Centre for Academic Advising and Student Success Annual Report 2019-2020

Annual Report 2019-2020

Centre for Academic Advising and Student Success

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Contents 01

Our Year in Review

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Supplemental Instruction

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Academic Advising

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Writing Centre

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Learning Strategist Services

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COVID-19 Response

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Mount 101 & Mount Mentors

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Right Start Program

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Our Year in Review The 2019-2020 academic year marked the second year of operation for the Centre for Academic Advising and Student Success (CAASS) and it was one defined by growth, collaboration, creativity, and flexibility in the face of the unexpected.

On March 17th, 2020, all CAASS services shifted to virtual operations due to COVID-19, reflecting the broader campus and Public Health approach to the global pandemic. With office plants, computer monitors, and mouse pads in hand we set off to imagine and implement new ways of supporting Mount students from our home offices and kitchen tables.

There are so many wonderful examples of the collaboration, creativity, and flexibility that occurred as a result of this unimaginable situation that it would be impossible to mention them all. However, a few stand out: like the way in which we worked with our event partners on our annual Early Advising and Registration event scheduled to be held on campus on March 30th. Together, CAASS staff, the Recruitment Office, Registrar’s Office, and Information Technology Services, with insight from faculty, envisioned the event in a new way, creating a web resource to guide new students through the advising and registration process and providing same-day advising for new Mount students.

There is also the important work of Mount 101 Coordinator, Marisha Caswell, as she collaborated with departments across campus to revise the Mount 101 program to reflect the virtual university and created a brand new online resource for returning MSVU students called Your Virtual MSVU to help them transition to the online environment.

Although COVID-19 brought about unwanted challenges, it allowed us to imagine new ways of supporting students that will live on after we return to campus.

And though the pandemic certainly changed the trajectory of our academic year, it cannot overshadow the growth we experienced.

We are excited to report that our academic advising interactions with students increased by 37% over our inaugural year, indicating that more students are learning about the CAASS and taking up academic advising services.

What follows is a brief recap from each of our services and programs for the 2019-2020 academic year.

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MSVU delivers academic resources, supports for current, incoming students During this time of great uncertainty, many students—both current and incoming—need increased academic support to ensure a positive educational experience and manage their concerns about the upcoming year. To meet this need, Mount St Vincent University’s Centre for Academic Advising and Student Success decided to continue offering one-on-one distance support for all current and incoming MSVU students throughout the summer. Services provided by the centre include access to a learning strategist and a student’s survival guide for their first year. “Although we may not be able to meet in person right now, we are committed to supporting students in any way that we can,” said MSVU CAASS Manager Erin Tomlinson

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Erin Tomlinson, Manager, CAASS

Cindy Huelin, Transfer Student Coordinator

Clare Goulet, Writing Centre Coordinator

Heather Maxwell, Academic Advisor

Marisha Caswell, Mount 101 Coordinator (son Llew putting together at-home workspace)

Venus Bali, Learning Strategist and Coordinator of Student Success

Jessica Ferguson, Academic Advisor

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Academic Advising

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Academic advisors will help you select courses, plan your program, and answer your academic related questions.

Academic Advising As the Centre continues to grow, we are now providing some level of academic advising to students in most undergraduate programs.

37.3%

increase in academic advising interactions/appointments this year 2845 interactions/appointments in 2019-2020 from 2072 in 2018-2019

Top Three Reasons for Appointments:

Academic Standing Statistics

1. Course Selection and Scheduling

• Of the 121 students who were on Academic Probation in 2019-2020, the percentage of students who were returned to good academic standing (50%) was slightly higher than 2019 (44%).

2. Program Planning 3. General Questions msvu.ca/advising

Between March and August 2020, we saw an increase in program planning requests and general questions, perhaps due to COVID-19.

• Due to COVID-19, no students were placed on Academic Probation or academically suspended due to GPA for the 2020-2021 academic year.

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Transfer Student Coordinator (2+2 Programs)

Admission Acceptance Letter Transfer Credit Assessment

Academic Advising Course Selection and Scheduling Navigating University Life

Thank you so much Cindy, this was a big help! I really appreciate all of your help the last 2 years!  Student - Shaelynn Baxter

msvu.ca/advising

Graduation Student Completes Degree in 2 years

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Learning Strategist

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Learning Strategist Services The Learning Strategist can help students plan large tasks, prepare to complete assignments, take effective notes, balance time, and more.

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• Supported 150 students with one-on-one appointments discussing strategies for academic support.

• Created and delivered six academic skills workshops for the learning passport program with an average of 25 students per session with a maximum of 40.

UNIV 0001 Student Success Course for Students on AP Piloted Thriving in Action program (Ryerson University) for one section of UNIV 0001 Student Success. This section was co-facilitated by Venus Bali, Learning Strategist, and Jillian Rankin, Coordinator, Counselling Services and focussed on wellness, resilience, studying, notetaking, persistence, and grit. Students reported an increased sense of community and confidence.

Components of Thriving in Action continue to be implemented in UNIV 0001.

msvu.ca/learningstrategist

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Mount 101

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Your survival guide for your first year at the Mount. The online program and your Mount mentor will help you find your success!

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Mount 101

Mount Mentors

741 students were enrolled, with a current completion rate of 91%. This is down slightly from the 2018-2019 completion rate of 93%.

