RACE/ETHNICITY

Number

Percent

Hispanic/Latino

183

3.3%

American Indian or Alaskan Native

12

0.2%

Asian

93

1.7%

Black/African American

2525

44.9%

Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander

5

0.1%

White

2739

48.7%

Two or More races

47

0.8%

Race Unknown or Undeclared

19

0.3%

GENDER

Male

29%

Female

71%

ENROLLMENT STATUS

Full-time

54%

Part-time

46%

Part-Time Enrollment 2009-2014

Adult Learners (25 and Older)

Term

% of  Part-Time Students Enrolled

Term

% of Adult Learners

Fall 2009

51%

Fall 2009

75%

Fall 2010

53%

Fall 2010

67%

Fall 2011

52%

Fall 2011

62%

Fall 2012

50%

Fall 2012

60%

Fall 2013

53%

Fall 2013

52%

Fall 2014

54%

Fall 2014

43%

High-impact Strategy:

Strategy 1: Transform Advising

Related Goal

Goal 2:  Increase the number of degrees that are earned “on time” (associate degrees in 2 years, bachelor’s degrees in 4 years) also contributes to Goals 1 & 6.

Summary of Activities

Strategy 1: The previous CCG report detailed the specific strategies of focus related to advising and faculty perception is now positive that the changes have been implemented. With this process in place, students begin classes on time and have quality advising that is much different from the last minute advising experienced during late registration. Changes to advising that were highlighted in the last CCG report are listed below:

• DSC has successfully implemented the new advising/registration process.
• Removed “Late Registration” day
• Changed “Pre-registration” to “Early Advising”
• Expanded the number of early advising days to 15 during the fall and spring semesters and 10 during the summer semester as compared to 5 days during each semester previously.
• Expanded communication to students about the importance of early advising via email, postcards, signs on campus, and electronic announcements via our myDC portal, D2L, and main website.
• Redefined the role of the Advisor

While the changes above are still being refined, the primary focus of advising changes during the 2014-2015 academic year was on the New Student Orientation Program, which allowed students to be advised and registered for classes on an earlier timeframe.

• DSC has successfully implemented its on-campus and online New Student Orientation Program. The institution was initially committed to requiring first-time, full-time students to attend one of the scheduled on-campus orientation or online orientation sessions before they register for courses, but the institution has not put the requirement in place at this time.

Baseline Status

Student GPA based on advising and registration timeframe Fall 2013

Results of Independent Samples t-tests and Descriptive Statistics for GPA During the Fall 2014 Semester by Timeframe Registered for Classes.

Student GPA based on advising and registration timeframe Fall 2014

N = Number of student

Statistical Analysis of Baseline Status

There are statistically significant differences, at the .001 level of significance, between college students who are advised and register early compared with those who register late with their semester grade point averages (GPAs). Statistically, there is little chance that the higher GPAs achieved by those who were advised and registered early were due to chance.  Results show that students who are advised and register early, earn a significantly higher GPA than those who are advised and registered later.

Measures of Success

The percentage of DSC students who are being advised and registering early has increased by nearly 15% since 2012

The mean GPA of those students and the positive difference from those who were advised and registered later has remained consistent.

Lessons Learned

With an obvious GPA advantage to those students who are advised and register early we will continue to push our students to take advantage of this option.

With the ability to identify and target a population of our students, those who register later, who are underperforming compared to their counterparts, we can look for other reasons that might be impacting this group of students and work to build services to assist them outside of early advising and registration.

High-impact Strategy:

Strategy 2: Fifteen to Finish Campaign

Related Goal

Goal 2:  Increase the number of degrees that are earned “on time” (associate degrees in 2 years, bachelor’s degrees in 4 years) also contributes to Goals 1 & 6.

