be more targeted and intentional in seeking SER feedback on certain students while lessening the burden on the faculty at large. For example, 21st Century Scholars, student athletes, students on probation, and late-enrolling first-semester freshmen are especially vulnerable groups of students that we could target for a 4-week early report, and their faculty would receive a message asking them to update only on those students if enrolled in their classes. Reporting on all students could then be limited to a first-week attendance report for financial aid purposes, and a 7th week performance report to identify students who need intrusive assistance or to consider withdrawing from classes. We plan to roll out our revised strategy for Fall 2021.
Probation/dismissal
The campus voted not to run probation/dismissal lists for Spring 2020 but did run these lists for Fall 2020. Our numbers and rates of probation and dismissals rose significantly compared to Fall 2020, especially for first-semester students (both new-to-college and transfers). Accordingly, we sent a series of very supportive messages to students via IU and personal email to provide empathy for their challenges and connect for more conversation. We were aware that the Deans were more willing than in a typical semester to consider appeals for Dean’s option reversal of dismissals, and several students requested this option, and it was granted.
We have learned since that a number of these students ended up learning of financial aid challenges post-dismissal that will inform our future practices going forward in relation to Dean’s option; while we recommended in the advising process that students consult with FA as part of their Spring 2021 registration some students did not follow through, and then later were surprised to learn that they (for example) did not have access to aid. The Dean’s option policy has always been applied separate from a student’s FA status and will continue to be, but we have a better understanding now of the high importance of strongly advocating students requesting consideration of an appeal consult with FA before their appeal is considered by the Dean (so they understand the full implications of their situation).
AVCAA for Student Success visits to departments
At the request of the Chancellor, the AVCAA of Student Success attended several department meetings over the Fall 2020 semester to update departments on our larger persistence, retention, and student performance picture for the campus. We sought faculty input on ideas to engage students or support their academic progress. One great idea that came out of these conversations was an opportunity for students to participate in remote book clubs over the winter break period, some led by faculty and others self-led by students. Sixty-one students requested books which were purchased and mailed to them by the campus, and 5 faculty led clubs with students through December and January.