Lurleen B. Wallace Community College Quality Enhancement Plan
O.A.R.S.: Orientation. Advising. Retention. Success.
Lurleen B. Wallace Community College’s Quality Enhancement Plan, entitled O.A.R.S., will invigorate our students’ first-year experience by revamping the orientation course (ORI101) and streamlining advising practices. This topic was chosen via a thorough, collaborative process of assessing data; researching best practices; and gaining input from students, faculty, staff, and administration. Though all students are currently required to complete an orientation course, the current course is strictly online with all sections taught by a single instructor. The revised ORI101 will be a traditional, web-enhanced course of twenty or fewer students taught by their faculty advisor, simultaneously accomplishing connectedness, engagement, and active advising. Advising sessions will be more effective due to consistency and better student preparation gained through ORI101 assignments.
A small-scale, staggered implementation will allow for the introduction of discipline-specific content by academic division and annual refinements based on strategic assessment. To manage the project and further enhance the first-year experience, a Director of Student Success position was created and filled in spring 2017.
The key goals of the QEP are to 1) increase student success and 2) increase student awareness and accountability. The projected program and student learning outcomes associated with those goals are as follows:
- Increase student success.
- Students will develop strategies for studying effectively.
- Students will synthesize academic and career information based on their abilities, aspirations, interests, and values.
- Students will emply key cross-disciplinary soft skills.
- Increase student retention rates.
- Increase student graduation rates.
- Increase student awareness and accountability.
- Students will be able to identify the available support networks provided by the College.
- Students will recognize expectations of a higher education environment.
- Students will assume responsibility for meeting academic program requirements.
All program and student learning outcomes will be assessed regularly with direct and indirect measures, and annual formative reports will allow the Assessment and Advisory Team to make updates as needed to ensure continuous improvement and progress toward meeting project goals.
For additional information about LBWCC’s QEP, please contact Tori Norris, Director of Student Success, at tnorris@lbwcc.edu or 334-881-2215.
