Category: SMU in Four

Categories
SMU in Four

Advising and records responsbility survey distributed by the SMU in Four Advising Pillar

Advisor looking through course options with student
Advisor looking through course options with student

The SMU in Four Advising Pillar released a second survey on March 18, the Advisor and Records Responsibility Survey, to the advising community.

The Advisor and Records Responsibility Survey aims to assess the perceived importance and performance ability of various responsibilities within academic advising and records management. Participants are asked to rate their role’s importance and their ability to perform tasks such as advising on course selection, helping students develop academic plans, reviewing transcripts, referring students to resources, and maintaining accurate records.

The survey was sent to a roster of major, minor, and faculty advisors and school records office personnel. If you are on the intended survey invitation list, please respond via the personalized link sent to your email before April 1. 

The survey also gathers feedback on the utilization and effectiveness of advising tools. It suggests improvements for student advising, such as requiring advisor approval for student schedules and standardizing advising loads.

This survey helps identify areas for improvement and inform decision-making regarding advising at SMU. If you have questions about the survey, please contact Josh Beaty, who chairs the SMU in Four Advising Pillar.

Categories
SMU in Four Student Academic Engagement & Success Student Success & Retention

Early Progress Reports (EPR) are available and will be due on February 20 at midnight

Early and mid-term reports are an excellent opportunity to remind students about course expectations and to positively acknowledge what has already been accomplished.

It is also very important that faculty report a deficiency.

Faculty reminders about the Early Progress Report (EPR) deadline of Tuesday, February 20 at 11:59p.m. were sent today. SMU in Four School Implementation Teams were also notified of response rates over the weekend.

If you have any questions, please contact the Office of Student Success and Retention at ssr@smu.edu.

 

Categories
SMU in Four

SMU in Four Year-two report available

The SMU in Four team releases the year-two progress report on SMU’s Quality Enhancement Plan.

Updates are provided on early-alert mechanisms, undergraduate academic advising, technology enhancements, and gateway & introductory courses. Plus, student retention, graduation rates, and goals for year three of the five-year initiative are shared.

Download a copy of the SMU in Four Year 2 Progress Report.

In October, a copy of the year-two progress presentation was shared with the SMU community and is also available online. Questions regarding the report or presentation may be directed to smuinfour@smu.edu.

Categories
SMU in Four Student Academic Engagement & Success

Advising @ SMU infographic now available

SMU in Four has released a new Advising @ SMU infographic designed to make student and advisor expectations transparent throughout their academic journey, from orientation to graduation.

In addition to clarifying the advising process and timeline, the infographic will help first-year admit undergraduate students understand the benefits of regularly meeting with their academic advisors.

Midsize posters will be distributed to advisors to place in their offices, and larger prints will hang in other campus offices and common spaces. To request copies of the flyers and posters, please email Dallas Forbes at dforbes@smu.edu.

The infographic will also be socialized at SMU’s inaugural Success Fest, planned for Thursday, February 28th. This event will promote the completion of Degree Planner by the March 1st deadline – with food, swag, and a gift card giveaway to students who show that they’ve completed a degree plan. More information on Success Fest is to come… but, for now, save the date.

Categories
SMU in Four

SMU in Four presented year-two progress and goals for year three

On Thursday, October 12, the SMU in Four team presented their second annual presentation to discuss and showcase SMU’s progress toward completing our Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP). A total of 141 members of the campus community were in attendance.

This five-year QEP, a key component of SMU’s SACSCOC accreditation process, is constructed to undergird SMU’s goals to increase first-year retention and four- and six-year graduation rates for our undergraduate students.

Sheri Kunovich, Associate Provost for Student Academic Engagement and Success; Paige Ware, Associate Provost for Faculty Success; Dustin Grabsch, Assistant Provost for Undergraduate Education and Academic Success; Curt Herridge, Associate Chief Information Officer in the Office of Information Technology (OIT); Molly Ellis, Director of Strategic Initiatives in the Office of Faculty Success; and Josh Beatty, Associate Director for the University Advising Center each spoke about the SMU in Four initiatives currently underway, shared data analyses and reflections on this year’s activities, and previewed plans for next year’s initiatives.

