Category: Blog

September 2014. We wanted to gather advice for how to set up internal funding for CBE courses and programs effectively. How can colleges who are in the early stages of piloting competency-based education set up their own CBE course development or program development grant?  To learn more, we reached out to Dr. Sally M. Johnstone, vice president for academic advancement at Western Governors University, who has worked extensively with colleges across the US, assisting them in developing their own CBE programs.  This article is excerpted from our interview with Sally. Interviewer: Daniel Fusch, Academic Impressions AI: Sally, thank you for joining us today. You’ve been working with 11 community colleges over the past two years now as they create their own competency-based education programs.  What have you learned about financing pilot CBE projects? Johnstone: Some of the colleges had a substantial amount of external funding through the Department of Labor’s TAAACCT grant. For these institutions, setting up a CBE program was still a lot of hard work, but it’s easier when you have a couple of million dollars to do it.  They were able to hire a dedicated project manager, pay for faculty time and new equipment, engage employers in focus groups, and […]

by Cory Phare and Daniel Fusch, Academic Impressions August 2014. Recently, we polled a group of 55 administrators tasked with directing first-year programs. Of this group: For 2 in 3 administrators, assessing their first-year program is a priority; yet for one full third, this is not the case. Few are looking at “student success” more broadly than GPA, student satisfaction, and first-to-second-year retention. Nearly all have strong partnerships with academic advising, student support services, and orientation/transfer services – but not many have strong partnerships with other key offices such as service learning/civic engagement or multicultural services. Though this is a small group, the poll offers an interesting, real-time snapshot of several of the challenges facing many first-year program directors. Assessing the Effectiveness of First-Year Programs Yet for 16 of the 55 directors polled, assessment of the first-year student experience program is either not a priority or “somewhat a priority, but with few resources behind it.” (Compare this with the National Resource Center finding that just 59% of First Year Student Experience programs have conducted a formal assessment or evaluation of their program since Fall 2009.) Among those who are pursuing assessment, there is room for improvement. Key measures of success cited […]

Colleges are working hard to bring in additional students. And there is such a cost to bringing in each student, that you don’t want to lose them through an enrollment and registration process that is confusing or simply takes too long. Or as Kevin Pollock, the president of St. Clair County Community College, remarks pointedly, “Any time your students have to walk across campus unnecessarily from one office to another in trying to resolve an issue is an opportunity for them to walk to their car and leave.” Where are the Bottlenecks Kevin Pollock suggests that a key task of your student success task force or retention committee is walking through each step of the student’s experience on your campus, from admission on, to take an in-depth look at where students run into bottlenecks, delays in service, or where there might be missed opportunities to better support their academic success. Pollock recommends trying an array of data collection methods from surveys to focus groups to “mystery shopper” exercises (in which a member of the task force walks through a process in person to get a first-hand perspective of its efficiency). “How does a student register for classes?” Pollock asks. “Is the […]

Improving customer service isn’t only an opportunity in enrollment management. Academic support services often face similar structural, procedural, and training barriers to improving service to students. Cindy Barnes, director of advising and retention at West Texas A&M University, developed a one-stop student success center for the institution. We reached out to her recently to learn more about how she addressed structural barriers, inefficient policies and procedures, and staff training needs to ensure that West Texas A&M could deliver efficient and effective support to students as they pursue their academic studies. Here is some of Barnes’ advice. Addressing Structural and Procedural Barriers At many institutions, varied and decentralized academic support services report not only to different department heads but to different vice presidents. Barnes recalls that prior to the advent of the student success center at West Texas A&M University, support functions reported variously to the vice president of student services, the vice president of enrollment management, and an associate provost. To address this structural issue, it’s critical to bring together department heads from across these divisions to talk through the challenges students face — whether these department heads meet in the form of a student success and retention committee or […]

In November 2012, Academic Impressions surveyed professionals from 79 institutions of higher education, asking them to grade their institution’s level of customer service and to comment on the challenges faced in improving it. The responses were revealing. A “C” in Customer Service 29 of our respondents rated their institution with a “B” letter grade for level of service offered, and 31 would assign a “C” grade (together accounting for three-quarters of the total responses). Only six would assign an “A.” Among those who assigned a failing grade and those who assigned a “C,” a litany of common complaints emerges: Many of the respondents emphasized that front-line staff are focused on completion of tasks rather than achievement of (student-centered) outcomes, and lack the time and the perspective to provide better service to students. When asked to describe how they see exemplary customer service, overwhelmingly, the respondents focused on responsiveness. And while some respondents cited the need for a “friendly” attitude, among many there is a growing awareness that providing effective service to students has less to do with targeting “customer satisfaction” through an improved demeanor and more to do with eliminating wait times, shortening lines, and ensuring that students receive the […]

Our interview with Dennis Pruitt, vice president for student affairs at the University of South Carolina, suggested the need to direct attention to something that is often overlooked: the need to review and audit institutional policies and procedures that delay students in progressing toward their degree. “Historically, many have assumed that if students get over their homesickness, if they have a good affinity group, if they feel good on campus, they’ll persist. But the two factors that truly help students persist are academic progress toward a degree (having a goal and gaining momentum toward it) and maintaining maximum eligibility for the maximum amount of financial aid (to ensure non-interruption in their courses).”Dennis Pruitt, U of South Carolina In light of Pruitt’s comment, one thing academic and administrative leaders will want to look for at their institution is the presence of “road bumps” in their processes and procedures that delay a student’s progress toward a degree. To find those “bottleneck” points in your procedures that stall students in their progress toward a degree: Reviewing Student Complaints “Most frequently, student complaints emerge around the speed of getting a critical task done. Periodically review complaints, and when you find bottlenecks, take them apart. Often, behind that bottleneck, […]