Planning for Success

Submitted by Jamie Lopez on
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Abstract

While attending the League for Innovation Learning Summit, I was struck by a keynote address by Rachel Fulcher-Dawson of Notre Dame & Corinne Weaver of Catholic Charities in Fort Worth, Texas. They shared the results of a partnership entitled "Stay the Course" in Fort Worth at Tarrant County Community College. The program is a planned intervention for low-income students. In structuring the study four main reasons for student drop-out were:

  • cost
  • under prepared
  • personal (non-academic obstacles)
  • social and institutional obstacles:
    • lack of self-efficacy
    • struggles with planning
    • struggles with time-management

As an instructor, I strive to address social and institutional obstacles. My design for intervention includes a document that students complete the first week of online instruction in order to map out their plan for success. These documents are sent to the instructor in order to quickly address students who are demonstrating confusion or lack of focus. These will be the students that I will meet with first in the semester.

Division/Department
Occupational Education
Completed Full Cycle
No
Course Number
EED211
EED250
EED 111
Attachment Size
assignment-canvas.png 361.25 KB
grading-rubric.png 344.01 KB
eed-211-student-checklist.doc 119 KB
URL's
Stay the Course
Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities

Comments

Peter Turner Thu, 08/25/2016 - 11:04am

Very interesting, Jamie, and I love how you are focusing on student success in an online environment (which I struggle with!). Are you going to compare new success rates (persistence, etc.) with students using their "Map" versus your prior classes that didn't use the map? This would make a great CATS!

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Jamie Lopez Wed, 09/14/2016 - 5:10pm

That is my plan (to track new success rates). This semester I am only teaching one online class. Ideally I would compare two classes in the same semester. I will say that compared to last semester I am already seeing more persistence and on-time assignments in these first few weeks of class compared to last semester. This is HUGE in the online environment where my policy is NO LATE ASSIGNMENTS. Students can get into academic trouble rather quickly.  To be continued!

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Becky Baranowski Thu, 08/25/2016 - 11:41am

This is a great way to interact with online students and to help them be successful.  I hope it goes well.  I look forward to seeing your updated CATS once you have done this.  

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Jamie Lopez Wed, 09/14/2016 - 5:13pm

Update 9-16-16

I added this assignment to my EED 111  Technology in the Early Childhood Environment Online class. In adding the assignment I did not take any of the "Getting Started" requirements out. Students were still required to complete the Syllabus Reflection Assignment and Syllabus Quiz.  In addition, my students completed the Canvas Badge Module rather than the traditional Canvas specific Getting Started activities.  Add to this the fact that Canvas went down a few times in the first week AND students who added the class in the last week were not immediately enrolled in the Canvas class.  I was pleasantly surprised with the results:

Out of 25 students enrolled in the class, 23 completed the assignment with no difficulty and beautiful detail.

I was able to immediately reach out to the two students who did not complete the assignment as written and clarify and provide support.

One student did complain that the assignment was very time consuming and that he had to search for the information (that was the plan!) and he did not like how the table moved as he put in information.  I thanked him for his feedback, gave some formatting tips, and complimented him on his attention to detail (his document was well done).

Several students commented about the assignment in the First Week Feedback Survey:

  • One thing that surprised me about the first module was the planning for success task. I personally liked it and it is helping me keep on track of what is due and when. 
  • One thing about the first module that helped me was… The way I had to set up my assignment in Word and I got a feel of how it was going to be for most assignments. 
  • One thing about the first module that helped me was… understanding what is expected in this online class and how I can be successful with my learning.
  • One thing about the first module that helped me was… The introduction assignment where we went through and made sure we had a good overview week by week of the events and discussions as well as assignments that will need to be completed. 
  • The Student Checklist is fairly helpful for me. I can easily bring it up and see the assignments we are doing. As well as when those assignments are due. It also shows the reading and videos that will be available to be with that week's assignments. I wish my other classes did this as well instead of just putting it in the syllabus. Some do not even put the assignments in the syllabus and the dates are all messed up so it makes it hard to tell what we are doing. 
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Patricia Cardenas-Adame Mon, 09/19/2016 - 4:01pm

Jaime,  I like this approach to mapping out a pathway to success.  I am interested in using something similar in my Eng 102 research project.  Thanks for sharing.

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Jamie Lopez Tue, 10/18/2016 - 3:35pm

Thank you Pattie. I have found that students enjoyed this assignment and were surprised at how much they learned about the class while completing it. I have also noticed that when students complete their grade checks (I require 4 throughout the semester because this is an online class) they refer back to the document that they created. I do believe that I am addressing both the issues "struggles with planning" and "struggles with time management" that lead students to drop out. Hopefully students are feeling empowered and supprorted as well.

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Reynaldo Rivera Mon, 09/19/2016 - 5:03pm

Novel idea for students to map their way to success. Look forward to seeing the results.

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