Innovations Conference 2010- Sharing Information, Part 1

In March of 2010, League for Innovation in the Community College hosted a conference in Baltimore, Maryland.  The conference is dedicated to improving student and organizational learning through innovation, experimentation, and institutional learning. I  attended this exciting conference and left with ideas to discuss and share.  One session I attended was presented by the Central Carolina Technical College (CC Tech).  This session was Retention: Now That We Have'em, Let's Keep'em.

The presenters from CC Tech discussed their plan for increasing the retention of students from semester-to-semester and improving graduation/success rates. The retention plan included:

1. To increase the number of students who re-enroll from one semester to the next.  This involved establishing benchmarks and reports, identifying support services, and supporting alternate methods of delivery.  
2. To manage the first-time, full-time freshman cohort.  An interesting concept here was that ownership must be established to this task.  Also, faculty were assigned the responsibility of tracking students.
3. To institute a face-to-face college orientation.  Connectivity was paramount, and they felt that online methods didn't accomplish what the face-to-face could.
4.  To establish a tutoring system. At the time of the presentation, CC Tech had just completed a pilot plan for the design.  
5. To create a plan for an Academic and Student Support Center. CC Tech had just begun implementation.  In doing so, they had previously researched similar Centers to obtain best practices.
6. To provide supplemental support services to outreach students to promote successful transition to main campuses.   They hosted orientation sessions at outreach locations for maximum student accessibility and attendance.

It's always beneficial to hear the ideas and experiences of others in the field.  Perhaps something from CC Tech's retention plan will give you a new idea.  The Perkins state staff will continue to share ideas, and we'd love to post yours here on the blog.                                                     -Brinda Berry, ADHE