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Student Success Planning

As part of the College's commitment to student success, COCC sponsored a task force to identify and prioritize initiatives which positively influence credit student success. In spring 2013 and as part of a college-wide process, the Student Success Task Force prioritized the following initiatives:

  • Developing a First-Year Experience (FYE) Program
  • Implementing a process to automatically award certificates and degrees
  • Early interventions aided by earlier enrollment deadlines

The early interventions work was put on hold because of potential overlap with FYE; however, another task force was formed to examine how federal changes to financial aid regulations (referred to as course eligibility) might be implemented to foster student success. The College established three task forces to develop proposals for FYE, auto-awarding certificates and degrees, and course eligibility.

Task Force Recommendations

The task forces reviewed appropriate data and research on best practices to develop recommendations that fit with COCCs context. Based on their work, COCCs president approved moving forward with the following recommendations beginning in late-winter/early-spring 2015:

First Year Experience

  • Stabilize, align, and refine Bobcat Orientation
  • Review College Success course as a first-year experience course
  • Academic advising program review
  • Recommend how/when early college students (high school students taking COCC classes) should be involved in FYE activities
  • Continue work on developing FYE program outcomes, assessment, and indicators
  • Investigate and recommend an FYE program management structure supporting long-term sustainability

Auto-Awarding

The auto-awarding task force piloted this initiative during summer term and fall terms, with a specific focus on declared degrees (as opposed to short-term, one-year, and two-year certificates). The results of this pilot identified 332 students who had earned a degree, but not applied for it; as part of this pilot, students were automatically awarded the degree and feedback from them is overwhelmingly positive. Therefore, the task force will move from pilot to implementation, noting that future considerations will include awarding embedded certificates and possibly certificates or degrees for programs other than those declared by the student.

Historical Information
View historical student success information and document links.