Subscribe

student success

What Impact Does Course Compaction Have on Student Success?

We’ve been revisiting what we mean by course compaction, how to measure it, and evaluate whether courses are too compacted or not enough, and what student-success-sponsoring course compaction looks like.

Redefining Accessibility in Higher Education: Embracing the Social Model of Disability

For post-secondary institutions, many retention initiatives focus on identifying students at-risk for attrition but retention planning for students with disabilities must include a culture that supports accessible design from tools and pedagogy, to service and systems design.

Navigating Program Closure in an Era of Budget Cuts

Conducting analysis in advance ensures that program closure decisions are strategic, transparent, and aligned with the institution's long-term goals. It helps academic leaders make data-informed choices, mitigate risks, and optimize resources while maintaining quality and supporting student success.

Cultivating Advising Success: A Strategic Approach to the Advising Review

Taking the time to do an advising review is key to both determining how much of a restructure is necessary, and to determine what kind of model to restructure to.

Cultivating Advising Success: Advisor and Advisee Types

Developing an advising team requires a similar approach to building a cooperatively-maintained greenhouse: identify distinct needs for specific student groups then develop a team of advisors with complimentary roles and skills to serve those needs.

Cultivating Advising Success: Structural Models

Many post-secondary institutions have a mandate to serve their local community as well as international students, so the advising approach must be designed to meet the needs of both groups. Many institutions practicing strategic enrolment management choose to go with a hybrid model for this reason.

Cultivating Advising Success: Theoretical Approaches

Academic advising has gone through three main theoretical evolutions: Problem-based, Prescriptive-based, and Developmental advising. Best practices for advising may differ depending on the educational offerings and community they services, many institutions are moving to a Developmental approach.

Cultivating Advising Success: Should You Restructure Your Advising?

The solution to a struggling advising unit is not always a redesign; while restructuring can be an obvious way to show students you as an institution are addressing the challenges, it can be less effective than taking a more strategic, holistic approach to understanding the units’ challenges.

Using Technology in Academic Advising to Empower Students

As technology shapes how we find information, I wanted to know what social media says about academic advising. Most Tiktok videos tagged with #academicadvising were negative. How can institutions use technology to change the story told on social media?

Enrolment Forecasting in Support of SEM

SEM prompts consideration of the many variables, both academic and administrative, that impact a student’s experience, progress, and future enrolment. Data, or the lack thereof, influences an institution's ability to define what future student populations may look like.