leveraging data to enhance academic support services...leveraging data to enhance academic support...

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Leveraging Data to Enhance Academic Support Services

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Matthew J. Belanger

AVP, Academic Operations, First Year & Senior Year Experience

Southern New Hampshire University

m.belanger@snhu.edu

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/belangermatthew

Twitter: @mbelangerSNHU

Liying Cui

Statistical Modeling Analyst

Southern New Hampshire University

l.cui1@snhu.edu

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Our Agenda:

1. Introductions

2. Southern New Hampshire University Overview

3. Academic Support Services Overview

@mbelangerSNHU

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Southern New Hampshire University

• Located in Manchester, NH

• College of Online and Continuing Education (COCE)– 75,000 students

– Associate, Bachelor and Master’s program

@mbelangerSNHU

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University Structure COCE Structure

Southern New Hampshire University

University College (Campus)

College of Online and Continuing

Education

College for America

Sandbox ColLABorative

Motivis

Chief Academic Officer

VP Academic Programs

Executive Directors

Academic Support

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Academic Support Services Overview

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Writing Center Webinars TutoringLearning

CommunitiesSmarthinking

1:1 Writing Support

Live Webinars 1-2/week

Scheduled/Embedded Support

Course-SpecificCommunities

Comprehensive Support

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Academic Support Services at SNHU

@mbelangerSNHU

September 2014

• Writing Center Pilot

• ~1200 appt

July 2015

• Writing Center Expansion

• Webinars

• Tutoring

September 2015

• Scaled Back

• ~5,800 appts

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Getting Referrals

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• Writing Coach Outreach

September 2014

• Faculty Training

• Proactive/Embedded Language

July 2015• Training

• Proactive Outreach

September 2015

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Referral Process

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Outreach Remediate

Student Advisor

Writing

Math

Study Skills

Support Service

Identify Issues

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Proactive Communications • Advising

• Embedded In-course Resources

• Announcements

• Email Campaign

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Data Collection and Analysis

– What to measure?• How many students are using academic support services?• When did student get to the service? How are they referred?

– Assess the effectiveness• Does students use academic support services benefit from the service?• Is a particular means of support more effective than others?

– Operationally… • What is the anticipated usage level throughout the term? • How much usage is optimal? • How to scale up/down the service?

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Data Collection

Session level • Tutoring – log by tutor• Webinar – log by participants via survey• Writing Center – log by writing consultantStudent level • Student success projection and final grades• Persistence to next term • Satisfaction survey

“Data! Data! Data!...I can’t make bricks without clay!”

- Sherlock Holmes

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0

1000

2000

3000

4000

Term 3 Term 4 Term 5 Term 6

Tutoring Webinar Writing Center

Sessions

We see rapid uptake of the service in 4 terms (eight months)

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

Term 3 Term 4 Term 5 Term 6

%Enrolled student using academic support service

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Usage data informs

• Student interest in the service

• Overlap of services in the same course

• One time/repeat usage by the same student

• Resource planning over the term period

• Communications/Referral channel

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Tutoring session no-showsCourse A Course B

Both ~ 200 sessions, but course A had 1% no show, course 2 had 20% no-show

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Is the support service effective?

• Student success improved up to 15 percentage points

• Term to term retention increased up to 9%

• Feedback from students: – Would attend tutoring/webinar again – 80-94%

– Writing center consultant was helpful – 80-100%

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Incremental Success Rate (Delta)@mbelangerSNHU

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Benefit on first generation student

0%

2%

4%

6%

8%

10%

12%

14%

Not first generation First Generation

Incremental Success with Writing Center

Baseline

Used Writing Center

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Learning from effective services– Webinar is most effective, but tend to engage in better

students

– Viewing recorded webinar is as effective as a live one

– Writing center is effective in large, composition heavy

courses, and valuable for some course even with low usage

– Tutoring is effective in some courses.

– Watch out for technical glitch (sound/recording)

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Using data to drive decisions

• Best Practices• Scaling Up & Down• Next steps

- Regular reporting in the department - Referral portal - Proactive outreach to students- Social engagement

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Summary

• Before launching a service, planning the data collection and analysis objectives

• Rapid turnaround in analysis

• Review student and staff perspectives

• No single metric to judge the success – iteration and experiment

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Questions?