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Middle Georgia State University Campus Plan Update 2022

Campus Plan Update (PDF version)
Appendix

Section 1. Institutional Mission and Student Body Profile

Middle Georgia State University (MGA) is a five-campus institution providing selective undergraduate and graduate education throughout the middle Georgia region. MGA serves a diverse student body through traditional, online, and hybrid delivery of curriculum. It is the mission of MGA to educate and graduate inspired lifelong learners whose scholarship and careers enhance the region through professional leadership, innovative partnerships, and community engagement. The institution’s vision is to transform individuals and their communities through extraordinarily high learning. Four core values underscore this vision: stewardship, engagement, adaptability, and learning.

Middle Georgia State University offered twenty-five programs at the baccalaureate level, six at the master’s level, and one at the doctoral level in the 2021-22 academic year. The University awarded 1,574 degrees in the 2022 fiscal year. The number of baccalaureate degrees awarded increased from 930 in Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 to 1037 in FY 2022, an increase of 11.5%. 

Census data define the Fall 2021 student body to be Georgia residents (91.5%), White Non-Hispanic (53.7%) and Black/African American Non-Hispanic (31.5%), and under 25 years of age (69.4%). 57.6% of the student body were enrolled full-time. Females comprised 56% of the student body and males 44% of the student body.  

In Fall 2022, 91.5% of enrolled students were Georgia residents representing 143 counties with most of the in-state students coming from Houston, Bibb, Laurens, Peach, Dodge, Henry, Bleckley, Fulton, Gwinnett, Monroe, DeKalb, Jones, and Cobb. 170 out-of-state counties were also represented in the fall 2021 enrolled student body. There were 516 students that came from out-of-state primarily from Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Alabama. International students represented 2.0% of the total fall 2021 enrollment. 

The number of Pell recipients in fall 2021 was 3,015 (38% of Undergraduates) of total enrollment as compared to 3,446 (43% of Undergraduates) in fall 2020. The fall 2021 enrollment was also comprised of 4,657 (59%) first-generation college students and 2,411 (30.6%) adult learners. In fall 2021, there were 272 military students that comprised 3.5% of the total enrollment as compared to 292 students (3.5%) of the total enrollment in fall 2020. The ethnic minority student population in fall 2021 was 3,345 (42.4%) as compared to 3,804 (45.3%) in fall 2020.  

MGA has a blended mission in that it serves both the academically gifted students in dual enrollment, bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs, while also serving as a point of access to higher education for underrepresented populations. Owning student success is the 2018-2023 strategic imperative for MGA which is dependent on data-driven decision making, better service to students, more efficient use of faculty and staff resources, and utilization of tools to measure and communicate performance. Keeping students on track to program completion is the CCG goal most closely aligned with MGA’s strategic priorities. Outcomes for this goal include improved persistence and retention rates and an increase in the number of students completing their degree on time. To fulfill its vision of “transformation of individuals and their communities through extraordinary higher learning,” MGA has identified several high impact strategies to enhance retention and graduation.

Benchmark: Columbus State University
Competitor institution: Valdosta State University
Aspirational: Kennesaw State University

Section 1.1: Student Success Inventory 

Middle Georgia State University (MGA) is focusing on the following Momentum initiatives in 2022-23. 

Initiative I 

Activity/Project Name 

Momentum Area 

X    Purpose 

X    Pathways 

X    Mindset 

X    Change Management 

X    Data & Communications 

Activity/Project Overview or Description

Promoting efficiency in the advising process through-  

  • targeted outreach campaigns  
  • execution of early alert  
  • centralized management of advising 
  • collaboration with Student Success Centers (SSCs) and the Center for Career and Leadership Development (CCLD) 
  • fully implementing proactive advising (including revising program maps) 
  • additional focus on students on probation, in Learning Support, and athletes. 

Activity/Project Activity Status
  • Scaling outreach campaigns 
  • Maintaining and studying Early Alert efficiency 
  • Initiating centralized management of advising
  • Expanding collaboration with the SSCs and CCLD 
  • Initiating proactive advising 
  • Scaling and maintaining additional focus on high-risk students (athletes, students in Learning Support, and students on probation). 

