Student Success

Two students sitting in the Urban Plaza, talking to each other

SINQ Curriculum Redesign

Program Status: Planning

University Studies and the Office of Student Success collaborated to redesign the online Sophomore Inquiry (SINQ) Mentor Workshop Curriculum, incorporating input from online SINQ faculty and various campus partners.  The project was initiated to address a UNST budget cut for 2025-26. The revised budget necessitated the cut of online mentors by 50 percent, which required a redesign of the online mentor program to have a smaller and more focused role for online mentors, concentrating on student success, career readiness, and writing support. This project was further initiated to address the DFW rates in SINQ classes, particularly for those students who take classes online, as research indicates that students who take online SINQs have higher DFW rates than students who take in-person SINQs. At PSU about 45% of students take an online SINQ. This project supports the NISS recommendation to "Continue to strengthen orientation and entry year courses that explicitly link academic pathways, support services, and career/experiential opportunities."

Accomplished

  • Designed a set curriculum for mentors that meets repeatability and adaptability parameters and incorporates student success initiatives.
  • Embedded career exploration, and research/writing workshops into the mentor curriculum.
  • Collaborated with the working group and OAI to create mentored inquiry workshops in Qualtrics for online students.
  • Collaborated with the working group and OAI to draft Canvas workshops for online students
  • Reviewing the assessment strategies of phase one and the data available to evaluate effectiveness.
  • Hosted a professional development in the fall for faculty and mentors.
  • Created training materials, guidelines, FAQ's, and templates to support onboarding incoming faculty to the online SINQ mentor workshops

In Progress

  • Reviewing the assessment strategies of phase one and the data available to evaluate effectiveness.
  • Considering a sustainability plan, with a focus on how to support SINQ online faculty to continually review their curriculum.
  • Reviewing the maintenance plan for the workshops.
  • Testing the Blueprint functionality in Canvas to streamline workshop implementation for faculty.

Project Health

  • Phase 2 of this project has been paused as the committee considers recommendations from the General Education Task Force.
  • Delays in assigning faculty to some online SINQ classes.
  • Faculty buy-in (Faculty will be  given opportunities to participate and provide feedback)
  • Mentorship staffing-Mentors have limited capacity.
  • GA Labor Contract Compliance
  • Timeline and final recommendations of the General Education Task Force.

Project Team

Executive Sponsor: VPSS
Project Sponsor: Andrea Garrity and Lindsey Wilkinson
Leads: Lindsey Wilkinson and Meredith Michaud 
Project Manager: Pamela Bock
Team: Dana Lundell, Daneen Bergland, Rowanna Carpenter, Meredith Michaud, Katie Johnson (Ad Hoc), Lindsey Wilkinson (Ad Hoc), Greg Flores (Ad Hoc), Dan DeWeese (Ad Hoc)
Collaborators: Ilka Bailey, Shoshana Zeisman-Pereyo, Kim Willson-St. Clair, Taylor Schwab, Misty Hamideh