This presentation will describe how the Enhancing Programs for IT Certification (EPIC) project is promoting student success. EPIC combines online, competency-based learning with enhanced student support services. Working together in a Success Network, our EPIC team is helping to provide students with the resources they need to be successful.
Enhancing Programs for IT Certification (EPIC) is a Department of Labor TAACCCT grant. Six colleges in the Kentucky Community & Technical College System have joined together as a consortium for this project. Thanks to EPIC, seven degrees and twenty certificates are now available in the KCTCS Learn on Demand format. The presentation will include a PowerPoint to engage the audience with examples of tools and resources. Handouts will also be available. This session would begin by briefly discussing why the Learn on Demand format is innovative, with its 100% online, competency-based, student-paced delivery. The bulk of the presentation would focus on some innovative ways our EPIC team is promoting student success. Some of these include:
- One-Stop: Outreach & Placement Specialists (OPS) at each college recruit students, help them through their admissions and financial aid processes, and provide academic advising. The OPS is knowledgeable of campus resources, so they can make connections (phone calls, email, etc.) to campus resources or offices rather than send a student to another office or sending them away with a phone number. The OPS also assists students in connecting to potential employers in their local area.
- Success Coaching: Two EPIC Success Coaches serve students across the consortium. Our Success Coaches are proactive and care about student success. Students are able to reach out to the Success Coaches with course or college related questions. Success Coaches also track student progress via our Starfish system and reach out to students who are struggling. Our Success Coaches took the initiative to create and maintain the EPIC S.O.S. (Support for Online Students) Blackboard Shell, which contains many resources such as study skills, time management, career resources, and healthy minds. The Success Coaches are also directly involved in assisting students for employment by providing resume editing, mock interviews, and career research assistance.
- Instructional Designer: The EPIC Instructional Designer organizes course progress through development and Quality Assurance processes as well as assisting with design. This person is also often called upon to assist with technical or software-related issues students might face. Having someone who is familiar with how the courses look and third party software that is being utilized is valuable.
- Career Development:
- Internship connections
- Promoting awareness of third-party resources for tuition assistance, assistance in paying for industry certification exams, etc.
- Resume assistance
- Mock Interview availability
It is important to note that one of the EPIC project’s objectives is to serve areas that are affected by a large proportion of displaced, unemployed, or underemployed populations. Half of EPIC’s consortium colleges are located in the heart of Kentucky’s Appalachian region, with many EPIC students coming to us displaced by the coal industry. Our students tend to be non-traditional, ranging different ages, employment backgrounds, and life circumstances. Thus, the need for intrusive advising, expanded career services, and enhanced online academic resources is-- by necessity-- at the heart of our initiative. Our presentation will illustrate how the EPIC project’s multi-layered approach to virtual student services is helping to shape the how similar competency-based education models can be delivered in the future.