Evaluation/Assessment plan

Evaluation Plan and measures: 

  • Communication frequency between professional academic advisors and their advisees 
  • Percentage of students successfully completing the course for which they have been flagged for low grades in the early alert report 
  • Number of faculty and staff academic advisors' trainings planned and facilitated.  
  • Number of orientations advising sessions managed 
  • Number of projects planned in collaboration with the CCLD 
  • Number of faculty and staff academic advisors trained 
  • Percentage of athletes completing the semester in good standing 
  • Percentage of students beginning the semester on probation and completing the semester in good standing 
  • Percentage of students on probation retained for next semester  

Baseline measure 

  • 100% of advisees are contacted a minimum of four times Fall/Spring and three times for Summer by professional academic advisors 
  • 41% of tutored students flagged for low grades on the Early Alert report successfully completed the course in Fall’21 
  • One training is offered for advisors per semester 
  • Coordinate and offer advising sessions at all orientations 
  • Collaborate with the CCLD on one event/project per semester 
  • 163 (87%) of athletes finished fall’21 in good standing 
  • 18% of students who started fall’21 on probation completed the semester in good standing 
  • 55% of students on probation at the end of fall’21 were retained for spring’22 

Goal or targets 

  • Develop and implement Proactive Advising training 
  • Develop comprehensive Advising resource handbook in D2L 
  • Provide two training sessions per semester for academic advisors 
  • Offer advising sessions at all orientations 
  • Collaborate with the CCLD on two events/projects per semester 
  • Train 100% current and new staff academic advisors 
  • Increase success rates of students flagged for low grades on the EA report by 3% 
  • Increase success rates of athletes completing the semester in good standing by 3%  
  • Increase success rates for students on probation by 3% 

Time period/duration 

2022-23 academic year 

Progress and Adjustments  

Outreach to students:

-Targeted outreach efforts to student athletes to promote student success, retention, and timely registration were executed.

-Focused communications were sent out to students on academic probation in order to provide support and referrals as needed for academic success (referrals to SSC, Mathematics Academic Resource Center (MARC), The Writing Center (TWC) for tutoring) were sent out.

-Targeted communication to current students not enrolled for following semester (email, phone, text) were sent out.

-Implemented a Pre-enrollment Survey to support students in making a purposeful choice

Early Alert (EA):

-A communication plan was implemented to include specific touch points with students on the EA list.

-Advisors and SSC staff provided individualized and appropriate referrals and support to students.

-Communications included phone, text, and in-person appointments

-During fall 2022 – Early Alert reporting moved to week 4 and was limited to 1000/2000 level courses, as these are the courses with highest enrollment as well as highest D/W/F rates.

-39.4% of tutored students flagged for low grades on the Early Alert report successfully completed the course in spring’22 as compared to 31.6% of non-tutored students. In spring’21, 34.4% of tutored students flagged for low grades on the Early Alert report successfully completed the course as compared to 30.1% of non-tutored students.Year-to-year, we have seen a 5% increase in the number of students with low grades completing the semester successfully.

Centralized management:

- A Director of Advising and Institutional Learning Support Coordinator were hired.

- A Communication calendar was developed for Advising and SSCs for outreach campaigns.

-Work is ongoing to develop a comprehensive Advising resource handbook in D2L 

-Increased collaborative relationships have been established to include Financial Aid, SSCs, CCLD, Residence Life, and Admissions.

Collaboration with SSCs and CCLD:

-Advisors participated in SSCs and CCLD events to answer general advising questions

-SSCs staff went to residence halls to meet with students and share information about services available

Proactive Advising and other training:

-Advisors were trained in Proactive Advising and are implementing these strategies

-Advisors completed QPR and Kognito training to further support the overall well-being of MGA students

Focus on high-risk students:

Student Athletes -

- Institutional Learning Support Coordinator (ILSC) provided targeted outreach to student athletes and encouraged these students to utilize tutoring services, provided virtual advising and registration support.

