Results-OrientedStudentReten/on/Gradua/onStrategies:

Incorpora(ngPeerMentorsintoFirst-YearPrograms&Courses

Kris&nMichaelWoods,Ph.D.

Director,StudentSuccessandReten&on

DeirdreBucherHeistad,Ph.D.ProfessorandDirector,UndergraduateStudies

UniversityofNorthernIowa

•  TotalEnrollment=12,000 10,200undergraduatestudents

•  Loca&on:CedarFalls,IA•  Primarilyresiden&al,servingIowaandtheregion

•  Carnegieclassifica&on=Master’sLarge,VeryHighUndergraduate

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ImpactofPeertoPeerInterac/ons•  Peerinterac&onsthestrongestinfluenceonstudent

learninganddevelopment(Pascarella&Terenzini,2005)

•  Significantgainsonseveralmeasuresof:• intellectual,iden&ty,andsocialdevelopment• leadership• civicandpoli&calengagement• reten&on/gradua&on• well-being

• Mostinfluen&alpeer-to-peerinterac&onsarethosewithdiversepeers(Mayhew,Rockenbach,Bowman,Seifert,Wolniak,Pascarella,&Terenzini,2016)

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TypesofPeerMentorPrograms•  TeachingAssistants(TAs)inlecturecourses•  SupplementalInstruc&on•  Living-learningcommunity

mentors•  Peertutors•  Mentorswithinfirst-year

successcourses/seminars

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UNICourse-EmbeddedModel•  Peermentorsplacedwithin“first-yearonly”(FYO)

sec&onsofgeneraleduca&oncourses

•  Highlycollabora&veacrossuniversitydivisions– Hostfaculty,peermentors,academicadvising,financialaid,academicsupportservices,etc.

•  Developmentalvalueofthenearpeer

•  Classroomascommunity(Tinto,2000;Johansson&Felten,2014)

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Course-EmbeddedPeerMentorImpact•  Posi&veeffectsofcourse-embeddedpeermentoring:

–  Studentlearning(Kuh,Kinzie,Schuh,Wif,&Associates,2010);GPA(Rodger&Tremblay,2003);wri/ngandcri/calthinking(Kuhetal,2010;Pascarella&Terenzini,2005)

–  Socialandemo/onalsupportanddevelopment(Cuseo,n.d.;Henry,Bruland,&Sano-Franchini,2011);reducedpsychologicalstress(Fantuzzo,Riggio,Connelly,&Dimeff,1989)

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Theore/calFrameworkforReten/onandStudentSuccess

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Braxton,J.M.,Doyle,W.R.,Hartley,H.V.,Hirschy,A.S.,Jones,W.A.,&McLendon,M.K.(2014).RethinkingCollegeStudentReten(on.SanFrancisco,CA:JohnWiley&Sons.

SocialIntegra/on• Student’spercep&onofmembershipinthecampussocialenvironment,withanemphasisonpeerrela&onships(Braxtonetal,2014)

– Occursattheleveloftheuniversity,oratthelevelofasubcultureoftheins&tu&on

– Directandposi&veinfluenceonstudentpersistenceincollege

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InfluencesonSocialIntegra/on• Abilitytopaydegreeofsa&sfac&onaboutcostsofafendingchosencollege(Braxtonetal,2014);inabilitytopayactsasbarriertostudentpar&cipa&oninsocialcommuni&es(Cabrera,Stampen,&Hansen,1990)

• Ins/tu/onalcommitmenttostudentwelfarecultureofconcernforstudentgrowthanddevelopment;studentpercep&onthattheyarevaluedandrespectedasindividuals,andtreatedequitably(BraxtonandHirschy,2004)

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InfluencesonSocialIntegra/on• Ins/tu/onalintegritystudentpercep&onthatac&onsofcollegefacultyandstaffareconsistentwithespousedmissionandgoals(Braxtonetal,2014)• Psychosocialengagement“…theamountofpsychologicalenergystudentsinvestintheirsocialinterac&onswithpeersandintheirpar&cipa&oninextracurricularac&vi&es(Braxton,Hirschy,andMcClendon,2004)”(ascitedinBraxtonetal,2014,p.90)

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FirstYearProgramsImplementa/onFall2008 Founda&onsofExcellenceFall2009 FirstYearCouncil-AcademicandStudentAffairsFall2011 First-YearCornerstone

