Proposal

In 2013-2014, the College of Education’s Office for Academic and Student Services (OASS) embarked on enhancing our support of student success initiatives by focusing on improving the resources available to students who are progressing through the various programs in the College of Education. This initiative was called the New Student Enrollment/Retention Support System, and involved dedicating a specific space as a student group meeting area, and upgrading its presentation and computer equipment to provide our students with immediate advising and registration access with professional support. OASS has a vested interest in our students and faculty, and seeks to ensure that the standards and requirements of each department and program are met through the support we provide. This support comes primarily through our daily contact with students in academic advising sessions, recruiting activities and in freshmen and transfer student orientations. As we continue to assess our best practices in working with students, we are drawn to using innovative methods for the delivery of the services we offer by utilizing technology in an interactive way for recruiting, orienting, reaching out and advising a new generation of students from admission through graduation.

Our efforts last year resulted in improved service to students, and enabled students to have a physical space for computer access for advising and registration that was previously unavailable to them in the College of Education. Our goal in 2014-2015 is to complete the project to allow this enhanced space to accommodate the maximum number of students with computer access available to each.  Additionally, our plans are to provide a series of new outreach activities in the space to provide information sessions marketed to specific groups of students.  This includes workshops for undecided students for them to visit the college to learn about program offerings. Other workshops will invite students on academic warning or on probation to visit OASS to provide them with a global view of the FAU support systems in place to encourage their academic recovery.  Our office plans to partner with College of Education academic departments in order to coordinate program specific focus groups and student centered workshops, and also plans a series of faculty information sessions designed to enhance their capacity to address student advising needs.  These series of events will provide continuous opportunities for College of Education students to interact and learn with professional advising staff and faculty, and the equipment requested will create a learning environment conducive to student success.

The College of Education has approximately 4,000 undergraduate students enrolled in elementary, secondary and exceptional student education, as well as in early care and education and exercise science and health promotion degree programs. It should be noted that elementary education is currently the second largest degree program at FAU, and exercise science and health promotion is one of the fastest growing programs in undergraduate education, currently classified as the sixth largest degree track at FAU. In the 2013-2014 academic year, our academic advisors held over 3,100 appointments with undergraduate students or potential students in the College of Education.  During 2014, the advisors also had contact with more than 1,400 potential and/or admitted freshmen and transfer students through orientation, transfer student expos and workshops, articulation workshops with local state colleges and admission open house events. Additionally, OASS has an open door policy throughout the school year allowing for walk-in traffic should current or potential students require assistance, or should undeclared students visit the college seeking information on our degree programs. The College of Education is particularly concerned with undeclared majors, and recognized the importance of establishing connections with this student population in order to assist in creating roadmaps for their success and persistence through to graduation

This technology fee proposal is being submitted in order to benefit all College of Education students as well as other FAU students who visit OASS.  Our goal is to create a multi-purpose resource area (ED 232 and ED 233) complete with the computer equipment necessary for students to research program requirements, register for classes and learn about the College of Education and Florida Atlantic University  throughout the academic year. Our physical space in ED 232 and ED 233 has been modified with the addition of two presentation systems for group orientation and advising, and our goal is to improve the current setting with the addition of fifteen laptops, a charging cart and the workstations needed to provide for the maximum number of students that each room can accommodate.  

The purpose in transforming our student meeting spaces is to strengthen the connection between academic advising and the higher education experience. Our belief is that academic advising plays an important role in student success, and there is growing evidence to suggest that when students work with informed, capable advisors they are more likely to complete their programs of study.  Should our advisors have the capability to access and disseminate needed information in a format conducive to student learning, our belief is that student retention will increase.  Our goal is also to provide our students with a location where problems can be solved and academic plans can be formulated instantaneously.  We are confident that using technology in this effort will enhance student development and positively impact student achievement and ultimately graduation for the students in the College of Education at Florida Atlantic University.

Computer workstation table and chairs for student use - $5,000

Our goal would be to provide the enhanced services beginning in Spring, 2015.

Our goal would be to provide maintenance of all equipment as per the guidelines of the COE Technology Team, and to monitor for any upgrades or modifications as the need should arise.

The Office for Academic and Student Services will work with the COE Technology team in order to implement this project.