- 88.3% of athletes finished spring’22 in good standing 

-During fall 2022, a pilot Peer Mentoring project has been initiated specifically for student athletes requiring learning support.

Learning Support-

-During fall 2022 a Peer Mentoring pilot has been implemented for students in learning support in a limited number of sections for both English and math.

- ILSC sent emails to new admits alerting them to options to exempt learning support (ACCUPLACER).

-ILSC sent periodic emails to students recommending tutoring through the resources available (SSC, Mathematics Academic Resource Center, The Writing Center).

Academic Probation:

-Advisors provided targeted outreach to students on academic probation. This outreach included strongly encouraging students to utilize tutoring services.

-The number of students on probation decreased from 11.0% in fall 2020 to 8.4% in fall 2021.

-The number of students on probation decreased from 5.8% in spring 2021 to 5.1% in spring 2022

-37.9 % of all students on probation at the end of spring’22 were retained for fall’22.

- 27.9 % success rates were noted for all students ending on probation in spring'22.

- 42.8 % of all students beginning on probation in spring'22 were successful in their coursework.

 Goals Met:

  • Developed and implemented Proactive Advising training 
  • Provided two training sessions per semester for academic advisors 
  • Offered advising sessions at all orientations 
  • Collaborated with the CCLD on two events/projects per semester 
  • Trained 100% current and new staff academic advisors 

Plan for the year ahead 
  • Expand peer mentoring initiative
  • Hire Transfer Advisor Specialist
  • Hire Part-Time Advisor for targeted populations
  • Enhance communication plan to include all campaigns (re-enrollment, new admits, academic probation, early alert, and orientation)
  • Implement Academic Advising live chat feature (LibraryH3lp)
  • Implement Advising Tiers to support staff retention
  • Provide professional development opportunities

What challenges will affect your ability to do this activity?  
 
  • Staff turnover 
  • Student Engagement 
  • Global Support 
  • Communication gaps 
  • Process gaps-Progression from Admissions to Financial Aid to Housing to Advising/Registration up until graduation 
  • Centralized database listing best practices followed by other USG institutions 

Project Lead/point of contact 

Sandy Little-Herring and Deepa Arora 

Initiative II 

Activity/Project Name 

Momentum Area 

X Purpose 

X Pathways 

X Mindset 

X Change Management 

X Data & Communications 

Activity/Project Overview or Description

Improve Learning Support (LS) student success outcomes  

Activity/Project Activity Status

Maintaining and developing an efficient management structure for the Learning Support program. 

Evaluation/Assessment plan

Evaluation Plan and measures: 

  • Improve compliance with LS guidelines 
  • Number of LS students passing gateway English and math courses 
  • Number of LS students remaining in good standing at the completion of the semester  

Baseline measure: 

  • 94% LS students were registered for the required LS and gateway English course in fall’21 
  • 88% LS students were registered for the required LS and gateway math course in fall’21 
  • 49% of LS students successfully passed Quantitative Reasoning in fall’21; 30% successfully passed Algebra in fall’21 
  • 58% of LS students successfully passed Gateway English in fall’21 
  • 17% of LS students who were on probation at the beginning of fall’21 and finished the semester in good standing 
  • 46% of LS students who began fall’21 in good standing and finished the semester on probation 

Goal or targets: 

  • 1 % increase above the baseline in the number of LS students registered for the appropriate LS and Gateway English  
  • 2 % increase above the baseline in the number of LS students registered for the appropriate LS and Gateway math  
  • 3% increase in the number of LS students passing gateway English course 
  • 3% increase in the number of LS students passing gateway math courses 
  • 3% increase in the number of students who were on probation at the beginning of fall’21 and finished the semester in good standing 
  • 3% decrease in the number of students who began fall’21 in good standing and finished the semester on probation 

Time period/duration: 2022-23 academic year 

Progress and Adjustments  

An Institutional LS Coordinator provides oversight of the LS program and maintains regular communication with the English and math departments. 

