Dalton State is consistently engaged in valuable student success work. During the 2022-2023 academic year, the Office of Academic Affairs worked with Advising, the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL), and the Library to hold workshops for each department called Student Success Symposiums. The symposiums reminded faculty of resources available to faculty and students through Advising, CETL, and the Library. Faculty also received copies of the DFWI percentages for their departments’ classes as well as copies of Dalton State’s Faculty Care Handout, which outlines interventions for academic and non-academic issues. At each symposium, faculty were asked to identify barriers to student success and to brainstorm possible solutions to those barriers. Faculty were also encouraged to develop student persistence/retention projects using funding through Academic Affairs.
Among those projects funded by Academic Affairs was the English Department’s English Teaching Assistant (ETA) Program, which launched in five ENGL 1101 classrooms in late October 2022. It continued in five ENGL 1101 and ENGL 1102 (combined) classrooms, including one Honors section, in Spring 2023. In Fall 2023, there are six ETAs in six of these general education classes. ETAs work collaboratively with faculty members to support the writing workshop model that research has shown to be key to student success in writing classes. ETAs attend some classes, model student excellence, teach selected lessons, evaluate student work under faculty supervision, and help students who are working on writing projects. The program also allows for more individualized attention for students in composition courses and in developmental support classes. Research from the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) has demonstrated that frequent and timely feedback and an iterative process are keys to helping students become effective college writers, and to that end, the NCTE recommends class sizes of 15, with a hard cap of no more than 20 in any writing class. As Dalton State has first-year composition class sizes of 28 and developmental classes of 18-20, ETAs who can work on-to-one with students as well as read drafts and provide guidance help provide first-year students with the support they need to succeed. The program also benefits the ETAs themselves by allowing them to develop pedagogical skills, practical experience, and perspectives on learning. These opportunities will allow ETAs to explore career options and help prepare them for graduate school or work in the field.
The School of Arts and Sciences also created a student persistence/retention project following the Student Success Symposiums. They called their project the Arts & Sciences Student Mentor Initiative (SMI). Through this initiative, liaisons/mentors from the various Arts and Sciences departments participated in new student orientation during Summer 2023. They were also available throughout the summer to act as additional resources for students (serving as discipline-specific academic advisors, answering questions students may have had regarding various aspects of Dalton State and college life, and providing insight into what college life is like). Moreover, these faculty mentors assisted the Office of Student Affairs and Enrollment Management with the Rage-istration event on July 31, 2023. The faculty mentors received a list of students who had not registered for Fall 2023 classes and actively called those students to encourage them to register.
Dalton State’s School of Education also took advantage of student persistence/retention funding from Academic Affairs to restructure their School of Education Orientation Day. Teacher candidates attend this event after admittance into the teacher preparation program, and the new structure focuses on team building, improving communication skills and modeling engaging instructional approaches. During the event, students learn about School of Education policies and procedures through interactive activities such as Kahoot and a Goose Chase scavenger hunt of Brown Hall. Elementary and Secondary candidates work together through a student-lead STEM challenge and receive explicit instruction on the communication expectations in a pre-professional program. The event culminates in a lunch, to which candidates' family members are invited. Outdoor games are made available and School of Education faculty provide tips to the family members about how to best support their loved ones. This program aims for students to feel welcomed and supported, and student feedback has reflected that is successfully accomplished. This is such an important project that three School of Education faculty and two teacher candidates presented on it at the Georgia Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (GACTE) Conference in late October. A Padlet they prepared of this presentation can be found here: https://padlet.com/draimeecribbs/teaching-professionalism-for-student-success-nz5fkjw0880zl53w
The School of Education also seeks to provide professional development opportunities for students, and as such, in Fall 2023 Education hosted three-hour, pre-professional conferences on two different Fridays. Available sessions included GACE (Georgia Assessments for the Certification of Educators) workshops in the areas of teaching Reading and Math, as well as sessions on professional writing, problem-solving, time management, communication, collaboration, Emotional Intelligence, resume preparation, and interviewing skills. Participating students received conference T-shirts and virtual badges and will note their participation on future Professional Development Plans.
