Removing Hurdles Towards Progress to Degree€¦ · • Clear curricular path to degree • Prerequisites • Block scheduling • Course Demand Analysis ... flexible and as simple

AACRAO San Francisco 2013 Session ID: ### AACRAO San Francisco 2013 Session ID: 577

Removing Hurdles Towards Progress to Degree

Kimi Ikeda – Associate Vice Provost

Cem Sunata – Registrar

California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

Session Id 577


Learning Outcomes • Learn which institutional issues that students face are most likely to

prevent them from making progress to degree.

• Identify who the key players are in the institution whose buy-in and contribution is crucial for these efforts to be successful.

• Find out some suggested methods to start an institutional collaboration

and solve these issues.

• Assumption: Fully built degree audit.

Overview • Our “Student Success”

principles • Curriculum

• Clear curricular path to degree

• Prerequisites • Block scheduling • Course Demand Analysis

• Academic Policies • Expected Academic

Progress • Change of Major • Academic

Probation/Disqualification

• Academic Advising

4/15/2013


Cal Poly • In beautiful San Luis Obispo, CA

• Part of the 23-campus CSU system

• 16,831 students*

• 1,210 faculty • Comprehensive undergraduate education, combining technical and professional curricula with the arts and humanities • 68 bachelor’s, 29 master’s programs • All undergraduate programs are “fully impacted” *Spring 2013


Student Success Guiding Principles • Students’ path to graduation should be transparent, flexible and as simple as

possible

• Students should be treated equitably through the consistent application of policy – including a clearly defined appeal process

• Students should have university-wide support in reaching success (i.e., graduation) regardless of their affiliation (e.g., major)

• Students deserve communication in a timely manner thereby allowing them to make any necessary adjustments to their academic plans

• Upon admission to Cal Poly, students should have a clear understanding of the expectations being placed upon them (e.g., common standard of progress, impact of co-curricular activities on their progress to degree, etc.)


Student Success Guiding Principles

• Policies and procedures should support the students’ learning experience

• Continuous review of our policies and practices should be performed regularly – input from our students and other stakeholders should be sought as well as the use of metrics

• Policies and practices should promote quality programs and efficient use of resources.

TAKE AWAY: What are your institution’s guiding principles for student success?


Curriculum


Requisites (Before) • In 2009, only 25% of all class requisites, as defined in the academic

catalog, were being enforced through PeopleSoft.

• “Line dropping” – When an instructor asks a student be dropped from their class during the first day/week of classes when they realize that they do not meet the prerequisites.

• No “Post Enrollment Requisite Checking” in place.


Requisites (After) • We began a 19 month, multi-phased overhaul project.

• September 2009 - May 2010: Faculty reviewed all requisites.

• May 2010 – November 2010: Every requisite that did not “change” was coded into PeopleSoft, for Winter 2011 registration.

• November 2010 – April 2011: Every requisite that was “revised” was coded into PeopleSoft, for Summer/Fall 2011 registration.

• “Post Enrollment Requisite Checking” in effect since Fall 2012 • 250 students were dropped in Fall 2012 • 315 students were dropped in Winter 2013

TAKE AWAY: Are all your requisites “accurate” and being enforced?


Clear Curricular Path to Degree Course Substitutions • Office of the Registrar processes approximately 600-700 course substitutions

a month! • The newly implemented course substitution electronic workflow

• Faster processing • Analytics backend to determine whether deeper curricular changes

needed.

TAKE AWAY: How often do faculty override their curriculum? Why?


Clear Curricular Path to Degree Transfer Articulation

• Timely transfer articulation - crucial in order to prevent students from taking unnecessary classes during their first quarter.

• Cal Poly’s incoming Fall class is mostly first-time freshmen, however • 800 transfer students still need to progress to degree on a timely

manner • More and more freshmen are bringing college transfer work

• Competing demands during Summer – degree posting vs. transfer articulation

• This is our third year of fully articulating transfer work before registration begins


Clear Curricular Path to Degree Navigating the Curriculum

• Accurate and up-to-date 4 year degree flowcharts.

• Are the courses really available during terms stated in the flowcharts?

• Do they communicate important milestones to students?

• Interdependency of flowcharts. • Ex: Are all the flowcharts telling the students to take ENG 101 during

their first Fall term?

• Consistency of flowcharts. TAKE AWAY: Do ALL your majors have consistent and comprehensive degree flowcharts? Are they readily accessible to the students?