  • English department made the following changes in 2021-22 to improve success rates and is continuing the same for 2022-23: 
  • Implemented early check-in/alert for improved intervention 
  • Merged the ENGL 0999 and 1101 courses in D2L to reduce confusion.   
  • Added a mindset activity to the course design 
  • Required students to utilize the Writing Center  
  • Math department will continue to implement the following changes: 
  • Math 1001 was redesigned and included a mindset module in the course structure as part of a USG pilot 
  • Assigned the same instructor to teach the co-requisite and the gateway course 
  • 52.8% of LS students successfully completed ENGL 1101 in spring’22 as compared to 49.7% in spring’21.  Success rates were the highest for the face-to-face course sections (65.3%) as compared to hybrid (63.1%) and online (54.9%).
  • 53.4% of LS students successfully completed MATH 1001 in spring’22 as compared to 47.5% in spring’21.  Success rates were the highest for the face-to-face course sections (66.1%) as compared to online (57.3%) in spring’22.
  • Success rates for MATH 1111 declined from 43.6% in spring’21 to 23.1% in spring’22.  Success rates remained the same for the face-to-face (57.8%) and online sections (57.0%) in spring’22.
  • 15.2 % of LS students who were on probation at the beginning of spring’22 finished the semester in good standing 
  • 23.4% of LS students who began spring'22 in good standing finished the semester on probation. 

Plan for the year ahead 
  • Increased communication with the LS students to ensure compliance with LS guidelines 
  • Math committee will review Math 1111 to discuss best practices for delivering course content 
  • LS MATH
  • piloting use of Intelligent Agents in MATH 0997/1001
  • implementing use of peer mentors in two sections of MATH 0997/1001 for fall 2022.
  • LS ENGL
  • implementing use of peer mentors in two sections of ENGL 0999/1101 for fall 2022.

What challenges will affect your ability to do this activity?  
What support do you need from outside your institution to be successful? 
  • Lack of engagement of LS students 
  • Collaboration between LS course instructors 
  • Lack of utilization of academic support resources 
  • Instructors need to address varying levels of under-preparedness  

Project Lead/point of contact 

Deneice Bausley, Sandy Little-Herring, Deepa Arora 

Initiative III 

Activity/Project Name 

Momentum Area 

X   Purpose 

X   Pathways 

X   Mindset 

X   Data & Communications 

Activity/Project Overview or Description

Designing and integrating academic success content into Area B courses 

Activity/Project Activity Status

Area B committee formed to work on determining and integrating academic success content into Area B course design.   

Evaluation/Assessment plan

Evaluation Plan and measures: 

  • Student success in Area B courses 
  • Use of NSSE survey results 
  • Redesigned Area B with academic success content course evaluation   

Baseline measure: to be established 

Goal or targets: to be established 

Time period/duration: 2022-23 academic year 

Progress and Adjustments  
  • Embedded student success content in all Area B full semester sections.
  • Had to pilot only full session courses

Plan for the year ahead 
  • Develop academic success content for short session Area B classes

What challenges will affect your ability to do this activity?  
 
  • Area B faculty training 
  • Collaboration among academic and student affairs offices
  • Staffing for appropriate facilitation of academic success content 
  • Participation and cooperation of Area B faculty in course redesign 
  • Learning to use software to develop training and information content
  • Effective redesign of Area B course with student success content will be required. 

Project Lead/point of contact 

Eric Sun and Rod McRae 

Initiative IV 

Activity/Project Name 

Momentum Area 

X Purpose 

X   Data & Communications 

Activity/Project Overview or Description

Integrating and Strengthening High Impact Practices (HIPs) into the curriculum 

Activity/Project Activity Status

Scaling 

Evaluation/Assessment plan

Evaluation Plan and measures: 

Currently, the plan is to reactivate and revise the institution’s previous QEP committee, involved in labeling courses identified by chairs and deans of appropriate academic units.  

Baseline measure:  

The current level and variety of HIPs courses. 

