Student Success Course

Mandy Wright. Team Leader: Mandy Wright

Team Members
Heather Palermo, Lorene Jaynes, Colleen Hazen, Leanne Frost, Kirsten Bryson, Beth Cooper, Tom Oakberg, Greg Stivers, Natalie Nefzger, Julie Myers, Pam Skogen, Shannon Walden

Goal III. Strengthen Student Support Services and Programs

Task B. Building from the COLS 102 Pilot Course, design and implement a mandatory student success course, tied to orientation and advising, for all students new to the College. This course should include components modeled after best practices such as the development of an academic and career plan to be utilized in the advising process.

Purpose
After piloting the “Navigating MSU-Great Falls” (COLS 102) course, MSU-Great Falls determined that most students would benefit from a course, taken early in their college career, to help them with the basics of being a college student. The Student Success Course team is working to make this course a permanent offering. The challenges include determining who must take the course, when they need to take it, how to work around state-mandated credit limits and then designing the course -- incorporating best practices from other colleges with what has worked at MSU-Great Falls

Strategy Progress: Research courses and delivery methods, 100 percent. Write course outlines and intended outcomes, 10o%. Curriculum Committee approval, 100 percent.
The team began with some research into other similar programs and has worked to identify issues and challenges that must be addressed. Team discussions are important to seeking consensus on some of the key issues. The team then began determining the content and developing the course.

Timeline
The Student Success Course team began in Fall 2011 with research and discussions about content, learning outcomes and general delivery challenges. The team has been developing the course in Spring 2012 and plans to implement it in Fall 2012. The team will review data from the Fall implementation in early Spring 2013 and make any required changes. The target for mandatory implementation is Spring 2013.

Results
Although the new COLS 103 course has not been implemented, it will replace the COLS 102 course that has been offered the last few terms. Data on that course show that students who successfully completed COLS 102 had a retention rate 20% higher than students who did not take the course.