Building Bridges for Student Success

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Building Bridges for Student Success

• Early Alert and Proactive Advising
• James Anderson, M.A., M.Ed.
• Oklahoma State University-Oklahoma City
• 14th Annual Conference on Students in Transition
• Cincinnatti, OH
• November 5, 2007

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About OSU-OKC

• Branch Campus of OSU System
• Primarily 2-year technical degrees (AAS, some
  AS, 1 BT)
• Total headcount approx. 6,000
• Commuter campus
• Little sense of cohesive community

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About the presenter

• Educated at University of Arkansas
• Started as part time advisor August 1998, full
  time Sept 1999, Title III July 2004
• Began developing and managing programs focused on
  at risk populations (probationary admissions)
• Began developing proposals for retention programs
  focusing on proactive outreach.

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About the program

• Title III Federal Grant
• This component focused on campus community
  development
• Four phases
• Phase II Early Alert
• Phase III Proactive Advising

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Before the grant

• Early Alert not automated
• Decentralized process (determined by campus
  survey)
• Inconsistent communication
• No tracking or follow up
• Only proactive contact was first time student
  orientation and a fledgling initiative involving
  welcome calls to first time students at OSU-OKC.

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MISSION and VISION Early Alert

• Mission
• To provide a more efficient and proactive way
  to identify, track and contact those students who
  are demonstrating a lack of academic progress in
  their currently enrolled coursework.

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MISSION and VISION Early Alert
Vision To help strengthen the OSU-OKC
Community by providing a more efficient tracking
and contact mechanism for the facilitation of
proactive contact with those students indicated
by faculty as being at risk from an academic
perspective.
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What we did Early Alert

• Looked for ways to automate, centralize, and make
  Early Alert process more consistent
• Updated EA letter to add more urgency to the
  language
• Adapted system created by a sister institution to
  utilize code in existing SIS database
• Created mechanisms to be used in academic
  divisions
• Got grown-up (VP Council and Division Heads)
  approval and support

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MISSION and VISION Proactive Advising
Mission
To further augment the OSU-OKC Community by
developing and implementing methods to identify
and to contact those students . . .at risk of
leaving . . . to provide stronger support and
encouragement
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MISSION and VISION Proactive Advising
Vision Phase III allows for the early
contact of members of the OSU-OKC Community at
risk of leaving for the purpose of strengthening
their ties to the Community and increasing their
access and usage of Community support resources.
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What we did Proactive Advising

• Identify populations
• Learning Community
• Special populations identified by academic
  department
• Welcome e-mail or phone call
• Mid-term supportive encouraging message
• Invitation to enroll for following term
• Good luck and final message

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How we did Early Alert

• Prior to implementation no tracking data existed
  for Early Alert.
• Fall 2006
• 1015 Total Alerts
• 147 successful outcomes (A,B,C)
• 339 Student initiated outcomes (AU, I W)
• 486 (48) effective outcomes

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How we did Early Alert

• Spring 2007
• 1042 total alerts
• 236 successful outcomes
• 288 student initiated outcomes
• 524 (50) effective outcomes

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How we did Proactive Advising

• Proactive Advising Pilot
• Fall 2006 Spring 2007
• 25.67 increase in academic success as measured
  by retention and GPA over baseline year 2005-06.
• 9.6 greater rate of course persistence over non
  pilot participants.

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