Goal or targets: 

To increase the number of courses offered by the University from about 400 to 500.  Grow the variety of HIPs courses from Service Learning, Undergraduate Research, Work-based Learning, and Capstone to include areas in Global Learning and ePortfolio. 

Time period/duration: 

The first short course will take a semester to complete and make plans.   Upcoming semesters will be used to implement a plan for a course and additional training and support for faculty. 

Progress and Adjustments  

MGA has completed the process of reviewing and revising all courses listed as HIPs.   All HIPs designated courses have been correctly labeled and information in BANNER updated.  In addition, processes and procedures for identifying new courses with the HIPs designation were updated and reviewed.

Plan for the year ahead 

 The plan is to continue to use the courses devised by USG to train faculty/administrators.  The USG has created and released a new course on Service Learning that will be available for faculty.   The Assistant Provost for Faculty Development has assisted the University with these efforts via workshops and support.  The plan is to continue to grow the types of HIPs courses, especially in the areas of Global Learning and ePortfolio.   These areas will be new for MGA.   We will continue to focus on growing the number of HIPs courses, which has increased since this work has begun.  This will involve getting more faculty interested in HIPs.

What challenges will affect your ability to do this activity?  
What support do you need from outside your institution? 

The USG has developed another short course on Service Learning.  The plans are for additional courses to be developed in the future.  These courses will be very helpful in the training and support of faculty.  The challenge is motivating faculty to pursue an interest in HIPs courses, training, and development.

Project Lead/point of contact 

The leadership for the project is a four-person HIPs Implementation Team comprised of Dr. Kim Pickens, Dr. Andre Nicholson, Ms. Jasmine Brown, and Dr. Scott Spangler.   Dr. Don Brown has been working with the Team to support their efforts.  

Initiative V 

Activity/Project Name 

Momentum Area 

X        Purpose 

X        Mindset 

Activity/Project Overview or Description

Promoting Career Readiness and Student Leadership: 

  • Engaging first-year students in the Focus 2 Career Assessment and career option discussions with career advisors. 
  • Introducing first-year students to the NACE Career Competencies so that they are aware of the skills employers want to see them build before entering the professional workforce. 
  • Planning and implementing a centralized process for promoting and preparing students for internships (both credit and non-credit) to increase the number of students participating in internships. 

Activity/Project Activity Status
  • For the Area B student success content, career and academic planning is a major focus.  Assignments include completing the Focus 2 Career Assessment, claiming their Handshake account, attending a career event or meeting with a career advisor, and completing readings and quizzes about career exploration and planning. 
  • In the Area B student success module, students are exposed to content, assignments, and quizzes for the following career competencies: communication, critical thinking, self-awareness and career management, and professionalism.
  • Knights LEAD has 25 students who participate in sessions led by community, faculty, and staff leaders who discuss how the career competencies have impacted their professional and leadership journey.  Students will put these skills into practice through service projects and case studies.
  • An Assistant Director for Internships & Career Readiness was hired in Fall 2021 who is currently developing and implementing a way for students to report non-academic credit internships. This position has also worked on researching how for-credit internships are being tracked and will be reaching out to these departments to request that they also have students report their internships to use through our new process in Handshake.  MGA intends to use the data to reach out to employers so that a more comprehensive database for students seeking internships can be developed and also it will allow MGA to recognize students completing internships.  To increase the number of students completing an internship in fall 2022, a new virtual “How to Get an Internship” Series has been added.  A virtual series will also be offered in November to connect internship employers with students.  The fall and spring All Industry Career Fair will also feature internship opportunities.

Evaluation/Assessment plan
  • In fall 2022, students are required to complete the Focus 2 Career Assessment and a quiz that requires them to use the resource to look up information about careers. 
  • During fall 2022, students are actively participating in Knights LEAD and 19 students are participating in Emerging Leaders.
  • A plan for offering student programming and communicating the opportunity to complete an internship has been developed for 2022-23.  Students completing internships will be highlighted through social media; this will educate and encourage other students to complete internships.  These profiles will be included on MGA’s website and will be used in presentations with students.  Currently, all MGA students receive a weekly newsletter from the CCLD that includes internship listings from Handshake.  

