Commission for Assessment and Evaluation
Sunday, 9 November 2014 - 12:31am
By: Vanessa Patrick
In the Fall of 2013, the departments of Housing and Residence Life and First Year Experience at the University of West Georgia collaborated and created a successful partnership in an effort to increase the percentage of students who completed the MAP-Works Assessment survey. If you are unfamiliar with MAP-Works, it is a software system that empowers faculty and staff with the ability to identify at-risk students early in the term. By identifying these students early on, administrators, staff and faculty have a better chance of retaining and connecting at-risk students with the appropriate resources.
Nevertheless, the most innovative software is useless if administrators and staff cannot get students to complete the assessments that are needed for it to work. Although campaigning for student participation may become tiresome, it is important to remain sincere in your efforts. Students can recognize whether or not you are authentically invested in their success.
By using unique approaches and meeting students where the learn, work and live administrators and staff at the University of West Georgia were able to significantly increase the amount of students who completed the MAP-Works survey. The following strategies and tactics were used to engage and encourage students to complete benchmark assessments at the University of West Georgia:
Large Engagement Events:
Who doesn’t love a party? Both offices collaborated to schedule 3 MAP-Works large engagement events. The events took place in 3 different residential halls throughout campus. Each night, the event moved to a different residence hall on a different side of campus. Students were provided with laptops to complete the assessment and offered refreshments and departmental swag to thank them for their participation afterwards.
Social Media Promotion:
Social media plays an intricate role in the life of traditional aged college students. As student affairs practitioners, we must meet students where they are. Preceding the MAP-Works engagement events, special social media accounts were created. These accounts were consistently used to update students about campus-wide events related to MAP-Works.
Personal Invitations:
During the large engagement event, resident assistants were each assigned to a different residence hall with the goal of personally encouraging and inviting residents to complete the survey and to attend the engagement event in their building. This personal touch played a substantial part in increasing the amount of students who completed the survey.
Strategies and tactics are an important part of efficient planning and event execution. However, never underestimate the value of expressing genuine interest in students. Sometimes, simply showing that you care will be enough.
Vanessa Patrick is a graduate student in the Counselor Education and College Student Affairs master's program at the University of West Georgia. Please direct any questions or comments to Ms. Patrick at cdi-vpatric1@westga.edu or vanessarpatrick@gmail.com. You can also reach Ms. Patrick via Twitter (https://twitter.com/vanessarpatrick) or LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/vanessa-patrick/52/789/183.