The School of Health Professions was also inspired by the Student Success Symposiums and created a student persistence/retention project to expand the role of their MSW intern. Traditionally, the MSW intern’s role is to meet weekly with students who are admitted to the BSW program on a probationary basis. The intern also meets with upper-division students who have a “C” in any social work class at midterm or with those whom faculty have identified as in need of assistance, holds study groups for juniors and seniors, and meets individually with any student identified by faculty or self-referring in need of mental health support (students not engaging with the counseling center), academic support, or assistance with non-academic barriers. These activities continue, but during Spring 2023, additional activities were added, including embedding the intern in SOWK 2101, SOWK 2103, and SOWK 2104 to serve as a mentor/tutor. The intern also met with students making application to the upper-division courses, and she provided outreach to declared majors to involve students in social work open house activities. In addition, the intern connected with students across lower-division courses who were not responsive to faculty outreach, held wellness/self-care group meetings, and coordinated with the BSW Program Director to maintain the Social Work food and resource bank for all declared majors.
In addition to department/school-initiated student success projects, another way in which Dalton State supports its students is through Supplemental Instruction (SI). In May 2023, the International Center for Supplemental Instruction (ICSI) granted Dalton State’s Supplemental Instruction program Accredited SI Program status. This status distinguishes programs with robust SI Leader training and observation procedures and an extensive focus on planning and continuous improvement. Recognized programs must be staffed by Certified SI Trainers and maintain a DFW rate difference between SI and non-SI groups. With accreditation, the SI program at Dalton State also receives additional guidance and mentorship from the ICSI. Dalton State is the fourth USG institution to receive the accreditation.
Also important to Dalton State is providing career and professional development support to students. Since April, Career & Professional Development has hosted the Majors Fair and the Fall Internship & Job Fair. Both were well attended and provided students with information about the majors/degrees offered at Dalton State, as well as an opportunity to meet and speak with employers who were looking to hire for internships and part-time/full-time positions. One hundred and sixty-seven students attended the Majors Fair and 222 attended the Fall Internship & Job Fair in August 2023. A survey was sent to students following the Fall Internship & Job Fair and 92% of the respondents stated they would attend and recommend a friend to attend another career event like this next semester.
Dalton State also helps students understand and explore their career options and prepare for their future opportunities through the use of SteppingBlocks, the USG Digital Career Counselor Platform. Using SteppingBlocks, students complete a profile by taking a personality test and selecting their interests, and search through a variety of career options. Students learn about education requirements, what skills are needed in certain careers, what companies are hiring those job titles, and how much salary those titles earn. Students can also explore the Alumni Outcomes tab to see real-live Dalton State Alumni data broken down by major, companies, salary, gender, and skills. Other features include a tuition calculator, interests news feed, and job board. By utilizing SteppingBlocks, students can gather information to help them make better decisions about their career paths, professional development, and journey into the workforce.
Career & Professional Development is promoting the use of SteppingBlocks to students across Dalton State in multiple ways:
- Class presentations
- Weekly Job Alert Email
- Career & Professional Development Webpage
- Career Guide (printed and virtual flipbook)
- One-on-one appointments
- Flyers across campus
Additionally, Dalton State College continues to be supported by the University System of Georgia’s Mental Health Initiative to expand student mental health services. Our institution offers additional therapy services for students through third-party vendors to increase support of the counseling center. Dalton State is a JED campus and is working on developing and updating mental health policies to enhance and support the mental health needs of students. Fresh Check Day, a peer-led mental health program, has been held many times with between 100-300 students in attendance at each program. In addition, suicide prevention programs such as QPR are offered monthly for faculty, staff, and students.
Dalton State also supports its students through a financial assistance program called the Roadrunner Retention Fund. This program seeks to retain students who have small balances remaining on their student accounts for which students would normally be removed from classes. The Roadrunner Retention Fund is a payment guarantee program for qualifying students through the Dalton State Foundation. Eligible students have a financial aid file that is complete but is still being processed and there is a reasonable assumption that the student will have enough aid to cover their balance. In Fall 2023, $3,000 was used to assist two students to remain enrolled.
Observations and Next Steps
As evidenced in our Student Success Inventory and our Optional Supplemental Updates, Dalton State has a strong focus on student success. Our strategy has been to work with faculty, staff, and students to identify challenges and to empower those individuals to develop approaches to try to resolve those challenges. We have done this through the Academic Affairs Student Success Symposiums and through previous and current Momentum initiatives. Many of the previous Momentum initiatives have continued (Supplemental Instruction; Career & Professional Development; mental health services) and their success is highlighted in Section 3 above.