Baseline measure 

  • Number of students successfully completing Area B course 
  • Number of students participating in Knights Lead in 2021-22 was 24 
  • Number of students participating in Emerging Leaders in 2021-22 was 23  

Goal or targets 

  • Increase the number of students participating in Knights Lead in 2022-23 by 10% 
  • Increase the number of students participating in Emerging Leaders in 2022-23 by 10%  

Time period/duration: 2022-23 academic year 

Progress and Adjustments  
  • 53 students signed up for Knights LEAD, but only 23 have engaged in programs.
  • 54 students signed up for Emerging Leaders but only 19 have engaged in programs.
  • Focusing this target on retaining students who are in the programs would be more appropriate.
  • Focus 2 Career Assessment was implemented in fall 2020 and materials were developed to support career advising conversations.  Building awareness and promoting these resources would be necessary going forward. 
  • For fall 2022, Focus 2 career assessment has been included into the academic success module associated with Area B courses. 
  • Focus 2 Resources have been introduced to students during summer orientation through the handout and information tables.
  • Knights LEAD programs started early this fall on August 19 (Cochran) and August 26 (Macon) so that new students are engaging with each other and the institution early. 
  • Emerging Leaders launched on August 30 (Macon) and September 7 (Cochran) – each cohort has already participated in 3 sessions. 
  • A form for reporting internships through Experiences in Handshake has been set up and is being piloted in fall 2022.
  • Students participated in projects for MGA Day of Service in September.

Plan for the year ahead 
  • Knights LEAD will plan their own service project and will track individual service hours through Presence for recognition at the annual student leadership programs ceremony.
  • A centralized reporting process has been set up in Handshake.  The next step is piloting it with students and faculty.
  • Information is being created to help students better understand the internship search process as well as the process for getting academic credit (if applicable to the student).
  • Discussions are ongoing on how to expand the Exploring Careers Workshop as an ongoing opportunity and as a way to educate Academic Advisors on the resources available in the CCLD.  

What challenges will affect your ability to do this activity?  
 
  • The Executive Director is working on a draft of what would be needed to help the CCLD move away from “campus-specific” career advising staff yet still manage the challenge of providing career development support across multiple campuses.   The “campus-specific” model is limiting as we think about giving staff the opportunity to focus on a particular area and provide expertise to students.  Many universities are also looking at aligning career advising staff to industries, which would require some staff to understand and work with multiple academic areas across Schools but focus on a specific industry.    
  • The academic success content built into the Area B course redesign has been a great opportunity to expose all students to career planning and the Focus 2 career assessment.  In addition, the module is also scaling how students are introduced to the importance of critical thinking, professionalism, communication, and self-awareness/career management.  These concepts are currently put in context of their education so the only other change would be finding a way to connect these back to their future careers.  Since Area B academic success content is offered as an online module, a short video that discusses the career competencies followed by a quick assessment could be a possible addition in the future.
  • Some institutions are aligning career development staff with “career communities” or industry clusters in order to give them expertise areas to focus on with students and employers.  Creating a plan that would align with academic areas for consistent communication would be key.  Currently, we have a campus specific model that limits the ability for staff to become experts in a particular area and provide concentrated support to employer relations efforts.

Project Lead/point of contact 

Mary Roberts and Heather McIntosh 

Initiative VI 

Activity/Project Name 

Momentum Area 

X        Mindset 

Activity/Project Overview or Description

Promoting and Creating Awareness of Growth Mindset in students, faculty, and staff 

Activity/Project Activity Status

Initiating and scaling to involve all academic and non-academic units 

Evaluation/Assessment plan

Evaluation Plan and measures: 

  • Development of Part II Mindset training for faculty  
  • Development of Part II Mindset training for staff 
  • Identification of mindset elements to include in Area B with First Year Seminar (FYS) content 
  • Faculty Development sessions addressing mindset inclusion in syllabi and course design  

Baseline measure:   

