Strong Student Campaign: Information for Faculty

Support the Strong Student campaign by utilizing the slides that are available for your download and customization (make them better!)

The idea is to use ONE slide each week, projecting it on screen* as students enter class. You won’t be surprised by the slides’ content — it’s all those little tips you might think of but not actually articulate consistently.

*For asynchronous courses, consider including the message, adapting as appropriate, as a part of your weekly overview or announcement.

Slide Themes:

• Attend Class Like You Mean It 
• Plan Your Time
• Take Care of Your Health
• Do the Work (On Time)
• Seek Academic Help
• Deal with Absences Effectively
• Know Your Strengths & Weaknesses
• Make Your Own Community

You can also incorporate Wendy Nielsen’s simple “Be A Strong Student” Canvas page found on Canvas Commons to underscore the message.

Instructors are also invited to extend their participation further and utilize the instructor strategies that we suggest for each theme.

Instructor Strategies, Week by Week

Many college instructors imagine a clear line between high school and college students when they construct their course plan, picturing self-actualized young people who have developed the actions and behaviors that will enable them to succeed. In reality, the journey to maturity is a long one, and perhaps especially so for many students who lived through the pandemic.

Universities have adapted to this reality by building ecosystems of mental, academic, and life support for students. Instructors need to adapt as well by delivering courses that are scaffolded with incentives for behaviors that support learning.

Help students take on the right behaviors. Require and reward these strong activities:

• Take attendance (even if you aren’t planning to count it toward the grade directly.)
• Assign homework regularly — students learn best with manageable, consistent prompts for engagement.
• Require (and evaluate) engagement with readings, viewings, or anything you assign for homework.
• Require attentiveness in class; and, here’s the hard part — react and respond when students are not attentive.
• Use Navigate to identify students who are struggling. There are two reporting periods each semester, and instructors can also enter “alerts” at any time.
• Embrace in-class participation activities that count — quizzes, presentations, in-class writing or problem-solving, group work with worksheet, etc. Make it obvious that class matters, and that it’s a place of active learning.
• Spread out the points — students should start earning points by the second week of class, and they should continue to do every week throughout the semester.
• Make your expectations explicit. For example,
  • If you want laptops closed, say so.
  • If you want phones removed, say so.
  • If you want every student to speak once in a class, say so.
  • If you think students cannot learn in a class if they have not completed the reading, say so.
• Make referrals. Talk to students individually, pointing out concerns you have and referring students to resources.
  • See Student Support Resources for a full list of health services (mental and physical), academic support services, and other “life” support referral options. Briefly, these include:
    • Academic Support: Academic Advising, CAST Tutoring, Center for Writing Excellence, the Disability Resource Center, Navigate, Public Speaking Center, and Research Librarians.
    • Health Support: Counseling & Psychological Services (CAPS), Student Health Center, and the Office of Health Promotion.
    • Student Life Partners: The Dean of Students’ Office, Career Services, Office of Global Engagement and the Office of Student Belonging.
  • Send students to Red Hawk Central for registration, financial, and account hold problems. You don’t have to counsel students directly; rather, send them right to Red Hawk Central where a counselor can guide them in what they need to do
  • When you don’t know whom to contact, but you are concerned about a student and want caring professionals to figure out what to do, submit a student of concern report with the Care Team.