Overview
Beginning in fall 2015, all students new to ACC with 12 or fewer semester credit hours (SCH) are required to take a student success course. The initial course designed to meet this requirement was EDUC 1300 Learning Frameworks. In 2019 ACC added HUMA 1301 Humanities: Prehistory to Renaissance Great Questions Seminar as another success course option. All success courses include a focus on developing skills and practices that support effective learning, critical thinking, and clear reasoning, as well as time management, study skills, and career exploration.
Accomplishments
The General Studies & Student Development Department continues to offer 1-SCH, 2-SCH, and 3-SCH Learning Frameworks course sections to serve multiple degree plans. The Great Questions seminar provides students with a discussion-based course developing core academic skills for success with integrated mentoring and engagement with student services as part of their academic experience.
- Since 2018, the Great Questions program has helped over 3,000 ACC students understand who and why they belong in college, and over 100 faculty members have been trained in the Great Questions pedagogy to help them do so.
- This success course is now listed in 22 different disciplines, including workforce and transfer programs, as satisfying the success requirement in their discipline.
Impact
The Learning Frameworks course (EDUC 1300) has seven years of data showing that new students who successfully complete the course persist at an average rate that is 17 percentage points higher compared to new students who do not enroll in EDUC 1300.
- Fall-to-spring persistence rates are higher for all groups of students, particularly Black/African-American students and Hispanic/Latinx students (both at 91% persistence rate).
Based on OIRA data, first-time-in-college students who successfully complete the Great Questions seminar to fulfill the success mandate persist fall-to-spring at a 98% rate, with a fall-to-fall persistence rate of 85%.
- 44% of those students transfer to a four-year school within two years of completing the Humanities Great Questions Seminar.
Next Steps
- The Great Questions seminars are continuing to encourage instructional programs that have not adopted Great Questions as a Success course option to do so.
- The Great Questions program is working with expert faculty to develop modules that thematically engage humanities works in African-American Diaspora Studies and women’s contributions to the humanities that can be integrated into the shared curriculum.
- The General Studies Department, which offers EDUC 1300, continues to refine course sections to contextualize for different student populations and degree plans.
- The General Studies Department is working closely with the hourly adjunct faculty advisors initiative to support more intrusive advising to General Studies students to make