Course Category: Free for All-Inclusive Members

Students who are provisionally admitted to college or otherwise considered “at-risk” often face unique academic, social, or emotional challenges during their transition. Summer bridge programs aim to address these transitional issues through support and remediation. The challenge is knowing which elements to prioritize and what works at your institution. Are you doing enough to create a sense of student connection on your campus for success into their second year and beyond? Join us online to learn how your institution can take a strategic approach to summer bridge programs and at-risk student success. We focus on three key components of summer bridge programs and identify effective strategies for measuring student engagement and campus connection. Our expert faculty showcases the SOAR program at University of Central Florida, a summer bridge program that boasts student retention rates of 90%.

Approximately 25% of students begin college at a time other than fall term, yet many institutions don’t reflect this in their onboarding processes. Recent research suggests that students starting in non-fall terms encounter substantially different challenges in campus orientation, socialization, and academic performance. These challenges pose a direct threat to both student retention and success. The onboarding process for spring admits begins well before the term itself and is critical to building strategies for student success. Join us to learn about current research and hear practical examples for implementing suggested best practices.

Many institutions report that retention and graduation rates for students are declining due to a “stop-out” phenomenon. Employment, family, and financial issues are just some of the complex logistical concerns contributing to students’ suspension of study. Institutional stop-out programs offer the support, counseling, and procedural engagement that help these students return to school and complete their degrees. However, implementing a stop-out program carries challenges from gathering the right data to strategic outreach and creating campus-wide buy-in. Learn about the University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s 49er Finish Program, an effective stop-out project in action; start taking the steps to create a program on your campus.

Electronic communication between academic advisor and student has become more transparent with the advent of technology. The reliance upon electronic records raises substantial questions about privacy, notation, and storage. Is your campus effectively addressing the legal and ethical implications inherent in advising documentation? Join us and learn how to minimize risk and maximize student engagement using electronic advising documentation as a part of your campus’ overall retention strategy. In this online training, actual examples of entries in student records and emails will be used to illustrate ineffective communication and documentation that put an institution at risk. These examples will also be used to show how to improve your documentation’s effectiveness. Attendees will leave this online training with resources to assess and improve their institution’s electronic advising documentation process.

Are you using email to communicate with an expanding number of advisees? Do you want to better manage your email communication? Research shows that quality advising relationships increase student persistence. Email communication using a developmental framework can be an opportunity to build a stronger rapport with advisees. Join us online as our expert instructor contextualizes the developmental potential of email advising. Through real-life examples of effective advisor communication and workshopping examples, this online training will teach new advisors how to improve the effectiveness of their electronic interactions. Additionally, new advisors will identify opportunities to developmentally engage students via email.