The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) at MGA has been well-established with the hiring of additional staff to disseminate effective practices in teaching and learning for new instructors and for the continued professional development of full- and part-time faculty. It provides regular programming to support how faculty enrich their practices in order to enhance student learning. The CETL coordinates its training, consultations, and outcomes to promote stronger student success, stronger design of courses and online instruction, and continued emphasis on Momentum strategies for improving student retention, progression, and graduation rates.
Salesforce: MGA adopted the platform Salesforce in the past year and provided several training sessions for various stakeholders including the academic advisors and the academic success coaches. The initial rollout of Salesforce Student Success Hub in Phase 1 has centralized student support services, creating a seamless digital portal where students can access information, receive assistance, and engage in success plans. With integrated case management across Academics, Financial Aid, Bursar, and Registrar offices, students can navigate campus resources with ease, benefiting from improved response times and support. Automated communication and data-driven student journeys enhance engagement by proactively delivering critical updates and reminders via email and SMS, helping students stay informed and involved. This foundational phase improves student access to resources, raises awareness of available services, and supports consistent engagement, setting students on a successful academic path.
Observations and next steps:
In the past couple of years, Middle Georgia State University (MGA) has made great strides in helping our students succeed by planning initiatives to build the persistence, retention, and graduation rates. This is evident in improved one-year retention rates for FTFT bachelor’s degree seeking students from 60.9% fall 2022-fall 2023 to 65.30 % from fall 2023-fall 2024. Retention rates for first time freshman (increase from 58.4 to 60.20%), students who began full-time (61% to 64.3%), and for students who began with LS requirements (40.8 % to 44.9) also improved. This incremental progress seen across various metrics reflects the institution’s emphasis on student success.
MGA has strengthened its support structures in the past academic year by hiring academic success coaches, additional academic advisors, expanding peer mentoring, and strengthening the services provided by the CETL to provide faculty development in course redesign, new pedagogies for enhancing student success, and strategies for promoting a growth mindset in students. The Academic Advisors, Success Coaches and the Peer Mentors work collaboratively as a “success team” to support students. Early identification of at-risk students and specific populations like athletes, residential students, students on probation, etc., allows for focused outreach by the success team and a holistic proactive intervention strategy for advising, tutoring and mentoring. An outcome of this approach is that of the total number of undergraduate students enrolled in spring’24, 5.8 % ended the semester on probation, as compared to 6.2% in spring’23, a decrease of 0.4%. Additionally, there was a 10% increase in the number of students who started spring’24 on probation and ended the semester in good standing, as compared to fall’23. These efforts will continue to be strengthened and coordinated with implementation of Salesforce for case management, communication, and timely intervention.
Students in our Learning Support English and math classes need additional help to improve the course success outcomes through course redesign and academic support. To improve success rates in the LS courses, the English department is participating in the POISED initiative to implement a course redesign in English 1101. The math department has embedded success coaches in every learning support section of Quantitative Reasoning that are in weekly communication with the faculty for early identification of high-risk students to allow for timely interventions. The success coaches work with individual students to build success plans after assessing their needs followed by regular monitoring and feedback. The data obtained at the end of the semester will be analyzed and the approach expanded or modified for spring’25. Data for students in LS co-requisite section of Algebra has shown significant improvement in success outcomes. With the proposed changes for fall’24, further improvement in success rates for STEM majors in LS are anticipated. Persistence from the spring to the fall semester, however, remains a challenge for students at-risk and discussions to provide support to specific populations during the summer are ongoing to improve persistence rates. This is especially important as the percentage of students who placed into LS in Fall’24 increased by 1.5%, from 579 to 733.
Student engagement with the resources offered to provide academic and non-academic support remains a challenge. A big push in this direction has been the launching of the FYE initiative which has shown promising progress in its first year, highlighting its potential to significantly impact first-year student success. For example, the Knights Academy's (KA) engagement rate of 28.7% and a slight improvement from fall to spring participation indicate that students are finding value in the program’s content. This is crucial, as increased engagement is directly correlated with higher academic success and retention rates. With targeted interventions and enhanced support, the engagement rate is projected to rise by 20% in fall 2024. Additionally, the content completion rates within the KA have seen a steady increase which reflects the program’s effectiveness in encouraging students to actively participate in their learning journey and develop critical success skills.
The co-curricular activities facilitated by the Knights Community Crew have also shown substantial growth. This surge in participation underscores the program’s ability to foster a sense of community and belonging among students, which is essential for their overall development and well-being. The Knights Journey pilot in fall 2024 aims to integrate character development and 21st-century competencies into the student experience. This innovative approach to education not only prepares students for academic success but also equips them with the skills needed to tackle real-world challenges. The interactive nature of the Knights Journey is expected to drive high levels of engagement and participation, further enhancing the program’s overall impact.
MGA will continue to focus on our high-risk populations to help them succeed and improve their academic standing, persistence, and retention rates. Following a holistic approach and forming collaborations with other Divisions including Student Affairs and Enrollment Management, MGA will continue to work towards its goals of championing student success.
