Contacting Students by Phone

Call me, don't be afraid, you can call me. Maybe it's late, but just call me. Tell me and I'll be around. Okay, so as faculty, we're not Nancy. Yet, students tell me over and over again how glad they are that I called them when I haven't seen them in class or heard from them in awhile.

One time in the semester students appreciate a phone call is the first week of class. Especially in the online classes, students are out there struggling to get their textbooks, to learn how to receive college email, and more importantly figure out how to navigate our Blackboard courses. Each one of us has a different set up, and that frustrates some of them. So why not call a student who has not logged in yet or sent in an assignment?

After reaching students on the phone, often I will hear them say that they are okay and will log in by the end of the day to get started. But many others will tell me that they can't figure out what to do. "How do I send in an assignment?" is one of the most repeated phrases not only via email, but also on the phone. It only takes a few minutes to have them get to a computer, follow along with phone instructions, and achieve success.

So what about all of the videos we create in YouTube and/or Jing to help them learn how to do this on their own? These are great for most of the students, but for the students who need a helping hand, the phone and email responses are still necessary. Let's face it. Some students haven't taken the time to locate the Announcements tab, and perhaps that isn't obvious to them either.

If you wonder why I take the time to call students, I have taught GED in the past, and part of the job was to call any student who missed class for a week to check up on them and encourage them. When I moved into this faculty position, I still find myself working with the newer students to campus and feel the same treatment serves to support the students and improve retention. Oakton Community College Research agrees.

So what effect has calling students had? I have had students who were dealing with death in the family tell me what was going on. Then I was able to work out a plan for them to catch up. Another student had a child in the hospital in Phoenix in a life or death situation for a few weeks. She realized that someone out there in cyberspace from Yavapai College actually cared and wanted to work with her. The student did finish the course. Other students have been overwhelmed with work, life, and other situations. Just calling them gave them motivation to carry on.

Okay, enough of the emotional reasons, right! It is just plain good personal relations for the college to call our students. When we capture the moment when a student is trying to decide if s/he should continue in the class, we can retain that student. Then we will have more students moving on to further semesters here at the college filling the higher level courses as well. We will also create a more supportive, positive atmosphere on our campus, and students will likewise share about us as a college that we are a more supportive, positive place to go to school. And we know that students have choices. Let's encourage them to come here, and to stay.

Effects of New Student Orientation

Each decision a college makes effects change within the institution. Some have profound effects that can be seen immediately. Others take years to realize. Last year the Developmental Education committee studied research and learned that new student orientations often make no real difference. Although students stated that they felt more prepared for college, these same students had the same drop out rate and did no better in the long run.

But then our college sent a group of advisers and faculty to the First Year Experience conference in Florida. Experts there claimed that new student orientations do make a difference. Our Student Services director became excited about the concept as well as the others who had gone. The director also was able to share statistics with positive outcomes to administration, and they likewise supported college involvement in these new orientations.

Realize that this does not mean that our college has never offered orientations. We have. But now we have decided to blend faculty and staff involvement to create a stronger support for the students. Student Services also decided to coin the phrase "mandatory for students success" as part of the launch. Although the orientations would not be mandatory, we felt all students would desire success.

So this summer a larger group of staff and faculty developed a series of orientations to be held at various locations across the county. Faculty and student services personnel met weekly and designed a general session, three concurrently running breakout sessions, and set up resource tables for students to browse between sessions. The cost to organize and run these orientations are as follows: weekly or biweekly staff meetings, faculty giving up personal time without compensation, office space and utilities expense, prizes and packets.

The rewards measured so far include: over 300 new students came to these orientations voluntarily, anecdotal reports exist of students coming to class the first day on time. Some classes actually had all students in their seats ready to learn the first day of class. In my online classes, I actually had more students logging in and getting busy at the beginning of the first week.

Can all of this positive change be due to the new student orientations? Or are other factors involved? One that occurs to me is that the college has better management of financial aid fraud. Perhaps we have more motivated students. Either way, it appears that new student orientations will be mandatory next year, and then we will be better able to measure the value of this new shift in the environment here at Yavapai College.