The CONSORTIUM for STUDENT RETENTION DATA EXCHANGE
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The UNIVERSITY of OKLAHOMA

An Easy, Cost-Effective Way To Remain Current With Student Success


Twelve presentations are selected from the top rated sessions at our National Symposium on Student Retention each year for live presentation as webinars.

All webinars take place from 1:00 – 2:00 pm Central Time on the designated date, during which time participants may ask questions and provide feedback. An unlimited number of colleagues from the registrant’s institution may attend. CSRDE members and non-members are invited to participate. Each registration includes 5 weeks of access to the recorded podcast.

"We have found the CSRDE webinars to be an essential value-added component of our membership. The menu of award-winning presentations by colleagues who have “walked the walk” makes this option a convenient, efficient, and economical way to maintain both currency and contacts in our field. This webinar platform provides easy scheduling along with - yet another featured bonus! - options to share within our organizations. The level of coordination and support of these programs from the CSRDE staff/team is always amazing, always professional."
John Rollins, Director, Academic Performance Studies
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Webinar Cost
  • CSRDE members:
    One to six webinars are included with membership, depending on level
  • Add'l webinars for members:
    $129 each
    $79 each for blocks of 3 or more
  • Non-CSRDE members:
    $229 each

2011 - 2012 Webinar Series

Julie Noble, ACT, Inc.

Justine Radunzel, ACT, Inc.

The CSRDE – ACT College Outcomes Research Partnership included over 30 CSRDE member institutions in a longitudinal study of college outcomes for 2002, 2003, and 2004 entering freshmen. In this presentation we summarize the final results from the partnership. Based on data for over 100,000 students from participating institutions, we examine annual retention to the same institution, annual cumulative GPA, progress to degree, and degree completion within six years. Five sets of college readiness indicators are used as predictors, alone and in combination: high school mathematics and science coursework taken, high school GPA, taking/not taking the core curriculum (four years of English and three years each of math, social studies, and science), and meeting the ACT College Readiness Benchmarks. College outcomes are also examined by race/ethnicity, gender, and family income. Multiple statistical methods are used, including hierarchical modeling, discrete-time survival analysis, and descriptive analyses. Results are disaggregated for two-year and four-year institutions. This presentation will conclude with a discussion of the importance of college readiness and its implications for college success. We also discuss the goals and procedures for the next CSRDE – ACT College Outcomes Research Partnership. Come and learn more about the partnership and the benefits of participation.

Holly Ayers, Ozarka College

Since the establishment of community colleges as significant contributors to higher education in the United States, the proportion of part-time faculty, in relation to full-time faculty has consistently increased (AFT, 2002; AAUP, 2003; Ellison, 2002). According to the National Center on Educational Statistics (2005), the percentage of part-time faculty in higher education institutions has nearly tripled in the last twenty years. However, few two-year institutions have addressed the need for comprehensive policies that support effective employment procedures, professional development requirements, and integration efforts. Two-year colleges face an overwhelming challenge in developing part-time faculty as an institutional advantage rather than a last minute alternative. Concerns regarding the growing use of part time faculty have been widely studied and analyzed. However, virtually all existing research supports the assertion that part time faculty are as equipped to assist community colleges and students in reaching their academic outcomes when hired, retained, and supported as a viable workforce demographic (Gappa & Leslie, 1993; Levinson, 2005; Wagoner, Metcalfe, & Olaore, 2005). This webinar will address the need for a more relevant and timely exploration of strategies that support part-time faculty and their role in student success and retention.

Dale Tampke, University of North Texas

Many campuses have turned to surveying students to identify psycho-social factors the literature suggests have predictive value in retention modeling. Students typically complete a survey prior to the first day of classes, often during orientation. The survey results inform development of selection criteria used to target students for early intervention, usually in the initial weeks of the students’ first term of enrollment. This presentation describes the development and implementation of an at-risk intervention strategy with first-time-in-college students at a large, public university in the Southwest. Students were selected based on a predictive model; follow-up focused on psycho-social factors indicated by students’ survey responses. The presentation first reviews literature on psycho-social factor surveying and predictive retention modeling. It includes the methodology supporting the development of a predictive model and an intervention plan based on the model. The second section details the intervention and the training for staff delivering the intervention. It includes examples of training materials and describes the assessment plan. The presentation wraps up with a description of the intervention’s outcomes, including relationships between successful intervention and student success as measured by GPA and academic standing.

