Northcentral University

As you all know, NCU employs a one-to-one teaching model. One thing that makes this model effective is meeting students where they are, determining what each student needs in order to be successful, and implementing strategies and approaches to assist students in achieving their goals. No single approach or strategy will be effective with all students, because each student has unique needs. This makes it important to have a variety of "tools" you can use with students. Whether you are trying to assist a student you have identified as at-risk (as Lisa spoke to) or working with doctoral students to further develop their skills (as Mark spoke to), trying out different approaches is critical. Thanks to Mark and Lisa for their strategies! Do you have a teaching approach, strategy, or suggestion you think others would find useful? Please share! You can send your ideas to me (mmull@ncu.edu) and I would be happy to include them in an upcoming faculty newsletter. Thanks! Mindi Mull, PhD Associate Director of Faculty Support and Development, SSBS student multiple times; however, they don't appear to be embracing my message or incorporating my feedback. At this time, I encourage them to set up a phone or Skype call to chat with me about the course, their progress, and/or tools, resources, or support services they may find useful. Sadly, I've had only limited success with this approach as I've found few at-risk students willing to participate in synchronous meetings. • Submission of an At-Risk Notification – If a student's performance/timeliness does not improve and I fail to hear back from them after multiple attempts at communication, then I submit a formal At-Risk Notification available via the University Services Module. • Reaching out to the student's AFA – If the student's performance/timeliness still does not improve, then I may reach out to their AFA for additional support or assistance. I have had several students become more communicative with me following a call (or even just a voicemail) from an AFA. Of the many resources and technologies that we have at our disposal, I've found that reaching out to AFAs has been one of the greatest advantages in helping struggling students succeed. Specifically, I've begun to better understand the importance of partnering with AFAs early in order to help at-risk students stay on track (e.g., copying AFAs on emails, requesting AFA input). I admit that in the past I didn't completely understand the extent of the AFA role. Now that I interact with our AFA partners more often I see just how pivotal their role is in helping our students. In fact, I've spoken with a few AFAs regarding this very issue and they shared their appreciation for being involved early in faculty communication with at-risk students. In addition, I was surprised to learn that the move to NCUOne has impacted AFA access to student course rooms and thus including AFAs on student communication is an effective way to provide them with essential information. In sum, thank you for taking the time to review some of the strategies I use to help keep track of and assist at-risk students. At NCU we really have the opportunity to leverage our one-to-one connection with students to help them succeed. I hope this discussion is useful in considering additional ways to help students who are struggling to turn things around to meet their educational goals. address one or two of these areas, we can change the way we feel, thereby allowing ourselves to be more effective as mentors to those we teach. This holds true with the psychological, social, and spiritual domains in our lives as well; pick one as a place to begin. I am not much on "resolutions" but I am all about controlling what I can, which is usually myself. Let's review our decisions to assess and invest in ourselves, so we can be more invested in those we teach. If there is any way I can assist you in this process, please do not hesitate to contact me. Cheers! References Ghaemi, S. (2009). The rise and fall of the biopsychosocial model. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 195(1), 3-4. Wicks, R. (2008). The resilient clinician. Oxford University Press, New York, NY.

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