The first round of the new Destination Graduation, a one-credit mandatory class, got off to a great start this fall. We had 73 sections and about 1,220 students!
For most sections, the first day of class was on Welcome Day, planned that way to give students a chance to get acquainted and feel more confident maneuvering the system and the campus. Winter term, all classes will start the first week of regular class—nobody really wants to come back during Christmas Break!
The class met two hours a week for five weeks—the idea was to provide some transition and support early in the term so that students got off to a solid start. This structure will continue. A few sections met for an hour a week for eight weeks because their program had some other scheduling.
Students were provided course-books at no cost. While the class was only one credit hour, we packed as much as we could into the curriculum. The focus was on helping students get familiar with available resources on campus, establishing a relationship with an advisor, and developing an educational plan—a guide for the time students are here at LBCC, not just a schedule for next term. The idea is that long-term planning will help students be more successful - which is what DG is all about.
Faculty who taught DG in the fall will have the chance to come together to talk about what worked, what did not, and what changes they would like to see for next time. We will revise accordingly.
Most of the plans went well. There were some bumps. A major component of DG is the advising piece. All students were supposed to be assigned to an advisor and the original intent was that each DG instructor would have only his or her advisees in his or her class. That did not work; too many students needed different times because of work or class schedule conflicts. So DG sections turned out to be more diverse that we had expected.
The college purchased AdvisorTrac to help with assigning advisors, scheduling, & tracking visits to advisors. AdvisorTrac took more time to get set up than we had anticipated. Between these two bumps, advising did not go as smoothly as we had hoped. Next term will be better. AdvisorTrac will be in place, we have figured out how to make sure all students have advisors assigned, and we know now that students will not automatically have their advisor as their DG instructor. This may turn out for the better—they will have both their advisor and DG instructor going to bat for them!
All in all, this was a good start. The faculty members who taught DG this term deserve a special thanks for being willing to invest their time and effort into our first venture. They are the ones who made it fly.
For more information on Destination Graduation: www.linnbenton.edu/admissions/destination-graduation
(Susan McNaught is the associate dean of Academic Development, Communication Arts and Mathematics, and lead team member of Destination Graduation.)
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