College Success Network Updates – February 2019

Posted by PHENND on February 5, 2019

A lot has happened so far in early 2019!

Our first webinar was held January 24th, as part of the “Data & Information” group answering the question, “How do we identify, measure and track outcomes for underserved students on our campus?”  This particular webinar featured two campuses (Bryn Mawr College and Temple University) who are each trying to quantify levels of student engagement with career services, disaggregated by subgroup.  Bryn Mawr and Temple both described the processes they undertook to acquire the data, understand the data, and define parameters. In both cases, they emphasize the need to work with “on-campus partners” – other departments which held information not stored centrally.  Bryn Mawr discovered that while first generation students didn’t participate in their programming at the same rates as continuing generation students overall, they did participate at the same rates once they got involved. Meaning, the key is to increase initial engagement with first generation students, since once they are in the door, so to speak, they keep coming back for more.  Both Bryn Mawr and Temple talked about the data elements they used to track and quantify engagement whether it be attendance at workshops, drop-in appointments, or simply logging into the system (in Temple’s case Simplicity but moving to HandShake in the future).  For both campuses, the process has been a learning experience, and is still ongoing with continuous refinement and improvement.  Below are links to the presentations and a recording of the webinar.

• Measuring Student Engagement Webinar Recording
• Presentation from Bryn Mawr College 190124_AssessmentWebinar_BMCSlides
• Presentation from Temple University 190124_AssessmentWebinar_TempleSlides

We have also applied for Bringing Theory to Practice: Multi-institutional Innovation Grant to support the development of the College Success Learning Community. Special thanks to PHENND campuses La Salle University and Rutgers University-Camden for letters of support!

We are also looking at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Grant for Intermediaries for Scale. There is an upcoming webinar on February 13th. Let us know if you are interested or have ideas about this proposal.