Before

4/15/2013

After

4/15/2013


Block Scheduling – What is it? • Designed to start first-time freshmen (FTF) off on the “right track” for

their first quarter at Cal Poly. • Students are scheduled into their Fall classes based on “tracks”, which

are a reflection of the flowchart for the major. • All FTF receive a guaranteed full-time schedule composed of all degree

applicable courses, free of time conflicts.


Block Scheduling – Tracks • Algorithms that place each student into carefully chosen set of courses

(12-16 units) • Takes AP credit and prior coursework into consideration • Re-evaluated each year • Allow for improved communication between colleges, giving them a

much better idea on how to gauge their course and seat offerings for FTF


Sample Freshman Track

AERO Name: 1. TRACK A 2011 Has HS Chem Notes: Student has HS chemistry Condition: 'no_hs_chem' is false

Course Expressions 1. 'AERO 121' 2. if student has credit in 'MATH 142' then if student has credit in 'PHYS 131' or student has credit in 'PHYS 141' then take concurrently { 'MATH 143' 'PHYS 132' } else take concurrently { 'MATH 143' 'PHYS 131' } end if elif student has credit in 'MATH 141' then if student has credit in 'PHYS 131' or student has credit in 'PHYS 141' then take concurrently { 'MATH 142' 'PHYS 132' } else take concurrently { 'MATH 142' 'PHYS 131' } end if else take concurrently { 'MATH 141' and first available { 'IME 144' 'PSY 201' 'PSY 202' 'D2' } } end if 3. if student has credit in 'ENGL 134' then take first available { 'A2' 'D3' 'C3' } else take first available { 'A1' 'D3' 'C3' } end if


Block Scheduling - Benefits • Guaranteed full time schedule (12-16 units). Highly satisfied students and

parents

• Freshmen do not have to compete with current students for seats

• Students have a healthy understanding of course “load” in their first quarter on a university campus

• Decreasing rates of academic probation among first time freshmen since the introduction of block scheduling 3 years ago

• Clear message of “graduate on time” and “class of 2015” is communicated.

TAKE AWAY: How do you introduce, guide, and acclimate your incoming freshmen to collegiate life and academic rigor?


Course Demand Analysis The Problem • #1 student “complaint” at Cal Poly: course availability

• Availability or preference?

• Inefficient “like term rollover” practice for class scheduling • Observed measures in other institutions:

• Schedule from scratch each term • Administrative check for each scheduling change • Reporting all changes to the Provost

• Our solution: Course Demand Analysis


Course Demand Analysis The Proposed Solution • u.direct® by CollegeSource

• A hybrid of degree audit and 4 year degree flowchart • Creates interactive and individualized roadmaps for each student • Allows students to “drag & drop” degree applicable courses to future quarters • Future schedules are built based upon this “demand”

• Prerequisites for implementation • Administrative and faculty buy-in – a must have • Darwin/u.Achieve or PS degree audit interface – already built • Mandatory use by students – education and communication • Strong technical and functional resources for built and maintenance


Course Demand Analysis


Course Demand Analysis • Implementation timeline

• Spring 2012-Spring 2013 • Review, correct, and standardize all degree flowcharts • Purchase u.direct® • Built degree audit interface, install and configure software • Make implementation decisions • Survey students, gather input, draft communication plan • Meet with college councils, communicate and gather input

• Spring 2013-Fall 2013 • Build the roadmaps • Make implementation decisions • Campus wide communication plan to students, staff, and faculty


Course Demand Analysis • Implementation timeline

• Winter 2014 • Release u.direct® to students for acclimation and initial data entry

• Spring 2014 • Initial data collection and analysis • Data collected to inform Fall 2014, and Winter 2015 schedules


Academic Policies


Three Key Academic Policies That Affect Progress to Degree

• Expected Academic Progress • Change of Major • Academic Probation/Disqualification


Expected Academic Progress (EAP) Student Success

• A tool to monitor student’s progress to degree • Provides an “advising” opportunity.


Expected Academic Progress (EAP) Defined

• Designed to help students graduate on time and to provide them with the support they need along the way.

• Requires students to make a predetermined level of progress towards their declared major each academic year.

• Academic progress is measured using their degree audit and reflected in the EAP report.

• Report is distributed to colleges after the census date and before the start of registration for the next term.

Expected Academic Progress (EAP)

• Freshmen • 1st year – 20% • 2nd year – 45% • 3rd year – 75% • 4th year – 100%

• Transfer • 1st year – 55% • 2nd year – 80% • 3rd year – 100%

4/15/2013

Calculated by dividing the total number of degree applicable units completed and in-progress by the total number of units required for the major.

