Scaling

KSU aims to take full advantage of data gathered through the LMS, D2L, for a faculty audience. Our online learning unit, Digital Learning Innovations, has revised their mission to support faculty in using the LMS to manage learning in all modalities and using the data to identify problems, diagnose root causes, and take targeted actions during the semester to impact student success within the semester. The learning analytics solution, uHoo Analytics, is available to all faculty. Additionally, faculty are provided professional development in tool use and data interpretation.

To combat lower graduation rates, KSU will focus on four initiatives aimed at supporting new students.

1. The President’s Focused Learner Program

The President’s Focused Learner Program (PFL) is a KSU initiative seeking to assist incoming students at risk of “Murky Middle” GPAs with their ability to navigate the academic and personal well-being factors often necessary for a student’s academic success. The PFL Program spans all majors at KSU.

KSU’s “Starting Blocks” project launched in Fall 2024.  Block scheduling serves multiple purposes, all designed to enhance the academic experience and support student success. It streamlines the registration process for easier enrollment, ensuring students make appropriate selections of courses, including introductory English and math, during their first semester. It helps minimize potential credit loss if students change majors, and it provides students with the optimal opportunity to register for a full-time (15 credit hour) schedule.

The Faculty Mentor Program at Gordon State College pairs first-year students (students under 30 credit hours) with faculty in the student's major area/area of focus. Faculty mentors act as part of the student's success team. They provide professional and career guidance and encouragement and help connect students with campus resources. All tenure-track faculty members serve as faculty members. Faculty mentors act to provide services and support that complement the services offered by GSC's professional academic advisors.

Gordon State College completed its last advising redesign three years ago. Before the redesign, we had five advisor/faculty members who taught our first-year experience course and served as advisors for students enrolled in those courses. These advisor/faculty members held a hybrid role at Gordon. With our redesign in 2020-2021, we adopted professional advising for first-year students. Under our current system, advisors do not teach. They advise their advisees full time, and the first-year experience course is taught by teaching faculty.

This initiative will expand the utilization of an academic chatbot in core courses.  The chatbot provides basic academic information, utilizes intelligent agents in the LMS to monitor student engagement and prompts as necessary, evaluates readiness for quizzes and reminds students about assignments and deadlines. GSU received a $7 million Post Secondary Student Success grant from the Department of Education to launch this technology in introductory English and Math courses in Fall 2024.  Chatbot technology is already used in American Government, Macroeconomics and Chemistry.

The early alert initiative is a collaborative effort between Advising Programs and the Academic Schools that aims to identify and support students who might be experiencing challenges that could impact their academic success. This effort includes proactive monitoring, timely interventions, and personalized support early in the semester to enhance student success and retention. Currently, GGC utilizes the Progress Report Campaign feature in Navigate 360 for early alert.

Through a US Department of Education grant, GGC launched a STEM Living Learning Community (LLC) specifically for Informational Technology (IT) and Health Science (HS) programs that offers competitive housing awards and academic and career readiness support for two cohorts of 16 students pursuing these degrees each year.  Our LLC program builds on GGC’s record of successfully preparing STEM students by providing intensive academic support, proactive advising, career planning, and high impact practices such as undergraduate research opportunities.

Learning Communities are a high-impact practice that help students establish relationships while learning in three linked classes that are relevant to their meta-major/academic focus area: Business (BUSI); Education (EDUC); Health Professions (HEPR); Humanities and Arts (HUAR); Information Technology (ITEC); Social Sciences (SOSC); or Science, Technology and Math (STEM). We aim to scale first-year LCs so all new full-time first-year students enroll in an LC by an opt-out approach.

The Capstone is the final embedded experience built into GC Journeys. To “Complete Your Journey” for Capstone, students must successfully complete the capstone course for their program/major. Experiences will be determined by the requirements of the department/major.