Sinclair360

Felicia Brown enrolled at Sinclair Community College after years as a stay-at-home mom and volunteer at her children’s school. Like many adult learners, she faced challenges in her return to the classroom; but with the help of her counselor, Brown is on her way to her goal of becoming an occupational-therapy assistant.

Behind the scenes Brown’s relationship with her counselor was supported by software known as Student Success Plan. The award-winning application was written by Sinclair staff, to curb student attrition among at-risk students.

Student Success Plan is one of several applications created in-house by Sinclair’s software developers. Sinclair has increasingly taken a do-it-yourself approach to software development, but the results are anything but amateur. These homegrown solutions have transformed a variety of processes across the college, such as curriculum development and management, duplication services, class scheduling, service learning, and Web content-management and test-management services.

The DIY approach

These Web-based applications are the work of the Web Systems staff, a division of Research, Analytics and Systems Development. Of the 48 applications supported by the department, two-thirds were written at Sinclair. 

There are often multiple advantages to developing software, rather than buying it or outsourcing the work, said Russ Little, manager of Web Systems. Cost is often a factor, especially if the college only needs a portion of what a commercially available product offers. And Sinclair can design the tool to meet the unique needs of its community, rather than try to adapt a product to fit the college. “We can tailor the solution to our way of doing business and make it fit our needs exactly, instead of trying to work around issues,” Little said.

Some of the solutions have won awards and become national models for best practices. Student Success Plan alone has garnered 11 honors for its innovation and impact on student achievement. 

“It’s not technology for technology’s sake,” Little said. “We built the tools to support how [the college] wanted to change and support students.”

A national model: Student Success Plan

About seven years ago, a group of Sinclair staff and faculty gathered to tackle the perennial issue of college attrition. It focused on how to reach the students most at risk of dropping out or failing their first year of courses. The research showed that a holistic approach – taking a look at all of the issues, both personal and academic, that a student brings to the classroom – was key. So was building a relationship with each student. To carry out such an approach, counselors needed time to spend really talking with students, not just collecting the same basic information over and over. Students needed the counselors to remember them and to be ready to help them find solutions to their challenges. 

From these discussions sprang Student Success Plan, a new approach to counseling at-risk students. The concept couldn’t work without a supporting technology, and the Student Success Plan software was duly developed. “We couldn’t think of a way to make it feasible without using technology,” said Little, who served on the committee and helped develop the software. 

The software is a holistic, Web-based, paperless system, giving counselors access to any student record at any time. Counselors and advisors often work in silos, unable to access information that’s already been collected from a student. Student Success Plan eliminates those walls. “It helps multiple counselors track that student,” said Scott Markland, senior director of Student and Academic Support Services. “It allows them to spend valuable time face to face.”

How it works

Students in the program meet often with their counselors during their first two quarters at Sinclair. At-risk students are identified by a variety of factors, such as engaging in full-time employment, testing into at least two developmental courses and being displaced from their jobs. Qualifying students are given intensive help, much of it facilitated by the software program. For example, an intake worker runs each at-risk student through a list of questions that will allow the counselor – prior to talking with the student – to quickly see what challenges that individual might face. This enables the counselor to easily connect the student to a community resource that could help meet a critical need, such as childcare, financial aid or transportation.  

Before Student Success Plan, the community-resource reference guide used by counselors was a manually updated paper copy. A new feature, called MyGPS, will allow students to log on and search for resources on their own. Because the software prompts the same questions for every student, it helps ensure that nothing slips through the cracks, Little said. 

At the end of each meeting, the student leaves with a detailed list generated by the software of everything they need to do before the next meeting.

Student Success Plan also involves the student’s instructors, through an early-alert feature in the software. This allows teachers to send messages alerting counselors of student problems, such as failing a quiz or not showing up for class. 

Seeing results

The program helped Brown set her strategy for returning to school. “It allowed me to look within myself and create these goals,” she said.

Student Success Plan is now used with high school students taking classes through Sinclair, as well as with all students at Sinclair’s Courseview Campus Center in Mason. In the future Sinclair would like to extend the program to at-risk students beyond their first year.

Student Success Plan has had remarkable results. Compared to at-risk students who do not participate, students who have completed the Student Success Plan process are more likely both to return next term and to complete more courses successfully. They also have higher GPAs and are more likely to be enrolled two years later. “The first year is critical to someone’s success,” Markland said.

By Tracy Staley

Tracy Staley is a Dayton-based writer whose work has appeared in the Dayton Business Journal, the Nashville Business Journal and the Lexington Herald-Leader, among others.