The written SMU in Four Year-Two Progress Report will be made available later this fall, but in the interim, click here for a copy of this week’s presentation.

What can you do to support student success and retention on campus? We invite faculty and staff to support this work by submitting progress reports, Advising Notes, and Retention Alerts.

Learn more about these efforts on the Office of Student Success and Retention website. 

Categories
Office of General Education Peer Academic Leaders SMU in Four

Find your PAL and complete your Degree Planner in my.SMU student communication sent

SMU in Four would like to share efforts being made to encourage undergraduate students to complete their my.SMU Degree Planner. 

The following message was shared on Sunday, September 17.

——————-

From: SMU in Four (smuinfour@smu.edu)

To: Undergraduate Students

Subject Line: Find your PAL and complete your Degree Planner in my.SMU

Dear Mustangs,

We’re officially in week 4! Is this semester flying by, or is it just us? SMU in Four hopes you’re getting into the swing of things, but if not, have you considered finding a Peer Academic Leader (PAL)? PALs are a diverse group of undergraduate students at SMU who have been dedicating their time to help their peers navigate academics.

If you haven’t gotten a chance to meet them, have no fear! They have plenty of upcoming events on the books to help you succeed.

All students are expected to use Degre Planner, so visit one of the PAL workshops this month to start, update, and complete your plan! Degree Planner workshops are on the following dates. RSVP’s are encouraged, but walk-ins are welcome:

If you can’t make it to any of these, book a one-on-one appointment with a PAL during their office hours, and they’re happy to help! Whether it’s at Laura Lee Blanton Building, Suite 100, or anywhere else on campus, they’re excited to PAL around!

Melina Padron

Sr. Advisor for General Education

she/her/hers

O: 214-768-6559

melinap@smu.edu

Office of General Education; Student Academic Engagement & Success

Office of the Provost

SMU

6185 Airline Road

Dallas, TX 75205

Categories
Academic Center for Excellence Academic Devleopment of Student-Athletes (ADSA) Altshuler Learning Enhancement Center Disability Accommodations & Success Strategies First-Generation Initiative Hilltop Scholars Mustang Scholars National Fellowships Office of Engaged Learning Office of General Education President’s Scholars Rotunda Scholars SMU in Four Student Academic Engagement & Success Student Academic Success Programs Student Success & Retention University Advising Center University Honors Program University Testing Center

SEAS units begin migration to new SMU-branded web pages

In partnership with the Office of Information Technology, Student Academic Engagement and Success (SAES) began migrating unit websites to the new SMU-banded web pages.

As part of the brand migration, the SAES Marketing, Communication, and Digital Technology committee worked with unit webmasters to assist with a site content refresh (e.g., text, pictures, layouts). The committee recommended reorganizing navigation and pages based on Google Analytics data of high-traffic pages. As part of the process, broken links, spelling, SEO optimization, SMU web governance, and site navigation are also being addressed. Finally, professional headshots and employee biographies will be added over the summer.

Beginning with the SAES main navigation in late May, all units will be migrated over the course of the summer and early fall terms.

Last week, the following unit websites were completed:

Scheduled to migrate on or around the dates listed below will be:

  • June 23:
    • University Testing Center
    • University Advising Center
  • July 21:
    • Academic Development of Student-Athletes
    • Office of Student Success and Retention
  • August 11:
    • Student Academic Success Programs
    • Office of Undergraduate National Fellowships
  • September 1:
    • University Honors Program
    • First-Generation Initiative
    • Scholars’ Den
  • September 22:
    • President’s Scholars
    • Rotunda Scholars
    • Mustang Scholars
    • Hilltop Scholars

Please pardon our dust during this transition. If you discover broken links or issues, please direct them to academicsuccess@smu.edu to be routed appropriately. The next communication on the webpage migration will be once all SAES units have been completed.