Summary of Activities

Strategy: As a part of the new student orientation experience, incoming students hear numerous presentations from faculty, staff, and administrators about making the transition to college.  Incoming students spend one-on-one time with advisors in their designated major who assist with course selection, clarification of institutional requirements, and answer specific questions pertaining to programs of study.  The Fifteen to Finish initiative is a focal point of the new student orientation experience, particularly as it relates to the time spent with the academic advisors and during registration.

DSC targeted First-Time, Full-Time freshmen participating in New Student Orientation as an audience for the Fifteen to Finish campaign, and is a strategy that relates specifically to increasing the number of degrees earned “on time”.  A Fifteen-to-Finish presentation has been part of each new student orientation since fall of 2014.  This presentation has captured over 870 new college students and their parents with the benefits of Fifteen to Finish. Also, an additional 122 online students were presented information about the benefits during the online orientations.

Baseline Status

Percent of First Time, Full Time students enrolling in 15 or more credit hours.  The Fifteen-to Finish campaign was launched on the DSC campus for all students attending new student orientation in fall 2014, so fall 2013 cohort serves as baseline (32%)

Percent of First Time, Full Time students completing 15 or more credit hours in first semester, Fall 2013 baseline.

Interim Measures of Progress

Data results for 2010-2015 are presented below indicating trends for First Time, Full Time freshman taking 15 credit hours or more.

Data results for 2010-1015 are presented below indicating the trends for percent of First Time, Full Time freshman earning 15 or more credit hours in first term.

Measures of Success

• Percent of First Time, Full Time students registering for 15 or more credit hours with a target of increasing the percentage each year by 3%.
• Percent of First Time, Full Time students earning 15 or more credit hours in first term with a target of increasing 1% per year.
• Percent of First Time, Full Time students graduating on time with a target of improving by 1% each year.

Lessons Learned

• There is a need to identify additional strategies outside of the new student orientation to deliver the importance of the Fifteen-to-Finish campaign.  This will be particularly important to encourage enrollment in 15 or more credit hours beyond just the first term for First Time, Full Time students.  This will be necessary to ultimately shorten time to degree and facilitate degree completion “on-time”.
• There are a significant number of students that have not participated in the new student orientation programs.  These students, primarily part time or non-traditional students at DSC, need to be delivered the information regarding philosophy and benefits of Fifteen to Finish.
• The college must continue to emphasize to students and parents the academic and financial benefits of on-time college completion through the Fifteen-to-Finish Campaign.

High-impact strategy

Strategy 3: Transform Remediation

Transform Remediation by (a) ending the practice of requiring students to withdraw from all collegiate courses when they withdraw from learning support courses and (b) placing students in co-requisite remediation courses with unlimited attempts for success.

Related goal

Goal 7:  Increase the likelihood of degree completion by transforming the way that remediation is accomplished.

Summary of activities

(a)   DSC ended the practice of requiring students to drop all courses when a learning support course is dropped. The only exception is that students cannot drop a co-requisite course without dropping the attached collegiate-level course.  DSC hosted five different training sessions open to the entire campus regarding these new changes to educate them on the initiative and all other learning support changes. 

(b)  In fall 2014, DSC added ENGL 0999 (+ENGL 1101) to the schedule for the first time and allowed students to place directly into co-requisite remediation if they required reading and/or English remediation. In spring 2015, DSC began offering co-requisite remediation for quantitative reasoning (MATH 1001 + MATH 0997), and in fall 2015, will begin offering co-requisite remediation for college algebra (MATH 1111 + MATH 0999).  Students will also be able to place directly into math co-requisite remediation in fall 2015, meaning that the program will be at full-scale implementation for all learning support courses by fall 2015.  While students in foundations-level learning support courses are allowed only two attempts to exit, students in co-requisite remediation have unlimited attempts to exit.  DSC has seen the biggest impact on the number of students who are suspended for learning support attempts.  Our numbers over the past few semesters have dropped dramatically!