  • 63.5% faculty completed Part I Growth Mindset training 
  • 50 staff members completed Part I Growth Mindset training 
  • Incorporation of three mindset elements (Growth, Purpose, Social Belonging; GPS) into Area B with student success content: to be developed 
  • Incorporation of mindset statement into course syllabi: to be established  

Goal or targets: 

  • 75 % faculty complete mindset training  
  • 10 % increase in staff participation in mindset training 
  • Three elements of mindset (Growth, Purpose, Social Belonging) are included in the Area B course with student success content  
  • 10% increase above baseline measure for inclusion of mindset statement in course syllabi  

Time period/duration  

2022-23 academic year 

Progress and Adjustments  
  • Finalized scenarios for faculty and staff academic mindset training
  • Established Academic Mindset training timeline.
  • Part II Mindset training development for staff is in progress. 
  • Part II mindset training development for faculty will be done in spring’23. 

Plan for the year ahead 
  • Faculty development sessions on syllabi inclusion of mindset elements will be offered through the Center of Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL).
  • Student training for mindset will be incorporated into redesigned Area B course with student success content

What challenges will affect your ability to do this activity?  
 
  • Faculty and staff participation in mindset training will be necessary. 
  • Faculty participation in faculty development sessions will be essential. 
  • Building and coordinating student engagement in mindset promoting activities would be required. 
  • Learning to use software to develop training and information content would be necessary.
  • Effective collaboration between Academic Affairs and Student Affairs to promote a culture of growth mindset would be required.

Project Lead/point of contact 

Deepa Arora, Eric Sun, Rod McRae, Sandy Little-Herring 

1.2 Big Idea 

MGA’s Big Idea was to develop strategies and practices that help to build the academic mindset as an institutional culture. Using this lens, the following strategies have been planned and implemented for 2022-23 to address the momentum goals of purposeful choice, pathways, and growth mindset:  

Purposeful Choice:  

 The Student Success Centers staff and the professional academic advisors have collaborated with the Center for Career and Leadership Development in various activities to answer questions linked to majors and careers. Both the teams also work closely with Financial Aid and Residence Life to provide a unified and one-stop-shop approach to serving the students.

A major initiative has focused on including academic success content in an Area B redesign to help freshmen build awareness of resources available to them while also acquiring the skills needed to be successful in college. Topics are related to course management, academic and career planning, and student support and resources.  Focus-2 career assessment has also been included in the career planning module that aligns well with a pre-enrollment survey that has been administered to incoming students for fall’22 following their admission to the institution.  The survey helps students to change their major before registration based on the confidence level of the major selected and provides advisors with important information to create the most appropriate schedule for students as well as engage in major and career-related conversations early in the student’s academic journey.  

A Director of Advising has been hired and with the assistance of funds received from the USG, the Academic Advisors have been moved into a tiered structure to help with retention and provide opportunities for professional development that will provide them with the tools to lead our students towards success.  These funds have also enabled the hiring of additional advisors that will reduce the advisor: advisee ratio and enable proactive advising. Training in proactive advising is being offered for both professional and faculty advisors to engage our students in conversations early on in their academic program.  Work is ongoing to streamline the advising process followed in the six academic schools and to establish a standardized assessment to identify opportunities for improvement. 

USG funding has also made it possible to hire an Academic Success Coach (ASC) who will assist the Student Success Centers staff and the Institutional LS Coordinator to provide additional focus on improving success outcomes of specific targeted populations like athletes and students in learning support. 

A Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) has been established to provide professional development opportunities for faculty to promote effective teaching practices that support student success as well as the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. The CETL also helps strengthen MGA’s controlled roll-out of undergraduate research, learning communities, collaborative assignments and projects, global learning, and ePortfolios. 

There is continued focus on promoting the success of high-risk students through frequent communication and collaboration between the professional advisors and the Student Success Center personnel, institution of an early alert system, promotion of online and embedded tutoring, and intense outreach campaigns focused on students on probation as well as those in learning support.  Additionally, in fall’22 a peer mentoring program is being piloted for selected students in learning support English and math course sections to assist students with their academic as well as personal acclimatization to Middle Georgia State University.  Assistance includes, but is not limited to, orienting assigned students to campus, connecting students with academic support centers, modeling good study skills, and helping students stay abreast of faculty expectations to place them on a successful higher education pathway. 

