Wayne County Community College District (WCCCD)

1. Wayne County Community College District (WCCCD) • Early Academic Assessment and Mid-Term Grades Robert BermanProfessor, Department of Mathematics Wayne State University Tuesday, October 28, 2008 10:45 – 11:45 AM, 1:30 – 2:30 PM

2. Many individuals are involved in the EAA program at Wayne State University. Among them: Robert Berman (aa1532@wayne.edu) – Prof. of Mathematics Kurt Kruschinska (ac5753@wayne.edu) – Associate Director Registrar’s Office Howard Shapiro (ay1511@wayne.edu) – Associate Vice President Naida Simon (ab2297@wayne.edu) – ASO Provost’s Office Cassandra Tackett (dx6182@wayne.edu) – Academic Advisor Ann Veksler (ac3676@wayne.edu) – Anna Veksler, Lead Sys Integrator Laura Woodward (af5826@wayne.edu) – University Counselor Project Members

3. Early Academic Assessment (EAA): Program Description • Academic progress for students enrolled in Courses Numbered < 3000 is assessed by faculty at the end of third week of classes. • If a student's performance is assessed below the ‘C’ level, the student receives an alert notification referring him/her to appropriate campus resources

4. Introduction • Goals • Discuss the mechanics of the implementation of the Wayne State Early Academic Assessment as Mid-term grades in Banner’s Faculty Self-Service module • Show how Students, Faculty, and Administrators are involved in various feedback loops

5. Features • Early identification of under performing students • Efficient communication to those students by means of web and e-mail • directing affected students to appropriate support services • Immediate monitoring of faculty compliance • Availability of reports so the program can be assessed and improved

6. Initial Communications • E-mail • To EAA coordinators • Associate VP of Academic Affairs to Faculty • Reminders to Deans and Chairs

7. Listserv E-mail Contact Faculty by Assoc VP of Academic Affairs • The Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs sends out an e-mail early in the semester detailing • Program Rationale • Specific Faculty Responsibilities

8. Listserv E-mail Contact FacultyStatement of Purpose • Dear Faculty, • Enhance Learning and Success of Students by identifying potential problems and encouraging those students to seek help early • As teachers, we have a common goal of enhancing the learning and success of our students. When students show signs of academic difficulty, we know that early intervention can often result in improvements in performance. For several years, Wayne State University has had an Early Academic Assessment (EAA) program in place to identify potential problems as early as possible and to encourage students to get necessary assistance right away.

9. Listserv E-mail Contact FacultyWhich Faculty and Students? • Faculty and Courses? • Course Numbers < 3000 • Faculty teaching courses numbered below 3000 play a crucial role in this process by • Which Students? • Coursework equivalent to below “C” • submitting EAA grades through WSU Pipeline beginning in the third week of class for students who are identified as having difficulty with their coursework (equivalent to below "C" work).

10. Listserv E-mail Contact FacultyWhat can be Achieved? • Identify specific student problem areas early • Convey the message that we care about success • Provide timely and useful support referring students to • Instructor • Advisor • Academic Success Center • Counseling and Psychological services • Through this intervention we are able to: • identify specific student problem areas early, • convey the message that we care about our students' academic and personal success, and • provide timely, useful support by referring the identified students to their instructor, their advisor, the Comerica Academic Success Center, and/or Counseling and Psychological Services.

11. Listserv E-mail Contact Faculty Call for Participation • Tracking student performance is as much a part of the job of teaching as assigning a grade at the end of the semester • This semester we ask that all faculty teaching courses numbered below 3000 make a concerted effort to participate in the EAA process by creating opportunities as early as possible in the semester to provide feedback to students through the EAA process. Just as assigning a grade is part of the instructor’s job, so it is to track student performance.

12. Listserv E-mail Contact FacultyHow & When to submit EAA Grades • Through Pipeline (WSU web portal) • EAA grading pages are available to faculty for grade entry through WSU pipeline http://pipeline.wayne.edu/ as of • Weeks 3, 4, 5, 6 • Monday, September 15, 2008 and ending on Monday, October 13, 2008. Every semester the EAA grading period is from week three though week six.

13. Listserv E-mail Contact FacultyMore Details – Program Web Page • EAA grades should be submitted in all courses numbered below 3000 for students whose work you deem to be equivalent to below a "C". Detailed information (including procedures, details of the grading system, mock-ups of faculty and student web-pages, and technical support information) is available online by clicking the Online EAA Program link http://faculty.wayne.edu/EAA/EAAProgram.htm.

14. Listserv E-mail Contact Faculty Deferrals & Waivers – Coordinators • Under some circumstances, Early Academic Assessment may be deferred to the end of the sixth week or may be waived. The deadline for submission of deferred assessments is Monday, October 13, 2008. Approval for deferral or waiver must be requested by contacting the EAA Coordinator of the College/School in which the course is taught. Please refer to the list of college and school coordinators at the end of this message.

15. Listserv E-mail To Faculty Quick Student Feedback • Your students will receive feedback as soon as you can get your EAA grades in the system, so you don't have to wait until October 13 to submit EAA grades. For new students, receiving this feedback as soon as possible may be a critical step in enhancing their likelihood for success at Wayne State.

16. Listserv E-mail To FacultyEase of Submission – Proxy Graders • This is NOT a time-consuming process, since it needs to be completed for only those students with some type of course performance deficiency. For faculty teaching large classes who have graduate teaching assistants (GTA), you may want to allow your GTA’s to give EAA grades. You should contact your grading coordinator to obtain this permission. • Your active participation is essential to our efforts to improve student learning, and I very much appreciate your support of this program.

