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

2014 - 2015 Webinar Series

Janice Zummo, Medgar Evers College-City University of New York

Vincent Banrey, York College-City University of New York

This presentation integrates the findings from two research studies focused on improving student retention. The rationale for integrating the findings from the two studies is to provide a theoretical model of student success and retention that includes a programmatic and institutional focus. One case study conducted at a public community college examined student success within a programmatic structure that included counseling, academic support, mentoring and financial assistance. This study focused on how students transition and are integrated into the institution via support structures. The other case study conducted at a small, private, liberal arts college examined collaborations between academic and student affairs with a focus on institutional structures. The findings of both studies are summarized and integrated to highlight the importance of student support services and organizational structures in improving student success and retention. The findings of both studies indicate that support services delivered in a collaborative, holistic and team approach support students in their educational experience to achieve their goals. The presentation includes a discussion of how when used to guide practice, theoretical concepts and principles could have positive effects on student retention.

Lauren Bell, Randolph-Macon College

Grant Azell, Randolph-Macon College

Supporting academically at-risk students is of paramount importance to improving student success and retention in college (cf. Tinto 1993; Kuh 2007; Pascarella and Terenzini 2005; DeBerard, Spielmans, and Julka 2004, Heisserer and Parette 2002). Nevertheless, institutions often wait to intervene until a first-year student has demonstrated poor academic performance, typically after a few weeks or at the midpoint of the student’s first term. For some students, however, even midterm intervention is too late. Moreover, many academic support programs neglect students’ emotional and social health. Beginning in the 2010-11 academic year, Randolph-Macon College (Ashland, Virginia) implemented a holistic, peer-based academic support for at-risk first-year students at the time of their matriculation, rather than after Fall midterm grades were reported. This earlier intervention has led to substantially improved student performance and significantly higher retention rates. In this presentation, we discuss Randolph-Macon College’s successful program, including the data and analysis that led to the implementation of this earlier intervention program, as well as the results of careful monitoring of the students who have participated in the program since its inception. Our results suggest that other institutions may be able to improve student success and retention by adopting similar approaches.

Lisa Helmin Foss, St. Cloud State University

David Robinson, St. Cloud State University

Sharon Cogdill, St. Cloud State University

Data analytics has been demonstrated to offer advantages to organizations in the corporate sector that use data for operations and decision making, but in higher education, an initiative to implement data analytics is unlikely to succeed unless deliberate plans are made to “naturalize” data into the organizational culture and professional practices. Naturalization has occurred when change is deep, wide spread and systemic, which requires that as many sectors be engaged of the institution as possible, including students, faculty, senior leadership, middle management, and student-services personnel. Engaging faculty in analytics can contribute to the development of projects that constitute experimental research, generating knowledge within the organization that can contribute to successful change. Engaging students can increase the capacity of the number and kinds of projects that can be attempted, while at the same time offering students authentic educational experiences with real-world data and analytical problems. Beyond the usual indicators for successful implementation of data analytics in an organization, engaging the internal stakeholders of a university as well as deliberately developing an internal communications plan holds the potential to increase the likelihood of the successful implementation of data analytics.

Jerry Haywood, Jr., Fort Valley State University

The goal of this study was to examine the experience of African American males (AAM) who did not achieve academic success in their first year of college at a predominately White institution (PWI) in Southwestern Georgia. This study used a qualitative case study design to investigate the experience held by this target group. The qualitative case study approach was selected because it provided the researcher with the ideal means to focus on discovery and insight from the perspective of participants with the data produced being in the voice and experience of the participants. The outcome of this study points to three themes related to the first-year experience of this target group: (a) Engaging with Others, (b) Lack of Support and (c) Unprepared for Transition. The results of the study suggest that AAM have a strong desire to feel culturally connected and included within the campus environment. Additionally, the study points to the need of an established support system with the institution as well as with family and friends. This study advances the literature on AAM at PWIs and provides some insight on the experience of the academically unsuccessful AAM during the first year.

James Yard, Delaware Valley College

Introductory courses in mathematics pose significant challenges to many college freshmen and often become critical barriers to student success and persistence in math and science-related majors. Supplemental Instruction (SI) has an impressive record of improving student outcomes in academically challenging courses such as these, but for those concerned with retention, it also has an important limitation: participation is voluntary. By leaving participation to the discretion of students, SI reaches only a portion of them and self-selects a population that is generally more motivated than average. This is particularly true in freshman-level classes. Many freshmen enter college with unrealistic expectations of success, and many simply do not anticipate the level of rigor involved in their courses. In short, most freshmen simply don’t know what they don’t know. In order to address these concerns, Delaware Valley College initiated a program of mandatory Supplemental Instruction in Calculus beginning in the fall semester of 2012. This presentation describes the process of implementing mandatory SI, and evaluates its effectiveness, showing that mandatory SI dramatically improved student retention and performance in Calculus.

Christopher Romano, Ramapo College of New Jersey

Joseph Connell, Ramapo College of New Jersey

With increased competition and calls for outcomes to drive state funding, a strong focus on student success has emerged within the field of Enrollment Management (EM). Integrating research with data-driven decision-making, Ramapo restructured its EM division to break down silos and reframe institutional issues around students’ best interests. In doing so, the offices of First-Year Experience, Academic Advisement and Testing were merged into one unit – Student Success – and a campus-wide academic advisement plan was developed through a faculty and staff led Advisement Council. Using Ramapo as a case-study, this presentation will explore altering institutional culture through the lens of student success to guide changes in the areas of advisement, first year experience and retention. Comparing pre- and post- data of retention rates, advisement visits, student engagement (from the National Survey of Student Engagement) and first semester student survey impressions over a four-year period, Ramapo will reflect on its successes, missteps, next steps and bigger picture takeaways about culture and organization change that can help inform or guide other institutions in their practices.

