The research and innovative practice of the College Student Success Innovation Centre (CSSIC) at Mohawk College has recently been highlighted in two national higher education publications.
In May 2019, David Waddington*, a current Co-Operative Education Specialist at Mohawk College, published an article comparing how a predictive model and college faculty identify at-risk students. College Quarterly is an academic, peer-reviewed journal dedicated to publishing research that supports the common needs of college educators and the higher education community worldwide.
In his article, “Proactive Advising for At-Risk Students: Comparing a Predictive Model to Faculty Identification,” Waddington uses data from a foundational CSSIC study about predictive models written in partnership with researchers from the Education Policy Research Initiative (EPRI) in 2017. Waddington found that, “a faculty member’s ability to identify at-risk students aligns well with what the predictive model suggests.” This finding confirms the ability and importance of faculty identifying students who may need additional support, and connecting them to those resources on campus.
In July 2019, Dr. Michelle Turan**, a Professor in Health Studies and a Student Success Research Fellow, recently had her article about faculty and student services collaborations featured in the Student Affairs Exchange (SA-Exchange). The SA-Exchange features articles and discussions to support and nurture Canadian Student Affairs scholarship and practice.
In her article, “A View from the Other Side,” Dr. Turan offers important observations about the value of student affairs work and the benefit of collaboration with academic faculty, represented by the CSSIC’s, “continued effort to bridge gaps between academic departments and student services.”
Fostering richer collaborations across campus is core to the work of CSSIC. Dr. Turan highlights this point through her experiences as a faculty member, and Waddington’s article provides real data about how faculty and advisors can work together to proactively support student success.
* Waddington, who has worked in post-secondary education in a variety of capacities since 2007, holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, and recently completed his Masters of Education in Postsecondary Studies. Waddington has been a key partner in the student success work and research of the CSSIC through his various roles at the college.
** Dr. Turan, a Board Certified Behaviour Analyst with a PhD in Education, has been teaching graduate coursework in Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) for over 12 years at Mohawk College. As a published researcher in the field of autism and ABA, Michelle joined Mohawk’s CSSIC in September 2018 as a Student Success Research Fellow, a new, non-teaching faculty role created to support the Centre both operationally and from a research perspective. Dr. Turan provides expert research support and consultation to the Centre team and its partner institutions.