Continuing to develop our Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), known as PACE (Perspectives, Advising, Campus Resources, and Engagement), is another of Dalton State’s important initiatives. “Perspectives” (PRSP) refers to the foundational first-year course that all first-time, degree-seeking students must successfully complete. The development of common presentations and lab components pertaining to advising and campus resources, along with the requirement that students compose reflections on these, have strengthened the course. In addition, the incorporation of StudentLingo into all PRSP courses this fall is seen as another strength. Dalton State is looking forward to assessing student satisfaction with StudentLingo and is investigating the incorporation of this resource into other 1000/2000-level courses.
While Dalton State is pleased with the development of PRSP, there has been a need to make some adjustments to the course. Originally, several sections of PRPS were taught in 8-weeks; however, during Year “0” of this initiative (2022-2023), QEP leadership discovered that 8 weeks was not enough time for students to schedule and attend advising appointments or to engage with campus resources. The decision was made to move to a 16-week configuration, which should enable students to process presentations on advising, campus resources, service learning, and engagement in a more thoughtful and meaningful way. With interest increasing around the value of conflict resolution skills, it is important to note that some PRSP faculty members have integrated conflict management assessments, literature, reflection, and activities into their PRSP courses. Also, to ensure there is regular reflection and conversation around PRSP and the QEP as a whole, QEP leadership decided to require each QEP area coordinator to complete a triannual report. These reports will not only facilitate conversation and (if needed) modification, but they will also be used for further reporting to the Institution, for System initiatives, and for Dalton State’s Interim Report to SACSCOC.
Dalton State’s Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) is also seeing success in its Momentum work. CETL’s year-long Roadrunner Faculty Academy for all new full-time faculty has been an important part of the new faculty experience. It has seen an increase in faculty participation from 87% in 2021-2022 to 100% in 2022-2023. Also, thanks to our Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) grant, a learning community is currently underway. It is comprised of 11 STEM faculty who are exploring resources centered around effective course design. CETL is also running majors events in STEM to help with feelings of belonging, supporting a course redesign institute, and exploring curriculum mapping in STEM. It has hosted two Biology majors fairs to support feelings of belonging and inclusion to their major and to provide information on all of the opportunities available to them, such as experiential learning and potential internships. These have been hugely successful and popular events and they are being expanded to STEM majors as a whole.
Dalton State’s CETL fellows program is another strong element of our Momentum work. This program continues to offer faculty development programming to support student success. This academic year, there are six participating fellows. Two of these fellows are supported by the HHMI Inclusive Excellence 3 grant and are focusing their efforts/programming on Inclusive Excellence and Culture and Belonging.
Moreover, after learning about the University of Georgia’s Relentless Welcome, CETL also became very interested in adopting such a practice on our campus. This is still in the exploring phase at Dalton State, but our explorations have led us to expand our vision. We now hope to capture our campus culture through the stories and experiences of our students and to explore how this culture impacts teaching and learning. It is our hope that this work will help us identify barriers to student success and allow us to create development opportunities around this and around a future Relentless Welcome. To support the exploration of a campus culture and of a Relentless Welcome, we have created a Culture of T&L at Dalton State Committee.
In developing this year’s plan, the Dalton State Momentum Team recognized that there were several areas where things continued to go well (Supplemental Instruction; Career & Professional Development; mental health services), so we shifted our Momentum work to assisting first- and second-year students through StudentLingo. We also sought to further develop our QEP and the great things coming out of CETL. Our attention will continue to be on developing those initiatives, especially those in the initiating and piloting phases.
As we do so, Dalton State is investigating other ways to cultivate student success. The institution is planning an internal communications push in the Spring to encourage increased credit hour density. The goal is to have more students enroll in at least 15 credit hours per semester. Another initiative Dalton State is investigating is the creation of a Summer Bridge program for English and/or Math for Summer 2024. Incoming students in need of support will be identified and invited to live in the residence halls in order to receive the support they need on-campus. A similar Early Launch program is being explored for Fall 2024 in which students will move into campus housing early and spend several days acclimating themselves to campus and the expectations required of a college student.
