Building and Sustaining Critical Connections

1. Building and Sustaining Critical Connections National Center for Academic Transformation Redesign Alliance 4th Annual Conference

2. STAND UP… • If you earned a degree while attending college as a part-time student • If you earned a degree while working 20 or more hours per week • If you ever, for any reason, stopped/dropped out of college • If you were the first in your family to attend college

3. STAND UP… • If English is your second language • If in the course of your daily college life, you found yourself in the minority (race/ethnicity/gender) in most situations • If you can name an individual who made a significant difference in your development and success in college.

4. IMAGINE SUCCESS! Center for Community College Student Engagement

5. Build Connections, Build Success • How can institutions foster • stronger and more diverse connections • with—and among—students? Center for Community College Student Engagement

6. MAKING CONNECTIONS: What Matters Most for Student Success? Center for Community College Student Engagement

7. CCSSE:Community College Survey of Student Engagement • Cumulatively, CCSSE has surveyed almost a million students from 754 different community colleges in 49 states, British Columbia, Ontario, Nova Scotia, the Marianas, and the Marshall Islands. Center for Community College Student Engagement

8. SENSE:Survey of Entering Student Engagement Cumulatively, SENSE has surveyed well over 100,000 students from 199 different community colleges in 35 states, the Northern Marianas, and the Marshall Islands. Center for Community College Student Engagement

9. Initiative on Student Success • Listening • systematically • to students Center for Community College Student Engagement

10. ACHIEVING THE DREAMCommunity Colleges Count • Evidence emerges from: • Over 1100 coach visits to 102 colleges in 22 states • Required student cohort tracking • Required evaluation of student success strategies Center for Community College Student Engagement

11. WHAT MATTERS MOST • Engagement matters! Center for Community College Student Engagement

12. Engagement Matters – furthermore… • In many colleges, with many students, engagement is unlikely to happen by accident. • It has to happen by design. • Or, by redesign. Center for Community College Student Engagement

13. WHAT MATTERS MOST • In focus groups with students, what do they typically report as the most important factor in keeping them in school, persisting toward their goals? • Relationships matter • “The compensatory effect” • i.e., where there are differences in engagement between “high-risk” groups and their comparison groups (academically under-prepared students, students of color, first generation students, nontraditional college age students) --- the high-risk students are more engaged. Center for Community College Student Engagement

14. PERSONAL CONNECTIONS Center for Community College Student Engagement

15. Student Focus Groups • If students ran the college….? Center for Community College Student Engagement

16. Personal Connections Center for Community College Student Engagement

17. Personal Connections The very first time I came to this college, I felt welcome. • Entering Students’ First Impressions of Their Colleges SENSE 2009 Data

18. Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. “Pooh!” He whispered. “Yes, Piglet?” “Nothing,” said Piglet, taking Pooh’s paw. “I just wanted to be sure of you.” – A.A. Milne (1882-1956) Center for Community College Student Engagement

19. CULTIVATING CONNECTIONS Center for Community College Student Engagement

20. Cultivating Connections • Connections with students’ futures • Connections in the classroom • Connections on campus / outside the classroom • Connections beyond the campus • Connections in virtual space Center for Community College Student Engagement

21. Cultivating Connections The twofold challenge: • Use data to understand the status quo—which students need to be better engaged • Find ways to use each dimension, each venue for engagement to create meaningful, lasting connections Center for Community College Student Engagement

22. Least Engaged Students* • Among the least engaged community college students: • Part-time students • Traditional-age students (those 24 and younger) • Students not seeking credentials • Students who have not completed 30 or more credits • Male students • Students who work more than 30 hours per week • Students who have not participated in orientation • Students who have not participated in learning communities *This analysis does not include students who hold degrees. Source: 2009 CCSSE Cohort data. Center for Community College Student Engagement

23. CONNECTING STUDENTS WITH THEIR FUTURES (AND WITH REALITY): High Expectations and Aspirations Center for Community College Student Engagement

24. High Expectations and Aspirations • Percent of entering students who strongly or somewhat agree that they have the motivation to do what it takes to succeed in college: • 90% • Percent of entering students who strongly or somewhat agree that they are prepared academically to succeed in college: • 84% Center for Community College Student Engagement

