Student success and student retention have always been the hallmark of my academic career. Trying new ways to reach students is essential and part of my plan to help students reach their goals. And of course students themselves need to develop their own plan for success. Unless you become economically successful due to your parents dying and leaving their fortune to you or you are lucky to win the lottery, everything else in life needs a plan in order to achieve success. Yet the singularity of having a plan does not necessarily lead to success. And of course chance plays a role (that's the subject of my next post).
Plans are detailed, specific paths towards success. Plans include both benchmarks as well as alternative routes for when (not if) some thing or some one temporarily takes you off your path to success.
The more detailed your plan, the more likely you will realize success because the more likely you are prepared to handle adversity.
For success in the classroom, the syllabus is that detailed plan. Or at least the syllabus should be detailed. I have reviewed syllabi of colleagues over the last 17 years which lacked specifics and details, and contained a whole lot of "TBD." That kind of syllabus does not promote student success.
I routinely receive feedback from students affirming the depth and scope of my syllabi. At least that's what successful students tell me. Every semester I try something new that I hope will increase student success. This semester, the summer of 2016, I initiated a Gateway quiz. All of my classes have an online presence, from which students access assigned readings, multimedia such as my lectures, self guided tutorials on writing for history, how to cite, various soft skills, etc.
Students receive the syllabus however the rest of the class is locked to them until they have taken and passed a quiz on the syllabus. The syllabus contains apt he ten things I want students to initially get out of the syllabus from things that annoy me (get my name right) to major policies such as late work, assignment requirements, and required readings.
Once students pass that quiz, the gates swing upon and the students gain unfettered access to the rest of the class. As this is only the third week into the first five-week summer semester, it is too early to draw any conclusions connecting that quiz yo student success. However this much I do know: out of 96 students, only four emailed questions to me on information that was found in the syllabus. So my working conclusion is that the quiz compelled students to carefully read the syllabus as evidenced by an exceptionally small number of questions on information covered in the syllabus (by the way, the questions those four students posed were on information also covered in the syllabus quiz, which they all passed before sending their questions to me).
I am hoping as so few students had questions on information covered in the syllabus, more students will succeed at each assignment and success will translate into self-assurance, which will propel the students to not just complete the next assignment but will facilitate completion at a higher level. Will the Gateway quiz result in an increase in student success? Vamos a ver! At the end of the semester I'll ask the students to take an anonymous survey and three of the questions will be on the Gateway quiz and student success.
I want students to succeed and thus I have created a plan to facilitate their success: the syllabus. However as so few students actually read the syllabus I had needed to come up with a plan that will hopefully further assist students to succeed by compelling them to read the syllabus. So I have a plan that supports my plan for student success.
Success does not happen by accident. Success takes a plan. And there needs to be occasional self-reflection or self-analysis of that plan to determine if the plan is indeed leading you to success.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
