Beyond the Hype: Using Generative AI to Enhance Student Success

Phoenix Harvey, EdD

This presentation presents practical tips and tools for how College Success instructors can integrate Generative AI to enhance student engagement in pedagogically sound ways.The transition to college presents unique challenges: adapting to a new academic environment, developing critical thinking skills, and fostering social connections. This presentation demonstrates generative AI applications that assist in these areas by providing personalized and interactive learning experiences. Attendees of this interactive, hands-on session will walk away with practical insights for how AI can offer customized study aids, facilitate peer interactions, and provide help instructor authentically assess student understanding.

Room 505

Becoming a Learner: Framing the Purpose of a College Education

Dr. Harrison Kleiner

College students face a pervasive cultural perception that equates higher education with acquiring job skills. While college does influence future employment opportunities, talking about higher education as job training creates confusion and frustration among students about general education and a four-year plan of study. This session discusses an institution-wide effort at Utah State University to help students understand that the primary purpose of college is to become a learner. Presenters will explain how to promote this message within orientation and FYE programs and share assessment data that shows the effectiveness of this message on improving student motivation, efficacy, satisfaction, and retention.

Room 702

Is Your College Success Course Working?: Assessing FYE Courses

Kimberly Koledoye, Houston Community College
D. Blake Simon, Houston Community College

Although college success courses have been deemed as high impact practices by many researchers, their institutional value is often questioned. The general nature of these courses and their varying delivery models pose challenges in measuring efficacy. While one institution may measure efficacy by passing rates, another might measure efficacy by persistence rates. Thus, leaders of these courses must be equipped with multiple ways to demonstrate how student success and increased student outcomes correlate to enrollment in college success courses. This session will examine multiple methods utilized by one large multi-campus urban institution to measure student success in college success courses.

Everyone Owns Student Success – let’s make it actionable

Whether there's no course, a seminar, or a 1 credit course student success is on everyone’s plate - including the student AND their instructor. If this speaks to you, then you could influence a tech solution in development. Apply to attend this focus group. 

Who might be interested:
Academic and Student Affairs administrators involved in student retention
Instructors/chairs (outside of college success courses) who are passionate about student success and are looking for a tool to achieve better outcomes.
College Success instructors or coordinators who have found that traditional publisher solutions don’t work for their program.

Honorarium for participating: $150

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Understanding Your College Experience addresses the needs of the widest possible range of students through its content coverage and organization, assessment, and design. Informed by decades of research on the first-year experience, the author team provides students who need the most support with the practical help necessary to flourish academically, personally, and professionally. Now available in Macmillan Learning’s online course solution, Achieve, with a 2024 Digital Update featuring the latest research, expanded coverage, and new activities on learning science, mental health, and test-taking strategies and tools.

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