Two Tech Tools for Student Retention and Support

1. Pharos 360. This tech tool offers colleges the ability to get all instructors to share how each student in his/her classroom is doing with a red (needs help immediately), yellow (needs encouragement), or green (good to go.) When all instructors "grade" students like this the third week of the semester, then advisers can see which students are struggling in one class and which in all of their classes in one simple snapshot. This activity guides advisers into which Early Alert students need to be contacted first. Imagine how effectively this software program can help Yavapai College reach out to underprepared or overwhelmed college students early in the semester and capture those who truly want assistance while it is still reasonable for them to change course and catch up.

2. Student Lingo. This tech tool offers colleges the opportunity for students to take workshops just in time for their immediate need. At AIMS College in Colorado, when they purchased Student Lingo, attendance for workshops increased dramatically. In fact, 69% of all students attending workshops had taken them online in Student Lingo. Face-to-face workshops continued to gather attendance, but students seem to really like taking these workshops at home when they realize they need to learn about the subject matter.

Available Worksops:

1. Academic and Career Exploration (6)
2. Personal Management (13)
3. Learning to Learn (12)
4. Success Strategies (3)
5. Reading and Writing Strategies (5)
6. Online Learning (4)

AIMS College said they started small and did not purchase the entire suite of workshops at first. As they saw the success of the workshops and student response, they increased their offerings. As Yavapai College moves toward more of an online presence, we do need to consider that online workshops make perfect sense. Students who don't even come to campus for classes are not likely to come for a workshop no matter how much interest or need they have. To view transcripts of some of these workshops, please click here.