Evaluating the Effectiveness of Your Guided Self Placement and Onboarding Onboarding

Onboarding and Placement Overview

Use the tabs to look at each topic in this section and create plans to review and evaluate these important first steps in students' entry and connection to your college.

"Onboarding – A process of orienting a student to the college and the programs and courses offered. The process often includes collection of information from the student about the student’s educational and career goals, elements of the student’s life that may impact their studies, and additional information about the student’s educational and life experiences that will inform and assist the student to choose appropriate courses"

This section will discuss the important institutional processes that should be evaluated and aligned to make the process clear and accessible to students. Click on the tabs to explore the components of each of the topics.

1. Clarify requirements for each program.

2. Review and update course Information

3. Comprehensively describe concurrent support options

4. Clearly define and visually depict multiple measures placement criteria 

The graphic below suggests an evaluation process to align placement with college publications, website, data and placement communications. Examples from different colleges will display how this is unique for each college, but must be consistent within an institution.

Clarify Requirements for Programs

Typically websites and publications are created by various departments based upon their institutional task. This produces inconsistent communication, varied updating timelines, and expectations for students unless discussions and checks occur across the institution. After a brief review of about 20 colleges in Fall of 2019, we could not find a consistent message, within a single college, about onboarding and placement on websites and publications. It is important to make a concerted and cross-institutional effort, from a student perspective, to align the messaging and clarify pathways.

Check for alignment of information on college communication:

• on assessment website
• counseling website and publications
• discipline websites
• in the print and web catalog
• on the current published schedule

Review and update course and program information

• SLO's/objectives

• Success data

• Throughput data  on each course and program

• Align  English, ESL, Reading requirements for courses and programs

• Evaluate and Identify Mathematics and Quantitative Reasoning requirements for courses and programs

• Consider the effects of the course as a component of general education and other programs outside of the specific discipline where it is taught

Comprehensively describe concurrent supports

Clearly indicate whether supports are:

• required or optional
• aligned or attached to parent course and/or target course faculty
• self-paced, asynchronous
• faculty or student-led

Clarify:

• hours
• units
• grading
• and scheduling options

Define Multiple Measures Placement Criteria and Additional Considerations

Students indicated that flow charts and program maps are most helpful for them as they consider their pathways. The multiple measures process should be clearly defined and colleges should consider flow charts or decision trees that can be easily followed on paper and electronically. Training on the placement criteria should be broad including discipline faculty, counselors, classified staff such as those in admission and records. 

Colleges may develop their own local placement rules or implement the default guidelines. Regardless of the criteria, colleges must collect data to show that the placement is working and that equity gaps are being mitigated. The local placement rules should include multiple measures identified as important for your college student populations and aligned with the entrance skills associated with courses and programs. There are numerous research projects describing the importance of reliance on multiple measures rather than on a single factor. Those measures may include but are not limited to:

• High School GPA
• Specific discipline High School Courses & other curriculum
• test scores e.g. AP, SAT
• CLEP test results
• Employment experience
• Military Experience
• Time available for classwork & support
• Financial needs
• Scheduling needs (ability to attend full or part-time and external responsibilities)

Colleges will also need to consider:

• Will all students have freedom of guided placement including self-placement or only those without high school transcript data? If not, what is the rationale?
• Who will have access to the guided self-placement tool?

• the public?
• potential students?
• only those that have completed an application?
• Only those with a college student identification?

• How will high school students (especially dual enrolled) be affected?
• What is the difference between placement processes and student course enrollment processes?
• Will students be required to meet with a counselor before enrolling?
• Will adequate advising be available in person or online?
• Who will be available for advising (counselors, discipline faculty, etc)
• Will non-cognitive variables (growth mindset, hope scale, etc) be considered?

Website evaluation of the processes should include all users, i.e. students, counselors, discipline experts and advisors. The next part of this module includes a potential exercise colleges may use to collect perception (qualitative) data from students and institutional employees to help evaluate the barriers and gaps in the onboarding process.

Click here to go to the next page in the module  Guided Self Placement Student Information Survey