University System of Georgia Campus Plan Update 2015

Goal 1

Increase the number of degrees that are earned “on time” (associate degrees in 2 years, bachelor’s degrees in 4 years)

High-impact strategy

Credit Intensity campaigns (15-to-Finish, 4 for U, Full Time is 15)

With public colleges and universities requiring (120) credit hours to attain a Bachelor's degree, completing 15 credit hours per semester is required to graduate on time and saves students and their parents additional costs for tuition, fees, housing, and meal plans. Graduating on time means students can begin working and accumulating wealth earlier. By finishing on time, students have more options: more career opportunities, competitive salaries, better benefits and security. Earning a degree pays, and earning it faster means making more money over the span of one's career.

Summary of Activities

15-to-Finish has emerged as a top priority endeavor for a number of schools across the University System.  Following upon our symposium in 2014, 11 institutions have reported that this strategy is a priority for their CCG work, and 21 report some activity in this area (an increase from 19 last year).  These activities include outreach to students at registration or matriculation, default block schedules of 15 credits or more, and tuition structures that incentivize 15 or more credits. 

Four institutions—Georgia College and State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia Regents University, and the University of Georgia—have adopted a tuition structure that promotes full-time attendance and on-time completion. By charging “full” tuition at a lower credit hour threshold, students are encouraged to maximize the number of credits they pursue.  In the case of Georgia Regents University, which has a very intentionally designed program to encourage students to take 15 or more credit hours per semester, there is evidence that this approach can be demonstrated to increase students attempting and completing 15 credits per semester.

Credit Intensity, University System 2012-2014

Baseline

In 2012, only 33 percent of undergraduates pursued 15 or more credits a semester.

Interim Measures of Progress

Campus adoption of credit intensity strategies; increase the percentage of students taking 15 or more credits a semester by 2 percentage points annually over five years.

Measures of Success

Increase in-time graduation rates by 10 percentage points by 2020.

Goal 2

Decrease excess credits earned on the path to getting a degree

High-impact strategy

Guided Pathways to Success

Guided Pathways to Success (GPS) is a Complete College America Grant-supported initiative to ensure that students receive guidance to complete degree programs efficiently, without taking excessive courses that will not count toward degrees. The goal is to provide clear degree roadmaps and intrusive advising to keep students on the path to a degree. Guided Pathways to Success moves away from offering students a "menu" of options that can lead to excessive credit accrual and no clear path to a degree.

Recognizing that students without declared majors are at particular risk for taking courses that will not count toward degree completion, institutions are encouraged to develop "meta-majors" for first-semester or first-year students that will direct students to take courses that will count toward any major within a broad grouping and strategies for undecided students to sample majors and careers.

Guiding students to degree completion requires supplementing human resources, such as advisors, with electronic tools that track student progress and guide them to take appropriate courses, in some cases by actively blocking inappropriate course selection. Programs already in use in USG institutions, such as Banner and Degree Works, supplemented by predictive analytics, can alert advisors when students veer off track, allowing advisors to intervene quickly and get students back on track to graduation.

Summary of Activities

Continuing work from 2014, eight campuses (Atlanta Metropolitan College, Kennesaw State University, Georgia Perimeter College, South Georgia State College, Georgia State University, University of North Georgia, Gordon State College, and Valdosta State University) have served as vanguard institutions, piloting structured scheduling and program maps to support their guided pathways work.  Institutions reported establishing milestone courses for pathways, with program maps added into advising platforms for student monitoring and interventions.  While GPS’s primary focus is on students who are full time, institutions are exploring options to establish program maps for part-time students as well to help keep this population on track to completion.

Interim Measures of Progress

Interim measures of success for this activity include the submission of implementation plans by the eight vanguard institutions; creation and implementation of program maps, block schedules and choice architecture at the vanguard institutions for high-enrollment programs; and establishment of standards for intrusive advising.  Milestones of success will be declines in overall credits accrued at graduation

Measures of Success

Students graduating with excess credits will decline over the next five years as campuses implement plans.

Goal 3

Provide targeted advising to keep students on track to graduate

High-impact strategy

USG institutions collect a wealth of data on their students.  The ability to use the power of this large pool of information to predict likely student outcomes under various scenarios has become increasingly feasible and important.  By pooling large sets of data and mining them for an array of factors it is possible to identify key courses that predict future success in a program, craft models on which student progression can be projected, and link interventions to clear points of concern.  Using data in this manner provides institutions with a powerful tool to help shape student outcomes and campus success.

Summary of Activities

Academic Advising was possibly the area of greatest interest to institutions in 2014-2015. For this year’s reporting cycle, 27 institutions indicated that they were focusing on advising, up from 24 the previous year.  Additionally, the Regents Advisory Committee on Academic Advising was re-established to provide a forum for campus advisors to provide a community and forum for sharing innovations, ideas and challenges among professional peers. 

