Institute/Session Summary:

Purpose

In an effort to provide outreach to struggling first year students, Alvernia College developed an intervention course for students on academic probation after their first semester of classes. The presentation will explain how the course has improved both student learning outcomes and retention of first year students.

Data is available for two cohorts of students who have taken the course.
Since the course itself is team taught by Learning Center professionals and incorporates participation of tutoring staff, faculty, and student counselors/ advisors, information from the session will be useful to many of CRLAs members.

Learning objectives

More specifically, attendees will learn which elements of the course proved most beneficial to the students involved, based on student feedback. These include specific time management strategies, study skill/learning style assessments (including VARK and others), an interactive note-taking workshop using pop-culture materials, semester mapping, and a student how-to guide for figuring out what grades are necessary to pull up a lagging GPA. Presenters will give a detailed explanation of how these topics were most effectively presented to students, and samples of all assessments and worksheets will be provided. 

Outline of the content

Introduction

1. Presenters’ experience
   a. Megan Adukaitis, Asst. Dir. of Freshman Foundations and ACT 101 has an M.S. in Higher Education Counseling and works with conditionally     admitted freshmen. She has taught this course for two years and was involved in its genesis.  
   b. Danielle Saad, Dir. of Learning Advancement has an MA in English and works as a Learning Center administrator, First Year Composition     instructor, and has taught the course for one year.
   c. Background of the course / Why we implemented it
2. Description of the cohorts

Body

1. Mandatory Course Elements
   a. Pre-course Self Assessments
   b. GPA Workshop: Explaining What it takes to rescue a drowning GPA to freshmen  (Audience Participation with worksheet handout)
   c. Semester Mapping: Getting students to see the big picture of the semester. (Meeting with LC staff)
   d. Learning Preference Assessment: LC staff members help students discover a way to study that makes sense to them (Audience Participation:     survey & group work on note-taking using visual/artistic, kinesthetic, and written methods)
   e. Mythbusters / Note-taking Group Workshop
   f.  Weekly individual meetings with professor
   g. Participation in WebCT course content
2. Outcomes
   a. Post-course self-assessment
   b. Student feedback
   c. Cohort success vs. success rates of previous cohorts with no intervention
   d. Future research/recommendations for those who wish to try this

1. Individual intervention works better than group efforts
2. Tailoring course material to each student based on the student’s self-assessment is best for learning outcomes and raising GPAs 
   

Significance to the field

In researching intervention courses, we had a difficult time finding anything very closely related to our course, which is a hybrid of group, individual, and online work. Other intervention courses do exist, but usually in the format of the traditional group course focusing on the same issues for all students, regardless of individual students’ personal issues. What we have learned is that reasons for students’ academic struggles are varied and individualized, therefore making this very individually structured course appropriate for this generation of students. Our findings show that student success is greatly improved when efforts of student services professionals are coordinated and tailored to meet the needs of each student, rather than approaching the issue of first year students on probation as a singular problem with a singular solution.

Relevance to CRLA members and other conference attendees

Since the reasons why first year students end up on probation are manifold, the intervention course we will describe has elements that can benefit professionals in Learning Centers, ACT 101 professionals working with both learning and counseling issues, Reading and Study Skills instructors, and tutors working with students involved in these types of courses.

Media/Visuals/Handouts

Presenters will use a PowerPoint backdrop
GPA Workbook – created by Alvernia College staff
Learning Preferences Surveys – used with permission of VARK
Time Management Worksheet packet – created by Alvernia College staff
Semester Mapping packet – created by Alvernia College staff
Course Syllabi (Years 1 and 2) – created by Alvernia College staff

Presenter1 Name: Megan Adukaitis
Presenter1 Institution: Alvernia College
Presenter1 Bio: Megan Adukaitis has an M.S. in Higher Education Counseling and currently works at Alvernia College. As Assistant Director of Freshman Foundations and ACT 101, she works with at-risk students on a daily basis.

Presenter2 Name: Danielle Saad
Presenter2 Institution: Alvernia College
Presenter2 Bio: Danielle Saad has an MA in English Literature and currently works at Alvernia College. As Director of Learning Advancement, she runs a comprehensive Learning Center and teaching first year composition courses.