First-Yearpeermentorprogram Mapworksearlyinterven&onsystem

Fall2012 First-YearOnly(FYO)generaleduca&oncoursesFall2015 UNINowextendedorienta&onprogram

Transfercourse-embeddedpeermentorprogramSpring2016 SuccessCoachingprogram

Humani&esSuppor&veSeminarsFall2017 AASCUPromisingPrac&cesAward

FirstYearProgramGrowth2011-2012 2016-2017

9 58 First-YearOnlysec&ons11 59 Peermentors13% 86% FreshmenenrolledinFYOcourse

Newini(a(ves

2 Transfer-onlysec&onswithpeer mentors 7 SuccessCoaches 12 Suppor&veSeminarsfor Humani&es

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MostCommonPeerMentorAc/vi/es

•  Givepresenta&onsonfirst-yeartopics(98%)•  Meetone-on-onewithstudents(96%)•  Meetregularlywithinstructorforplanning(88%)•  Announcecampusengagementopportuni&es(88%)•  Takingafendance(70%)•  Gradeassignmentsorexams(62%)•  MeetwithstudentsaboutMapworksresults(60%)

PreliminaryResults

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Sincetheprogram’sincep&oninfall2011,thereten&onrateoffirst-yearstudentsenrolledapeer-mentorsupportedsec&onhasbeen6–8%higherascomparedtootherfirst-yearstudents.

Recrui/ngandSelec/ngPeerMentors●  Posi&ondescrip&on●  Onlineapplica&onprocess●  FYOfacultyandpeermentorrecommenda&ons●  Onegroupandtwoindividualinterviews●  Nearly100applicantsforapproximately60posi&ons

TrainingPeerMentorsSpringworkshop

UNIV3186:Seminar•  Commonfirstyear

issues•  ResourceFridays•  PeerMentorplans•  Presenta&ons

Selec/ngHostInstructors•  OutreachfromAcademicAdvisingto

DepartmentHeads

•  “Invita&ontoteach”

•  Peermentornomina&onrequest

•  Peermentormatchingcommunica&on

•  Encouragestudentengagementassignments

Facultyresponsesto“invita2ontoteach”Hell yes.(Math professor)

Absolutely! Count me in. Thank you for the opportunity! (Humanities instructor)

Yes! Yes! Yes! - Your biggest FYO fan! (Religion professor)

Yes! Yes! Yes! Thanks for the informative email! (Music professor)

Absolutely 100% all in! (All three sections of humanities) (Humanities instructor)

Thank you for this invitation! I would be delighted to be a part of the FYO program and transitioning my current Religions of the World class to fit the needs of first year students. Please let me know what my next steps are to move forward as a part of the program. (new Religion faculty)

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UNIReten&onRate

Transfer-OnlyPeerMentoringDifferencesfromFYOsec/ons

• Higherneedareas:o  financialeduca&on(perMW)o  naviga&ngacademicadvisingo  non-AAstudents

• Lessinterest/response:o  officehourso  socialac&vi&esasagroup

• UsedresourcesprovidedbyPMs,butlesslikelytomeetanddiscuss

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SuccessCoaching

•  One-to-onepeercoachingforstudentsonacademicalertandproba&on

•  5–7formerpeermentorshiredtoserveover300studentseachsemester

•  Ac&veapproachtocoaching,connec&ngstudentstocampusresources

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SuccessCoachingResults,Spring2017

•  Studentsonproba&onwhometwithacoach:•  atleastone/meretainedatarate14.3%higherthanthosewhodidnot

•  3ormore/mesretainedatarate23.3%higher

•  Allstudentswhometwithacoach6ormore&mes(roughlyeveryotherweek)retainedtothenextsemester

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PeerMentorandSuccessCoachPanel•  CeceHawbaker

•  JuniorCommunica&onStudiesmajor•  PeermentorinUNIV1000:First-YearCornerstone

•  IsaacNewsome•  May2017graduateinGeneralStudies•  Successcoach,spring2017

•  ShelbySchroeder•  JuniorElementaryEduca&onmajor•  PeermentorinCOMM1000:OralCommunica&on

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Ques/ons?

DeirdreBucherHeistad,Ph.D.Director,UndergraduateStudiesd.heistad@uni.eduKris&nWoods,Ph.D.Director,StudentSuccessandReten&onkris&n.woods@uni.edu

ReferencesBraxton,J.M.,Doyle,W.R.,HartleyIII,H.V.,Hirschy,A.S.,Jones,W.A.,McLendon,M.K.(2014).

