2022-23 Annual Report

Mission Statement

The Helen Bass Williams Academic Success Center (ASC) provides undergraduate students with opportunities to develop students’ transferable academic skills, enhance learning, increase retention, and improve overall student success throughout their academic journey.

Vision Statement

The ASC aspires to provide all undergraduate students with services and opportunities to define and develop strategies to reach their goals. Driven by a focus on students, the ASC partners with the campus community to facilitate a culture of academic confidence, tenacity, and, ultimately, success.

Program Elements

The Helen Bass Williams Academic Success Center provides free services that support students’ learning with a focus on the process strategies and skills that support the content expertise provided in the classroom.

• Academic Consultations are individual meetings that provide students with tailored support on study strategies, time management, test-taking strategies, and other academic success topics. These 1-on1 meetings are with a staff member and require an appointment. Participating students may voluntarily seek support or may be required by an academic program or campus office to meet with an academic consultant.
• Accountability Groups offer students with ongoing peer support through weekly meetings (90 minutes) with a consistent group of 8-10 peers and an ASC facilitator. During the group meetings, students discuss current academic challenges and wins, share strategies, set goals, and then work on individual goal tasks.
• Peer Success Coaching program (PSC) offers students additional support, campus resources and connections, and accountability as they work toward academic, social, and/or personal goals. Trained peer leaders work 1-on-1 with students to develop strategies, skills, and solutions as they aim for their definition of success.
• Supplemental Instruction program (SI) provides students with interactive, peer-led study sessions for traditionally challenging courses. The trained SI leader facilitates group activities that engage students in critically thinking about the course material, applying the concepts, and learning transferable study skills. In fall and spring semesters, SI is offered in 30+ courses with 45+ SI leaders. In summer semesters, SI is offered online for a limited number of courses.
• Workshops provide an interactive environment for small to large groups of students to identify and practice strategies for effective studying and learning, including time management, overcoming procrastination, and effective studying. In addition to our open series of workshops, student organizations or classes can request a workshop for their group.
• Online Resources are available for students and the campus community through the ASC website, which include success strategy handouts, a GPA calculator, and a searchable database of coursespecific help rooms and tutoring programs offered across campus.
• Test Drive is a large-scale workshop that offers students in select high-enrollment, first-year chemistry, math, and biology courses the opportunity to take a mock exam in the Elliott Hall of Music environment. The program was started in 2017 to help address a common concern brought up by first-year students – they felt unprepared for their first round of exams due to how intimidating Elliott Hall of Music is as an exam setting.

Outcomes

The Helen Bass Williams Academic Success Center has several categories of outcomes. While this report will focus on our program outcomes, the ASC student employment outcomes and competencies and the ASC student-facing learning outcomes are available in Appendices A and B.

As a result of participating in programs and services offered by the Helen Bass Williams Academic Success Center, students will:

• Achieve better course outcome (grade) than comparable peers who did not participate
• Be retained at a higher rate than peers who did not participate
• Complete more credit hours per semester than peers who did not participate
• Earn a higher GPA (term and cumulative) than peers who did not participate
• Maintain or return to good academic standing status (term and cumulative GPA at or above 2.0) at a higher rate compared to the overall university rate

Assessment Plans

The Helen Bass Williams Academic Success Center assesses the outcomes of our programs and services on an ongoing basis. In addition to the current assessment plans, the ASC staff aspire to deepen the understanding of the influence our programs and services have on students, student leaders, and campus and to make scholarly contributions to the field of learning and academic support. Aspirational assessment and study ideas are available in Appendix C.

Semester Assessment

• Feedback survey to SI participants about session experience
• Feedback survey to PSC participants about coaching experience
• Feedback survey to participants post-workshop (after each session)
• GS 29001 course assignments (individual student assessment)
• BoilerConnect Case Referral metrics
• ASC Space utilization
• (In Progress) Pre- and Post- survey for Accountability Group participants
• (In Progress) Academic Consultation evaluation/feedback
• Standard GPA, standing, course grade (where relevant), retention, etc. reporting for SI, PSC, consultations, and accountability groups
• (Aspirational) Sense of Belonging measurement embedded into each program’s semester assessment

Annual Assessment

• Student leader performance evaluations on competencies
• (New) Student leader feedback on supervising staff performance
• (New) Course sequencing ANCOVA for specific SI courses
• (Aspirational) Intersectional reporting of current data and metrics: Are we reducing, maintaining, or exacerbating a gap in equity?

