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Bainbridge State College Campus Plan Update 2015

INSTITUTIONAL MISSION & STUDENT BODY PROFILE

INSTITUTIONAL MISSION

Bainbridge State College, a state college of the University System of Georgia, provides an accessible, affordable, and excellent education for the diverse population of southwest Georgia and beyond through certificates, diplomas, associate degrees, and select baccalaureate programs as well as through continuing education, adult education, and collaboration with other educational providers, resulting in life‐long learning, economic development, and graduates empowered for success in a global society.

Bainbridge State College, serving nearly 20 counties across southwest Georgia, northwest Florida, and southeast Alabama, enrolled 2,470 students in Fall 2014 who were 57% minority, 69% Pell-eligible, 25% self-identified first-generation college students, and 57% adult, non- traditional students (See Appendix A and B for more demographic information). Satisfying the education needs of such a diverse population of students is at the core of the College’s mission. Accessibility, affordability, and quality education opportunities are what current and prospective students can expect from Bainbridge State College. From transfer degrees to technical degrees, diplomas, and technical certificates of credit, Bainbridge State College empowers its graduates for success in a global society.

The college’s mission, strategic plan, enrollment trends, and demographics influence the college’s focus on completion in a variety of ways. Bainbridge State College’s mission holds the institution accountable for providing quality education, training, and opportunities to promote the success of students and their communities. Bainbridge State College professionals understand how important it is that students are prepared to be self-sustaining and contributing members of society—in their home communities and beyond. Upholding a quality education and ensuring success influences all of the college’s institutional goals and strategies, as well as those for Complete College Georgia (CCG).

Enrollment trends clearly indicate that a majority of our students come to us underprepared. They enter college with distractors that become immediate barriers to their success and retention without our intentional and intrusive interventions. In the college’s first status report submission, several populations were identified as needing attention and resources, including part-time students, minority students, non-traditional students, and students placing into learning support. For Fall 2014, Bainbridge State College had an enrollment of nearly 2, 500 students, of which 662 were new students. Among the first-time enrolled students 92.9% required remediation. Within this population were many of the students identified in the previously mentioned groups needing attention. Amid the efforts devoted to preparing students within these groups, the college’s learning support initiatives, along with progress in early alerts and also the use of best practice teaching methods by learning support faculty, provided the greatest success, with improved success rates for students enrolled in learning support classes (from 34% success rate in Fall 2011 to 62% in Fall 2014).

In addition to the initiatives focused on learning support, the college also found success in its continuation of the Quick Start program first implemented in summer, 2014. The program focuses on preparing prospective students—many falling into populations described as needing additional attention—for gateway math courses, along with the opportunity to complete the First Year Experience (FYE) course through a workshop and competency testing for two (2) institutional credits upon completion of the program. This year (Summer 2015), the college welcomed a total of 11 participants (increase of one since last year).  One hundred percent (100%) of the participants increased their math scores as a result of the program; and 60% of the participants existed learning support altogether.  Participating in the FYE portion of this summer program, participants learned early in their college education journey about the many support resources available to them and how these resources would support their success at the college and beyond. Participants were awarded 2 credits for completing the course.  An equally qualifying success as a result of this program is that participants from last year (Summer 2014) all remain enrolled at the college.

The college’s learning support redesign effort has gained a steady momentum over the last year, with a full implementation of the foundation and remedial-corequisite pairing placement based on COMPASS test scores. Since the full-implementation in Fall 2014 the college has been recognized as a Vanguard institution by the University System of Georgia. In Fall 2014 the college had 161 students who required English remediation and 125 needing math remediation; of these 105 (65%) were placed into the foundation level of remediation in English (65%), 47 (35%) in co-requisite English, 105 (84%) placed into the foundation level of math and 15 (16%) placed into co-requisite level math. Of the 105 students who entered into English learning support at the foundations level 74 (70%) successfully passed the course in the first semester and of those entering into foundation math 51 (49%) passed at the conclusion of their first semester.  Students enrolled in co-requisite English resulted in 29 (62%) of them successfully passing the college-level portion of the co-requisite pairing. Accounting for student interested in non-STEM or STEM program, of the 5 students who enrolled into co-requisite learning support and MATH 1001 (non-STEM) 100% of them successfully passed. For students (10) aspiring to complete a STEM program of study, 90% of the students enrolling into co-requisite learning support and MATH 1111, successfully completed the college-level portion of the pairing. (See Appendix C) The successes realized over the past year naturally lend themselves to the overall focus of the Complete College Georgia initiative and upholds the institution’s mission to ensure a shortened time to degree in spite of initial placement into learning support and, increase graduation and retention. Learning support staff, advisors, success coaches, and peer tutors have worked hard to ensure that students are successful and have a clear understanding of the many resources available to them to ensure their continued success.

