Showing posts with label Student Success. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Student Success. Show all posts

Monday, December 14, 2020

How to Use Canvas to NUDGE Students to Complete Assignments


I am a TOTAL fan of the "message students who" feature on Canvas. Our university utilizes Canvas as our learning management platform. With this feature, I can message students who...

have not completed assignments
have not communicated with me
have an average below a certain threshold
have an average ABOVE a certain threshold
have done a STELLAR job on assignments
and MORE

I use this feature for EVERYTHING! You should definitely try it out! It is free and I've convinced other faculty to use it as well!

Check out my book - Retaining College Students Using Technology: A Guidebook for Student Affairs and Academic Affairs Professionals.

Remember to order copies for your team as well!

Interested in a specific student success topic or do you need a speaker for an upcoming conference? Contact me via direct message on Twitter or join our Student Success and Retention Institute - Learning Community on Facebook!

Thanks for visiting! 

Sincerely,

Dr. Jennifer T. Edwards
Professor of Communication
Executive Director of the Texas Social Media Research Institute & Rural Communication Institute

My Social Media Channels!
Remember to Follow Me on Twitter! @drjtedwards
I Always Post Higher Education Videos on YouTube
Find Me on Instagram
Engage with Me on Facebook!
Watch My Videos on Twitter Live - http://www.periscope.com/drjtedwards/
Email Me! I am PR Friendly! - jennifertedwards@gmail.com

Tuesday, August 13, 2019

Student Success Program Highlight - Student Mentoring Program

Student Success Program Highlight: University of Pittsburg at Greensburg's Commuter Mentors Program


Recently, I discovered the University of Pittsburg at Greensburg's Commuter Mentors program. Now, this is a neat program!

The program is focused on their large commuter population (over 65%)! Their goal is for all students who commute to become familiar with the various resources that are available and to also become familiar with the Pitt-Greensburg community.

In this program, all participants (first-year and new transfer students) are assigned a Commuter Mentor (who is assigned to 20 mentees). Each mentee participant receives a picture of their mentor, a biography, and a letter in the mail introducing the program. Interested in a specific student success topic or do you need a speaker for an upcoming conference? Contact me via direct message on Twitter or join our Student Success Communication and Technology Institute on Facebook!

Training Information
The mentors participate in a one-day training at the beginning of the fall semester. The mentors receive a $100 stipend for their  participation in the experience and a meal credit on their ID. This is great for mentoring  students to use for their mentoring events (lunch, dinner, coffee, etc.).

Here are the rest of their commuter mentor resources.

My Reaction
This sounds like an amazing mentor program that colleges and universities should definitely take under consideration. YES!!!

Thanks for visiting!
Sincerely,

Dr. Jennifer T. Edwards
Higher Education Speaker and Researcher

My Social Media Channels!
Remember to Follow Me on Twitter! @drjtedwards
I Always Post Higher Education Videos on YouTube
Find Me on Instagram
Engage with Me on Facebook!
Watch My Videos on Twitter Live - http://www.periscope.com/drjtedwards/
Email Me! I am PR Friendly! - jennifertedwards@gmail.com
My Research Interests: Customer Service and Social Media, Higher Education Retention, and Millennials at Work

Monday, October 22, 2018

Enhanced Faculty Features on the EAB Navigate System


If your campus utilizes the Education Advisory Board's Navigate platform (formerly the Student Success Collaborative), you are extremely lucky. This platform enables faculty, staff, and students to engage electronically with one another. From a Communication Professor's perspective, it is important for me to emphasize that the Student Success Collaborative (Navigate) is one of the most easy student success technology platforms to navigate (no pun intended) for faculty and staff. 

The Student Success Collaborative (Navigate) is an innovative student success technology platform that can enable campuses to provide outreach to students and faculty, measure this outreach, and to make evidence-based decisions about the emerging data. For campuses who want to connect with their students and benchmark the results, the Education Advisory Board's Navigate platform is one of the best technologies for your campus.