Joshua Eyer, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Cynthia Wolf Johnson, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

The challenges of “transfer shock” and transfer student retention are well established, but effective solutions to transfer students’ academic success are slower to emerge. The webinar will focus on a psychology course implemented to assist the transition of new transfers to a university. Using information from a literature review and informal interviews, a second-year course for psychology majors was revised to a transfer-only course, integrating content on academic skill deficits, disconnection, and misconceptions common to transfer students. Comparative data were collected through an institutional survey, Evaluating Academic Success Effectively (EASE), administered to all first-semester students. The course produced mixed results. Although there was no increase in transfer student retention, the data showed a significant positive influence on academic performance. Specifically, it fostered a higher first semester GPA and earned-hours ratio, and students were more likely to be in good academic standing despite having a higher number of risk factors and a higher percentage of midterm unsatisfactory grade notices than the general transfer population. This webinar will describe how academic courses can be successfully modified to include information that improves transfer students’ academic success.

Bernice Duffy Johnson, North Carolina Central University

Participants will observe how re-purposing of a university unit can lead to student success. Participants will be able to follow a process of student success strategies designed to increase retention and graduation rates. The cooperation of diverse units across the university makes for a successful working model. The University College Model focuses intentionally, consistently, and qualitatively on academic advising, academic excellence and support, mentoring, nurturing, socialization, personal, civic, and social responsibility, and accountability during the freshman and sophomore years. Initiatives include contracts, writing samples, early warning and mid-term reports, engagement sessions, tutorials, success plans, and the transition plan. The Comprehensive Academic Success Enhancement (CASE) Model works with all students from recruitment and matriculation to graduation and beyond. Phase one of the CASE program was implemented to work in a complementary manner to the University College’s two-year initiatives. Intentional, consistent interventions at the junior and senior level are put in place to enhance the students’ ability to analyze and solve real world problems. The CASE program focus is multidisciplinary and activities are directed to ensure student graduation, allow for student maturity, self directed learning, and effective decision making.

Michele Cuomo, Queensboro Community College

Eduardo Marti, Queensboro Community College

Susan Curtis, Queensboro Community College

Victor Fichera, Queensboro Community College

The Freshman Academies, a full scale initiative at Queensborough Community College were launched in Fall 2009. Their design and implementation represents a strengthening of the College''s commitment to student success with a three-fold focus on: Providing a more coordinated student services and academic undergraduate experience; Improving retention and graduation rates; and Building students'' commitment to their future education and lifelong careers. Queensborough accomplished the planning and implementation of the Freshman Academies through close collaboration between the college''s academic departments and student services across an eight-year period. Academic components of the Academies are developed and coordinated by Faculty Coordinators in consultation with their respective department chairs. Academic support is complemented via a streamlining of student support services, which are provided by Freshmen Coordinators who work within the Office of Student Affairs. Faculty and administrators also worked with an external evaluation consultant to design a rigorous assessment protocol for the Academies. In addition to extensive surveys and reports from the Freshman Coordinators, this protocol calls for the use of specialized rubrics designed to measure student learning outcomes. Projected student gains include higher course success and completion rates, higher term GPAs, and higher persistence and graduation rates.

Julie Bryant, Noel-Levitz, Inc.

In a 2009 study, four-year private, public and two-year institutions indicated that conducting satisfaction assessments is an effective method to impact retention (69% - 81%) but a smaller percentage of these same schools indicated that they effectively use the data to make changes (58% - 75%). This session will outline the critical steps in conducting a regular assessment of student satisfaction and the best approaches for using these data for action planning. Successful campuses are tying satisfaction survey results to accreditation criteria and strategic planning efforts and suggestions will be provided for these activities, along with recommendations for implementing new initiatives and establishing communication plans. Institutions will identify how to approach their own satisfaction assessments for a more data-driven decision making approach. Individuals will learn how to: involve people from across campus in data review, establish metrics to monitor the quality of student life and learning, and align campus priorities. Campuses will walk away with a clear outline to evaluate their own process to turn satisfaction data into action. Campuses that are successfully assessing student satisfaction and taking action with the results are indicating that they are seeing improved retention on campus.

Laurie Schreiner, Azusa Pacific University

Despite a widespread belief that there is a relationship between student satisfaction and retention, there has been surprisingly little research empirically linking the two. This study of 27,816 students at 65 four-year private and public institutions found that student satisfaction levels are significantly predictive of persistence to the following year. Logistic regression analyses were conducted separately for each class level, highlighting the specific areas of satisfaction that have the strongest impact on retention for each class of students. Students’ demographic characteristics and features of the institution were control variables; scale scores on the Student Satisfaction Inventory were the predictor variables. Student persistence to the following year was the criterion variable. This presentation will focus on how institutions can use the results of this study to inform their own decision-making and refine programs and services to target the unique needs of students at each class level.

