Overcoming the Biggest Barrier to Student Success

1. Overcoming the Biggest Barrier to Student Success Ron Bleed January, 2005

3. Previous Research Top 25 Courses or 1% Solution “obvious but not recognized” Championed by Carol Twigg

4. 87% of all higher education students commute. • Only 13% are residential. • Commuting students are non-traditional. • Urban universities are similar to community colleges. “Going to college, not what it used to be.”

5. Student Retention • Research Studies • Programs and Strategies

7. Double Loop Learning Espoused Theory of Action Challenge of Assumptions • Better Advisement • More class time/contact hours • Placement testing/pre-requisites • Multi-year class scheduling • Portals/CRM

8. Brutal Facts

10. Successful Course Completion Rates • Day Traditional 70% • Day Partial-Semester 85% • Day One-Day Week 77% • Evening One-Day Week 79% • Every Two Week Start 80%

11. Unsuccessful Course Completion Rates • Day Traditional 30% • Day Partial-Semester 15% • Day One-Day Week 23% • Evening One-Day Week 21% • Every Two Week Start 20%

12. Traditional Targets of Blame Academic Difficulties 7% Poor Advisement 1% Too Heavy Academic Load 3%

13. Capture Time • Commuters • Work and Family Life CCSSE 2004

14. Life Interruptions Job Shift Limited Time Personal/Confidential Transportation Problems Health Issues Financial Problems Work Responsibilities Family Responsibilities

15. Our intellects live inside our messy lives, not apart from them in some Platonic realm. My discomfort arose from my reluctance to allow my students’ noise and pain into my quiet, country life…To seal myself inside the ivory tower of my discipline was not to be safe but perhaps most in danger…” (M. Garrett Bauman, professor of English at Monroe Community College.) Kline Biology Tower, Yale

16. Unscrambling the Work-Family-Education Puzzle Education Work “offering more flexible schedules” Grubb & Lazerson 2004

17. “Opening Doors” • Bridges between non-credit, remedial and credit • Non-traditional course formats • Lifelong learning opportunities and career pathways Grossman, Gooden 2002

18. Curriculum Design

19. Models of Course Redesign • Supplemental • Replacement (hybrid-blended) • Emporium • Fully online • Buffet Twigg 2004

20. “Blended learning in higher education is an evolving phenomenon that offers promise for addressing challenges such as access, cost, efficiency and timely degree completion. In addition, this approach will impact aspects of the academy such as faculty development and rewards, student retention, college and department structure, as well as the notion of lifelong learning. Our experience is that blended learning is a transformational force, even at the outer edges of its influence. In a real sense, ‘we have just begun.” ECAR 2004

21. Economic Denominator • FTSE – Full-Time Student Equivalents • SCCR – Successful Course Completion Rate

22. Deep Learning Is Not Timed • NLII advocacy for “deep learning” • Focus on student learning rather than how much time is spent in a course • Learning based on the course objectives without being fettered by time constraints • Interactions between students and faculty occur without the concept of time Fong 2004

23. Deep Learning Is Not Timed • Students want to learn their way. • Students have different timeframes than my timeframes. • Imagine learning based and measured on content ladders and not clocks and calendars. Fong 2004

25. Recommendations • Understand the incompatibility of traditional scheduling with life interruptions • Look for new formats for courses that reduce the fixed seat time • Establish a new reward system for course completions

26. The most significant innovations andthe ones hardest are institutional innovations, not technical ones. John Seely Brown, 2004