This engaging session describes the implementation of the student experience project at a diverse urban institution. We will explore the dissemination of inclusive practices within our online courses, department, institution, and beyond. Plan to leave the session with at least one idea to elevate the student experience at your institution!
Introduction
Helping students feel like they belong and can thrive on college campuses is critical to academic engagement and success. When students begin their college career, and as they face challenges and experience struggles throughout their journey toward graduation, they ask themselves questions such as “Do I fit in here?” and “Can someone like me be successful in this major?”. Do you know how the students in your classrooms and at your institutions would answer these questions?
Their answers can determine whether they reach out for support and how they overcome these challenges, contributing to achievement gaps in higher education. Although more diverse students are attending universities, inequities remain in graduation and retention rates. These disparities are especially true for students from structurally disadvantaged backgrounds, including students of color, low-income students, and first-generation college students. In many fields, students who identify as women also struggle. Simply put, the college environment can make or break their chances of success.
The Student Experience Project (SEP): Implementation Strategies
This interactive session will describe the implementation of the Student Experience Project (SEP) at a large urban institution to tackle these disparities. This project is a collaborative endeavor with many institutions and multiple educational partners focusing on building community and belonging in the classroom and on campus.
We might think our students feel safe in our classrooms and experience a sense of belonging, but we can’t actually know until we ask them. This is especially true for online learning, where students can often feel disconnected from their peers and instructors. Two major strategies were used to support students:
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Measuring the learning condition: The first step to improving learning conditions is to listen to our students. The SEP uses a free, data-driven survey tool to measure how students are experiencing their courses, and provides a resource library of strategies and interventions to make those experiences more equitable and supportive. Learning conditions that are measured by this survey include institutional growth mindset, identity safety, trust and fairness, self-efficacy, social belonging, and social connectedness. These conditions are all factors that are present in the college classroom that have the potential to either encourage or inhibit academic success. Research shows students learn more equitably when they experience these learning conditions positively, such as having support from their classmates and an instructor that affirms diverse identities and treats all students fairly.
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Determining interventions to support students: As educators, we can take targeted actions to influence learning conditions over time. From the survey, we can obtain data that allows us to identify the best strategies to use for continuous improvement. Implementing these strategies will create equitable learning environments where everyone is supported and has the tools and mindset to flourish, showing our students that we are invested in their success.
Level of Participation:
In this session, we will provide an overview of the measured learning conditions and an introduction to the intervention resources and strategies, followed by how we implemented them in our online classrooms and the impacts we observed on our students. We will describe where and how to access information and data, and show how to survey your students. Finally, we will explore how we expanded and disseminated these inclusive practices beyond our classroom, throughout our campus, and community.
Participants will be actively involved in identifying resources at their institution that may be used to identify equity gaps. Participants will identify the student experience learning condition they would like to work on along with one intervention that could be utilized from the SEP library.
Session Goals:
Participants will leave this session with a plan of where they can integrate these inclusive practices into their courses, curriculum, and university. Participants will also gain insight into how to use a free survey tool that can be utilized to track student progress.