Student Success HE

I think this blog post from Inside Higher Ed, How to Help Academically Struggling Students, nicely summarizes the challenges and potential solutions to get more students succeeding academically. It was refreshing to see that half of the proposed solutions were geared towards actions faculty can take as individuals in their classrooms. That is good news for students who are lucky to be assigned to a course taught by one of these engaged and open-minded instructors.

In this week's podcast episode, Graham and Jan talk with Dr. Christopher Bridges, Strategic Consultant for Starfish. Our conversation ranged widely. We learned about patterns and trends Chris is seeing on campus (hint: there is a near-universal desire for more parking spaces closer to academic buildings), heard about creative approaches and programs colleges and universities have implemented to improve student outcomes, and explored the role of Strategic Consulting and how it supports student success on campus.

Dr. Tina Balser, Director of Student Success Initiatives at the University of Missouri in Columbia in her recent EDUCAUSE Review post, explains why a socio-technical approach to student success is what higher education institutions should adopt.

With Thanksgiving less than a week away the year feels like it is flying by. It seemed like a good time for Graham and Jan to reflect on the main student success themes that stood out for us in 2019.

Sara Goldrick-Rab, author of "Paying the Price," was at the Hobsons Summer Institute to announce a new initiative to help institutions support students with food or housing insecurity.

Nudging, done correctly, can drive double digit percentage outcomes, particularly for STEM students. Also, students who take at more loans succeed in higher education at greater rates than those who rely less on financial assistance. 

All institutions have an academic probation program of some kind, but few have examined whether they are having the intended outcome. In this episode we break down what the literature says are best practices for helping academically struggling students get back on track.

Your institution is doing a tremendous amount of work to help students be successful. The trouble is everyone is moving in their own direction and we are not as effective as we would be if we were all aligned. On this episode we take you into a webinar where we introduced a student success planning process to help your institution become strategically aligned around student success.

While many institutions are getting better about measurement and, in particular, measuring student success interventions, they still lack the ability to make changes based on outcomes. In this episode, Jan and Graham explain the concept of an intervention retrospective, that if made a habit, will help get your interventions on rails and ensure that they are having the desired impact on student success.

Today, Graham and Jan host another meet up of the Starfish Student Success Book Club. The book was Robot-Proof: Higher Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, by Joseph Aoun, President of Northeastern University.