Student Preparedness & Retention in Online Learning

Presenter:

Brian Nemeth, IT Academic Technology Coordinator; Alex Pereira, IT Academic Technology Coordinator, E-Learning Center, Borough of Manhattan Community College

Abstract:

As CUNY continues to grow its online offerings, individual colleges focus not only on increasing the number of courses offered, but also on strengthening student support services to ensure student retention and course completion.  At Borough of Manhattan Community College student preparedness is an important joint effort of the E-Learning Center, faculty, and student services.  The three primary elements are an early alert process, student readiness through a mandatory orientation, and a student retention initiative through Starfish and departmental collaboration.

The E-Learning Center at BMCC offers nearly 300 online/hybrid course sections and serves nearly 5,000 students per term.  As it has grown its program in the last 15 years, the center has refined and continues to revise its practices to support student preparedness and retention.  During this presentation, E-Learning staff will describe and share specific examples for participants to adopt.