East Georgia State College Campus Plan Update 2018

Institutional Mission and Student Body Profile

East Georgia State College (EGSC) is an associate degree granting, liberal arts institution providing access to academically transferable programs of study and targeted bachelor degrees at low cost to its students. The College extends its access mission from its home campus in Swainsboro to instructional sites in Statesboro and Augusta. EGSC has been included on both of the U.S. Department of Education’s College Affordability and Transparency Center annually updated Lowest Tuition and Lowest Net Price national lists of four-year public colleges since July 2017.

EGSC began offering its initial baccalaureate degree, a bachelor of Science Degree in Biology, in Fall Semester 2012 and has awarded the degree to 15 students. The College launched its second bachelor program in Spring Semester 2016, a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Fire and Emergency Services Administration (FESA) and added an Associate of Arts FESA degree option in Fall Semester 2017. FESA is offered online for the convenience of working fire and emergency service professionals. The FESA Program is based on the Fire and Emergency Services Higher Education (FESHE) curriculum created at the National Fire Academy. In Summer Semester 2017, EGSC awarded its first two FESA Bachelor of Arts Degrees.

In extending the College’s core mission of providing access to higher education beyond its home campus in Swainsboro, the College has increased the number and types of collaborations with other public institutions both within the University System of Georgia (USG) and within the Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG) throughout the Complete College Georgia initiative. In addition to its instructional site in Statesboro, EGSC Statesboro students have access to services provided at Georgia Southern University and EGSC Augusta students have access to services provided by Augusta University, where EGSC courses are delivered on the Summerville Campus of Augusta University. Both universities are units of the USG.

EGSC is working collaboratively with Georgia Southern University in Statesboro and Augusta University to encourage its former students to make application for their EGSC associate degree through the A.D.D. (Associate Degree you Deserve) program, a reverse transfer process. Since Spring Semester 2016, EGSC has awarded associate degrees to 205 former EGSC students through the A.D.D. Program.

The College launched another targeted bachelor degree to be delivered online to working professionals in Fall Semester 2017, a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) Degree designed for registered nurses (RN). EGSC has signed a memorandum of understanding with Southeastern Technical College (STC), a unit of the TCSG, to use the Health Sciences Building located on STC’s Swainsboro Campus for the new EGSC nursing program.  EGSC has also signed a letter of intent with Oconee Fall Line Technical College and Southeastern Technical College “to combine their collective resources to create an educational pathway for nursing students from LPN to ADN, and ADN to BSN, to meet the need for associate level and baccalaureate level nurses” in the rural area served by these colleges.

Consistent with its access mission and its Carnegie Classification as a Baccalaureate/Associate’s Dominant College, EGSC expanded the number of associate degrees it offers in Fall Semester 2017. Until that semester, the College offered an Associate of Degree, Core Curriculum (AACC). In addition to the AACC, EGSC now offers 10 associate of arts and 5 associate of science degrees with disciplinary distinctions. These degree options encourage EGSC students to focus early on specific programs of study that are aligned with baccalaureate degrees offered by EGSC and other USG colleges and universities. (A list of EGSC’s degrees is presented it Table A1 in the Appendix.)

After posting double-digit percentage enrollment growth in the 2010 and 2011 fall semesters, EGSC experienced declining enrollments in the 2012 and 2013 fall semesters before enrollment began to steadily increase, first by 1.9% in Fall Semester 2014, then by 3.1% in Fall Semester 2015 and 5.0% in Fall Semester 2016. In Fall Semester 2017, enrollment declined by 4.7%.

Throughout the Complete College Georgia initiative (2012 to 2018), EGSC’s four largest demographic cohorts have been African-American Females; African-American Males; White (Non-Hispanic) Females; and White (Non-Hispanic) Males. A percentage breakdown by campus of these demographic cohorts for Fall Semester 2018 is presented below in Table 1.

Table 1: Fall 2018 Student Population by Demographic Cohort and Instructional Site/Online Only

For Fall Semester 2018, excluding dual enrolled high school students, the average age of all students is 20.8 years and the average age of new freshmen is 18.7 years. Only 1.8% of these new freshmen are aged 25 or over. While over 75% of new freshmen enrolled full-time in Fall Semester 2018, greater percentages of the College’s returning students tended to continue as part-time, as summarized in Table 2 below. Table 2 excludes new freshmen and dual enrollment high school students. A large majority of students who take classes at one of the College’s three locations and may take some courses online are full-time students in similar proportions to new freshmen. However, 33.0% of all returning students in Fall 2018 take courses delivered completely online, with 82.5% of those students taking less than a full course load. The proportion of part-time students is greatest for the Senior Class. One contributing factor is the College’s focus on offering targeted baccalaureate degrees exclusively online.