Cynthia Calhoun, Southwest Tennessee Community College

A peer mentoring pilot program funded by a $50,000 access and diversity grant from the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) was developed to implement the peer mentoring program Project SUCCEED: Student’s United for Classmates: Commitment, Empowerment, and Educational Development. The presentation will discuss the benchmarks and strategies designed to reduce the failure rates of the college’s most vulnerable students; those enrolled in Developmental Studies courses. Using quantitative and qualitative data to examine the retention behaviors of both peer mentors and mentees, implications relating to which group benefitted most will be presented. Challenges, outcomes and recommendations from the pilot will also be discussed.

Jeffrey Anderson, Saint Leo University

Three characteristics distinguish adult, online higher education programs: reaching previously unserved students, high growth rates, and low retention and completion rates. This case study describes one university’s action-research approach to tackling the challenge of low term-to-term retention among online students. Three developments fostered the action-research approach to improving the success of online students: leadership focused on student success; an assessment function dedicated to supporting internal clients; and program leaders who value empirical results and work to apply them. Retention related changes, informed by the action-research, are presented to foster interaction about challenges and benefits of collaboration between research and program administration in improving retention of students in online programs.

Nick Capo, Illinois College

Elizabeth Tobin, Illinois College

Our title is only partially hyperbolical.  For 2005–2006, Illinois College achieved first-year student retention of 71.1%; for 2008–2009, our rate was 83.1%.  In 2009–2010, we achieved our highest-ever fall-to-spring retention rate (95.6%), our highest-ever sophomore retention rate (up 6.7%), and a record first-year retention rate (85.8%).  Because Illinois College achieved these gains with a very modest initial funding investment, we have thought about why we are succeeding.  Our success resulted from a complex mixture of elements, all unified by one primary goal: improving student academic performance.  Unpacking our title, we first assert the crucial importance of seven types of data (preparation data, early performance data, midterm grades, NSSE surveys, faculty advisor assessment data, retention rates, and quality-of-persistence cohort analysis).  Second, we emphasize the importance of grounding your initiatives on the strong national research.  Finally, leaders within the administration and faculty must have the permission and will to implement dramatic changes to preexisting operating patterns.  An institution willing to track these types of data, pursue a comprehensive strategy, change whatever interferes with student success, and reinforce promising initiatives with new funding sources, we believe, can rapidly improve student academic success and retention.  This webinar presentation is intended for administrators, faculty members, and staff members who are directly working to improve student retention or studying the causes of student attrition.

James Sconing, ACT, Inc.

We empirically evaluate the academic readiness of students attending the nation’s 2-year community and technical colleges using test results of over 1.5 million students who took the COMPASS placement test, which allows us to concord to the ACT “College Readiness Benchmarks” in English, Mathematics, and Reading. The relationship between readiness and retention to the second year is investigated for a subset of students who indicated that a degree was their initial goal. We use the national clearing house data to track students and to evaluate the percentage and defining characteristics of students who persisted to the second year. Based upon these results, we offer suggestions for the better identification of at-risk students and appropriate interventions to increase student retention. We emphasize effective course placement and diagnostics, monitoring student risk and behavior in the classroom, and building an institutional agenda for student success. We conclude by highlighting student readiness and risk factors when building accountability models.

Register

CSRDE institutional members sign up for webinars using their membership registration forms. The number of webinars depends on the level of membership. If your institution is a CSRDE member and you would like to participate in a webinar, email csrde@ou.edu and we will put you in contact with the CSRDE representative on your campus. If you are an individual member, your membership includes one webinar. If neither you nor your institution are CSRDE members, you may use this form to register for a webinar.

If you are interested in purchasing podcasts from previous years’ presentations, please review the information using the dropdown box above for each year.

Accessing the Webinar

For each webinar, CSRDE will send the following emails:

  1. One to two weeks before webinar – Confirmation of your registration plus instructions to test your computer for compatibility. You may test your system now.
  2. One day before webinar – Login information and instructions for accessing the webinar
  3. Registrants will have five weeks in which to access and review the podcast and share the link with other colleagues at your institution.
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The Consortium for Student Retention Data Exchange at the University of Oklahoma is a consortium of two-year and four-year institutions dedicated to achieving the highest levels of student success through collaboratively sharing data, knowledge, and innovation.