Senior
Andrew Martin from Dayton, Va. started his college career at Blue Ridge
Community College and remembers his reluctance to attend James Madison
University's Transfer Summer Springboard, a one-day summer orientation
program. "I knew I didn't want to go to JMU, but it was my best
option," he said. At TSS, Martin was 'blown-away' by the energy of the
student leaders and the commitment of the university to help with his
transition. "Needless to say, my opinion of JMU drastically changed,"
said Martin.
"We heard from Dr. Rose, deans of colleges, the director of
orientation," said Martin. "I had no idea it would be that huge and I
was really pleasantly surprised." Martin was so impressed that he
applied to be on the Assisting New Transfer student team in 2011 and was
named one of two Student Orientation Coordinators for 2012. In his
roles as an ANT and as the SOC he helps coordinate and facilitate the
Transfer Summer Springboard.
This spring the National Association of Student Personnel
Administrators recognized the TSS program as the Grand Gold Award winner
for 2012 for its two-year assessment project to test the outcomes and
effectiveness of the program. JMU's award highlights the collaborative
efforts of the Orientation Office and their colleagues in the Center for
Assessment and Research Studies. "This award is a testament of our
program's effectiveness in orienting new transfer students to JMU," said
Director of Orientation Tisha McCoy-Ntiamoah.
Transferring In
Transfer Summer Springboard brings JMU's 700 transfer students to
campus in early June. Recognizing that the transfer population was
growing, JMU created a program similar to the first-year orientation
program. Sarah Sunde, associate director of orientation said, "We
recognize that though these students have been to college they still
need to make a connection to JMU. They need to be able to jump in right
away academically but they also need to acclimate socially."
The TSS is designed so that transfer students know they are important
to the institution. The ANT team is made up of upperclass students who
transferred to JMU. The ANTs understand the transfer experience
because they have been there. "Having a peer student who has been
through the transfer experience and can really empathize makes a big
difference," said Sunde.
Martin said the transfer students attending TSS think "I've already
been to college, I'll just sign up for classes and that's it." However,
what JMU offers is an exciting day filled with information and a way to
connect to JMU. "We really strive to make TSS exciting," said Martin.
"It's a big welcome party."
Assessment is the Key to Change
The TSS objectives are to increase transfer students’ knowledge of
academic requirements and available resources as well as assisting with
social acclimation and community building. Although the Orientation
Office handles the logistics, they work with many stakeholders on campus
to present the information to students during TSS.
CARS Associate Assessment Specialist Sara Finney said it took about a
year to gather all of the stakeholders: orientation, academic deans,
academic advisors, the registrar's office and many others to create the
TSS outcomes. The next step was developing the programming that
accomplishes the outcomes. Finally, the assessment office determined
how to gather data and assess whether the students learned the intended
outcomes.
Transfer students take a pre-test as part of their One Book and a
post-test at the end of TSS. "What we are looking for is some positive
growth," said Finney. If growth on a certain outcome is lower than
expected the assessment team attributes that to several reasons: the
measure is faulty, the program they created isn't the right program or
the program is good, but it's not being implemented correctly.
"This last piece is what the assessment team has spent the last two
years digging into," said Finney. Called an Implementation Fidelity
Check, it allows them to determine if the program that is on paper is
the program the students actually received.
Assessment team member Jerusha Gerstner, a CARS graduate assistant,
said the team spent many hours attending TSS taking on the role of the
transfer student. Their goal was to assess the programs being presented
for adherence, quality of information, exposure time to the information
and responsiveness, or how responsive the students were to the
material.
"In the past when we'd see a poor assessment result we'd say the
whole program wasn't working," said team member Matthew Swain, an
assessment graduate assistant assigned to the Orientation Office. "Now,
using Implementation Fidelity Data, we can see where the program is
drifting from how it was planned." Swain said the value in this type of
data is that it details exactly what needs to be changed for the next
year.
JMU focuses on closing the assessment loop. Finney said it is not
enough to create outcomes, programming and assessment measures;
departments have to use the assessment data to make informed decisions
about program changes.
For example, transfer students attending TSS in 2010 were not
acquiring the resource knowledge that the program had set out to
impart. Specifically, transfer students did not learn that a dining
plan needed to be purchased at Card Services. The Orientation and
Assessment teams increased the frequency of this information in 2011 and
included a resource worksheet for students to better engage them
throughout the day.
The team also notes the changes Associate Registrar Kurt Johnson made
to his presentation as a result of the Implementation Fidelity Data.
In years past Johnson covered all of the information but the assessment
team found the responsiveness of the students, and thus their knowledge
growth in this area, to be lacking. Johnson took the feedback and,
covering the same information, made the presentation engaging by
verbally quizzing the students throughout his time with them. Students
responded positively and showed more positive growth on their post-test
than in past years.
Awarded Grand Gold
The team submitted their work on the TSS for a NASPA award and were
thrilled to learn that their assessment project had won a 2012 NASPA
Gold Excellence Award in the "Enrollment Management, Financial Aid,
Orientation, Parents, First-Year, Other-year and related" category.
The Gold award winners from each of ten categories were then judged
to determine NASPA's Grand Gold Award winner. "I am thrilled that our
staff and their unique collaboration with CARS has been recognized at a
national level as the Grand Gold Award winner," said McCoy-Ntiamoah.
"We worked diligently in the last two years to strengthen and enhance
our assessment plans."
Members of the Orientation Office and CARS traveled to Phoenix, Az. in March to receive the award at the national convention.
"The NASPA Grand Gold Award is a validation that JMU has a really
strong transfer orientation program," said Sunde. "But it's also a
validation of transfer students. If I'm a transfer student coming in and
saw that JMU won this award I'd think 'I'm in the right place, because
JMU obviously really cares about their transfer students.'"
# # #
May 31, 2012
By Paula Polglase, JMU Public Affairs
Related Link:
JMU Transfer Orientation: https://www.jmu.edu/orientation/transfer/
