Part III: How can a college become entirely student-centric?

The next step in Maria’s journey is learning to navigate her college’s learning platform. This college uses a learning platform to house everything students need for their journey to graduation—academic resources, wrap-around support, quick-reference directories, and so on. The online learning platform also showcases course outcomes. At this institution, courses are mapped backward from outcomes so that there is never any question as to which skills students will attain upon course completion. Let’s take a look to see how this learning platform and academic structure puts students first.

Maria is now fully enrolled in her first term at her student-centric university. She has her financial aid sorted out, she’s met with her academic advisor to select classes, she has a clear degree map completed, so she knows exactly which courses she will need to graduate. The next step is for Maria to learn about a fundamental component of her academic experience—the learning platform. This online tool will be home to every resource Maria needs throughout her time at this university. The platform includes everything from course materials to IT support. Maria, while tech savvy, has never used this type of technology and requires a tutorial to feel completely comfortable and in control.

Instead of leaving Maria to figure out the learning platform on her own, Maria’s academic advisor offers her a detailed walk-through. Maria would expect an IT representative to teach her about the platform, but she is encouraged that her academic advisor is the one to do it—this way, she knows that people at all levels and departments at the university, not just IT professionals, are well versed in this technology.

Maria’s advisor takes her through the platform’s home page, where Maria’s schedule, upcoming assignments, email inbox, alerts, access to classmates, recordings, and links to helpful resources (e.g. IT support, the academic resource center, her advisor’s contact information) are located. The advisor then walks through each of Maria’s course-specific pages where her syllabi, course materials, login for her online classes, and professor’s contact information reside. These items, to Maria, all seem pretty simple and easy to access. However, a few aspects stand out to her as going above and beyond to ensure she stays on track, through so many features purpose-built for keeping her well informed, engaged and connected to support before she needs it.

Alerts

Maria’s advisor explains that “alerts” reference “red flag” items Maria needs to be aware of. For example, if Maria misses two classes or does not turn in an assignment, she will receive a notification through this online learning platform. Maria’s academic advisor will receive the same notification. This type of alert is not an automatic penalty or grade deduction; rather, it is a mechanism through which Maria’s advisor can facilitate a check-in call that includes Maria’s professor to make sure Maria is all right and to make a plan for getting up to speed in class. Maria also learns that not only does the platform issue alerts for missed classes or assignments, it also operates on a predictive analytics system that alerts her advisor and professors if her grades and/or participation begin to trend downward. This system allows for intervention ahead of larger assignments that will have a big impact on her final grade.

Access

Maria’s advisor shares with her that her professors, her advisor, and any other academic support people with whom she works can have access to Maria’s student-specific platform. With this setup, Maria sees she has an entire team surrounding her to help ensure her success and provide her just-in-time support should she need it. This means that her professors can easily monitor Maria’s grades and reach out to her or to another academic support person at the university if Maria is beginning to show signs of falling behind. Just-in-time support differs from Maria’s previous college experience where she received her grades at mid-term and end-of-term, by which point it was too late to rectify a missed assignment or a difficult subject. She is now even more confident that she made the right choice in enrolling in this university.

Class Login

Instead of having to toggle to a different app to log on to her classes, Maria learns that she will log on right on her course-specific page. This part is especially important. At the end of a long day of work and taking care of her child, the last thing Maria wants is to remember which platform she needs to use or which password is correct. With this online learning platform, she has one login, and one place to locate everything she needs for every class.

Program Outcomes and Course Objectives

Maria sees something she’s never seen before on each of her syllabi—“Course Objectives.” Her advisor explains that at this institution, degree programs and, therefore, classes are designed backward from outcomes. Faculty and departments establish the skills students will gain from each program, then translate the program-level outcomes to individual course objectives (so that each class contributes to the overall programmatic learning outcomes). Then they create curricula that build toward those objectives—each assignment builds toward a specific objective. These program outcomes and course objectives, of which students are well-aware, allow students to answer the question, “what’s the point of this assignment?” Moreover, these backward-mapped courses allow Maria to understand exactly what she is going to be able to do upon completion of each of her classes and, ultimately, her degree. She will have concrete skills to add to her resume; she will be able to articulate to employers exactly what she has learned; and, in the immediate, she will be able to select courses not only based on her major, but also based on the skills specific to her desired career.

In Practice

Now that Maria understands how the learning platform works, let’s see how the alert system works in a practical scenario.

In Maria’s third week of school, her child feels sick and has to be picked up early from school. Maria needs to leave work to pick him up and care for him throughout the afternoon and evening. She logs into class at 7:30, but she spends class time multi-tasking to catch up on the work she missed this afternoon and to deliver water, food, and medicine to her son every so often. She reminds herself that the lectures are posted online after class, so she can come back to it to review what she missed. But the next day, she feels sick. Both her and her son spend the next few days recovering and, before she knows it, she has missed another class and an assignment. We can all relate to this scenario—every day obstacles get in the way and by the time we make it through, we’ve fallen behind on what we need to get done.

The difference in Maria’s case is that her advisor receives an alert when Maria misses her class. Maria’s advisor reaches out to check in and make sure Maria is okay and has what she needs to get back on track. When her advisor does not hear back and receives a second alert that Maria has missed an assignment, the advisor reaches out a second time. At this point, Maria is nearly recovered, but feels mounting stress around missing work and making sure both her and her son catch up on missed classes and assignments. Maria is grateful to hear from her advisor and together, they develop a schedule that Maria can use to catch up on everything she missed while tending to her other responsibilities.

At other institutions, Maria would have been left to figure out how to play catch-up on her own. And, because her son is always her priority, Maria may have simply foregone her missed work and, instead, focused on helping her son get back on track after being out sick from school. At this student-centric university, however, Maria feels supported by her advisor and professors as they all understand the difficulty that comes with juggling academic, personal, and professional responsibilities. Maria’s advisor actively helps her to stay on a path toward success and tailors wrap-around support offerings to Maria’s specific needs.

Maria has all the tools at her disposal for a smooth start to school. Follow along to see what happens next as she works toward her bachelor’s degree.

#studentcentric #studentsfirst #highereducation #onlinelearning #learningplatform