subject: Student Success Seminars Fill the College Ready Gap [print this page] Student Success Seminars Fill the College Ready Gap
There is an ongoing epidemic throughout all school systems of graduating students who are ill prepared for the next level of learning. Elementary schools regularly send students on to middle school without the appropriate math skills. High school teachers regularly lament having the classroom strained by too many students who arrived at their high school freshman year without grade level reading skills. For institutions of higher education, college freshmen who arrive on campus with no learning skills is a serious setback at the beginning of every school year.
Many bright young scholars arrive at college not knowing how to take notes, prepare for exams, or even with the skills to properly handle exams. Add in the added social pressure and new-found freedom, and these students are set up to fail before they even begin. Dedicated professors work tirelessly to teach these students these university level survival skills, but that puts a strain on the entire academic process. The answer is Student Success Seminars.
Student Success Seminars are courses, usually one to three credit hours total, that cover essential academic survival skills. From how to take useful notes, to time management, to best practices for studying for exams, Student Success Seminars give both new and returning students crash courses in how to survive the academic year and come out on top.
Many educational institutions are offering students expanded seminar series' that cover personal skills in addition to academic skills. Money management is popular and has been proven to be a vital skill that students carry over into other areas of both their personal and academic lives. Student Success Seminars that teach students to develop critical thinking skills are the key to the academic kingdom, and critical thinking is a skill that students certainly apply throughout all parts of their lives.
Student success seminars are particularly beneficial as online college courses. Online colleges often have a gap where professors have difficulty coaching distance learning students. This gap adds to students' sense of disengagement from both the institution and the learning experience. Online colleges are finding that offering, and sometimes making mandatory, Student Success Seminars, is an efficient means of bringing additional coaching into the learning experience and helping to bridge the gap between classroom learning and online courses.
When the amount of both classroom time and one-on-one coaching time that professors must spend to help catch students up on academic skills is considered, the financial and opportunity costs are steep. Student Success Seminars are proven to have a high return on investment (ROI) rate. They are inexpensive to offer, and many options are available to make it easy for the educational institution to implement. Online training programs are available, either for the students to access or for training campus personnel how to host a Student Success Seminar and what should be covered. Small group Success Seminars often provide the best results, as small groups allow students more opportunity for interaction and to ask questions. Interaction is yet one more benefit of offering Student Success Seminars. Students that feel that the institution is invested in them are more likely to become increasingly invested in the institution. This makes not only for better students, but also for better alumnae who will continue to support their alma matters long after graduation.