Table 2: Fall Semester 2018: Returning Students Course Load by Class

An academic profile of Fall Semester 2018 new freshmen by location is presented in Table 3a and 3b below. The number of new freshmen presented in Table 3a is subject to change because this report is being released prior to the official enrollment date for Fall Semester 2018. Beginning with Fall Semester 2018, to increase the number of students who are able to gain access to post-secondary education, EGSC was granted permission by the USG to return to its open access mission.  This change allowed the College to admit applicants without requiring them to take placement exams. This policy change resulted in a significant increase of new freshmen placing into learning support (LS) in Fall 2018 compared to Fall 2017. For example, in Fall 2017 the percentage of new freshmen requiring LS Math was over 50 percent for new freshmen at EGSC Augusta only. In addition, at all of the College’s three locations the percentage of new freshmen requiring LS English was below 50 percent in Fall 2017. As presented in Table 3b below, large majorities of new freshmen in Fall 2018 placed in LS Math at all EGSC locations and placed in LS English at all but one location, EGSC Statesboro, which saw an increase in LS English placements of more than 5 percentage points over Fall 2017.

Table 3a: Fall Semester 2018: New Freshmen Number Profile

Table 3b: Fall Semester 2018: New Freshmen Percentage Profile

Institutional Goals. High-Impact Strategies, Activities and Outcomes

During the 2017-18 academic year, EGSC focused on the following four strategies to promote college completion:

1. Increase Degree Awards to Most Challenged Students
2. On-time Degree Completion
3. Increase Dual Enrollment Opportunities
4. Enhance Co-requisite approaches

High-Impact Strategy 1: Increase Degree Awards to Most Challenged Students

Increase in the number of undergraduate degrees awarded to low income students (Pell eligible students)

Increase in the number of undergraduate degrees awarded to first generation college students

Related CCG Goal

Goal 1: Increase in the number of undergraduate degrees awarded by USG institutions.

Demonstration of Priority and/or Impact

As an access institution, EGSC serves students who depend on financial aid and are often among the first of their families to attend college. During AY 2017-18 more than three in four students received some form of financial aid and nearly one quarter were first generation students.

During FY 2017-18, 30 former EGSC students were awarded an associate degree through reverse transfer from other USG institutions. The number of reverse transfer degrees awarded in AY 2016-17 was 114. In contrast, 268 enrolled EGSC students were awarded an associate degree EGSC in FY 2017-18, up from 225 enrolled students receiving the degree in AY 2017-18. Seventy-four percent of the AY 2017-18 graduates had received financial aid. Four of the five students who completed their Bachelor’s degree in EGSC in FY 2017-18 also received financial aid. Sixty-two of the enrolled graduates, or 23 percent, were first generation students. In addition, 38 percent of the College’s FY 2017-18 graduates entered with learning support requirements, including 27 percent who overcame learning support requirements in mathematics. Twenty percent of graduates satisfied learning support requirements in English and 5 percent satisfied learning support reading requirements

Primary Point of Contact

Dr. Deborah Vess, Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs, dvess@ega.edu

Summary of Resources Used and Activities Conducted

During AY 2017-18, faculty and advising staff used GradesFirst to reach students on a more timely basis. DegreeWorks scribing was brought up to date with the current catalog and became a key resource in the advisement process.

Measures of Progress

Baseline Status of Metrics: The academic year 2011-2012, including Fall Semester 2011, served as our baseline year for Complete College Georgia (CCG).  The College set 2020 goals based on a specific CCG measures. Presented in Table 4 below are baseline CCG metrics compared with the most recent results for the College.

Table 4: EGSC CCG Baseline Metrics Compared to Most Recent Results

FTFT refers to First-Time, Full-Time Freshman; FT refers to all First-Time Freshman

Table A2 in the Appendix lists EGSC associate degrees earned from the 2012 through 2018 academic years. For the academic years 2013 through 2016, Table A3 lists the number of bachelor degrees awarded by Georgia Southern University and Table A4 lists the number of bachelor degrees awarded by other USG institutions to former EGSC students. As presented in these tables, former EGSC students complete between 300 and 400 bachelor degrees each year at other USG institutions. All three tables breakdown the degrees awarded by gender and ethnicity.