In addition to the efforts focused on identifying best practices in the area of learning support, the college has remained diligent in its efforts to promote the early and always alert process that was mentioned in the institution’s initial campus report in 2012. The college has witnessed the initiative evolve into a process that has resulted in the contact of students for more than 1,400 negative and positive alerts in Fall 2014. The effort has proved beneficial for our students and faculty and staff. Upon contact, students are made aware of the many resources they have available to them and reminded of the consequences of not putting forth effort and striving to be successful. The process provides faculty with a continuous opportunity to share with advisors throughout the semester the status of their students (positive and negative) with the understanding that advisors will make contact with students to share with them ways that they can improve and be successful or to encourage if the student was doing well. Advisors throughout this process remain informed of their advisee’s status and have a constant stream of communication from faculty about the status of their advisees. This initiative continues to show promise, and a portion of students’ success can be attributed to the interventions put into place early, and are ongoing, throughout the semester. 

Bainbridge State College is located in one of the most agrarian regions in the state of Georgia, and has a very high farming population. One of the issues that has been identified among the college’s population of students is the fact that many students are heavily involved in farming activities at various times throughout the year. The need for students to split their time between being a student and attending class, while also providing their share of farm work results in students not achieving the highest level of success (e.g., grades and completion). Recognition of this challenge lead the institution to identify and implement the use of various instructional delivery methods and techniques that would provide students the flexibility of being a student and still dedicate the time needed for harvesting. One mode of delivery that has proved quite beneficial is the offering of online classes. During the 2012-13 academic year 13% of all class sections were offered online. By Fall 2014 the college‘s online offering had increased to 17% of the total class section offering. While an increase in the number of course offerings may offer an idea of the popularity of this instructional delivery method, success rates serve as a true determinant of whether the online instruction method is one that would promote student success and encourage completion. Collaboration among faculty and the director for the Center for Teaching Excellence to create and pilot online classes that would provide the same quality of instruction found in face-to-face. For example, in Fall 2013, student success rates (earned A, B, C, S) in online classes was 62.86%. In Fall 2014 the overall success rate for online classes was 67%---a little more than 4% increase.  During the same semesters, face-to-face success rates were 55.94% and 69.47% respectively.

In addition to the challenges inherent with living in an area rich in farming, the institution’s main campus location in conjunction to the counties in its service region, many students find it challenging to travel the distance to the main campus where the greatest variety of courses are offered more frequently than at campus centers, such as the Early County Center.  Although a number of class sections are offered at the center, there are several instances in which course enrollments may be too low and result in the class being canceled; nevertheless, students may need the classes to complete their program. To overcome this challenge, two new instructional delivery methods were employed that would increases the likelihood of students being able to enroll in the classes needed to progress: flex scheduling and telecourses. Telecourse and flex scheduling are scheduled to be offered in Fall 2015.  Flex scheduling is designed for classes that traditionally have low enrollment. This type scheduling offers students at least two periods of time on a given day(s) from which they can choose to attend. If for some reason a student is unable to attend the AM session, they may choose the PM session (or vice versa)---or both sections.  For Fall 2015 a total of two (2) flex courses are being offered with a combined enrollment of 15 students. Telecourses, another option students can take advantage of, are intended for student who unable to physically make a class offered on the main campus or at a center it is being offered.  This fall (2015) a total of four (4) telecourses are being offered with an enrollment of 76 students.  Students on our main campus or at the Early County Center are able to attend class via classroom teleconference technology where the instructor is physically present at one location, yet can interact and engage students in real-time at another campus location. These methods provide students with flexibility and additional options that will assist them in maintaining their success and completing their desired program(s) in a timely manner. The institution is hopeful that the results of this implementation will show success over time and can be extended to other campus centers in the future.