Carina Beck, Montana State University

Tonya Lauriski-Karriker, Montana State University

Jacob Jenks, Montana State University

Erin McCormick, Montana State University

ChampChange is an engagement incentive program for all undergraduate students at Montana State University in Bozeman (MSU). Using technology and user interface (card scan and biometric reader stations) provided by the campus ID card office and our own in-house IT development, students are able to amass points for participating in a broad range of events and services. Last year, MSU recorded nearly 350,000 student engagements on campus. Through our data capture methods we observed a strong association between engagement and first-year, full-time student retention. The program is critical to supporting student success for at least two reasons. ChampChange leverages extrinsic rewards to encourage student participation on campus. As students accumulate points they have the opportunity to bid on prizes ranging in value from t-shirts to tuition credit. Second, the program provides a data capture opportunity, where a record of engagement and non-engagement patterns for all undergraduate students is recorded. From this effort we are able to develop models to determine who might be at risk for departure. In this presentation, we will describe the incentive and data capture program in detail including goals and challenges and examine the relationship between student engagement measured by ChampChange and retention at MSU.

Agnes Tracy Gottlieb, Seton Hall University

Established in 1987, Freshman Studies at Seton Hall University has three major components: peer counseling, academic advising and a mandatory college study skills course. The program has evolved over the decades in response to changes in technology, student preparedness and pedagogy to include many forward-thinking features that enhance student engagement and retention. This presentation explores some of the lessons learned along the way in creating a robust advising program that benefits all incoming students.

Sunny Moon, California State University-Fullerton

Edward Sullivan, California State University-Fullerton

Student retention and timely graduation are important topics under discussion on a campus-, system-, and nation-wide basis. California State University, Fullerton, focused on enhancing student success to improve student persistence and graduation rates and to narrow achievement gaps for underrepresented students as an institutional priority. The present study investigated the effectiveness of high-impact educational practices on student learning outcomes at the program and course levels. Supplemental Instruction is a peer-facilitated review session that takes place in a comfortable collaborative learning setting in which students can openly discuss lecture materials with an instructional leader and with their peers. The instruction has been implemented in bottleneck science courses and has raised course success and course grades, thereby narrowing the achievement gap. The Freshman Program provides a community of students, faculty, and professional staff to assist first-year students to make a smooth transition from high school into college and to make the most of the college experience. They create their own small academic and social community environment, within the larger university setting. Analysis of longitudinal data indicated the positive effects of the Freshman Program on achievement of underrepresented students.

Ernest Nolan, Madonna University

Jim O''Neill, Madonna University

Connie Tingson-Gatuz, Madonna University

Christine Benson, Madonna University

Madonna University has evolved a coordinated institution-wide effort to improve student retention rates and persistence to graduation by creating synergies among diverse initiatives: a five-year Title III project that coalesced and refined a number of retention efforts that had been initiated in the prior ten years; the initiation of a new planning cycle, '"Leading the Way with 20/20 Vision,'" that identifies pathways for continued institutional growth; and the development of a Comprehensive Student Retention Plan (CSRP), which will provide a framework for the Quality Initiative required by reaffirmation of accreditation through the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association.

Jon Steven Antalvari, Kent State University

In 2010, Kent State University implemented a policy that requires all undecided students to be in a degree granting major by the time they reach 45 credit hours. The impetus for the policy was institutional data showing students in degree granting majors were being retained at a higher rate. Kent State University welcomes 600+ incoming freshmen each year as “Exploratory,” a program for undeclared students that has been successfully expanding since 1994. The Exploration Plan was designed to enrich the freshman experience for undecided students and to expedite a shift into a degree-granting program within the first three semesters. The Exploration Plan has six components. Students become engaged in the Plan at the point of admission as Exploratory, when they are required to select one of thirteen university-wide concentration areas to explore first. Linked courses based on that concentration, in addition to a career exploration focus in the First Year Experience Course, the use of the Career Maturity Inventory and a newly-developed career navigation course series are all components of the Plan. Multiple required advising sessions add to the intrusive, high touch nature of the Plan. Although limited institutional data is available at the writing of this paper, literature on the topic of intrusive academic advising/career interventions support the goals of the Exploration Plan at Kent State University. The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on the success of the implementation of the Exploration Plan at Kent State University.

David Kalsbeek, DePaul University

The 4 Ps for student retention is a construct for reframing the retention discussion in a way that enables institutional improvement by challenging some conventional wisdom and prevailing perspectives that have characterized retention strategy for years. This framework proposes that a strategic approach to retention starts with attention to the profile of the students who are admitted, focuses on ways the university can facilitate their progress toward degree completion, improves the process of navigating a complex institution and ensures that all students’ experiences in and out of the classroom fulfill the promise of the university. Examples from DePaul University will be shared to demonstrate how student retention outcomes were improved when framed by the 4 Ps of student retention. Key measures will be proposed for institutions to consider in evaluating their own retention outcomes based on a 4 P framework.

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.