Daylight Savings Time

Hi Everyone-

Sunday morning we all spring forward an hour to daylight savings time. This may be a little problematic in that our computers don't expect to spring forward for another three weeks. Blackboard is updating the Vista server and Vista itself, but it's a complex process, so they do request that users check the time on their various tools after the daylight savings time change this weekend. There are too many variables like when the particular tool function was created, when the time was set in a section tool, when the patch is run on the server. To be safe, faculty should check after the daylight savings time takes effect and make sure the hour time hasn't changed by one hour.

David also sent me information re Java: "JRE 1.5.0 Update 6 has the daylight savings time update. System computers are supposed to have the update. They can check their version on their home computer and get needed updates and information at www.sun.com."

Your learners may or may not update their computers to match the correct time, so please be aware that we may have three weeks of students with assignments that are 1 hour late or at least time stamped one hour late.

You may also need to update your own personal computers. For those of you with windows PC's Microsoft has more information on that available at http://support.microsoft.com/gp/cp_dst. I also glanced at the apple website and it looks like there is a patch there for apple users.

Some very good news -- John tells me only 5% of our spring learners have dropped so far; census day is Wednesday, so that is very good news. Thanks you so much for all of your retention efforts!

best,
Lisa

Supporting Retention and Success: Checking In w/ Students

It is just far enough into the term where students are already providing indicators about how they are doing. Mid-term is very often too late for a student to get tutoring, pay attention to time lines, or pick up tips to improve both learning habits and the resulting grades.

Providing Encouragement and Direction

• Sending email or posting announcements that express your wishes for learner success.
• Letting students know that grades are up and you welcome any communication or questions.
• Providing updated grading posts in the gradebook.
• Providing learners w/ their own grading spreadsheet/scorecard to encourage them to keep track of their own progress.
• Sending email w/ tips to specific learners about what is good, yet what is needed to gain more points in an assignment.
• Calling learners to let them know how important participation is.
• Inviting learners to set a call with you with questions.
• Letting learners know about tutoring services and providing a link and possible incentives for using the service (better grades, bonus points for submitting the tutoring transcript).

Do you have tips or success stories you are willing to share? Please post them in the comments!

Best, Alice

What We Can Do to Support Retention

Active Retention Practices in the First Two Weeks of the Course

We are now one week into Spring I, and many students have started the class, while some may be slow to enter and get going. Your part in reaching out and getting learners started successfully is an influential one.

We know that learners have been motivated by instructors who where enthusiastic about the learning experience, empathetic to the multiple roles adults juggle, and had the ability to clearly communicate content and process (Knowles, Holton, & Swanson, 1998).

Both literature and experienced faculty have shared strategies that express good will and realistic strategies for the learning success in a course:

-Consider phone calls to get people into the course.
-Let them know that their presences matters—you’re happy they are here and look forward to their participation because student success matters.
-Be clear and welcoming about ways to ask questions (i.e., anonymous discussions, how to set a call w/ you).
-Provide a guide for managing the course-load (Read first, work in discussions, do the written assignments over the weekend; create a schedule for expected hours per week).
-Give low-stake tasks so they can try out the tools they’ll have to use (like submitting files).
-Provide early feedback on assignments w/ specific remarks on how to improve if that is needed.
-Use email coaching for the first few weeks to tell the learner what he or she needs to do to get the points or correctly document sources.
-Let learners know what tutoring through Smarthinking is available for writing, math, or other content challenges. Tutoring assistance can be especially important in courses perceived as difficult.

The importance of such efforts is what attrition or failure means for both students and our institutions. Attrition or failure means that the student has spent COF dollars, his or her own dollars or financial aid, and but will NOT move forward with his or her educational goal(s). Granted, student efforts are also part of the equation, but helping students stay and succeed has implications for their return.

We appreciate all you do and find out that as we learn from each other, we add to the practices that can make a difference. Thanks for sharing your comments or questions related to this important subject.

All Best,

Alice