The priority of completion to the college is evident not only in the initiatives described in this report but is also demonstrated by its inclusion as one of the three goals in Bainbridge State College’s Strategic Plan for 2015-2020: increasing  the number of students who complete academic programs and degrees. Therefore, the college will continue to pilot programs to determine which resources, instructional methods, and processes will have the greatest impact on student success; while continuing the support of recently implemented programs for which student success is evident. 

INSTITUTIONAL GOALS, STRATEGIES, AND ACTIVITIES

Bainbridge State College’s goals and strategies are drawn from the goals and associated strategies highlighted in Part I: Campus Plan Strategy Survey that match our needs, mission, and resources.  The following is a summary of the work and resulting outcomes through Fall 2014.

High Impact Strategy

Establish criteria for identifying students who may need special interventions in the semester.

Goal

Provide intrusive advising to keep students on track to graduate.

Summary of Activities

  • Continuation of Always Alert and re-launch of Early Alert systems.
  • Early Alert process requires that students be contacted earlier in the semester after the drop/add period
  • Always Alert and Early Alert processes include a comment section on the alert file that provides instructors an opportunity to clearly explain the student’s needs and weakness; while also providing valuable information to advisors to assist students in developing a more specific success plan
  • Have embedded peer mentors in some Learning Support and DFW courses; plan to add to FYE courses but need increased funding for peer mentors
  • Plan to continue success coaching in online courses
  • Have implemented proactive advising model for first-year students with professional counselors
  • Plan to fully implement Degree Works for use by students, faculty, and advisor
  • Degree Works to be fully accessible to all students, staff, and faculty by August 19, 2015
  • Plan to implement a second-year faculty advisors model for students with 31 or more credit hours under the leadership of the director of College Completion

Baseline Status

The institution’s Early Alert and Always Alert initiatives was fully implemented in Fall 2012, with continual updates to the process since inception.  (See Appendix D)

  • Reported alerts included
    • 2012-13 à Strategy implementation
    • 2013-14 à 484 alerts report; 346 negative _ 138 positive
    • 2014-15 à 1834 alerts reported; 1,404 negative + 403 positive
      • Total alerts include students that may have received more than one negative or positive alert from one or more faculty members
  • Number of students with reported alerts (duplicated)
    • 2013-14 à Data not available
    • 2014-15 à 1,459 students
  • Faculty participation in the alert system included
    • 2012-13 à Implementation year
    • 2013-14 à Data not available
    • 2014-15 à 58 faculty
  • During the 2012-2013 academic year the embedding of peer tutors was piloted. The college has continued this process, identifying and then embedding peer mentors into courses that have significantly higher D,F,W rates
    • 2012-13 (Implementation year)à 46 sections had embedded peer tutors
    • 2013-14à 84 sections had embedded peer tutors
    • 2014-15à 58 sections had embedded peer tutors (for Fall 2014 and Spring 2015; Summer 2015 not available)
  • Success coaching in online classes has also been implemented at the college and has proven successful.
    • Fall 2014 there were 127 online classes in which a success coach was present
    • Spring 2015 included 112 online classes with a success coach
    • Summer 2015 included the involvement of a success coach in 88 online classes
  • In Fall 2015 the college will implement a faculty advising model that places students with 31 or more hours with a faculty advisor in their discipline. Information gained beginning in Fall 2015 will serve as the initiative’s baseline for subsequent years.
    • In Spring 2015 1,189 students were identified as enrolled and who had more than 31 hours. These individuals will be paired with faculty advising and be granted priority registration beginning Fall 2015