Interim Metrics: As noted above, the success rates of students will be our measure of progress toward goals.  Table 5 below lists the overall success rates and those for selected gateway courses, learning support courses and courses delivered online are given for the base Fall 2011 and for Fall 2017. Table A5 in the Appendix includes the intervening fall and spring semesters through Spring Semester 2018.

Table 5: Fall Semesters 2011/2017 Success Rate Comparisons

Table 6 below shows the usage of the Academic Centers for Excellence (ACE) for AY 2015-16 through AY 2017-18.  In Swainsboro, student course success rates remained flat until Spring Semester 2017, but improved in Fall Semester 2017. In Statesboro, student success rates have generally been higher in the spring semesters compared to the fall semesters. The Statesboro success rate dipped in Fall Semester 2017, but recovered in Spring Semester 2018. The ACE data for Augusta is incomplete up to Spring Semester 2017, but that semester’s success rate is encouraging. The usage and student success rate of the Augusta ACE declined in Fall Semester 2017, but both metrics improved markedly in Spring Semester 2018. To increase student success, faculty have been leading learning communities in the Swainsboro ACE and the Statesboro ACE.

Table 6: ACE Use Rates for Fall 2015 through Spring 2018

Final Success Measure or Goal: In Fall Semester 2017, EGSC introduced fifteen associate degrees with majors.  Prior to Fall Semester 2017, EGSC offered the Associate of Arts Degree, Core Curriculum (AACC). For Spring Semester 2018, the AACC was the major selected by 47 percent of students, ranging from 33 percent of Swainsboro students to 67 percent of Augusta students. The other 53 percent of students had selected other majors or transfer pathways.

Lessons Learned

The College is encouraging its students to consider their program options early and focus on majors that interest them. Choosing a program of study early will serve to guide and motivate students toward completing both associate and bachelor degrees.

High-Impact Strategy 2: On-time Degree Completion

• Change institutional culture to emphasize taking full-time course loads (15 or more credits per semester) to earn degrees “on time.”
• Materials or information on taking 15 credits or more included in orientation for new students
• Advisors trained to encourage students taking 15 or more credits a semester

Related CCG Goal

Goal 2: Increase the number of degrees that are earned "on-time" (associate degrees in 2 years, bachelor's degrees in 4 years).

Demonstration of Priority and/or Impact

During Spring Semester 2018, two-year academic plans were prepared for each associate of arts and associate of science program of study. These two-year plans were distributed to all new students during the Fall Orientations conducted during summer of 2018. These plans are also being utilized by our returning students. Students were introduced to the Focus2 Career Assessment during Fall Orientations to aid them in choosing the appropriate program of study/transfer pathway for their work interests. A new math pathway was developed for students who are not STEM majors.  Math pathways for each program of study were incorporated in the academic plans to ensure that all incoming new and transfer students were placed in the appropriate math course for their program of study/transfer pathway based on admissions, criteria including high school GPA and test scores. DegreeWorks was reintroduced to all academic advising staff and faculty to promote consistent advisement.  Four-year plans were developed for baccalaureate programs, and these plans also incorporated the appropriate math pathway for the major. 

Students were pre-registered for all Area A basic skills courses and for the courses listed in their degree plans for the fall term. 

Primary Point of Contact

Karen Murphree, Director of Learning Commons, kmurphree@ega.edu

Measures of Progress

Baseline Status of Metrics: The Fall 2011 cohort provided our baseline data for CCG when the three-year graduation rate was 5.8%.  During the first year of CCG, we evaluated the Fall 2012-Summer 2012 graduates.   We had a total of 173 graduates with 8.1% finishing their degree in two years and 24.9% completing their degree in three years.  The average time to completion was 73.0 hours.

Interim Metrics Presented below in Table 7 are the two and three-year associate degree graduation rates for beginning fall semester freshmen at EGSC compared to the USG State College Sector. EGSC’s graduation rates recently fallen in line with the sector rates. One contributing factor was the approvals EGSC received from the USG and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACSCOC) to begin offering associate degrees to its EGSC Statesboro students in AY 2013-14. Prior to these approvals, the 60 percent of EGSC’s student body located in Statesboro had only one option, to transfer to another USG institution.

Table 7: EGSC to USG State College Sector Comparison of 2-Year and 3-Year Graduation Rates

As indicated in Table 8 below, the average hours that associate degree graduates complete has gradually declined since Fall Semester 2012.

