AIMS Community College

Another college that caught my attention at the recent TYFY Conference is AIMS Community College in Colorado. Their claim to fame is that they are the top-ranked community college in the state in the Colorado Completes! Moving the Needle on Student Success movement. Governor Joe Garcia came to AIMS Community College to honor them with the award.

AIMS' Roadmap includes the following:

• Growth Mindset - An Introduction
• AAA090 - Advancing Academic Achievement, First-Year Seminar
• iFocus - Academic Success Workshop Series
• Catalyst - Second Semester / Year Program

Growth Mindset  -- Carol Dweck

All students testing into even one developmental class at AIMS Community College are required to take AAA090, a student success course. In this course, students study Carol Dweck's research on Growth Mindset. Growth Mindset tells students, I can't do it YET! Students who don't have college-level reading, writing, and/or math skills learn to persevere knowing that these are acquired skills and that they can acquire them.

AAA090 -- These Advancing Academic Achievement classes come in various formats.

• Offered on every campus
• Offered in both ten-week and sixteen-week formats
• Linked in Learning Communities with Developmental Math
• Themed to Major or Program such as Trio, Allied Health, etc.
• Hybrid

Outcomes for AAA090

• Apply personal learning style to improve learning effectiveness
• Manage time effectively for academic purposes
• Demonstrate effective communication skills
• Apply active textbook reading strategies
• Apply active and critical thinking strategies to learning (growth mindset theme)
• Career planning and awareness

Pre/Post Data 2015-2016

• Use a study plan (Pre 25% to Post 70%)
• Know how to take academic notes (Pre 40% to Post 77%)
• Know how to read an academic text (Pre 34% to Post 78%)
• Know how to locate and access different campus resources (Pre 40% to Post 95%)
• Know several different study strategies (Pre 25% to Post 68%)

Fall to Fall retention for AAA students has held steady at over 50% for the last several academic years compared to 39% for all new students. The class is obviously being effective with this developmental population.

AAA Grit Walk--Learning Outcomes for this assignment

• Students learn how to evaluate the steps, processes, or conditions which they overcame to accomplish a goal in their life so far.
• Students are able to identify potential barriers in pursuing their degree or certificate
• Students can articulate grit strategies for overcoming barriers achieving future goals.

iFocus Academic Workshop Series

This series began in 2007 to fill an academic program need. Now more than 100 unique in-person and online workshops are offered annually, six in Spanish (online). Workshops focus on five themes:

• Academic
• Health & Wellness
• Multiculturalism
• Career & Transfer
• Technology

Of the workshops offered, 31% of attendance was for in-person sessions. The other 69% are taken online. Students overwhelmingly scored all of the workshops highly as 1) being important, 2) improving student ability to be a successful college student, 3) recommending this topic be presented in the future. How was AIMS able to achieve this workshop success? They added Student Lingo. Please follow the link to read another blog I have written about this software program.

Catalyst - Second Semester / Year Program

• Nationally, colleges are not focused enough on the second semester/year (Casper, Khoury, Lashbaugh, & Ruesch, 2011; Keup, Gahagan, & Goodwin, 2010).
• AAA students reported a desire to remain engaged in similar ways to the AAA experience.
• In Spring 2014, AIMS began a second semester/year retention, engagement, and completion program. I will say that I have had Yavapai College students from both the STU150 and the FYE103 class similarly ask me for a follow-up class to these classes.

Catalyst - Semester Themes

1. Leadership
2. Connectedness
3. Equity & Social Inclusiveness

Students meet weekly during fall and spring semesters. Seventy-nine percent of students who were part of catalyst believed learning outcomes were met. Catalyst classes are small cohorts, and students must apply to be accepted. Students cycle out in three semesters. Seventy percent strongly agreed and twenty-one percent agreed that Catalyst had a strong impact on their success. 

Future Directions

• United Women and Men of Color Student Communities
• Peer Coaching (AAA090)
• Ruffalo Noel-Levitz College Student Inventory (CSI)