Interim Measures Of Progress

  • Partial implementation of Degree Works accomplished. Additional implementation will follow after training in Fall 2014
  • Percentage of faculty reporting Early and Always Alerts
  • Student success in courses with Peer Mentors
  • Student engagement in Student Life activities and clubs/organizations
  • Percentage of students using Degree Works
  • Percentage of faculty using Degree Works
  • Number of at-risk students contacted and counseled
  • Number of students contacted with positive feedback
  • Number of courses with peer mentors
  • Number of online courses with success coach
  • Number of students with more than 31 credit hours who are registered during the early registration
  • Satisfaction of students with advising model
  • Satisfaction of faculty advisors with advising model

Measures Of Success

  • Number of degrees and credentials conferred
  • Time to degree
  • Percentage of credits successfully completed (A, B, C, S)
  • Percentage of online credits successfully completed (A, B, C, S)

Lessons Learned

  • By working together as a collective unit we were able to reach more students. Students were contacted by his or her academic advisor, reducing the amount of confusion for students. By requiring the student to meet with his or her academic advisor there was a level of comfort when discussing their academic difficulties.   Students could also see that someone other than their instructor was monitoring and holding them accountable for their academic progress.
  • The earlier students are contacted the better chance there is for them to receive the help needed for the student to get back on track.
  • Improving the communication between professional advisors and faculty members has provided beneficial in holding the student accountable for responding to the alert.
  • Increased communication with faculty results in a significant increase in the number of faculty using the alert system processes.
  • An increased emphasis on communicating with students receiving negative alerts remains an important factor because it is these students who are at risk and are in danger of not successfully completing the course
  • Implementation of the Degree Works has proved to be long-lived; however, the college is excited about the progress and set implementation date for Fall 2015. Post implementation, we anticipate being able to determine and use clear criteria for identifying students who are off track as we continue to develop and use our Student Educational Planner via Degree Works

High Impact Strategy

Ensure that all remediation is targeted toward supporting students in the skills they need to pass the collegiate course

Goal

Increase the likelihood of degree completion by transforming the way that remediation is accomplished.

Summary of Activities

  • Continuation of Learning Support massive redesign
  • Have provided faculty development and follow-through by the Learning Support faculty coordinator to ensure proper instruction of foundations and paired courses
  • Work with academic counselors to explain effective advisement with the redesigned courses
  • Plan to fully implement a two-semester STEM/nonSTEM pathway for students to complete remediation

Baseline Status

  • See Appendix A and C for foundation and co-requisite remediation data.

Interim Measures Of Progress

  • The success rates of corequisite English learning support and English 1101 for the Fall 2014 and Spring 2015.
  • The success rates of corequisite English learning support and TECH 1140.
  • The success rates of co-curricular paired English with ENGL 1101 and TECH 1140.
  • Tracking MATH 0987 students in corequisite MATH 1001 and MATH 0989 students into corequisite MATH 1111
  • The success rates of corequisite mathematics learning support with MATH 1001 and MATH 1101 for the Fall 2014 and Spring 2015.
  • Comparing success rates of students who passed LS classes with those who did not place in LS

Measures Of Success

  • Success rate of students enrolled in Learning Support English (paired; corequisite)
  • Success rate of students enrolled in Learning Support Math (paired; corequisite)
  • Student time (e.g., semesters) to Learning Support exit
  • Degrees conferred among Learning Support students
  • Success rate of Learning Support students in non-STEM and STEM programs
  • Percent and number of students who complete Learning Support without suspension

Lessons Learned

  • Additional work is necessary for making sure counselors and faculty are advising students about the proper math pathway.  There remain instances where a few students are registered for upper-level math courses, yet have not taken College Algebra.  Oftentimes, this may be as a result of the student switching pathways.

High Impact Strategy

Continuation the QuickStart Program for matriculating students before the semester begins.

Goal

Increase the likelihood of degree completion by transforming the way that remediation is accomplished.