17. Listserv E-mail To FacultyCoordinators (EAA/Grading) • Howard Shapiro • Associate Vice President for Undergraduate Programs and General Education • College and School Coordinators • College Name E-mail Phone • BA Linda Zaddach ad3345@wayne.edu 7-4510 • ED Janice Green ab9310@wayne.edu 7-1605 • ED-KHS Carol Horn ab4830@wayne.edu 7-4265 • ENG Michele Grimm ab2609@wayne.edu 7-8395 • FCPA Steve Peters eb6490@wayne.edu 7-5747 • CLAS LaSondra Dawn ag1648@wayne.edu 7-2516 • NUR Felicia Grace fgrace@wayne.edu 7-7995 • PA Richard Slaughter aa4043@wayne.edu 7-8502 • PA-CLS Jean Garza ac8342@wayne.edu 7-5898 • SW Janet Joiner ac2027@wayne.edu 7-4409

18. More Information About Program: • The next set of slides have some more information about • Coordinators • The EAA Grading System • Grade Entry • Proxy Graders

19. Coordinators WebsiteEAA, Grading, Scheduling, Advisor • Faculty and Staff also can find contact information for their EAA coordinators from the coordinators website.

20. EAA Grading: • Grading System • Define a relatively simple system of grade symbols • Enable the identification of one or more specific areas of concern • Using single grade • Distinct from standard grades (A, B, C, …)

21. EAA Grading System There are 16 symbols, 5 representing individual areas, 10 for pairs of areas, and 1 for three or more. (More details on the web: http://faculty.wayne.edu/EAA/EAAGradeSymbols.htm).

22. Grade Entry Use Banner Faculty Self-Service Module • Midterm Grades • EAA grades cannot be rolled to academic history • To make available on the web use • Web Indicator • Grading Rules

23. Proxy Graders • Input of Grades • Faculty sometimes wish to designate others including administrative staff and graduate assistants to input grades • Designated graders are set up in the Banner forms SIAINST and SIAASGN as proxy graders

24. Student Notification • C&IT has table in which advisors are listed by school and college. Every term, at the prompting of the Advising center, the accuracy of the table is verified and corrections made if necessary

25. Student Notification • Starting from the third week of Fall and Winter terms, C&IT runs the program (AppWorx module) that prepares data for Mail Merge letter template fields, such as student name, Id, e-mail address, course name, description from mid-term grade (deficient area), advisor name, e-mail, phone number. • Save this data to an Excel file, and e-mail this file to a designated person in the Advising Center. (This part will be automated soon.) • The designated person in the Advising Center merges this file with letter template, and sends e-mails to students. • The mailings are repeated four times, at the end of the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th weeks of the term.

26. Support • Support can be obtained from • University Advising Office • Computer Center Help Desk for LDAP issues • Coordinators website • FAQ’s Website

27. Follow-up and Analysis • Reports • Cohorts

28. Follow-up and Analysis:Stars EAA Report • Shows Classes and Students with Course Numbers < 3000 having EAA/Midterm grades

29. Follow-up and Analysis:The Stars EAA Report • Primary tool for obtaining needed data is this report. Select • Term (200709, 200801, 200809, …) • College (ED, LS, FA, PA, …) • Course Numbers ( < 3000, < 2000, < 1000) • Grade Filter (All, No Grades, No EAA Grades, Graded, EAA Graded) • Output Type: Classes, Students

30. Follow-up and Analysis:Academic Affairs ↔ Colleges • The colleges are sent the Chart above with total Number of EAA Classes • The STARS EAA Report is used to fill in the first column • At the end of the process the other columns are filled in and ‘No Deficient Grades’ is based on e-mails received from the faculty). • The college coordinator fills in the numbers and a final report is compiled.

31. Stars EAA Report Output Academic Affairs, Colleges • Class • CRN • Instructor • Class Description • Home (Cross-Listing) • Enrollment • Graded (any) • # Grades • % Graded • EAA Graded • # EAA Grades • % EAA Grades

32. Follow-up and Analysis:Academic Success Center (ASC) • The director of the ASC uses the Stars EAA report to pulls the names of any student who received an EAA grade. They are enrolled in a free, online study skills course.

33. Follow-up and Analysis:Stars Cohort Tracking Tool (CTT) • Can report Early Assessment grade data by Cohort instead of class

34. Follow-up and Analysis: Stars Cohort Tracking Tool (CTT) • Can produce retention and graduation data for cohorts of students who received deficient Early Assessment grades

35. Stars Cohort Tracking (CTT) Cohorts with EAA Grades - Retention • For a range of terms, displays initial cohort count, count re-enrolled, degrees prior to end term, etc.

36. Summary • Early intervention with students having problems in their classes has the potential to significantly bolster student retention and success, particularly at large urban universities like WSU • Faculty Self-Service Midterm grades can be adapted to an Early Academic Assessment system that facilitates referral of students to available campus resources • Supplementary Reports and communication tools are able to facilitate support, follow-up, and data analysis.

37. Questions and Answers • Questions? • Feel free to contact me (Robert Berman) or any one of the project members after the conference

38. Robert Berman (aa1532@wayne.edu) – Professor, Dept. of Math. Thank You! Kurt Kruschinska (ac5753@wayne.edu) – Associate Director Registrar’s Office Howard Shapiro (ay1511@wayne.edu) – Associate Vice President Naida Simon (ab2297@wayne.edu) – ASO Provost’s Office Cassandra Tackett (dx6182@wayne.edu) – Academic Advisor Ann Veksler (ac3676@wayne.edu) – Anna Veksler, Lead Sys Integrator Laura Woodward (af5826@wayne.edu) – University Counselor