Pathways: 

MGA has been engaged in a review of Area A Math requirements for different majors to allow for STEM and non-STEM majors to be registered appropriately.  Non-STEM majors take Quantitative Reasoning while Algebra is the suggested Math course for STEM majors. There is a need, however, to build awareness about the Elementary Statistics course as an additional Area A option.  Majors that recommend Elementary Statistics in Area A have been identified but additional conversations with the department chairs are required to promote the course for their majors.   

Program maps listing 15 credits of coursework semester-by-semester for each degree and major offered on each of our campuses are already in place.  The focus in 2022-23 is to build interactive maps that also include milestones and co-curricular activities associated with each semester and allow advisors to input the grades received.  It will also be important to ensure the maps are accurate and reflect all the curriculum changes. Workshops will be necessary for both faculty and staff professional advisors to ensure the maps are being used consistently across the board.   

Mindset: 

Version 2 of the mindset training for staff and faculty has been developed.  Training for staff will be executed during the fall’22 semester while the training for faculty will be implemented in spring’23. Current efforts to strengthen the training include the addition of common scenarios faculty and staff encounter in their interactions with students along with questions that provide an opportunity to reflect and respond using a growth mindset following each scenario.   

Faculty across several departments have worked to incorporate elements of mindset into their courses.  Some examples of such coursework include the following: In RHAB 3000-Introduction to Rehab Professions- students participate in the Rehab Science Club that involves community projects, opportunities to mentor, and participate in study groups.  In the first semester of the OTA Program, students complete a learning style inventory, genogram assignment, and self-awareness collage all designed to help them identify things in their personal experiences that will foster or hinder learning and professional development.  The School of Education and behavioral Sciences had rolled out a peer mentoring program to the education and social work majors. It involves a gradual assumption of more mentoring responsibility and impact by students as they progress through their degree program. In several courses offered for the education major, topics focus on the importance of both the educator and the student having a growth mindset, and the students also explore their own mindset. Several activities have been developed that help the students to engage, reflect, and build confidence in their learning in the American Government course. In the Psychology of Adjustment class, students are asked to report on how they can increase optimism, in light of being positively related to better academic performance, better athletic performances, increased work productivity, satisfaction in interpersonal relationships, better coping with life, physical health, life satisfaction, and decreased depression. Middle Georgia Stea University is also participating in the USG Mindset Learning Project in the co-requisite support course (Math 0997) for Quantitative Reasoning (Math 1001). 

The newly established CETL has provided regular developmental opportunities for faculty in fall’22, including the Monday Morning Mentor series.  Additionally, there will be workshops provided to faculty on syllabus review and revision to include growth mindset statements.  The plan for 2022-23 also includes workshops for faculty and staff in other student support offices to ensure all communications to students provide positive reinforcement.  

To engage students at critical times in the course progression, another pilot project instituted during fall’22 has involved the integration of Intelligent Agents into English 1101/LS, Math 1001/LS and Psychology 1101 to allow for the development and automated distribution of customized communications to students in response to the course activity and progress. Intelligent Agents send an automated email when instructor-defined criteria are met. For example, instructors can email students who have not logged in recently, whose grades have fallen below a certain level, or who have viewed (or not viewed) specific topics, and much more.

1.3 Global Momentum Work 

Since MGA focused on initiatives to build the academic mindset as an institutional culture, there have been several cross-divisional conversations between Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, and Enrollment Management.  A significant outcome of these has led to the redesign of new student orientation, both in-person as well as online, that has been revamped to include mindset activities during the day’s events. There is also a focus on building Living and Learning Communities by engaging Academic Affairs and Residence Life personnel.  Efforts are on to collaborate with Student Life and Athletics to support the needs of athletes and students participating in the AAMI.