Baseline status

Number of students who were withdrawn from all courses in fall 2013 after dropping one or more learning support courses:

While this number is not very high, it is also important to note that many students chose to stop attending class and receive an F rather than have all of their courses removed. Of course, not all F grades are reflective on non-attendance, but a significant number certainly are.  Students who continued to attend learning support courses and participate in their coursework would receive an IP grade instead of an F. 

Percentage of students who received an F for a learning support course in fall 2013:

The option to provide co-requisite remediation has helped our students in two ways. First of all, it allows them to successfully complete learning support and their gateway course in one semester. Additionally, the ability to have unlimited attempts cuts down on the number of students who would have been suspended for reaching their max attempts in learning support.

Pass Rates for Learning Support Reading and English

In fall 2013, 69% of students passed ENGL 0099 and 73% of students passed READ 0099; this includes students who were in their first and second attempts.

Suspensions

Spring 2012 - Number of students who were suspended for max learning support attempts in reading, English, and/or math: 139

Spring 2013 - Number of students who were suspended for max learning support attempts in reading, English, and/or math: 127

Interim measures of progress

In fall 2014, all students were able to drop a learning support course without dropping everything. As a W does not count as an attempt for Foundations courses, this gives students an additional chance to complete a course when they feel more prepared.  However, not many students have taken advantage of this opportunity.  In fall 2014, only 27 students dropped a learning support course. Additionally, the fail rate continued to be high for fall 2014 LS courses:

As was mentioned above, the creation of co-requisite remediation

Pass Rates for Learning Support Reading and English

Of those who tested directly into ENGL 0989 in fall 2014, 70% were able to successfully pass the course by their second attempt.  The pass rate for these students in their first attempt was 62%.

In fall 2014, 71 students were enrolled in ENGL 1101 and ENGL 0999. The pass rates for the first semester of co-requisite remediation were not as high as originally hoped. 

First Attempt

Second Attempt

As we started the math co-requisite in the spring, we do not yet have data for this area.

Suspensions

In spring 2014, we were able to make large improvements with a pilot which, allowed students to switch their math pathways.  This resulted in about 50 fewer students who would have been suspended.  With the full implementation of our co-requisite remediation for fall 2015 semester, that number has dropped by 50 more students. Students who had completed MATH 0097 with a C or higher were able to transition into MATH 0997+1001 (if their pathway allowed) or MATH 0999+1111, both of which allow for unlimited attempts. 

Number of students who were suspended for max learning support attempts in spring 2014: 78

Number of students who were suspended for max learning support attempts in spring 2015: 22

Measures of success

(a)   Prior to completing this report, our institution had not developed measures of success for this strategy, aside from tracking those who were able to drop the learning support courses without deleting their entire schedule, which in itself is a success.  However, we are currently writing a report that will pull the semester GPAs for those students who do withdraw from a learning support course to see if they are still successful in their other courses. 

(b)   Overall, 56% of students who tested into co-requisite remediation passed the course by their second attempt.  Though this number is not exceedingly high, and even though it is lower than the pass rate for the stand-alone learning support courses, we have seen an improvement in college-level course success.  In fall 2013, only 38% of students who had previously been enrolled in a learning support reading or English course passed ENGL 1101 in fall 2013 (this includes students on any attempt of ENGL 1101). 

This speaks to CCG strategy 7.3: Ensure that all remediation is targeted toward supporting students in the skills they need to pass the collegiate course.  Though our students’ pass rates in the stand-alone remediation courses for English and reading were higher before the revamp, their pass rates for their college-level (ENGL 1101) course were not.  The new courses are geared toward creating success for ENGL 1101 and not for passing an exit COMPASS test, as is evidenced by the data above.

We will also continue to monitor the number of students who are suspended because of maximum learning support attempts, particularly as the new policy for only two attempts in math learning support is implemented at the foundations level.