I am eager to discover the newly updated features of the Starfish platform again and I welcome the opportunity to discover this with another campus who wants to invite me as a student success technology consultant.

If your campus is considering how they can integrate a new student success technology for their students, faculty, and staff, please contact me and I will be happy to help. Student success has been why research field for the past 15 years and I am excited about the new technology innovations that are occurring in the higher education field.

Sincerely,

Dr. Jennifer T. Edwards
Higher Education Speaker and Researcher

My Social Media Channels!
Remember to Follow Me on Twitter! @drjtedwards
Remember to Subscribe to Me on YOUTUBE
My Research Interests: Customer Service and Social Media, Higher Education Retention, and Millennials at Work
Instagram - http://www.instagram.com/drjtedwards/
Facebook - Facebook!
If You Love Periscope as Much as I Do...Follow Me There! - http://www.periscope.com/drjtedwards/
Email Me! I am PR Friendly! - jennifertedwards@gmail.com

Interested in a specific student success topic or do you need a speaker for an upcoming conference? Contact me via direct message on Twitter or join our Student Success Communication and Technology Institute on Facebook!

Thanks for visiting! 

Sincerely,

Dr. Jennifer T. Edwards
Higher Education Speaker and Researcher

My Social Media Channels!
Remember to Follow Me on Twitter! @drjtedwards
I Always Post Higher Education Videos on YouTube
Find Me on Instagram
Engage with Me on Facebook!
Watch My Videos on Twitter Live - http://www.periscope.com/drjtedwards/
Email Me! I am PR Friendly! - jennifertedwards@gmail.com
My Research Interests: Customer Service and Social Media, Higher Education Retention, and Millennials at Work

Monday, September 17, 2018

Using the Education Advisory Board's Navigate Platform to Impact Student Success and Retention

If your campus utilizes the Education Advisory Board's Navigate platform (formerly the Student Success Collaborative), you are extremely lucky. This platform enables faculty, staff, and students to engage electronically with one another. From a Communication Professor's perspective, it is important for me to emphasize that the Student Success Collaborative (Navigate) is one of the most easy student success technology platforms to navigate (no pun intended) for faculty and staff. 


The Student Success Collaborative (Navigate) is an innovative student success technology platform that can enable campuses to provide outreach to students and faculty, measure this outreach, and to make evidence-based decisions about the emerging data. For campuses who want to connect with their students and benchmark the results, the Education Advisory Board's Navigate platform is one of the best technologies for your campus.




Retention, Student Success, Student Success Collaborative, Education Advisory Board, Navigate, How to Use EAB, Retention, 60X30TX, Higher Education, Student Affairs, Student Services

Here's a comparison between the features of Navigate and the Starfish platform:

Starfish
EAB (Navigate)
We Can Form Appointment Campaigns
We Can Send Email to Students
We Can Send Email to Students
We Can See a Realistic Preview for Each Student
We Can See the Public Notes for Each Student
We Can Perform Advanced Searches and Analytics
Faculty Log-In to Refer Their Students to Early Alert
Faculty Never Have to Log-On to Refer Their Students
Create Your Own Cohort
Create Your Own Cohort
Student’s Picture is Displayed
 Student’s Picture is Displayed
We Can View Midterm Grades and Final Grades

I am eager to discover the newly updated features of the Starfish platform again and I welcome the opportunity to discover this with another campus who wants to invite me as a student success technology consultant.

If your campus is considering how they can integrate a new student success technology for their students, faculty, and staff, please contact me and I will be happy to help. Student success has been why research field for the past 15 years and I am excited about the new technology innovations that are occurring in the higher education field.

Sincerely,

Dr. Jennifer T. Edwards

Higher Education Speaker and Researcher

My Social Media Channels!