Summary of Activities

  • The competency-based intensive, 80-hour summer workshop designed to prepare students to exit learning support requirements in math and also to demonstrate mastery of the student learning outcomes of our First Year Experience (FYE) class, FYE 0100, Foundations for Success was continued. This program required partnerships with local high schools, instruction from Learning Support, FYE, peer mentors, and support from the institutional budget process.

Baseline Status

  • In Summer 2014 there were a total of 10 participants.
    • 7 students improved scores to exit learning support and were placed in college level courses
    • 1 students improved scores and was placed in to paired math
    • 2 students improved scored, yet were placed in foundations math
    • The average participant (now BSC student) GPA for fall 2014 was 2.62
    • The average GPA for spring 2015 was 2.72
    • All participants (100%) remain enrolled at the college
  • In Summer 2015 there were a total of 11 participants.
    • 6 students improved scores to exit learning support and were placed in college level courses
    • 2 students improved scores and was placed in to paired math
    • 3 students improved scored, yet were placed in foundations math
    • 9 of the 11 participants (82%) are enrolled at the college for Fall 2015

Interim Measures Of Progress

  • Number of high school student participants
  • Number of non-high school student participants
  • COMPASS algebra exam scores
  • Competency-based measures of FYE

Measures Of Success

  • Number of participants who pass COMPASS algebra exam and exempt learning support math
  • Number of participants who receive institutional credit for FYE 0100 (grade of K)
  • Participant success rate in first college-level math
  • Time-to-degree among program participants
  • Overall success rate of program participants
  • Retention rate of program participants

Lessons Learned

  • To apply for the nursing program at BSC, one must not have any Learning Support requirements.  With the implementation of the USG’s redesigned remedial policy for Learning Support, this particular group of students has a greater chance of having to take a credit-level math course which they do not need.  For instance, with the old LS policy, students could pass MATH 0097 and MATH 0099 and have met LS math requirements.  The new policy requires students to pass a math foundations class and then a paired math class which contains a credit-level math course.  This credit-level math course is not a required course for the nursing program.  Therefore, it is beneficial for BSC to offer a math workshop for this group of students in order for them to COMPASS retest in an effort to increase their score to exit any LS requirements.

High Impact Strategy

Implement alternative delivery models, such as hybrid instruction, flipped classrooms, and emporium-model instruction

Goal

Restructure instructional delivery to support educational excellence and student success

Summary Of Activities

  • Several faculty flipped parts of courses beginning in 2013-14 in an attempt to discern whether or not the method worked for them. Many faculty reported that the method worked well, and that they intend to either keep or expand the use of this instructional method. Part of the faculty development for 2014-15 academic year was on the flipping method
  • Identify and determine the most successful delivery modes for each academic program
  • Continuation of C-term enrollment (first implemented in Fall 2014) that starts two weeks into the 15-week term and is aimed at improving the success of students who show up late to register for classes
  • Added telecourse options to multiple locations at once with one instructor
  • Added FLEX courses created to allow students the opportunity to participate and satisfy course requirements via the option to attend a class at any of the times the class is offered

Baseline Status

  • 8.1: Are fully online courses offered to students at the institution? Yes. See Appendix A
  • 8.2: Are alternative delivery models implemented at the institution? Yes. See Appendix A
  • Total number of C-term sections offered
    • 2014-15 à 73 sections offered during C-term (Fall 2014 was first semester offered)
  • Total number of hybrid sections offered
    • 2012-13 à 268
    • 2013-14 à 284
    • 2014-15 à 225
  • Total number of online sections offered
    • 2012-13 à 354
    • 2013-14 à 337
    • 2014-15 à 345

Interim Measures Of Progress

  • Average number of students/sections in new delivery models
  • Number of courses implemented with alternative delivery method
  • Number of classes offered in C-term
  • Number of telecourses offered
  • Number of FLEX courses offered

Measures Of Success

  • Success of students in alternative format delivery models compared to traditional formats
  • Success of students who register in last 2 days this Fall in C-term classes compared to last Fall in regular term classes
  • Number of credits successfully completed for courses offered completely online
  • Number and % of degrees conferred in alternate delivery models
  • Number of credits successfully completed (A, B, C, S grade) for courses offered via alternative delivery models