Table 8: Average Number of Hours Taken to Graduate with an Associate Degree

Our CCG graduation goal was to produce an average of 207 graduates a year between 2012 and 2020.  As can be seen by the Table 9 below, the number of graduates has surpassed that number for five consecutive years. In addition, the percentage of graduates who completed their degrees in two years increased from 37 percent in AY 2016-17 to 51 percent in AY 2017-18 and those graduating in three years increased from 62 percent in AY 2016-17 to 77 percent in AY 2017-18.

Table 9: 2-Year and 3-Year Graduates by Semester – AY 2013 – AY 2018

Final Success Measure or Goal:  EGSC will continue efforts to increase both its graduation rates and the number of undergraduate degrees it awards by providing its students an environment that guides them effectively toward degree completion.

Lessons Learned

Improving graduation rates requires a diligent long-term commitment to providing students with a variety of supports, guidance and incentives to succeed. EGSC will continue to improve on the techniques that work and experiment with promising approaches that contribute to student success.

High-Impact Strategy 3: Increase Dual Enrollment Opportunities

Participate in dual enrollment/Move On When Ready programs for high school students.

Related Goal

Goal 6: 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.

Demonstration of Priority and/or Impact

As an access institution within the USG, EGSC seeks to expand post-secondary opportunities in its Southeast Georgia service area. Since substantial number of its students are first generation college students, the College encourages high school students to take college-level courses on EGSC campuses and on location at area high schools.

Primary Point of Contact

Brandy Murphy,  Dual Enrollment Coordinator,  bmurphy@ega.edu

Summary of Resources Used and Activities Conducted

During Fall Semester 2017, EGSC enrolled 385 dual enrollment students, more than three times the 104 dual enrolled students the College enrolled in Fall Semester 2015. The number of dual enrolled students increased to 404 in Spring Semester 2018, and to 407 students in Fall Semester 2018. The number of high school that the College drew its dual enrolled students from increased from 33 in AY 2017-18 to 38 in Fall Semester 2018. In addition to hosting dual enrolled students both on-campus and online, EGSC conducted 20 classes at five area high schools in AY 2017-18.

Measures of Progress

Baseline Status of Metrics: EGSC’s dual enrollment (formally MOWR) program has grown dramatically since the beginning of its Complete College Georgia plan as presented in Table 10 below.

Table 10: Annual Growth of the Dual Enrollment Program

Interim Metrics: The High school grade point average (GPA) for EGSC’s dual enrolled students during AY 2017-18 was 3.66 on a 4.00 scale. The overall GPA for the EGSC courses taken by dual enrolled students was 3.30 on a 4.00 scale.

Final Success Measure or Goal: EGSC will continue to use the dual enrollment program to encourage high school students to commit themselves to pursuing high education and graduating faster, as measured by increases in the College’s 2-year and 3-year associate degree graduation rates.

Lessons Learned

The dual enrollment program has proven to be a very effective approach of providing a seamless transition from high school to college and EGSC will continue to use it as a key component of its CCG strategy.

High-Impact Strategy 4: Effectively Target Remediation

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

Related Goal

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

Demonstration of Priority and/or Impact

To encourage students to complete Area A of the Core Curriculum within their first year at the College, twenty percent of all English Composition I and II and the first college mathematics courses are being offered in 8 week sessions to facilitate daily interactions between faculty and students and increase success rates. 

New math pathways have now been implemented at the College. In Fall Semester 2018, EGSC shifted Core Curriculum Area A math offerings from nearly 100 percent College Algebra to 80 percent Quantitative Skills and Reasoning and 20 percent as College Algebra. Students in non-STEM majors are placed the Quantitative Skills and Reasoning course, while STEM majors continue to take College Algebra, if they meet the cut-off scores.  This ratio will be examined each year to match the needs of our students.

Primary Points of Contact

Dr. Jimmy Wedincamp Dean of the School of Mathematics & Natural Sciences, Wedincamp@ega.edu

Dr. Lee Cheek, Dean of the School of Humanities & Social Sciences, lcheek@ega.edu

Summary of Resources Used and Activities Conducted

The co-requisite program in English and mathematics began on two campuses (Swainsboro and Augusta) in Fall 2014 and was expanded to the third campus (Statesboro) in Fall 2015.  The alternative pathways model in mathematics has only recently been implemented in fall 2018 with the increased offerings in MATH 1001 Quantitative Skills and Reasoning and also MATH 1101 Math.

All Math and English courses are now offered in the co-requisite model, in keeping with USG policies.  EGSC eliminated all Foundations Learning Support required in the Spring 2018 and offered the entirety of its Area A Math and English courses on the co-requisite model.