Remember to Follow Me on Twitter! @drjtedwards
Remember to Subscribe to Me on YOUTUBE
My Research Interests: Customer Service and Social Media, Higher Education Retention, and Millennials at Work
Instagram - http://www.instagram.com/drjtedwards/
Facebook - Facebook!
If You Love Periscope as Much as I Do...Follow Me There! - http://www.periscope.com/drjtedwards/
Email Me! I am PR Friendly! - jennifertedwards@gmail.com

Monday, September 10, 2018

Free Report - Institutions' Use of Data and Analytics for Student Success


If you love higher education technology and data analytics as much as I do, you will love this report from NASPA (The National Association of Student Personnel Administrators), Educause, and the Association for Institutional Research. This report was written by Amelia Parnell, Darlena Jones, Alexis Wesaw, and D. Christopher Brooks.

The report contains the following:

Executive Summary

Discussion of Findings

Part I: Types of Student Success Data Projects

Part II: Structures in Place

Part III: Level of Coordination

Part IV: Programs, Interventions, and Outcomes

Implications and Recommendations

References

The report also includes a methodology, additional resources, and acknowledgements.

Here are the recommendations from the study:

Recommendation 1: Identify and expand institutionally appropriate roles for IR, IT, and student affairs.

Recommendation 2: Transcend or remove certain organizational silos to improve communication across all position levels.

Recommendation 3: Prioritize measuring student outcomes.

Recommendation 4: Increase the use of qualitative data, especially from students.

My reflection: This report was great and included many institutions. However, as a higher education researcher and former higher education administrator, I think the report would benefit greatly from numerous reflections from higher education adminstrators.

For example, the first recommendation highlights the expansion of institutionally appropriate roles, but most institutions have very limited budgets that cannot accommodate the expansion of positions or add additional responsibilities to roles.

Also, I recommend that institutions provide a set of guidelines for effective communication with students (for student retention efforts), but I am not a proponent of large communication committees or councils. The formation of these groups can slow down progress for retention. Sometimes these councils that usually consist of individuals from institutional research, institutional technology, student affairs, enrollment management, and academic affairs and exist to control the distribution of messages to students.

Also, I wanted to share this infographic that I created about Student Success Technology.


Read the report, view the infographic and digest the information. Feel free to write about the report during the comment box! I would love to read it!

Sincerely,

Dr. Jennifer T. Edwards
Higher Education Speaker and Researcher

My Social Media Channels!
Remember to Follow Me on Twitter! @drjtedwards
Remember to Subscribe to Me on YOUTUBE
My Research Interests: Customer Service and Social Media, Higher Education Retention, and Millennials at Work
Instagram - http://www.instagram.com/drjtedwards/
Facebook - Facebook!
If You Love Periscope as Much as I Do...Follow Me There! - http://www.periscope.com/drjtedwards/
Email Me! I am PR Friendly! - jennifertedwards@gmail.com

Friday, September 7, 2018

Three Student Success Action Items for Student Success Collaborative and Navigate Professionals!


If your campus utilizes the Student Success Collaborative (Navigate) platform, consider yourself to be extremely lucky! We had a few awesome training sessions at my university and I was incredibly lucky to facilitate these sessions for the faculty, staff, and students at my university and also Texas A&M University's advising team.

We had several sessions that focused on the features of the Navigate platform. Yes, I know that the Education Advisory Board company will continue to update the platform, but the basic components of the platform will remain the same (I hope). The components are easy for the faculty, staff, and students to navigate, but these important individuals at the university also need special reminders about the key clicks they need to make to "make things happen" on the platform.

So, here are three things that faculty, staff, and students at higher education institutions (colleges and universities) need to know in order to effectively navigate the platforms.

Action Item 1 - How to Boost Your Student Success Collaborative Campaign (2-3 Days After Sending the Invitation)



Action Item 2 - How to Schedule an Advising Appointment on EAB Navigate (formerly the Student Success Collaborative)



Action Item 3 - How to Create Tutoring Appointments on EAB Navigate (formerly the Student Success Collaborative)


Enjoy these three action items and please let me know if you have any questions. I will be happy to help! My contact information is listed below.

