“Students characterize colleges in two ways— institutions that really care about students and those that don’t," said Dr. Darla Cooper at her plenary presentation at the Technology and Transfer Conference in July. "What type of message do you want to send to students? Is your college one that cares about students or not?”
In her research, Cooper has identified the following five key themes that emerged when students talked about what they needed to succeed:
1. Colleges must foster students’ motivation. Most students accept that their motivation is their responsibility, but colleges can play a positive or a negative role. Institutions need to examine whether their policies, practices, programs, and interactions with students are helping students stay motivated or are they creating barriers that discourage students.
2. Colleges must teach students how to succeed in the postsecondary environment. The transition to college is difficult. Students often don’t know what it takes to be a successful college student and/or don’t yet possess the study and time management skills they will need to succeed. Colleges need to provide that guidance and support.
3. Colleges must structure support to ensure that all six success factors are addressed. Not all students need all six factors in the same way at the same time, but if institutions cover all the bases, then students will be able to find what they need when they need it. The six success factors are universal, whether a student is entering college or university as a freshman or is transferring from a community college to a four-year institution.
4. Colleges must provide comprehensive support to historically underserved students to prevent the equity gap from growing. Thousands of students struggle to be successful on campus. Special programs that serve small numbers will never move the needle. Institutions must find ways to help students at scale. A first step can be to look at what works in these special programs and identify which aspects could be implemented at scale.
5. Everyone has a role to play in supporting student achievement, but faculty must take the lead. Instructional faculty must take the lead because unfortunately not every student sees a counselor or belongs to a special program, but every student has a teacher and sometimes that teacher is the student’s only connection to the college. Faculty members play an important role by putting students in touch with support and services that can help them.
For more information about Dr. Cooper's presentation, download the 2017 Technology and Transfer Conference Executive Summary here.
Click here to learn more about her research.