EP Team: Lifelong Learning
Revised: November 18, 1999

Core Indicator #1: Student Goal Attainment: The proportion of students who met their original goal (or subsequent goal decided while enrolled).

What we know:

• What the goals of a lifelong learner are (LL Team Survey)
• What factors affect lifelong learners from meeting their goal (LL Team Survey)
• Most disciplines have students whose goal is personal interest (Program Reviews)

Data Gaps:

1. Student's goal is not updated.
2. Don't know why are taking a particular course.
3. If goal not met, what prevented the student from meeting goal
4. No longitudinal studies, to see if and when they do meet their goal.
5. No target surveys
6. No age breakdown in Program Review
7. No course breakdown in Program Review
8. Interest by course, in which courses are there large clusters of personal interest students.
9. In the Program Review, we do have the primary and secondary reason why the student took the program, (goal of student), but done of the other data is broken down by goal.
10. What is the definition of first time student in the program review?
11. A question needs to be added to the Adult Open House Questionnaire. What is your current goal, why are you considering attending C.O.D.?

Core Indicator #2: Persistence

• The proportion of students who complete courses within a term
• The proportion of an identified fall term student cohort who enrolled in at least one additional term by the following fall term.

What we know:

• 657 returning students completed the P.E. survey and 45 first-term students completed the survey. Less than 15% of P.E. students withdraw from the course.
• In the FACS program, there has been an overall increase of 37.5% in seat count. 46% increase in credit hours generated (over 5-year period)
• Head count in Central Campus rose 7.6% between 93 and 94, and Open Campus dropped by 10.6% Credit hours Central Campus rose 8.3% and Open Campus dropped 10.6%

Data Gaps:

• No age breakdown in Program Reviews.
• The Adult Open House survey does not address the issue of persistence.
• The open house is geared toward new adult students.
• The internal survey showed that we need lists of students who do not persist, do not enroll in subsequent quarters. Student tracking does not give us enough information. We need more resources devoted to why students do not persist.

Institutional Goals:
All four institutional goals address persistence of lifelong learners.

Core Indicator # 11: Community Satisfaction with Programs/Services and
Responsiveness to Assessed Needs

What we Know:

• In most programs, at least 75% of the students are satisfied or very satisfied with the program.
• There is a high satisfaction with the time of day, variety of courses, content and quality of instruction (based on program reviews)

Data Gap:

• Breakdown by age groups of satisfaction

Core Indicator #12: Service Area Participation

What we Know:

The following data is based on some age specific data provided to the team from Research and Planning:

• 57.5% of the college population is over 24 years old or under 17
• 26.4% of 40 - 55 year old students are taking a course for personal interest
• 25.9 % of 25 - 34 year old students are taking a course for personal interest
• 25.3% of students have a B.S. degree
• 11.6% of students have credits beyond a B.S. degree

Data from Adult Open House 1999 Evaluations:

• 23.1 % of students attending the open house had a Bachelors Degree or higher
• 35% of students were age 46 or older
• No minority student with a degree attended

Data Gaps:

• What percent of the community is a minority with a Bachelor's degree or higher?
• Demographics of community by age and degree

Other information we have learned:
There are inconsistencies in the way the Program Reviews are laid out. They all contain the same information, but in different order.

Possible Institutional Goals (that can be measured and are likely to positively
influence the Core Indicators)

#1 Hire,, develop and advance those who are committed to our educational mission to promote the highest levels of educational attainment throughout the community we serve.

• Are we hiring staff that knows how to work with lifelong learners?
• Are we developing our staff to make them better prepared to deal with the many diverse issues of lifelong learners?
• What percent of the community currently are lifelong learners? Is this number increasing?

#2 Introduce new and modify existing programs, services, and systems as the continuous assessment of community learning needs and outcomes direct us.

• How can programs be modified to meet the goals of lifelong learners?
• What new programs, etc. need to be developed to meet the needs of lifelong learners?
• How do faculty access the goals (interest and needs) of our students at the start of a course (program) to see if it has been met by the end of the course (program)?
• How do we help transition students from "traditional" classes to Continuing Education, B.P.I., etc.?
• How do we help make "traditional" students into lifelong learners?
• How do we direct students from one course (activity) to another that will help them meet their goal?
• How do we share information between areas to address issues of lifelong learners, and to decide what courses they would like to see offered?
• How do we access the continuing needs of lifelong learners?
• What linkages do we offer? (ex. People who attended the Paul Simon lecture, did we direct them to courses, other similar programs)?
• How do we introduce the concept of lifelong learning throughout our curriculum? (plant the seed)
• How can we infuse college connections throughout courses?
• Do faculty announce college events?
• How do we serve night students? (many workshops are only offered during the day) How do we get students to establish "support relationships"? How can we take better advantage of the "classroom based advising system"? Use it to promote linkages?

#3 Promote and support collaborative experimentation within the college and through partnerships to maintain our strong reputation and secure our financial future.

• What partnerships need to be developed to support lifelong learning?
• How can supporting lifelong learning strengthen our reputation?
• What experimentation within the college needs to take place?
• How can we supplement high school programs and curriculum? (field studies)
• Do we track students enrolled in "Kids on Campus", "Teens on Campus," to see if they continue here as traditional students?
• What programs do we offer the parents of these students?
• How can we help parents implant the seeds of lifelong learning?
• Do we survey the parents to see what they would like to be enrolled in while their children are enrolled in class, sports camp, family programs, attending a program at the Art Center, etc.
• What do we do to reach the parents of our child care and co-op students?

#4 Stress learning attainment in our enrollment development efforts, attracting and retaining those we serve best ...

• How can we better recruit lifelong learners?
• How can we better market what we already have for lifelong learners?
• Do we need a "clearinghouse" for lifelong learners?
• How do we improve first impressions?
• How do we build a comfort connection with COD?
• In what courses/programs are there concentrations of lifelong learners?
• How do we get information from those who are not in classes? When would they
  like to see courses offered, etc.?
• How do we follow up on students?
• Are there new markets we can develop?
• How do we get the community to reframe their personal thoughts - use their (waiting) time to take a course? (Kids on Campus parents)
• Do we give parents questionnaires, when they enroll their child, asking the parents what they would like to take, see offered (for them)?
• Do we offer workshops, courses on issues relating to if your spouse, child, parent, first family member in college is a student, how can you be supportive?