“Easy As A-B-C” TECHNOLOGY AND RETENTION

1. “Easy As A-B-C” TECHNOLOGY AND RETENTION George Carbart, William Haun, Neil Keith, and Janice Thiel St. Petersburg College, FL www.spcollege.edu/spg/sss

2. I. INTRODUCTION • Background and Purpose of the progress Report • Faculty Demo • Development & Implementation • Mentors Demo (counselor/advisor) • Administrative Demo (reports) • Outcomes & Results (Spring 2004 & Fall 2004)

3. I. INTRODUCTION • Lessons Learned • Other Technical & Retention initiatives • Questions and Answers

4. II. Background & Purpose • What is the eProgress system? • It is an electronic system used to monitor students’ academic progress and increase students course completion, retention and graduation rates. • SSS/B2B previously used a “Card Stock” paper version of this report.

5. II. Background & Purpose • Faculty members requested some type of electronic system be used. • Reports go out around 5th week. • Paper version took about 2 weeks longer to be returned to counselors. • Paper version sometimes got lost. • Reports and data are harder to track using the paper version.

6. III. FACULTY DEMO • Imagine you’re a faculty member who is asked to do PR’s for multiple students each session (e.g., shuffling papers, interoffice mail, etc.) • We’ll now see a demo on how faculty members enter this information

7. III. FACULTY DEMO • Here is the eProgress Report email an Instructor would receive • http://itdev.spcollege.edu:8500/sss_acadprog_demo/admin/htmlemail.cfm?inst_id=185614

8. Development andImplementation • Needed to “sell” our Instructional Tech dept on idea in order to “task” people/resources to this project • Started with idea to keep this as easy as possible for faculty (e-mail based, no user-name / password, etc.) • Marketing & Training efforts: • Faculty training at faculty meetings • Presentations at Admin staff mtgs • Support of program directors (e.g. Math, Communications, etc.) was critical to success…they pushed this with their faculty • Training of mentors/advisors w/ Demo

9. Development andImplementation • Collaboration from Faculty, SSS Counselor-In-Charge, SSS Project Director, Instructional Technologist, Technical Design Specialist. • Software Design/Programming Details (by William Haun) • Please refer to the “Geek Sheet” in your packet

10. Development andImplementation Relationships for sss_acadprog_demo

11. V. Mentor Demo • http://itdev.spcollege.edu:8500/sss_acadprog_demo/mentor/ Mentor Functions • Monitor their students’ progress throughout their involvement in the program • Download all their students’ Progress Reports as Excel spreadsheets • Follow up on Reports immediately after they are submitted by faculty • Add comments to Reports • Keep track of which ones they have reviewed with students

12. V. Mentor Demo • http://itdev.spcollege.edu:8500/sss_acadprog_demo/mentor/ Mentor Functions (cont.) • Print reports that were not submitted electronically • Manually enter results of reports that are submitted on paper • For a narrated demo of the Mentor side of this system, please go to http://itdev.spcollege.edu:8500/sss_acadprog_demo/league2004/mentordemo.htmlor see the CD-ROM in your information packet

13. VI. Administrative Demo • http://itdev.spcollege.edu:8500/sss_acadprog_demo/admin/ Admin Functions • Launch reports once a session • Add/Edit Mentors and assign permissions • Monitor all students’ progress throughout their involvement in all the programs • Edit or Delete Students, Courses, or Instructors • Upload Batches of Students and their Courses each session from a CSV file provided by PeopleSoft

14. VI. Administrative Demo • http://itdev.spcollege.edu:8500/sss_acadprog_demo/admin/ Admin Functions • Edit, Preview, and Launch a “Heads-Up” Enrollment notice email http://itdev.spcollege.edu:8500/sss_acadprog_demo/league2004/headsupemail.htm • Edit and Preview the eProgress Report Notification email with link for faculty • Print instructor’s unsubmitted reports in bulk for snail-mail • For a narrated demo of the Administrative side, go to http://itdev.spcollege.edu:8500/sss_acadprog_demo/league2004/admindemo.htmlor see the CD-ROM in your information packet

15. VI. Administrative Demo • Accurate and up-to-date reports. • Reminder e-mail to all faculty to return their reports (after 2 wks). • Discussing eProgress reports with Department Heads and other SPC Administrators. • Run or Sort reports in various ways. (Cohort groups, course, etc).

16. VI. Administrative Demo • Ability to “Launch” several reports again. (remediation courses only). • Another way to communicate with SPC Faculty. • Another way to promote your students and program.

17. VII. Outcomes / Results • Spring 2004 and Fall 2004 • “Card Stock” paper e-progress report for grades “C” or lower • Increase faculty e-mail addresses • Takes less than 1 minute to complete and return to SSSP for one student • Faster turn-around time • Increase in student academic awareness • Increase in Faculty/SSSP Collaboration

18. VII. Outcomes / Results • Increase in retention from Spring 2004 to Summer 2004 by 5% • Decrease in course withdrawals from Spring 2004 and Fall 2004 • Improved academic advisement • Increased student early registration • Improved communications between SSS mentor and students • Improved student recruitment

19. VII. Outcomes / Results • Spring 2004Fall 2004 • Enrolled 364 Enrolled 386 • Launched 1214 Launched 1061 • Received 794 Received 624 • or 65% or 58% • Reviewed 466 Reviewed 284 • or 59% or 45% • Totals: Enrolled 750, Launched 2275, Received from instructors 1418 (or 62%) Reviewed by mentors 750 (or 52%)

20. VIII. Lessons Learned • After first launch, faculty feedback led to creation of the “Heads-Up” Enrollment Notice (e-mailed to instructors during first week) • http://itdev.spcollege.edu:8500/sss_acadprog_demo/league2004/headsupemail.htm • A valuable by-product of this project was better relationships between faculty & student services

21. VIII. Lessons Learned On the Technical side: Scalability, Scalability, Scalability • Ability to easily customize report questions • Allows addition of other programs • Develop more universal “launching” system

22. VIII. Lessons Learned • The ideal would be a system that different programs could use yet had one central login area for instructors. • eProgress Reports placed more demands on mentors, as more reports are immediately available, also they need to check for reports* * Athletics Department added automatic emails to Coaches on low performance

23. VIII. Lessons Learned Other Applications of an eProgress Report System* • Athletics • Tutoring Services • Title III Early Alert Program *see “Other SPC Programs that are Implementing eProgress Report Systems”sheet in your information packet

24. IX. Other Tech/Retention Initiatives • ACCUTRACK – provides data on student “traffic flow” into office http://www.accutrack.org/Products/index.htm • SSS Web Site – A “One-stop” info resource for scholarships, careers, study skills, and university transfer www.spcollege.edu/spg/sss

25. IX. Other Tech/Retention Initiatives • SSS Alumni Transfer Network – Bio’s of alumni student’s transfer experience to Universityhttp://it.spcollege.edu/atn/ • On-line College Student Inventory (Noel-Levitz) – Assesses “college-readiness” of new students https://earlyalert.noellevitz.com/default.aspx#top

26. X. Questions and Answers George Carbart Neil Keith (727) 341-3527 (727) 341-3528 carbartg@spcollege.edukeithn@spcollege.edu Student Support Services Student Support Services Janice Thiel William Haun (727) 341-3519 (727) 394-6173 thielj@spcollege.eduhaunw@spcollege.edu Web & Inst. Tech. Services Web & Inst. Tech. Services • View this presentation online at:http://itdev.spcollege.edu:8500/sss_acadprog_demo/league2004/ • SSS website:http://www.spcollege.edu/spg/sss/ • WITS website:http://it.spcollege.edu/