Measures of Progress

Baseline and Interim Metrics: In Fall Semester 2018, EGSC embraced the open access model with no admissions test scores required. Students without qualifying test scores (Accuplacer, SAT, and ACT) were automatically placed into co-requisite learning support courses in mathematics and English. Additionally, all incoming freshmen were pre-registered for AREA A mathematics and English which resulted in up to 90% of the incoming freshmen taking these gateway courses the first semester of their freshman year. This resulted in a higher percentage of learning support students in Fall Semester 2018. Among new freshmen, 71 percent require Learning Support Math, 52 percent require Learning Support English and 23 percent require Learning Support Reading. All of these are higher percentages compared to previous fall semesters since Fall Semester 2012.

Final Success Measure or Goal: As an associate degree dominant open admissions college, EGSC is committed to its access mission and will continue to assist those who need learning support.

Lessons Learned

EGSC continues to work on its delivery of co-requisite courses and plans to hire dedicated instructors for learning support and to deliver the learning support courses in the Academic Center for Excellence, where peer tutors can be embedded. EGSC has also standardized its approach to Quantitative Skills and Reasoning across sections. All sections not only use the same textbooks but use open resource materials.  In the past, poor success rates were partially due to lack of textbooks for students who could not afford them or who waited for the receipt of financial aid prior to purchasing the books. The use of open source textbooks, especially in Area A Math, has saved our students $270,000 in Fall Semester 2018. 

Momentum Year

EGSC has worked quickly on Momentum Year Projects and taken decisive actions to improve student success rates.   Among the actions were have taken are:

1. Revised and Mandatory Orientation: EGSC doubled the time spent in orientation and incorporated interactive workshops into the schedule. These workshops included a session on Growth Mindset, a workshop using Focus 2 Career-Discernment instruments, a student life session to foster a sense of belonging, and interactive sessions with faculty connecting career choices to majors.  Mindset is further emphasized in the First Year Experience (FYE) through EGSC’s Critical and Academic Thinking for Success course, but much more work remains to be done with Mindset. 
2. Students were pre-registered for Area A courses.  Approximately 89 percent of our new students are enrolled in Area A. Previously, only 34 percent of our students completed Area A courses within the 30 credit time frame mandated by USG policy.    The appropriate choice of math courses was determined by the student’s chosen major.  Prior to Fall 2018, EGSC had no alternative math pathway for non-stem majors.  Students were also registered for 9 credits of focus courses.  Pre-registration created learning communities in blocks of Area A courses.
3. EGSC implemented an eight-week format for Area A courses during the fall term 2018.  Twenty percent of our offerings in Area A are now on an eight-week schedule.  Thus far, success rates in Math, for example, in the eight week courses are around 70 percent.
4. EGSC created two- and four-year degree plans for all programs. These plans have been programmed into DegreeWorks and students are required to register for courses aligned with the degree plan. We previously had serious issues with program sequencing and availability of courses needed by students in particular majors. 
5. EGSC is working with Ad Astra to support its efforts to schedule courses offering aligned with degree plans. 
6. EGSC provided training for faculty related to faculty mindset during its fall workshop, and plans a series of workshops to support this work across the curriculum.
7. EGSC has implemented a new Early Alert Policy, requiring faculty to alert a newly-formed retention team when any student misses two or more classes. The retention team includes counselors, the director of student conduct, the director of housing, a social worker on the faculty, and other faculty.

Work planned in the Spring Term and Beyond

EGSC has much more work to do on its delivery of the co-requisite models.  Presently, EGSC has planned creative ways to schedule the learning support components in the Academic Center for Excellence, using dedicated instructors. Peer tutors are available in the ACE and can be brought directly into the LS classroom.   We plan this project for the spring term.   EGSC is also working with the Dana Center to deliver a series of workshops to math faculty addressing learning challenges and pedagogy. 

Mindset work needs to be addressed across the curriculum.  Faculty training will be provided in future terms and incentives given to faculty to design and to embed Growth Mindset modules into their classes

EGSC is implementing in-house tutoring and living-learning communities in housing.  Although we have previously hosted tutoring sessions, we are expanding on this with course offerings following a redesign of housing common areas. Moreover, we are now delivering counseling group sessions in the housing units.  We have significant mental health and other related issues among the student body. 

Work continues to embed high impact practices in Area A and other courses. 

Challenges

EGSC urgently needs a career services center. Presently, all career services work is housed in the Office of Human Resources.

EGSC needs to develop a funding source for professional development. Presently, we have very few resources. 

EGSC needs to focus on retention initiatives. We lose many students after the first year.