The 2015 President’s Summit in April convened campus leaders around the issue of using analytics to align campus resources to maximize student success, with presentations from campuses across the system on how they apply student data to support advising, student progression and course scheduling to reduce bottlenecks.  This meeting also included representatives from Ad Astra, EAB, and D2L who discussed solutions for institutions that integrate into systems already in use on campus. 

Campuses have taken two distinct, but overlapping, paths with advising.  The first has been a focus on the use of generally centralized professional advisors to support students who are undeclared and guide them through the process of discerning their programs of study.  The second applies the considerable data institutions have gathered over the years on their students toward currently enrolled students to make informed recommendations for their academic paths.

Interim Measures of Progress

Campuses will identify milestones in program maps and predictor courses for future success; Predictive analytics is implemented on campus to identify students who are off-track, with appropriate interventions at appropriate times.

Measures of Success

Increase in overall percentage of credits successfully completed versus attempted each semester.

Goal 4

Award degrees to students who may have already met requirements for associate degrees via courses taken at one or more institutions.

High-impact strategy

Associate Degree You Deserve/Reverse Transfer/Credit When It’s Due

Summary of Activities

Several changes were undertaken in the 2014 academic year to support the awarding of associate degrees to students who begin their academic careers at associate degree granting institutions and complete the requirements for their degree after transferring to another USG institution to pursue a bachelor’s degree.  Among the obstacles to this process are identification of potentially eligible students, consent requirements on the transmission of student records, as well as an agreement from the student to be awarded the degree if they become eligible. 

For the short term, the System Office has contracted with education credentials management provider Parchment to help identify students who may be eligible and recommend their records be returned to the associate degree institution, upon approval of the student, for a degree audit.  Additionally, in order to facilitate the transfer of student records for this purpose moving forward, a change was made in the Georgia411 online application and on some paper applications to include opt-in consent requests for applicants to associate degree-granting institutions to have their records transferred back post-transfer for consideration, to be awarded an associate degree if eligible, and to have the record of this award communicated to their new institution.

Promotion and marketing around the initiative are planned for the Fall 2015, with the expectation that campuses will be awarding some degrees through this process that term.

Interim Measures of Progress

Establish an information release procedure for students upon matriculation allowing for data-sharing related to awarding degrees automatically; minimize fees for awarding of degrees; establish degree audit protocols for students with greater than 60 credit hours to determine degree eligibility; establish process to allow transfer students to opt-in for data sharing with associate-degree granting institution.

Measures of Success

The number of degrees awarded through reverse transfer of credit will increase.

Goal 5

Shorten time to degree completion through programs that allow students to earn college credit while still in high school and by awarding credit for prior learning that is verified by appropriate assessment.

High-impact strategy

Competency-based Education/Dual Enrollment/AP&IB/Early College

Summary of Activities

A number of dual enrollment options provide students in Georgia with the opportunity to enroll in college courses, provided they meet college entrance requirements and take courses from an approved list. If students meet course entrance and completion requirements, they receive high school and college credit.   Eligible dual enrollment students may defray the cost of their college courses through the Accel program, Move on When Ready or by receiving the HOPE Grant.  In addition to reducing the need for remediation, students successfully completing dual enrollment courses also reduce time to degree completion.

Interest has been growing nationally and in the state around the concept of competency-based education (CBE). This approach to learning measures student progress through an identified set of competencies, allowing them to move at their own pace accelerating through areas in which they have knowledge and skill and slowing down to master those that are new, challenging, or more complex for them.  Competencies would be stacked into degrees or certificates providing students greater flexibility in building their academic programs.  Such programs may also provide benefits to adult learners who may have considerable skillsets that are aligned with academic programs but for which they lack coursework.

Over the past year, the System Office has collaborated with Valdosta State University on a modest CBE pilot program for post-graduate education certification as a proof of model.  The lessons learned from this activity, as well as active discussions among key partners in the System Office and the USG New Learning Models Task Force have provided valuable context for how the System might be able to advance in this area and helped to identify obstacles to be overcome prior to implementation at scale. The USG is now pursuing further partnerships with state institutions to refine the model and is collaborating with nation-wide CBE efforts to ensure maximum efficiency and impact.

Twenty-seven institutions across the system report actively pursuing activities that reduce time to degree, with the most commonly adopted being the use of AP and International Baccalaureate assessments to award collegiate credit for courses pursed in high school, and the acceptance Program of College Level Examination (CLEP) and DSST exam scores to award credit for prior learning.  In the System Office initiated a review of the current IB and AP policy that included an examination success rates in the first year and relative levels of utilization for dual credit, AP, and IB.

Interim Measures of Progress

• Number of students participating in Dual Enrollment, Move on When Read, and credit hours earned through these programs.
• Number of students receiving credit for Prior Learning. 
• Number of students who receive credit based on assessment of Prior Learning. 
• Number of credits awarded for Prior Learning

Measures of Success

Degrees completed by students who earned credits through Dual Enrollment, Move on When Ready, Prior Learning Assessment.

