Dear Colleagues,
You may recall that one year ago we launched Students First, PSU’s institution-wide commitment to improving student experiences and outcomes through the coordination or best practices and data-informed decision-making. As we enter a new academic year, I want to share with you the important progress that we continue making on Students First.
Supporting early identification of students at risk
Beginning this fall, we will begin convening a Persistence Network, a collaborative team of staff and faculty who will meet weekly to identify and discuss ways to support at-risk students. This work is especially important during the pandemic as we simultaneously grapple with the impacts that systemic racism and wildfires are having on our students. The Persistence Network will begin coordinating the efforts of stakeholders from across campus to implement strategies to support students and to inform overall policy.
The Persistence Network is under the leadership of Jose Coll, Dean of the School of Social Work; Michele Toppe, Vice Provost for Student Affairs; and Randi Harris, Transfer and Returning Student Resource Center Director.
The work of the Persistence Network will be enhanced by the hire of a new Student Success Advocate using a case management framework, the Student Success Advocate will proactively identify students throughout the academic year who are encountering barriers and connect them with services and resources. Reporting to Mike Walsh, Dean of Student Life, this position is being funded for the pilot year through grants.
To improve our understanding of student experiences and to establish baseline data for assessing impact, a New Student Survey was administered to incoming fall students via online orientation. This survey assesses several risk factors of persistence and asks students about:
- Their concerns as they start at PSU
- The demands on their time
- Their educational goals
- Their prior experiences
We will provide regular updates both via email and on the Students First website.
Addressing student needs in a remote learning environment
To support our students with remote and online learning in the Fall, the Learning Center created additional resources for students, including an assessment and a self-paced course on topics that students requested.
- The NEW Online + Remote Readiness skill-building course is a free, self-paced D2L course available to all students. This course launched September 1st and is automatically populated in all students' D2L course listings, d2l.pdx.edu under Self-Registration.
- The updated Learning Center website now includes an Online Readiness Self-Assessment with resources for students.
- Academic Coaching is now available for both undergraduate and graduate students. The Learning Center is doubling coaching hours in fall term, as well as adding a full time professional academic coach in order to accommodate even more students. There will also be a STEM-focused academic coach.
- The Learning Center will host D2L Support Drop-in Hours via Zoom for the first two weeks of the term.
Please contact Shoshana Zeisman-Pereyo, Interim-Director of the Learning Center at zeisman@pdx.edu with questions.
Research that will help us support students and staff with remote learning
During Spring term 2020, many offices and departments engaged in research efforts to understand the impact of remote instruction on faculty, students, and relevant academic support teams. During the summer the Remote Learning Group, composed of faculty and staff dedicated to inclusive teaching and student success, analyzed and synthesized the quantitative and qualitative data that emerged as a result of the sudden shift to remote instruction and our campus reckoning with social injustice.
I am pleased to share with you the findings of this work: A Sudden Shift to Remote: What We Learned. This report helps us identify ways to support students and faculty in a remote environment and will have future implications as we consider how to remain innovative and nimble in a rapidly changing world. I encourage you to reach out to the team of faculty, ambassadors of this work, and invite them to share with you what they learned at your department, college, or other community of practice meeting. I also encourage you to invite OAI to your department to facilitate department teaching workshops; please see the full menu of OAI workshop offerings here.
Ensuring the student voice is embedded in the Students First Work
As we headed into Summer, we also conducted our annual Student Experience Survey with all enrolled undergraduate students. Below are some key findings of the survey:
- 88 percent of students feel respected by their instructor in the classroom
- 81 percent feel welcome in the classroom
- Nearly 47 percent of students are experiencing financial stress
- 43 percent of students indicated they have experienced housing insecurity within the past 12 months
- 27 percent have experienced food insecurity within the past 12 months
- 57 percent have a sense of belonging at PSU
- 72 percent ranked the value of their education at PSU as a good or great
In closing, I offer my sincere gratitude to all of you for your steadfast work on behalf of our students and community. In true Students First fashion, you have responded with grace and urgency to care for our students in the new remote learning environment. Thank you for your diligence and creativity.
Sincerely,
Susan Jeffords
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
