Retention problems loom when self-advising is the path for a large percentage of students, and even advisors have difficulty matching student skills with hundreds of courses. Read about how a cooperative effort at Metropolitan Community College (NE) met these challenges in the November Learning Abstracts.
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Skills for Academic Success: Empowering Students to Make Informed Choices
by Daryl Hansen, Larry Lindberg, and Teri Quick
For nearly a decade, the national trend has been for an increasing number of college students to register themselves for their classes via phone banks and, more recently, online services. While professional advising continues to be offered, fewer working students have the time or inclination to use the service. Questions of appropriate placement of students go beyond adherence to prerequisite course requirements and are continuing concerns that impact instructional effectiveness, student retention, and the efficient use of scarce instructional resources in a time of rapid enrollment growth for community colleges. Yet stressed budgets, overworked staff, and student preoccupation with work, parenting, and life issues suggest that any probable expansion of the individual advising model is not likely to be sufficient to meet the need. Therefore, a creative and strategic approach is necessary to have the potential of reaching all students who are becoming accustomed to using just-in-time information resources.
In an effort to increase information available to students and advisors
during registration, Metropolitan Community College (MCC) in Omaha has
instituted a systematic approach for identifying the basic skills that
contribute to student success in each of the college’s courses and has made that information available to students and advisors in an easy-to-read format.
BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW
During the League’s Innovations 2001 conference, a Title III project
presentation was sponsored by Richland Community College (IL) titled “Basic Skills: What Do Faculty Expect?” The session described a process Richland had used to involve faculty in the identification of basic skills necessary for success in their courses. This basic-skill information, in conjunction with placement testing results, was used by Richland advisors to help students select courses in which the student was most likely to be successful.
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Dr. Susan Salvador
Office for Student Services
12/02/2003 |