The Mount Mentors shifted to a team-based support system, which enabled them to engage more students and provide them with wide range of support.

Following the pilot year, the online program was revised based on recommendations from an external program evaluation, 3,991 comments from internal surveys, and student reviews and feedback.

Engagement with the Mount Mentors increased, particularly during the summer and early September when students had the most questions.

We received 3,722 responses to the internal surveys. When asked whether they thought each section was useful, 82% of students answered yes and 18% answered no. This is an increase from the 2018-2019 year, which saw 78% of students answer yes and 22% answer no.

The Mount Mentors ran 10 events over the academic year. The most popular were: Coffee and Cookies with Charlie, Headshots and Resume Checks with Career Services, NSHA Volunteer Information Session, and Halloween Dodgeball with Campus Rec.

msvu.ca/mount101

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Right Start Program

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An early alert program aimed to support students who are experiencing academic difficulties early on in the semester so they can be connected with appropriate resources and supports on campus to help them get back on track

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373 Right Start Referrals were submitted by staff and faculty for 2019-2020, an increase of 123 referrals from previous year.

Students who responded to referrals were more likely to have a GPA in the good standing range.

Our focus in 2019-2020 was to provide more information to faculty about the program. This graphic organizer was sent to faculty in Fall 2019 to communicate the previous year’s results.

msvu.ca/rightstart

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Faculty Testimonial - Alexandra Tsedryk, Department of Modern Languages

Why have you used the Right Start program?

How can Right Start support you as a faculty member?

Some students feel overwhelmed, and they “disappear”, especially when quizzes start, and assignments are due. Such students benefit from an early alert and from help provided by the Right Start Referral program. I used it because I felt it is something that can motivate my students to do better in my class by attending lectures and submitting late assignments. They become aware of many services available to them that they did not consider previously. In my experience, the Right Start Referral program prevented some of them from failing a course.

As a faculty member, we receive a reminder from the Right Start program that we need to pause and to carefully review students’ success in the first weeks of the term, trying to identify those who might need additional attention. With our busy schedules, we are not always thinking about it. Also, counsellors from the program do a great job in reaching out to students and connecting them to the resources they might need. It is real team work to put a student back on track.

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Supplemental Instruction

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Supplemental Instruction Supplemental Instruction is a free academic support program that provides weekly, out-of-class, peer facilitated study sessions. SI will help you improve your academic performance in historically challenging subjects.

In 2019-2020, SI sessions were offered in: • Business 2221: Introduction to Accounting I • Business 2222: Introduction to Accounting II • Chemistry 1011: General Chemistry I • Chemistry 1012: General Chemistry II • Chemistry 2401: Organic Chemistry I • Math 0020: College Algebra • Math 2208: Introduction to Statistics I • Math 2209: Introduction to Statistics II • Psychology 1110: Introduction to Psychology as a Natural Science msvu.ca/SI

• Psychology 1120: Introduction to Psychology as a Social Science

• SI had an increase in student engagement with 57 students using the program.

Spreading awareness continues to be a priority for the program.

• All SI Leaders transitioned their SI sessions to Blackboard Collaborate during COVID-19 and continued to provide sessions on a weekly basis until the end of the winter term.

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Writing Centre

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The writing center is a space where stories about learning, literacy, and identity are told and retold. - Kathryn Valentine

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Mount Writing Centre

COVID-19 and the Writing Centre The Mount Writing Centre was an early leader in implementing 6-foot distancing, handwashing, table sanitizing, and the option of online appointments as the global COVID situation erupted in February 2020.

Experienced and enthusiastic tutors will help you with any type of academic written work, including essays, slide presentations, thesis proposals, lab reports and more.

Writing Centre use continued smoothly and uninterrupted through campus closure mid-March when all appointments moved online -- in fact the number of bookings in the five weeks of March held steady during this shift.

The Atlantic Writing Centre Association as well as national and North American writing centre networks were drawn on to research and rebuild a simple, best-practice, online Writing Centre model for the Mount.

SNAPSHOT

GROWTH

SELF-BOOKINGS

Under the Centre Coordinator, five experienced tutors -- all Mount students or Writing programme faculty, most with graduate degrees and prior teaching experience -- handled over 1,500 individual student points of writing help 6 days a week at peak use, offering choice of morning, afternoon, evening and weekends to fit diverse student needs.

In peak months the Writing Centre offered 30 to 40 tutoring hours/week for Mount students. Help included research and thesis proposals, successful internal and external funding applications -- including this year the $30, 000 Frank Sobey business award -- class visits, group projects, presentations, slides, speeches, and all stages of academic papers across programs.

New online student self-bookings began Jan 2020, resulting in greater Writing Centre use and easy transition to remote format.

msvu.ca/writing

Covid-19 Response

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Centre for Academic Advising and Student Success offering same suite of stand-out advising and learning supports online Building an online presence

Focus on Social Media

As we moved to virtual operations, communicating our messages online became an important way to reach students. With the support of Public Affairs and the Digital Media Zone, we were able to create a video to share on the MSVU webpage:

Using our already existing Instagram and Facebook pages, we focussed on content that would let students know we were still here for them!

https://www.msvu.ca/here-to-help-centreoffering-online-advising-and-learning-support/

/MSVUCAASS @msvu_advising @mount101__msvu

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advising@msvu.ca

msvu.ca/caass

+1 902 457 6657