Categories
Office of General Education SMU in Four Student Academic Engagement & Success University Advising Center

Degree Planner after-action report and advisor incentives announced

Degree Planner was introduced to students at the end of the Fall 2022 semester as a tool that supports the SMU in Four – SMU’s Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) –SMU’s comprehensive approach to improving retention and four-year graduation rates. 

The Degree Planner in the my.SMU Student Dashboard is a powerful tool that can provide students with a personalized, pre-populated degree plan to help them on their journey to graduation. This degree path provides a sequence of courses that will fulfill degree requirements and can be adjusted regularly to fit their future plans. This differs from the Degree Progress Report (DPR), the authoritative source for graduation requirements. 

Initial adoption efforts focused on the 5,348 Common Curriculum students who matriculated in the fall 2020 semester or after (213 Spring 2023 graduating seniors were excluded). Students received outreach on Degree Planner’s purpose, support with completion, and notification of their progress in a variety of ways: 

  • 1,201 students completed their Degree Planner for all remaining terms.  
  • 1,484 students completed their Degree Planner for the Fall 2023 semester. 
  • 8 Degree Planner Support sessions were held (4 in Caruth, 2 in Hughes Trigg, 1 in Meadows, and 1 Zoom Session)  
  • 7 Blog posts were written introducing Degree Planner, sharing progress, announcing raffle winners (on 2/2/23, 2/13/23, & 3/16/23 ), and general information on Degree Planner  
  • 7 Student emails were sent   
  • 130 Winners were selected in raffles to win prizes for completion of Degree Planner.  
  • To-do tasks were added to students’ My.SMU accounts. These to-do tasks were updated and removed weekly. 

We want to reward the following advisors with $100 Amazon gift cards for having the highest number of advisee completions University-wide: 

  • Dorie Beitchman 
  • Misti Compton 
  • Maria Crouch 
  • Christopher Logan 
  • Jennifer Malone 
  • Barbara Morhle 
  • Jeanene Renfro 
  • Caroline Rydquist 
  • Alyssa Wong 

Special Acknowledgement is also given to Janet Stephens and Alyssa Wong for their efforts in encouraging student completion and advertising our student support sessions.  

Categories
SMU in Four

Mid-Term Progress Reports (MPRs) completed at an all-time high this semester

As part of SMU in Four, undergraduate faculty are asked to complete early and midterm progress reports each semester. During the fall semester, requests for reports from faculty occur during September
and October, and for the spring semester in February and March.

Faculty members report on any deficient grades by students and may indicate if students are failing due to attendance or assignments.

This semester we had a record-setting 80.3% of faculty report mid-term grades, with over 90% of Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences and Lyle School of Engineering faculty making submissions.

Submitting MPRs is a crucial step in the SMU in Four initiative, as it allows records offices, advisors, and academic support staff to identify and support students who may need additional help in certain academic areas.

Staff will now reach out to students with two or more reported deficiencies and invite them to discuss academic support options, such as peer tutoring and meeting with their professors, that can help boost their academic performance.

Thank you to all the undergraduate-serving schools and colleges for coming together in this effort and to the faculty who submitted MPRs.

Categories
SMU in Four

New Degree Planner issues and requests tracker now available

The Office of the Registrar has created an easy and convenient way for advisors to report Degree Planner issues and requests to the Academic Advisement (AA) team.

Using the Degree Planner Issues/Request Tracker makes it easy for staff to describe their issues, attach pertinent documents and alert the AA team promptly. The form also helps the AA team to process requests and document actions taken. Users can see the progress of their requests and will automatically be notified when there is any progress on their reported issues/requests.

We encourage you to bookmark Degree Planner Issues/Requests Tracker, where you can find the form and the instructions. However, the link to the Degree Planner Issues/Requests form is also available from the Registrar’s Faculty and Staff page.

Please be aware that there are now two forms: one for DPR issues and another for Degree Planner issues. Contact the AA team (desaa@smu.edu) if you have any issues using either form.

Please use the Degree Planner Issues/Requests Tracker to submit any future issues/requests rather than emailing the AA team to ensure a timely response. The Office of the Registrar will no longer accept issues reported via email after today.