Sincerely,

Dr. Jennifer T. Edwards
Higher Education Speaker and Researcher

My Social Media Channels!
Remember to Follow Me on Twitter! @drjtedwards
Remember to Subscribe to Me on YOUTUBE
My Research Interests: Customer Service and Social Media, Higher Education Retention, and Millennials at Work
Instagram - http://www.instagram.com/drjtedwards/
Facebook - Facebook!
If You Love Periscope as Much as I Do...Follow Me There! - http://www.periscope.com/drjtedwards/
Email Me! I am PR Friendly! - jennifertedwards@gmail.com

Friday, August 31, 2018

Transition Week - First-Time in College Tips for Freshmen Students


When the beginning of the year starts at Tarleton State University, many first-time in college students comprise the newest class of students at the university. Since 2012, the university as offered a unique interactive learning experience for these new students.

This experience is Transition Week and it engages almost 1,500 students each fall semester. The students persist through a very organized schedule to learn about campus resources, the location of their classes, and they have a change to get to know their class peers before the rest of the students come back to campus (you know those - sophomores, juniors, and seniors). 

During this week, we also have a first-year convocation which simulates an actual graduation ceremony for new first-time in college students. Here's a glimpse into the ceremony.


Unfortunately, some students are not able to attend the sessions as a result of attending national guard boot camp or finishing up a college class at a local community college. The students receive transition week credit for attending the classes and they have to complete the Online Transition Week components.


So, I created an alternative way to complete the online components through Blackboard Modules. Here's the overview of the Blackboard Module course:

Enjoy the content! Please feel free to ask me questions about the Online Transition Week. 

Sincerely,

Dr. Jennifer T. Edwards

Higher Education Speaker and Researcher

My Social Media Channels!
Remember to Follow Me on Twitter! @drjtedwards
Remember to Subscribe to Me on YOUTUBE
My Research Interests: Customer Service and Social Media, Higher Education Retention, and Millennials at Work
Instagram - http://www.instagram.com/drjtedwards/
Facebook - Facebook!
If You Love Periscope as Much as I Do...Follow Me There! - http://www.periscope.com/drjtedwards/
Email Me! I am PR Friendly! - jennifertedwards@gmail.com

Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Telling Your Student Success Technology and Retention Story - Crafting Press Releases and Making YouTube Videos


Today, I am preparing for our first Student Success and Retention Technology Meetup! I am very excited and I am including an interactive session focused on how to tell your How to Tell Your Student Success Technology/Retention Story.

I decided to include artifacts of our Student Success Technology/Retention story at Tarleton State University. Here are some examples...

October 24, 2016
Tarleton uses programs to retain students (Crystal Ogbuehi)

October 19, 2017
Tarleton raises bar in graduation, retention rates for regional A&M schools

November 1, 2017

Tarleton using cell phones, text messages to retain, motivate students

November 15, 2017
Tarleton academic advisor receives national award (By TSU Media Relations)

The Tarleton SSMI Youtube Channel Featuring "How to Videos"
https://www.youtube.com/user/TarletonSSMI

If you would like to partner on a Student Success Technology project with Tarleton, please let me know!

Sincerely,

Dr. Jennifer T. Edwards

My Social Media Channels!
Of Course You Follow Me on Twitter! @drjtedwards
I Am Also on Instagram! http://www.instagram.com/drjtedwards/
Have You Subscribed on YOUTUBE yet?
Become a Fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook!
If You Love Periscope as Much as I Do...Follow Me There! - http://www.periscope.com/drjtedwards/
Email Me! I am PR Friendly! - jennifertedwards@gmail.com

Monday, September 18, 2017

University Faculty - We Have an Easier Way to Take Attendance!


Virtual attendance? Sign me up! I enjoy the Student Success Collaborative system to take attendance and I wanted to encourage others to do the same! It also functions as an early alert system.

If you take attendance on another system, the data just LIVES on that system and no one can know if a student is experiencing difficulty in multiple classes. The Student Success Collaborative system is a game changer for faculty who are concerned about student success.