Rotational Assessment and Studies

• Impact of Attending SI Accounting for Self-Selection Bias (study using propensity score matching to evaluate participant and non-participant course outcomes)
• Qualitative study on experience of serving as PSC related to skill development
• Impact of Academic Consultations (explore outcomes of referral cases comparing students who meet with a consultant to students who do not meet with a consultant; understand student experience of meeting with an academic consultant; what are the values and influences of academic consultations from their perceptive, beyond university metrics?) (proposed)

Notable Changes

• Program Updates:
  • The ASC was charged with owning the Academic Case Manager (ACM) project for Fall 2022 and has the capability of restarting the outreach program for future needs.
  • On August 5, 2022, the Board of Trustees approved the renaming of the Academic Success Center in honor of co-founder Helen Bass Williams. The ASC celebrated this renaming dedication and our 50th anniversary on Sept. 23, 2022. In addition to the renaming, the ASC also added a page on the website to help raise awareness of Helen Bass Williams and her impact at Purdue and beyond.
  • Test Drive returned as an offering for 6 courses that resumed evening exams in Elliott Hall of Music.
  • Workshop offerings were expanded and included Student Office Ambassador-led sessions
  • The Level Up Workshop Series was implemented again in Fall 2022 and Spring 2023. Level Up is a 4-part workshop series that engages students in self-reflection, addresses previous academic challenges, and develops a plan to move forward. This series is recommended for students on academic grade probation or students looking to overcome academic setbacks.
  • Accountability groups were expanded and Student Office Ambassadors became the primary group facilitators
• Partnerships:
  • Onboarding New Student Efforts: The ASC collaborated with the Orientation office to redevelop and facilitate new Academic Success sessions during Boiler Gold Rush (fall beginners), Boiler Gold Rush-International, and Boiler Cold Rush (spring beginners). The collaboration has also expanded into the First Year Success Project including the next iteration of Learning at Purdue (self-paced modules on study skills) and a first-semester weekly messaging campaign.
  • Academic Probation Support: The ASC staff continued to work with campus partners in Teaching and Learning and the Office of the Dean of Students on the outreach effort to students who are on academic probation for the first or second semester. Each week, students received a message about a success tip based on research and quotes from students who have previously been on academic probation and returned to good standing. Additionally, the working group utilized assessment data from the outreach effort to continue the campus conversation around the experience of students on academic probation. The working group successfully proposed a language change to the official university policy; starting in Fall 2023, the terms “academic notice” and “academic separation” replaced the previously used terms of “academic probation” and “dropped for scholastic deficiency,” respectively.
• Staffing:
  • With the departure of a program coordinator for the SI program in February 2023, the ASC restructured the program coordinator positions to have more autonomous responsibilities: 1 Last updated: November 30, 2023 for workshops and outreach; 1 for Supplemental Instruction; and 1 for logistics and consultations.
  • A new program coordinator was hired for the restructured position and began in June 2023, but then shifted into the program coordinator for SI role after another staff transition in early August 2023.
  • Two graduate assistants (GAs) returned from the 2022-2023 academic year, and three new GAs joined the team in August 2023.
• Changes in the 2023-24 Academic Year
  • The Student Office Ambassador (SOA) role expanded so that all SOAs facilitate an accountability group.
  • The ASC team continued a new senior leader training before the start of the fall semester training to bring together the senior leaders for each student leader group. The leaders are now divided into small, cross-position groups to plan social events for all ASC student leaders each semester.
  • Purdue in Indianapolis: The ASC staff have continued conversations with current IUPUI colleagues and newly established Teaching and Learning staff to make plans for academic support in Fall 2024 for Purdue Indianapolis students. The ASC has proposed and requested support to begin establishing a SI program during Spring 2024 to be prepared for the academic launch in Fall 2024.

Our Data

For a full picture of our data from the 2021-22 academic year, please view or download our Full Annual Report by clicking the button below.

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