Goal 6

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

High-impact strategy

Corequisite learning support policy and procedure

Adoption of corequisite Learning Support for the majority of students requiring remediation.

Summary of Activities

Following a careful review of existing policy and practice with respect to remediation and a review of evidence, research and input from other institution, the University System adopted new policies and procedures to transform remediation from placement through delivery and eventual measures of success.

In the 2014-2015 academic year, five USG Institutions were “at scale” with corequisite remediation (Albany State University, Bainbridge State College, College of Coastal Georgia, Georgia Highlands College, and Gordon State College). The reconstructed model includes:

• Revision of USG policies and procedures for Learning Support
• Redefining the focus of remediation from trying to compensate for what students did not learn in K-12 to focus on providing students with appropriate support for completion of credit-bearing collegiate courses that serve as the gateway to the college curriculum for all students.  Remediation efforts in the USG have been referred to as Learning Support for many years.  Efforts to transform remediation have focused on putting the “Support” back into Learning Support efforts
• Requiring most Learning Support to be delivered in a corequisite model beginning by fFall of 2015. Using the corequisite strategy, students take a 1 or 2 credit remedial course WHILE taking the related credit-bearing collegiate course (English 1101 or a collegiate math course), decreasing the time, credit, and cost required to complete remediation and start earning collegiate credit
• Combining reading and writing into a single English remediation course
• Eliminating COMPASS test as an exit exam
• Using completion of the gateway collegiate course as the criterion for exiting Learning Support
• Reconfiguring the criteria used to evaluate the need for Learning Support (modeled on historical performance data) so that placement in or exemption from Learning Support is no longer dependent on the score a single high-stakes test
• Adoption of the new indices for placing students in Learning Support

Initial results from the five campuses who were at scale indicate that students placed in corequisite remediation classes pass the associated collegiate level course at the same rate as those who do not have a learning support requirement—about 67 percent—as compared with a 21 percent passage rate from the previous year.  These initial results are highly encouraging.

 While campuses had until Fall 2015 to fully implement changes to remediation, 22 institutions reported report that they have already begun work on this transformation, including implementing new placement and screening procedures, developing corequisite learning support courses, conducting faculty and instructor training, and piloting new models of delivery.

Interim Measures of Progress

• Number of USG institutions using the corequisite model as their predominant form of remediation
• Percentage of remedial students in the USG with initial placement into corequisite Learning Support

Measures of Success

• Percentage of students who exit Learning Support within 1, 2, or 3 semesters.
• Percentage of students in corequisite Learning Support who successfully complete the gateway collegiate course compared to students in gateway courses who exempted Learning Support requirements
• Ultimately, the percentage of students who start in Learning Support who complete degrees on time and within 150% time

Goal 7

Restructure instructional delivery to support educational excellence and student success

High-impact strategy

Online eCore and Pre-Calculus emporium; New Learning Models Massive Open Online Collaboration (Inventing the Beyond), increase access and success in key courses in the core curriculum while leveraging technology to contain or decrease costs to students; innovation grants in open educational resources and flipped classrooms

Summary of Activities

In September of 2014, the Board of Regents approved a resolution making eCore available to all students at comprehensive universities, state universities, and state colleges within the University System of Georgia.  Students at 26 institutions were able to enroll directly in courses offered by eCore, increasing participation from a headcount of roughly 9,200 students in 2013 to greater than 15,000 in 2014.  This 76 percent increase in enrollment underscores the degree to which eCore is providing students with more opportunities to meet their core course needs.  Importantly, students who take eCore courses are more likely to graduate on time, in part due to the ability of students to avoid course bottlenecks in students’ general education course taking. Additionally, 23 of 27 eCore courses rely upon open educational resources, saving students thousands of dollars and helping to drive their adoption across the state.

Additionally, the University System completed the work of the New Learning Models Inventing the Beyond project, which concluded in April 2015 with a capstone event gathering stakeholders from within the University System and national experts.  From this project and this event emerged four key recommendations for new learning models

• Increase Alignments Between College & Career
• Increase Student Learning & Lifestyle Options
• Increase Access, Affordability and Flexibility in the Academic Marketplace
• Empower the Changing Cultures of the Campus

Interim Measures of Progress

• Number of courses offered via eCore
• Participation and success rates in experimental courses, such as the Pre-Calculus emporium
• Participation in and products from Inventing the Beyond (New Learning Models Massive Open Online Collaboration – a think tank for the USG and beyond)

Measures of Success

Number of credits successfully completed for courses offered completely online; number and percentage of degrees conferred in which at least one course was offered fully online; number of credits successfully completed for courses offered via alternative delivery models (e.g., hybrid instruction, flipped classrooms, and emporium-model instruction).