This newsletter from Winston-Salem State University's Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning provides information on engaging students and improving retention rates. It discusses 7 best practices for high student engagement, including student-faculty interaction and active learning. It also outlines 5 high-impact practices that help students persist to graduation, such as learning communities and writing-intensive courses. Additionally, the newsletter notes that immediate feedback and meaningful first-year experiences are strongly connected to student persistence. The newsletter calls on faculty to experiment with initiatives to improve varying retention factors and avoid practices that could be considered "malpractice".

1. Winston-Salem State University
Leading and Learning
A publication of The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning
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2. p.2 Leading and Learning Vol 1, Issue 1
Did you know that
Student satisfaction impacts retention, even if it does not impact grades.
Students need deep integrative learning that they can apply to many situa-
tions. They need learning that helps them see the world differently.
To get a good picture of what high student engagement should look like, we
should study 'educationally effective institutions' to discern the 7
best practices; 1) student faculty interaction 2) active learning 3)
immediate feedback 4) time on task 5) high expectations 6) respect for
diversity 7) enforced cooperation (can be achieved via team based /
problem based learning).
The National Survey of Student Engagement will let you know how engaged
your students are in the academic life of the university as well as the
social life. Only 13% of college students report participation in extracur-
ricular activities. The more engaged, the better the student's
grades. The more satisfied generally, the more they stay to
graduation.
Students persist to graduation when they have: 1) excellent 1st year experi-
ence courses 2) common intellectual experiences 3)learning communi-
ties 4) writing intensive courses and 5) effective relationships with fac-
ulty/mentors. These are called high impact practices. These prac-
tices force interaction with peers and faculty, ensure more feedback
from professors, encourage appreciation for diversity, encourage coop-
eration, and ensure the opportunity to have concrete experiences (vs.
theoretical, nebulous, extraneous). These practices have an even greater
effect on students who are considered to have high risk factors (for
dropout).
At many universities, 10-15% of the enrolled students drop between registra-
tion and census date (10 days into the semester). We should try to find
out what this is all about. This may indicate something about the envi-
ronment or the red tape they have been through, or the fear they are
beginning to feel. Some of these same feelings will remain among those
who chose to stay, but may continue to impact them negatively. Focus
groups held with students who did quit prematurely report that rela-
tionships /rapport is the biggest factor missing in their early experi-
ences on campus.
Successful completion (C or better) of well-structured developmental
courses contributes to greater college success than that experienced by
those who did not even take developmental courses.
Universities must experiment with a wide range of initiatives based on vary-
ing retention factors, in an effort to find what works. Some say that any-
thing else equals malpractice. Refusing to change our teaching habits,
curriculum assessments, and resources should not be an option.
The teaching practice most connected to student persistence is im-
mediate and meaningful feedback to student work.
(notes taken from a teaching/learning conference, Jacksonville FLA,
2009) For more, contact us at 8609