Here's the email that I sent to faculty:

[University] Faculty,

We are excited about the new Student Success Collaborative system at Tarleton State! Through this system, you can:

- Raise early alerts for undergraduate students in your classes without logging into the system
- Take digital attendance
- Create events for undergraduate students in your classroom and remind them of the event via email/text.
- Send proactive email messages to your undergraduate students.

After you complete this form (and watch the video), we will provide you with access to log-in to the Student Success Collaborative system. - http://tinyurl.com/SSCFacultyAccess

If you have any questions, please email jtedwards@tarleton.edu or send a message to @drjtedwards on Twitter (at anytime).

Please share this form with your colleagues.

Sincerely,

Dr. Jennifer T. Edwards
Assistant Vice-President for Student Success and Multicultural Initiatives
Tarleton State University


In English

The Result
We had a great response (viewers on the YouTube video) and accesses to the EAB platform. I am totally focused on academic analytics!

Have you adopted a similar campaign? Do you have any suggestions or questions for me?

Sincerely,

Dr. Jennifer T. Edwards

My Social Media Channels!
Of Course You Follow Me on Twitter! @drjtedwards
I Am Also on Instagram! http://www.instagram.com/drjtedwards/
Have You Subscribed on YOUTUBE yet?
Become a Fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook!
If You Love Periscope as Much as I Do...Follow Me There! - http://www.periscope.com/drjtedwards/
Email Me! I am PR Friendly! - jennifertedwards@gmail.com

Monday, September 11, 2017

Higher Education Technology Campaign - How to Print Your Schedule and Email Your P


This semester, we are utilizing the Education Advisory Board's Student Success Collaborative software to communicate with students. I definitely love this software for communication campaigns! I mean, I LOVE the advising scheduling feature, but I completely admire the ability to message specific groups of students.

When I discovered that some students experienced difficulty accessing and printing their schedule, I jumped at the opportunity to incorporate the scheduling feature in the Student Success Collaborative software as a back-to-school campaign! I also made sure that the videos were captioned and in English/Spanish.

On the first day of school, I sent the following email to all FTIC students at 8:05 am:

Do you want an EASIER way to check (and print) your schedule for this semester? Log on to http://tarleton.campus.eab.com/

Watch this Video for Step-by-Step Instructions in English
How to Print Your Schedule and Email Your Professors on SSC@Tarleton State (English)
https://youtu.be/GfCAoFZMo5c

Watch this Video for Step-by-Step Instructions in Spanish
How to Print Your Schedule and Email Your Professors on SSC@Tarleton State (En Espanol)
https://youtu.be/WQtbHNkgADo

For more information, please contact Student Success and Multicultural Initiatives (968-9480) or just reply to this email.

Sincerely,

Dr. Jennifer T. Edwards
Assistant VP for Student Success and Multicultural Initiatives

In English



En Espanol

The Result
We had a great response (viewers on the YouTube video) and accesses to the EAB platform. I am totally focused on academic analytics!

Have you adopted a similar campaign? Do you have any suggestions or questions for me?

Sincerely,

Dr. Jennifer T. Edwards

My Social Media Channels!
Of Course You Follow Me on Twitter! @drjtedwards
I Am Also on Instagram! http://www.instagram.com/drjtedwards/
Have You Subscribed on YOUTUBE yet?
Become a Fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook!
If You Love Periscope as Much as I Do...Follow Me There! - http://www.periscope.com/drjtedwards/
Email Me! I am PR Friendly! - jennifertedwards@gmail.com

Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Why Did You Choose to Go to College? - A Technology-Focused Retention Campaign


It has been an INTENSE summer and I am excited about the fall semester. We have such an amazing group of students. In fact, over 90% of them submitted their first college assignment to the Provost...on-time! This is a very positive sign for our retention numbers.