25. High Expectations and Aspirations Percentage of students who, at least once during their first three weeks of college: Center for Community College Student Engagement

26. CONNECTIONS IN THE CLASSROOM Center for Community College Student Engagement

27. What is a “good class?” Center for Community College Student Engagement

28. ENGAGED LEARNING Center for Community College Student Engagement

29. Active and Collaborative Learning • Worked with other students on projects during class: • National: • 46% often or very often (13% never) Center for Community College Student Engagement

30. CONNECTIONS OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM / ON CAMPUS Center for Community College Student Engagement

31. Connections on Campus: Orientation Have you attended an orientation program or course? Students who attended a college orientation Source: 2009 CCSSE Cohort data. Center for Community College Student Engagement

32. Connections on Campus Students who say they never worked with other classmates outside of class to prepare class assignments 41% Students who report that they never discussed ideas from their readings or classes with instructors outside of class 47% Center for Community College Student Engagement

33. An Integrated Support Network Entering students who are unaware of support services during their first three weeks of college: Source :SENSE data. Center for Community College Student Engagement

34. Students • don’t do • optional!! Center for Community College Student Engagement

35. Making the Most of Connectionson Campus • Make outside-the-classroom engagement inescapable. • Require students to participate in educational experiences that are important to their success. • Make student services mandatory and/or integrate them into coursework. Center for Community College Student Engagement

36. CONNECTIONS BEYOND THE CAMPUS Center for Community College Student Engagement

37. Connections Beyond the Campus Will you have an internship, field experience, co-op experience, or clinical assignment while attending this college? Source: 2009 CCSSE Cohort data. Center for Community College Student Engagement

38. Making the Most of Connections Beyond the Campus • Require experiential learning as part of the course. • Encourage “high-impact” experiences such as service learning, study abroad Center for Community College Student Engagement

39. CONNECTIONS IN VIRTUAL SPACE Center for Community College Student Engagement

40. Connections in Virtual Space FACT: Students increasingly use social media and other virtual tools to interact. FACT: Students value personal connections at their colleges. Center for Community College Student Engagement

41. “These are just technologies. Using them does not make you modern, smart, moral, wise, fair, or decent. It just makes you able to communicate, compete, and collaborate farther and faster.” – Thomas L. Friedman Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Center for Community College Student Engagement

42. Connections in Virtual Space • Use online and social networking tools to • cultivate relationships • that help students feel connected and • encourage them to persist in their studies. Center for Community College Student Engagement

43. Use of Social Networking ToolsFor any purpose Traditional-Age Students Nontraditional-Age Students Source: 2009 CCSSE data. Center for Community College Student Engagement

44. Use of Social Networking ToolsTo communicate about coursework Traditional-Age Students Nontraditional-Age Students Source: 2009 CCSSE data. Center for Community College Student Engagement

45. Use of Social Networking Tools • Some use of social networking tools is related to increased engagement • But there is a point of diminishing returns. Center for Community College Student Engagement

46. “With new technologies we’ve tended to do the same things more efficiently, when what we need is to do different things more effectively.” – Christopher Dede, Professor Harvard School of Education Center for Community College Student Engagement

47. DOING EDUCATION DIFFERENTLY, BASED ON EVIDENCE: What’s Required? Center for Community College Student Engagement

48. WHAT MATTERS MOST • Focused, sustainedefforts to purposefully redesign educational experiences and bring them to scale, can produce real improvements in student engagement, learning, persistence, and academic attainment. • “The compensatory effect” • i.e., where there are differences in engagement between “high-risk” groups and their comparison groups (academically under-prepared students, students of color, first generation students, nontraditional college age students) --- the high-risk students are more engaged. Center for Community College Student Engagement

49. WHAT MATTERS MOST • Student Engagement By Design • “The compensatory effect” • i.e., where there are differences in engagement between “high-risk” groups and their comparison groups (academically under-prepared students, students of color, first generation students, nontraditional college age students) --- the high-risk students are more engaged. Center for Community College Student Engagement

50. Mandatory Assessment and placement Orientation Success course for students in dev ed Participation in learning lab, tutoring and/or supplemental instruction Stop late registration/ create late-start classes Early advising / development of academic plan Early alert systems Encouraging Student Success Strategies “Students don’t do optional.” Center for Community College Student Engagement