Rethinkingcollegestudentreten(on.SanFrancisco:Jossey-Bass.Braxton,J.M.,&Hirschy,A.S.(2004).Reconceptualizingantecedentsofsocialintegra&oninstudentdeparture.

InM.Yorke&B.Longden(Eds.),Reten(onandsuccessinhighereduca(on(pp.89-102).Buckingham,U.K.:OpenUniversityPress.

Cabrera,A.E.,Stampen,J.O.,&Hansen,W.L.(1990).Exploringtheeffectsofabilitytopayand

persistenceincollege.ReviewofHigherEduca(on,12(3):303-336.Chatham-Carpenter,A.&Heistad,D.“Cornerstone:Anexperimentininterdisciplinarityandcommunity.”

UNIversitas,10.Retrievedfromhfps://www.uni.edu/universitas/ar&cle/cornerstone-narra&ve-followed-contribu&ons.2015

Chatham-Carpenter,A.,Heistad,D.,Licari,M.,MoserK.&WoodsK.(inalphabe&calorder).“Crea&ng

classroom communi&es:Faculty&peermentorcollabora&oninfirst-yearonlyclasses.”InS.Whalen(Ed.),Proceedingsofthe10thNa(onalSymposiumonStudentReten(on,Louisville,Kentucky(pp.73-84). Norman,OK:TheUniversityofOklahoma.2014

Collier,P.J.(2015).Developingeffec(vestudentpeermentoringprograms:Aprac((oner’sguideto

programdesign,delivery,evalua(on,andtraining.Sterling,VA:StylusPublishing.

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ReferencesCuseo,J.(n.d.)Peerpower:Developing&deployingpeerleaderstopromotestudentsuccess.Unpublished white

paperFantuzzo,J.W.,Riggio,R.E.,Connelly,S.,&Dimeff,L.A.(1989).Effectsofreciprocalpeertutoringon

academicachievementandpsychologicaladjustment:Acomponentanalysis.JournalofEduca(onalPsychology,81(2),173-177.

Heistad,D.,Chatham-Carpenter,A.,Moser,K.,&Woods,K.“Educa&ngwithpurpose:An integrated

communica&onmodelforfirst-yearstudentsuccess.”InT.Vakos(Ed.),Educa(onallyEffec(vePrac(ceswithintheFirst-YearSeminar.Columbia,SC:Na&onalResourceCenterfortheFirst-YearExperience&StudentsinTransi&on.(FORTHCOMING)

Heistad,D.,Moser,K.,&Woods,K.“Mee&ngStudentsWhereTheyAre:APrac&calGuidetoEmbedding

Reten&onIni&a&vesintheGeneralEduca&onClassroom.”InJ.McLaughlin(Ed.)BuildingBridgesforStudentSuccess:ASourcebookforCollegesandUniversi(es.Consor(umforStudentReten(onDataExchange(CSRDE).Norman,OK:TheUniversityofOklahoma.Canberetrievedfrom

hfps://csrde.ou.edu/sourcebook/.2016Henry,J.,Bruland,H.H.,&Sano-Franchini,J.(2011).Courseembeddedmentoringforfirst-yearstudents:

Meldingacademicsubjectsupportwithrolemodeling,psycho-socialsupport,andgoalsevng.Interna(onalJournalfortheScholarshipofTeachingandLearning,55(2),2-22.

Johansson,C.,&Felten,P.(2014).Transformingstudents:Fulfillingthepromiseofhighereduca(on.Bal&more:

JohnsHopkinsUniversityPress.

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ReferencesKennedy,T.,Clarke,K.,&Sewell,M.E.(2013).Strategiesfortraining,mo(va(ng,andsuppor(ngpeer

educators. Educa&onalsessionpresentedatthe32ndAnnualConferenceontheFirst-YearExperience,Orlando,FL.

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Pascarella,E.T.,&Terenzini,P.(2005).Howcollegeaffectsstudents:Athirddecadeofresearch(2nded.).San

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yearuniversitystudents.TheCanadianJournalofHigherEduca(on,33(3),1-18.Smith,T.S.(2013a).Introduc&on:Thehistoryandscopeofcurricularpeermentoringprograms.InT.S.Smith

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