My numbers are possibly skewed as well, because I utilized the Education Advisory Board's Student Success Collaborative to send the Provost's email to all of the first-time in college students (FTIC) students who experience our university during Transition Week. Here's her email:

Subject: Here's Your First Assignment (Due Thursday at 5pm) - Dr. Murray

Tarleton Student,

Here's your first assignment. Answer the following questions in an email and send to [specialemailaddress]@tarleton.edu by 5:00 pm on Thursday, August 24.

- Why did you choose to go to college?
- Why did you choose Tarleton State University?
- What are the five main things (goals) you want to accomplish here over the next four years during your journey at Tarleton?

Sincerely,

[The Provost]

I forgot to add...
I also sent a text message from my account the next morning from EAB and I received over 100 responses within a 1-2 hour time period. Most of those responses were from parents who wanted to make sure that their students had the information as well. So, I utilized the next three hours to update...each...cell phone number...for each student. Yup, I am dedicated to student success.

So, this was my week:
Monday (email was sent)
Tuesday (text reminder) at 9:00 am
Wednesday (walking around to random students to ask if they received the email)
Thursday (reminder text was sent to students)...more cell phone number updates from parents...

The results?
All week = a SUPER successful campaign! The impact of the email was amazing! We had a WEALTH of responses and I would definitely do it again!

Any questions about how our campus utilizes the Education Advisory Board's Student Success Collaborative to make our dreams work? Email me! - jennifertedwards@gmail.com

Sincerely,

Dr. Jennifer T. Edwards

My Social Media Channels!
Of Course You Follow Me on Twitter! @drjtedwards
I Am Also on Instagram! http://www.instagram.com/drjtedwards/
Have You Subscribed on YOUTUBE yet?
Become a Fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook!
If You Love Periscope as Much as I Do...Follow Me There! - http://www.periscope.com/drjtedwards/
Email Me! I am PR Friendly! - jennifertedwards@gmail.com

Monday, October 19, 2015

My Recap from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board - Student Success Summit (Summer 2015)


This summer, I attended the Student Success Summit in Austin, TX (July 14-15). This event was sponsored by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board at the Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort and Spa. This event served as a great brainstorming session for our team before entering the fall semester.

Disclosure - The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board covered the room and registration for this event for all participants.



This event featured Dean Vasti Torres from the College of Education at the University of South Florida in Tampa, FL. She was an amazing speaker and my notes filled several pages. In addition to Dean Torres, the sessions were wonderful as well - peer-to-peer instructional support models and interventions, minority student success strategies, course transformation and student engagement practices, and guided pathways. Here is the agenda for the event - http://txccrn.uh.edu/events/sss-2015/2015%20Student%20Success%20Summit%20Agenda%20Final.pdf




I attended the following sessions:
"How to Help People Remember What They Learn"
"How to Transform Learning...With Teaching"
"Implementing an Integrated, Comprehensive Academic Support for First-Year Students (TSU)
"Supplemental Instruction at UTSA - Promoting Student Success Through Peer Facilitated Study Groups"
"Supplemental Instruction - A Model for Course Success"




A few weeks ago, I was pleased to see the materials from the conference posted on the Texas College and Career Readiness Network. All of the presentations from these sessions are available on this link - Session Materials)



Also, here are my tweets from the event! If the event was offered again, I would definitely be one of the first people to sign up!

  1. Thank you! Is this the correct one? ?
  2. thank you for using both hashtags...especially the !
  3. Great summit so far. Amazing speakers, great topics, and outstanding atmosphere. Thanks for the opportunity !
  4. - In , the typical time for a 60 hr community college degree is 90 hours and for a 120 bachelor's degree is 140 hours.
  5. Marketable skills in higher education (in Texas) include interpersonal, cognitive, and applied skill areas ().
  6. Action does not really work well unless you reflect. Can you state with metrics how you have improved or not improved.
Sincerely,

Dr. Jennifer T. Edwards
- Twitter/Instagram - @drjtedwards
- http://www.facebook.com/millennialprofessor/
- drjtedwards at gmail.com