Implementation

Inescapable student engagement, I would say we’ve learned that optional doesn’t typically work with students. So those things that we think are really key like a program orientation or in some cases meeting with an advisor, we will put stops on their ability to register for a future class, or we will, you know, in some way the faculty member and the advisor will be engaged in saying, “You need to show up with these folks.” In a few cases we actually schedule folks for supplemental instruction. It’s interesting, if it shows up on their schedule, even if they don’t have to go they are more likely to go. We’ve also had our faculty begin to more and more get out of their offices and be in the commons and be around the college, and so when they see one of their students, you know, they can get, they can stop them in the hall or the students can stop them.

We’ve created a lot of what we call people pockets around the college. So there are places that students like to sit. They like to just, you know, study or be with other peers, and that has kept them on the campus. Before that, you know, students would come and they’d go, they’d leave and so that limited their engagement. So we’ve tried to make it so that, you know, we see the students as students see us, and we make that kind of communication. You know, in the end you can’t force the student to do something other than, you know, and we try not to be punitive, but the worst, I suppose the most stringent thing we can do is deny them the ability to register for their next class. And we have done that with some students who are running GPAs less than 2, “Hey, before you can register for your next set of classes you need to come in and talk to us, so we can talk through some of the issues.” But we try to make it such a good pleasant experience that a student would always want to come see us.

Inescapable student engagement to me means that the student has a sense of belonging, wants to be a part, and is participating. And we do a lot of survey data to find out their comfort level, and CCCSE is one of the organizations that we study — the results of our CCSSE student engagement results to find out where are our students, and it’s very interesting. We also do FSSE [CCFSSE], which is the faculty engagement survey so we can do a gap analysis to find out — the students are telling us this about their level of engagement. The faculty’s perception of the students’ engagement level is this, and it is very telling, the disconnect. So when we get those results, when we complete the CCSSE survey, our director of planning and assessment will do the analysis to present to the faculty, to present to all of the administrators, to present to all of the advisors. What is this data telling us about our students? And it’s been very interesting and helping our people know what are the students, where are they in terms of engagement, and what are the key factors that help students to feel more engaged and more apt to feel a sense of belonging. So we continue to educate our employees about the whole area of student engagement. It’s major.

The reason why approaching pathways with this sense of inescapable student engagement is important is because we know students learn best when they are engaged. It’s true for everybody. And so it’s got to be more than just clicking through PowerPoints in a lecture-oriented lecture hall. It has to be a way for faculty to really think about meeting students where they are, thinking of ways of using instruction that engages all the different learning styles that are out there, and making sure that again by meeting students where they are, they are engaged throughout the whole pathway experience from class to class to class, it’s seamless. And I think our faculty work really hard and do just a tremendous job thinking about student engagement, how it goes hand in hand with student success.

In order to pass Seminar, we were required to meet with our navigators three times. And like we actually had to have them sign a paper stating that we met with them. We had to have them fill out our classes for the next semester, and they had to sign it stating that we were with them. We actually met with them. We actually have everything set. It’s our success thing. We actually had to make sure we had everything set before we could even pass Seminar. They would not pass us unless we had everything signed.