Transcript Slide 1
Student engagement
varies more within than
between institutions.
Supportive Campus Environment:
Seniors at Master's Institutions
Percentile 10
Percentile 50
Percentile 90
100
80
60
40
20
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
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9
Master's Institutions
10
11
12
13
14
Seniors Never Participating
60
50
40
% 30
20
10
0
Preprare
Multiple Drafts
Fac Activities
Out-of-Class
Tutored Others
Service
Learning
Faculty Career
Plans
Fac Ideas Outof-Class
Worth Pondering
How do we reach
our least engaged
students?
What does an educationally
effective university look like?
Some Lessons
from
Project DEEP
Jossey-Bass
2005
DEEP Selection Criteria
Controlling for student and institutional
characteristics (i.e., selectivity, diversity,
institutional type), DEEP schools have:
Higher-than-predicted graduation
rates
Higher-than-predicted NSSE scores
Region, institutional
type, special mission
Project DEEP Schools
Doctoral Extensives
University of Kansas
University of Michigan
Doctoral Intensives
George Mason University
Miami University (Ohio)
University of Texas El Paso
Liberal Arts
California State, Monterey Bay
Macalester College
Sweet Briar College
The Evergreen State College
Sewanee: University of the South
Ursinus College
Wabash College
Wheaton College (MA)
Wofford College
Baccalaureate General
Alverno College
Fayetteville State University
University of Maine at Farmington
Gonzaga University
Winston-Salem State University
Longwood University
Master’s Granting
DEEP Guiding Questions
What do strong-performing
institutions do to promote
student success?
What campus features -- policies,
programs, and practices – are
related to higher-than-predicted
graduation rates and student
engagement?
Research Approach
Case study method
Team of 24 researchers review
institutional documents and conduct
multiple-day site visits
Observe individuals, classes, group
meetings, activities, events
2,700+ people, 60 classes, 30 events
Discover and describe effective
practices and programs, campus
culture
Worth Noting
Many roads to an engaging
institution
No one best model
Different combinations of
complementary, interactive,
synergistic conditions
Anything worth doing is
worth doing well at scale
Six Shared Conditions
“Living” Mission and “Lived”
Educational Philosophy
Unshakeable Focus on Student
Learning
Environments Adapted for
Educational Enrichment
Clearly Marked Pathways to
Student Success
Improvement-Oriented Ethos
Shared Responsibility for
Educational Quality
Using Data to Create Conditions
That Matter to Student Success
We can’t leave
serendipity to chance
1. Get the ideas right
Connect student health to other
key issues
Persistence
Fragmented gen ed program
Tired pedagogical practices
Poor first-year experience
Low academic challenge
Connections to real world
Capstone experiences
Under-engaged students
2. Lay out the path to student success
a. Draw a map for student success
b. Front load resources to smooth
the transition, increase coherence
c. Teach newcomers about the
campus culture
d. If something works, maybe require
it?
What to Do?!?
Student success requires that
professors explain more things
to today’s students that we once
took for granted –
“You must buy the book, you
must read it and come to class,
you must observe deadlines or
make special arrangements
when you miss one”
Prof. Richard Turner (1998, p.4)
Lessons from National Center for
Academic Transformation
If doing something is important,
require it (first-year students
don’t do ‘optional’)
Assign course points to the
activity
Monitor and intervene when
necessary
http://www.thencat.org/Newsletters/Apr06.htm#1
Potential “High Impact” Activities
First-year seminars and
experiences
Common intellectual experiences
Learning communities
Effects of Learning Communities on Engagement
First-year
Senior
Standardized
YRegression
Standardized
Coefficient Sig. Effect size
Standardized
YRegression
Standardized
Coefficient Sig. Effect size
Engagement Activities
Academic Efforts
Higher Order Thinking
Academic Integration
Active and Collaborative Learning
Interactions with Faculty
Diversity Experiences
.16
.20
.19
.26
.30
.21
***
.12
.19
.13
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.24
.22
.18
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.32
.40
.39
.53
.60
.41
.12
.15
.16
.24
.22
.16
***
.23
.37
.25
.08
.14
.10
***
.48
.45
.36
.18
.16
.11
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.28
.35
.38
.54
.51
.36
Perception of Campus Environment
Quality of Academic Advising
Supportive Campus Environment
Satisfaction
***
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.17
.32
.23
Learning Outcomes
Gains in Personal and Social
Gains in Practical Competence
General Education Gains
***
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***
.40
.36
.24
Potential “High Impact” Activities
First-year seminars and
experiences
Common intellectual experiences
Learning communities
Writing-intensive courses
Collaborative assignments
“Science as science is done”
Diversity/global learning
Who Is Most Likely to
Experience Diversity?
More
Students of color
Less
White students
Traditional-age
students
Older students
Women
Men
First-year students
Upper-division
students
Dependent variable
First-year students
Seniors
Diversity
Diversity
Diversity
Diversity
Density Climate In Course- Diversity Density Climate In Course- Diversity
Index Diversity Work
Press
Index Diversity Work
Press
Student Engagement
Academic challenge
Higher order thinking
Active and Collaborative
Diversity-related activities
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Supportive Campus Env.
