1. “Using the Developmental Classroom to Teach and Assess Student Services” Amy Garcia, Suzanne Hill, Marty Brooks, Michelle Guzman-Armijo, & Elizabeth Gamboa
New Mexico Academic Advising Association Conference (NMAAA)
Doña Ana Community College East Mesa Campus
Las Cruces, NM
March 6, 2015
Amy: Introduction

2. Collaboration
Fall 2012, DACC Assessment Coordinator Dr. Susan Wood approached the Director of Financial Aid about a Financial Aid Department/Developmental Math pairing. Task piloted in Spring 2013.
Spring 2013, Dr. Wood approached the Director of Academic Advising about an Advising Department/Developmental English pairing Task piloted in Fall 2013.
Amy: Purpose and Pilot

3. Student Population in Developmental Education Program
Spring 2014
Headcount: 1,819
Full-time enrollment: 602.7
Seat count: 2,277
Fall 2014
Headcount: 8,528
Full-time enrollment: 5,217.3
Seat count: 25,063
Spring 2015
Headcount: 7,325
Full-time enrollment: 4,478.6
Seat count: 21,919
Michelle: This information shows a picture of our potential audience for outreach

4. Financial Aid/Math Pairing Purpose of Assessment
Making connections to concepts studied in class to real-world applications:
Weighted averages – GPA calculation
Place value and rounding skills
- Critical thinking – analyzing scenarios with multiple factors to determine student outcomes
Suzanne: One thing we discovered in our assessment is that the point of it is simply to help students understand what they are learning. It is also interesting to find students making basic calculation errors, like rounding, when it is a concept they practice with every day in a developmental math course.

5. Financial Aid/Math Presentation
3 basic criteria to keep Financial Aid:
Maintain a cumulative 2.0 GPA
Maintain a minimum 70% completion rate
Obtain a degree by the time you have attempted 99 credit hours
Cumulative Number of hours you PASS and COMPLETE Number of hours you attempt
Liz
Grades that are attempted, but not completed:
(a.k.a – Grades to Avoid! )
F, I, RR, U, W

6. NOT ELIGIBLE Financial Aid/Math Q: How many credits attempted? A: 13
Q: How many credits completed?
Course
Credits
Letter Grade
ENGL 111 4 F
PSY 201 3 W
C J 205 A
HNDS 251
A: 6
NOT ELIGIBLE
Q: What is the student’s completion rate?
Liz: **Make the text boxes come in one at a time to give brief discussion of completion rate example
A: 6/13 = 46%

7. Financial Aid/Math Pairing Student Benefits
Students apply concepts learned in class by completing the assessment
Better understanding of GPA calculation
Better understanding of completion rate
More knowledgeable about scholarship opportunities (Scholar Dollar$)
Stronger relationships between students and staff
Suzanne: From a math faculty member’s perspective, these are the benefits of the presentation.
From a financial aid/staff member’s perspective, I too believe these are great benefits of the presentation.

8. Financial Aid/Math Pairing Reflection
Instructors more helpful in advising students regarding withdrawals, earning RR grades, etc.
Stronger relationships between faculty and staff
Suzanne: I wasn’t really expecting any benefits to the faculty. I was pleasantly surprised to find out how much it did benefit me!
It gave our financial aid office a greater understanding of the needs of the students as well as our faculty

9. Academic Advising/English Pairing
Academic advisors from the center brainstormed a unique scenario
Scenario provides the opportunity for student to show examples of:
critical thinking
creativity
ethical decision making
familiarization with tools supporting academic advising
Michelle

10. Core values of academic advising
Academic Advising/English Pairing National Academic Advising Association (NACADA)
Core values of academic advising
Academic Advisors are responsible:
…for themselves, and their professional practices.
…to the individuals they advise.
…for involving others.
…to their institutions.
…to higher education.
…to their educational community.
Marty/Amy: Share a little about groups such as NACADA and NMAAA, core values of academic advising.

11. Academic Advising/English Pairing Appreciative Advising
Disarm: Make a positive first impression with the student, build rapport, and create a safe, welcoming space. Discover: Ask positive open-ended questions that help advisers learn about students' strengths, skills, and abilities. Dream: Inquire about students' hopes and dreams for their futures. Design: Co-create a plan for making their dreams a reality. Deliver: The student delivers on the plan created during the Design phase and the adviser is available to encourage and support students. Don't Settle: Advisers and students alike need to set their own internal bars of expectations high
Marty/Amy: Share anecdotal connections between the task and students’ experiences
Dr. Bloom presented about this topic at NMSU through the Academic Advisor Symposium, coordinated by Letty Gallegos – NMSU CHSS Community Health Advisor.
Share how this model compliments NACADA Core Values, and sees student as a whole person – not just in role as student.

12. Academic Advising/English Pairing Student Benefits
Students more likely to know about their academic plan
Students more likely to plan ahead
Students more likely to take appropriate coursework
Students more likely to avoid or successfully navigate pitfalls
Students more likely to engage with student success staff
Michelle: From an academic advisor’s perspective, these are the major benefits to our partnership with CCDE courses through this performance task. From an instructor’s perspective, students see how consulting an academic advisor helps them keep track of their degree plan and to utilize their credit hours to the maximum potential.

13. Academic Advising/English Pairing Reflection
Assignment is an opportunity to teach as much as to assess learning
Using a performance task can reinforce concept for students of following an academic degree plan
Students in the role of peer advisors should connect the hypothetical experience to types of questions to ask academic advisors
Advisor stays to help students with task; reinforces for students the importance of building a relationship with an advisor
Michelle/Amy

14. Next Steps Increase participation in more developmental courses.
Increase consistency in how information is presented and administered in each class.
Data collection – look for trends.
Suzanne & Liz: Speak to the Math/Financial Aid Task and what’s been done according to the three bullet points above.
Amy and Michelle: Talking Points for the Advising/English task below:
To increase participation, create a Canvas course Module that instructors can implement directly into their course, along with the rubric to gather data
To increase consistency, develop directions/guidelines that help participating faculty guide students; give task prior to presentation but on the same day, advisor stays to help student, give students PowerPoint slides, create a pre-post survey to gauge what students know about advising, and a post-survey to assess if they learned from the presentation and the task how to use advising services to their full benefit
Data collection: To examine trends, with Canvas Module, using the rubric to gather data, compare rubric results to pre- and post-survey outcomes
From the advising perspective: How can we track that the student benefits are met?
Before we can scale up, we need to establish “What’s the right way to make sure students are getting the most out of the financial aid and advising information? Discuss with audience.

15. Questions?
Suzanne Hill, Associate Professor Math & Physical Sciences Dept. General Studies Division Elizabeth Gamboa, Assistant Professor
Amy Garcia, Associate Professor English & Communication Dept. General Studies Division Michelle Guzman-Armijo, Associate Professor Marty Brooks, Academic Advisor Advising Department Student Services Division

16. References
Bloom, Ed.D., J.L. (n.d.). Retrieved from the Appreciative Advising Online Web site:
NACADA. (2005). NACADA statement of core values of academic advising. Retrieved from the NACADA Clearinghouse of Academic Advising Resources Web site:
Core-values-of-academic-advising.aspx