Lessons learned

(a)   Though we provided training campus-wide to address this policy change, we did not see a significant change in those students who did drop the learning support course, and the failure rate for the learning support courses is still very high.  To counteract this, the instructors will begin more intrusive advising for their students with the help of our new Transitional Studies and Academic Retention Coordinator. The instructors and the coordinator will work with learning support students to be sure they are aware of their options and the implications of withdrawing from or staying in the course. Of course, it is preferable for a student to take his or her learning support course in the first semester and pass it on the first attempt, but for some very unprepared students, withdrawing from the course and continuing to work on refining skills until the next semester is sometimes the better way to go. We also hope that as the new EPI and MPI indices are put in place that we will have a better way to place students in a way that will allow them to be most successful. Finally, when the math pathways and learning support levels are at full implementation in fall 2015, we hope that this will also assist students to be more successful in their future coursework and not just their learning support courses.

(b)   Though students are not being suspended any longer, we are still concerned about the pass rates for students in co-requisite remediation. To further help students who are struggling in English 1101, we have established a Supporting Opportunities for Success (SOS) team for our 1101 sections.  The SOS team members will specifically provide support to those students in their second attempt of ENGL 1101, so that their second attempt will hopefully be their last.  Of course, assistance will be provided to any student requesting support.  In addition to students reaching out for support, instructors will also work with the SOS team to create plans of action for struggling students.

This team will consist of our Writing Center personnel and our Transitional Studies and Academic Retention Coordinator.  They will be placed in the GaView support shells or online courses of our 1101 sections to assist repeating students with any difficulty they may face.  The Writing Center personnel can provide specific assistance for essay writing and documentation strategies, and they will direct students to appropriate personnel in the library when needed. The Retention Coordinator will point students toward other campus resources for additional problems they may face including disability services, counseling needs, or help with motivation and time management. 

The SOS team will begin with pilot sections in fall 2015.  The team members will be placed in all sections of ENGL 1101 which are paired with 0999.

Finally, as we will be at full-scale implementation of all learning support in math and reading/English in fall 2015, we will continue to track student success not just in learning support but in related college-level courses, as well.

High Impact Strategy

Strategy 1: Online Support

Strategy 2: Online Content

Related Goal

Goal 8: Enhance instructional delivery and student services to support educational excellence and student success.

Summary of Activities

Strategy 1:  During the fall 2014 semester, 64% of DSC students participated in distance education by taking at least one online class, and 34% of DSC students were fully online.  To more effectively serve the student population, Online Support Specialists (OSS’s) were assigned to fully online students in each major area of the Institution. These Online Support Specialists provided specialized support to this student population, which included but was not limited to, assistance with admissions, advising, registration, course navigation, and proctored testing.

Number of "online only" students

Additionally, in fall 2013 approximately 17% of the total credit hours taken were garnered from students taking classes solely online.

The support specialists utilized an ACCESS database to track the number and type of student contacts for the semester. This data was analyzed to assist in identifying potential gaps in student support for fully at-a-distance students.

Strategy 2: DSC contracts with select full-time faculty who, as content experts, create MasterShells([2]) for specific disciplines, mentor new and adjunct faculty, and review courses periodically throughout the semester. This online lead designer/faculty program ensures that MasterShells cover all required learning objectives, meet DSC’s standards for academic rigor, and assist student success by providing a well-organized course structure.

Baseline Status

Strategy 1:

• Number/type of student calls to Online Support Specialist
• Online only student retention rates

Strategy 2:

• Number of available MasterShell content for core classes
• DWF rates for online classes with MasterShell content in use

Interim Measures of Progress

Strategy 1: Between September 1, 2014 and December 3, 2014, 2,720 contacts were made of which 1,614 were unduplicated student contacts. Eighty-two percent of the contacts dealt with direct course concerns ranging from advising and proctoring questions to course navigation issues. Only 3% of the contacts were specific to academic services such as online tutoring or other academic support. While 79% of the attempted online credit hours for fall 2015 were successfully completed, the online learning division will continue to take proactive steps to ensure that fully at-a-distance students are aware of academic support services available to them. This will include additional contacts through email, phone calls, and webinar sessions, which should further increase the percentage of successfully completed online credit hour attempts in future semesters.