Supportive Campus Env.
Interpersonal
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Support for learning
Satisfaction
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Gains-Interpers. Dev.
Gains - Personal/social
Gains-Social Awareness
Gains-Understanding div.
Gains -Cont. to community
Gains-Understand self
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Potential “High Impact” Activities
First-year seminars and experiences
Common intellectual experiences
Learning communities
Writing-intensive courses
Collaborative assignments
“Science as science is done”
Diversity/global learning
Service learning/community service
Internships
Capstone experiences/projects
3. Align initiatives:
a.
b.
Student preparation, ability, interests
Existing complementary efforts
AAC&U: “Greater Expectations”
“Inclusive Excellence”
Gen ed reform
Carnegie SOTL/CASTL
Service learning/Campus
Compact
Internationalization and diversity
It Takes a Whole Campus
to Educate a Student
4. Promote and reward collaboration
a. Tighten the philosophical and
operational linkages between
academic and student affairs
– Peer tutoring and mentoring
– First year seminars
– Learning communities
b. Harness available expertise
c. Reward and support competent
staff to insure high quality
student support services
Organized learning support
POSSE (Pathways to Student
Success and Excellence) students
at U of Michigan are assigned to a
counselor and learn the
importance of faculty office hours,
study tips and how to connect to
tutoring services.
“POSSE taught me how to survive the
University of Michigan.”
Difference Makers
Staff members
Student success is the product of
thousands of small gestures
extended on a daily basis by
caring, supportive educators
sprinkled throughout the
institution who enact a talent
development philosophy.
Ms. Rita
5. Put money where it will make a
difference in student engagement
“…in professional
baseball it still
matters less how
much you have
than how well you
spend it”
5. Put money where it will make a
difference to student success
a. Align reward system with
institutional mission, values,
and priorities
b. Sunset redundant and
ineffective programs
c. Invest in activities that foster
student engagement and
responsible behavior –
assessment!
Using Student Experience Data:
Lessons Learned
Make sure faculty and staff
understand what is being
measured and why
Explain what the data do and
do not represent
Collect enough data to
disaggregate at meaningful
levels
Benchmarking Approaches
Normative - compares your students
to students at other colleges and
universities.
Criterion - compares your school’s
performance against a predetermined
value or level appropriate for your
students, institutional mission, size,
curricular offerings, funding, etc.
Using Student Experience Data:
Lessons Learned
Link ACHA-NCHA results to
other information about the
student experience and
complementary initiatives
Triangulate multiple data sources
ACT/SAT score reports
BCSSE
NSSE
FSSE
CIRP/CSS
Noel Levitz
CLA
ACT CAAP
Using Student Experience Data:
Lessons Learned
Link ACHA-NCHA results to
other information about the
student experience and
complementary initiatives
Examine the results from
multiple perspectives
Don’t Forget Students!
Illinois State University – focus
groups with students to get
reactions and alternative
interpretations
Oregon State University
Using Student Experience Data:
Lessons Learned
Use and report results wisely
Manage the “politics of denial”
Leave no number unexplained
6. Focus on culture sooner than later
Ultimately, it’s all
about the culture…
a. Practice “positive restlessness”
Positive restlessness
“We know who we are and what
we aspire to.”
Confident, responsive, but
never quite satisfied…
Self-correcting orientation
Continually question, “are we
performing as well as we can?”
6. Focus on culture sooner than later
Ultimately, it’s all about the culture…
a. Practice “positive restlessness”
b. Expand the number of cultural
practitioners on campus
c. Identify cultural properties that
impede success and obviate
personal responsibility
Assessing
Conditions
for Student
Success:
An Inventory to
Enhance Educational
Effectiveness
Kuh, Kinzie, Schuh, &
Whitt, 2005
Jossey-Bass
“Checking the Truth”
Institutional Cultures
What is distinctive about your
institution: To students? To staff?
How do these distinctive aspects
affect the campus climate? Student
performance? Healthy lifestyles?
In what ways do the institutional
culture and dominant subcultures
promote, or inhibit, student learning
and personal responsibility?
“Checking the Truth”
Student Cultures
How do students describe what, how
and from whom they learn? In what
ways are their experiences consistent
or not with what the institution desires?
How do the student culture and/or
dominant student subcultures promote
or inhibit student learning and personal
responsibility?
What opportunities exist to celebrate
responsible student behavior?
7. Stay the course
The good-to-great-transformations
never happened in one fell swoop.
There was no single defining action,
no grand program, no one killer
innovation, no solitary lucky break,
no miracle moment. Sustainable
transformations follow a predictable
pattern of buildup and
breakthrough…
(Collins, 2001, p. 186)
Last Word
A college or university cannot
change the lineage of its students.
Campus cultures do not change
easily or willingly. But we can do far
more to shape the way students
approach college and what they do
after they arrive.
Do we have the will to more
consistently use promising policies
and practices to increase the odds
that more students “get ready,”
“stay well,” and “get through?”
Questions &
Discussion
DEEP Practice
Briefs
Available:
www.nsse.iub.edu