Northern College Student Retention & Success Strategies

Northern College of Applied Arts and Technology Timmins, Ontario Mary-Anne Martin – Coordinator / Professor Tina Thibault-Lambert – Professor

Northern College Fast facts (Fall 2004) – 4 main campuses – students 1,276 full-time 7,298 part-time – faculty 80 full time 120 part-time – Communities – Graduates

Northern College Michael Hill, President Vision-Mission Statement – Vision: A Northern Educational Community Network – Mission: To ensure accessible, quality educational experiences that meet the unique needs of our communities. – Motto: Transforming your future.

Northern College Commitment: – Supporting, nurturing and celebrating learners’ and employees’ contributions and accomplishments. – Maintaining a caring, friendly atmosphere.

Attrition Rates * Fall % Fall % Fall % Fall % Fall % Fall % * Based on November audits

Current Student Success Strategies Student Success Centre Study skills workshops Peer tutors / Community tutors Faculty-lead tutorial sessions Study group formation Consult with Centre for Students with DisAbilities Individual learning plans New initiatives for fall 2005

The Student Success Centre (SSC) Created as a result of our new vision-mission Created to address unacceptably high drop out rate among first semester students Began programs and services September 2001 Reduced our attrition rate to well below the provincial average. Assisted students to realize their academic goals

Student Success Centre  Location  Staff Learning Resource Centre

Student Success Centre

“When You Succeed, We Succeed”

SSC PHILOSOPHY Every student can be a better student Every student has his/her own definition of success We help students in whatever way we can We make referrals to other college and community services

Faculty in the SSC The SSC is staffed by faculty for 20 to 35 hours/week as part of their workload Students can ‘drop-in’ or make an appointment to speak with faculty Our function is two-fold – Content resource (tutoring and mentoring) – Student success resource

FALL 2003 STUDENT SUCCESS CENTRE STAFF SCHEDULE

SSC - Summary The Student Success Centre is a student, faculty, and support staff-driven initiative that is fully endorsed and supported by our administration.

Study Skills Workshops Orientation workshop – Study and test taking skills – Time management and anxiety management – Introduction to and tour of the SSC and Northern College

Study Skills Workshops Test skills seminars – test / exam taking strategies offered twice each semester Tutor seminars – Introduces nature/scope of tutoring position – Offers tutoring/teaching strategies training

Tutoring Peer tutoring services Community tutoring services

Tutoring Statistics Fall and Winter semesters ( ) – 185 tutorees and 75 tutors Fall 2004 – 106 students requested tutors – 96 assigned tutors Winter 2005 – All students who requested tutoring were assigned tutors

New Initiatives Summer 2005 – Math tutoring Fall 2005 – AccuPlacer

Faculty-lead tutorials Faculty-lead math tutorials in technology (on SWF) Fall 2005 – Faculty-lead remediation

Individual Learning Plan Initiated by coordinators Student Plan 14 – 29 – 44 Learning Plan for at-risk students

Final Thought “In the future, the new illiterate will be the person who has not learned how to learn.” (Anonymous) We must do all we can to help students to become successful learners.