Lessons Learned

  • There are a great number of students who decide to register late. As a result we had to increase the number of C-term offerings and place a limit on the number allowed to enroll upon registration opening, as we found that students who registered on-time are interested in C-term offerings, too.
  • Continued development opportunities were provided to faculty to increase their knowledge and support their application of the hybrid and flipped classroom instructional methods. The introduction of these methods seem to be a good fit for the college. There continues to be an increasing number of students who prefer and register for hybrid courses; however, there were concerns for some courses and what options could be provided to students to increase enrollment, retention, and success. What resulted was a plan to offer telepresence and FLEX courses. Telepresence course offerings will allow students at off-campus site centers to attend classes broadcasted from the main campus (or vice versa). This method of instruction increases opportunities for students to register for courses they may not have been available at their off-site center.  FLEX course offerings provide students an opportunity to attend a specific course any of the specified times the course is scheduled. For instance, if a MATH 1001 was offered on MW and TR from 11 AM to 12:15 and 6 PM to 7:15 PM, a student could choose to attend any day at either of the times listed. With many working students, the FLEX class offering increases the students’ opportunity to satisfy course requirements by attending class at a time right for them.
  • Previous reports regarding the flipped method appeared to be promising for the college’s students; however, the loss of the director for the Center for Teaching Excellence has resulted in the temporary suspension of development and tracking in this area. The college realizes the need to provide continuous professional development opportunities on various instructional methods such as the flipped and emporium style methods and plans to recruit a professional to provide such opportunities in the near future.

Bainbridge State College has worked tirelessly to promote student success through high-impact strategies, stronger enforcement of academic progress standards, and a significant expansion of support services; yet retention, progression, and graduation rates remain lower than desired.  It is clear that we must do more, and effective July 1st of this year, we completed an organizational restructure that we are hopeful will provide expanded and focused leadership and support for completion and retention, and that will enable us to better organize and assess existing strategies and develop new approaches as needed. The reorganization included combining academic and student affairs underneath one vice president, the addition of an assistant deans for academic affairs, and an associate dean for student affairs.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS

Bainbridge State College prides itself on upholding its mission and ensuring students success. The college recognizes the importance of maintaining processes and programs that prove to be significantly successful, while also understanding that some processes may need to be tweaked or abandoned after review. One of the resounding themes throughout this evaluative process was an increase in communication. Recently, the college underwent a reorganization change that resulted in the loss of some positions and the creation of others.  The college anticipates that the new organizational structure will strongly support the college’s mission, the goals associated with Complete College Georgia, and support  increased communication. One way in which the college can achieve increased and consistent communication is to develop a data governance team of interested campus professionals to determine which data will be used and this information will be used to best represent the college and identifying a tool that will provide real-time or up-to-date information in one location that is available to all interested employees upon request.

This evaluative period not only brought to light the need for increased communication, but also the need for meaningful, continuous tracking of data that will more easily and directly lend itself to reporting information as needed to requests such as those required by Complete College Georgia.  Additionally, the level of attention given to tracking will easily identify whether current strategies are resulting in student success and support decisions to continue or abandon current strategy activities. Again, with a reorganization and the loss of individuals rich with institution knowledge over the past few years, the consistent tracking of data over time seems to have been lost. Although this has been somewhat of a set-back, the college plans to move forward, again, identifying key personnel that will serve as data governance members and that will help ensure the constant and continual tracking.

In addition to the resounding theme of increased communication and the need for greater attention to tracking every aspect of current strategies, it is in the college’s best interest to focus mightily on fewer initiatives given a dearth of resources.  The college’s faculty and staff are wonderful in their respective areas and beyond; however, reality informs that even the most capable and engaged are only capable of performing most efficiently when not overextended. The college is eager to see what the following year will bring, with an increased focus perfecting fewer items that will aid our students in being successful. With equal amounts of eagerness, the institution looks forward to current practices becoming norms and for opportunities to redirect its focus on identifying and implementing new strategies that will benefit the college community as a whole.