TAKE AWAY: Do you keep your students accountable to make adequate degree progress each year? If not, why even talk about “grad rates”?

Sample EAP Report

4/15/2013


EAP Gauge – The Student View

• The EAP gauge tells a student whether they are “ON TRACK” or “OFF TRACK” in their degree progress.


EAP Gauge – The Student View

• The gauge is located in the Poly Profile, in the Academic Progress section.


Change of Major Policy Student Success

• Cal Poly requires students to declare their majors at their time of application

• Over 30% of our students change majors (successfully)

• Remove the “stigma” – encourage communication

• Provide an “advising” opportunity


Change of Major (Before) • Processes/rules are set by each department and are inconsistent and in

some cases are unclear

• Some students could not change major within a reasonable time period

• “Synthetic” majors

• “Back door” admissions

• Impacts time to degree

• Changing majors is not always the “right” thing to do


Change of Major (After) All students seeking change of major are directed to follow this common path:

Review curricular requirements of the target major

Meet with current advisor to discuss options

Meet with target major advisor/chair to discuss the possibility of changing majors

If a change is appropriate, the student and the department enter into an ICMA (Individualized Change of Major Agreement)

TAKE AWAY: What % of your students change majors? What guidance do that get? How far behind do they fall in degree progress after the change?


Change of Major – The Contract • An agreement that states which target major (or other) courses and/or

other requirements the student must successfully complete before being accepted to the target major

• Students cannot enter into an ICMA during their first quarter

• ICMA cannot exceed two quarters

• Maximum of three specified courses or 12 units

• Student must still make reasonable degree progress in their current major

• One chance to be accepted


Probation/Disqualification Policy Student Success

• Early Intervention • Build “good habits” early • Provides an “advising” opportunity


Probation/Disqualification Policy Defined

• Academic Probation • Anytime quarter, Cal Poly, or Higher Education GPA < 2.0

• Subject to Disqualification

• Anytime the Cal Poly cumulative or Higher Education cumulative GPA < 2.0

• On AP for 2 consecutive quarters • On AP for 4 non-consecutive quarters

• Disqualification

• On AP 3 consecutive quarters • On AP 3 or more non-consecutive quarters and Cal Poly cumulative

or Higher Education cumulative GPA < 2.0


Probation/Disqualification Policy Freshmen Success Program (FSP)

• First introduced at the end of Fall 2009 • Treatment group • Control group

• All first time freshmen who got on AP during their first quarter were required to attend the FSP

• Program consists of • Large group session • Small group sessions with academic coaches

• Focus on self-efficacy and identifying the unique obstacle(s) for each student.

TAKE AWAY: Do you know why your freshmen fall into AP? What assistance/guidance do they get?


Probation/Disqualification Policy Freshmen Success Program (FSP)

Mean term GPA performance by college over 2010-11 academic year


Academic Advising


Academic Advising - Before • Decentralized model.

• Highly prescriptive.

• Very faculty-heavy.

• Self governed advising council with no direct reporting or support structure.

• Professional academic advisor/student ratio is as little as 1/1000.

• No coordination or cooperation on the advising functions throughout the campus.

• Inconsistent messages to students.


Academic Advising - After • New position: Assistant Vice Provost for University Advising

• Unite campus advising functions • Lead the collaborative advising structure • Provide advocacy and awareness for advising • Provide and lead professional development

• Three-tiered Advising Council structure where Academic Affairs and Student Affairs advising resources united. • Executive Advising Council • Student Success Work Team • Student Advisory Board


Academic Success Center

Mission Statement

The mission of Cal Poly’s Academic Success Center is to coordinate and provide timely, effective advising services to first

and second year students, as well as first year transfer students. The Center will offer a full range of proactive academic services, refer students to appropriate campus

resources, and provide leadership in coordinating College and University programs that support student success.


Academic Success Center Articulated Outcomes

• Provide consistent advising information • Assistance in accessing appropriate campus resources • Ensure that students have the necessary foundational academic skills to be

successful • Assist students with understanding essential policies and tools • Provide support for students on academic probation • Coordinate early intervention programs and alert systems • Guidance for students seeking to change their major. • Connect students to their college/department and promote strong ongoing

relationships • To reinforce with students, their responsibility to live life positively both on-campus

and within the larger San Luis Obispo community.


Thank You! Kimi Ikeda – [email protected]

Cem Sunata – [email protected]

Please tell us how we did! Evaluation Form Session ID 304

Documents

Removing Hurdles Towards Progress to Degree€¦ · • Clear curricular path to degree • Prerequisites • Block scheduling • Course Demand Analysis ... flexible and as simple