Strategy 2: The online learning division has worked diligently to create MasterShell content for specific core classes and to assign mentors to new online faculty members and online adjuncts. MasterShell content ensures that learning objectives and assessment criteria are included in the course content and that they meet DSC’s standards for academic rigor. Online Learning implemented the use of MasterShells fall 2012. Content has been developed for sixteen courses, which are routinely staffed by adjunct faculty. Full-time faculty members may choose to use the master content, but adjunct faculty are required to use the content as a base shell. During any given fall term, 60 to 130 online sections utilize MasterShell content.

DWF rates tracked from fall 2011 (baseline data) through fall 2014 demonstrated a disappointing increase from 2011 to 2013, with a decline from 2013 to 2014. The Online Division is cautiously optimistic that the approach may be demonstrating some benefit. Additional monitoring will need to be done before any firm conclusions can be made. Furthermore, an in-depth analysis should be performed to determine inconsistencies in data, define student characteristics, and identify gaps in curriculum development and delivery decisions.

Overall Measures of Success

Strategy 1:

• Retention rates of "online only" students who establish a connection with the OSSs compared to those who do not.
• Comparison of student course evaluation survey questions 3 and 11, which deal specifically with course structure and academic rigor.
• Retention, persistence, and graduation rates for "online only" students and year-to-year comparisons using DWF reports

Strategy 2:

• A comparison between course shells with and without master content
• An analysis of DWF rates to determine F’s with effort and F’s without effort
• An analysis of DWF rates by course discipline and instructor.

Lessons Learned

The Online Learning Division continues to work with Enrollment Management teams to track online student populations. DSC has opted to use parameters other than student course load to assign the student campus code in Banner, which continues to make tracking online only students a challenge. In an attempt to identify online only students, a student attribute code was created and key Admission and Registrar staff were asked to ensure the code was applied correctly to student records.  There remains a learning curve regarding the student attribute code, and RPG numbers for online only students remain difficult to disengage from the overall student population.

High-impact strategy

Strategy 5: Expand dual enrollment programs.

Related Goal

Goal 6: Shorten time to degree completion through programs that allow students to earn college credit while still in high school (also relates to goal 1)

Summary of Activities

• A Full-time Dual Enrollment Coordinator position was created during fall of 2014.
• Policies for the program were created
• Developed a list of reports to be completed each semester to track academic achievement, credit hours, and demographics
• Included advertising in recruitment materials for the DSC Testing Center’s Institutional ACT for admission to the program.
• Added students to the “Early Alerts” process
• Entered into the new Move on When Ready agreement for the 2015-2016 school year

Baseline Status

• Number of students enrolled in ACCEL/ MOWR (Dual enrollment).
• Number of credit hours enrolled/earned

Interim Measures Of Progress

• 181 students participated in ACCEL fall 2014 compared to 75 participants in fall 2013. This represented a 241% increase in the number of participants from fall 2013 to fall 2014.
• Dual- enrollment students enrolled in a total of 1664 credits for the 2014 academic year compared to 726 credits for the 2013 academic year, a 229% increase.
• Additionally, preliminary statistics based on fall 2015 (185 students) enrollment showed an increase of 247% from fall 2013 to fall 2015.

Dual Enrollment Fall 2014

Measures of

Success

• Number of students enrolled in dual enrollment
• Number of credit hours enrolled
• Number of credits awarded to dual enrolled students- * currently collecting
• Number of high schools from which we enroll dual enrolled students

Lessons Learned

DSC realized the need to develop a customized orientation to help students’ progress and complete programs of study, while simultaneously meeting high school requirements. Students earning dual credit have many processes that are significantly different from first-time, full-time freshmen (admissions requirements and procedures, financial and payment procedures, etc.)

DSC created a Dual Enrollment Coordinator position for FY 15, but the institution discovered the need to provide more training opportunities for other members of the admissions team regarding recruitment strategies and assistance with advising and registration