A $225,000 Transformational Planning Grant has been awarded to Georgia State for the funding of student success initiatives, according to Digital Journal’s press release.
Timothy Renick, the Vice President for Enrollment Services and Student Success and Vice Provost, said the grant will allow Georgia State to map out the next major initiatives for the advancement of students to higher levels in college and beyond.
“As spelled out in the 2011 Strategic Plan and reinforced by President Becker, Georgia State has made the success of our students the highest institutional priority,” he said. “This has led to a flowering of new and innovative programs—some of which have not been tried by any other university before—over the past few years.”
Renick also said one of the major initiatives will be expanding the use of adaptive learning and hybrid delivery models in certain high-enrollment courses. These are similar to doing math courses with MILE computer labs.
The second major initiative will be the integration of financial analytics and interventions into existing student tracking systems, according to Renick.
“In 2012, we begun using predictive analytics to identify when students may be at risk academically. Last year, this new advising tracking system and its alerts resulted in 34,000 individual meetings between students and their advisors to discuss specific issues such as tutoring and extra help, course registration, and selecting a major,” he said.
The third major initiative will use predictive analytics to help match students to potential careers and occupations, according to Renick.
Georgia State is also proposing to reveal exam and assignment dates during class registration for the accommodation of working students, according to the release
“We also have introduced several innovative financial aid programs such as Keep Hope Alive and Panther Retention Grants that collectively distribute millions of additional dollars to students every year,” he said. “As a result of these and other efforts, the graduation rate at Georgia State has increased by 11 percentage points in the past five years (one of the most dramatic increases in the nation) and 1,700 more students are graduating every year.”
The grant was provided through the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities and the Coalition of Urban-Serving Universities in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, according to the release.
