Student Success

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

SINQ Curriculum Redesign

Program Status: Implementation

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.
  • Created training materials, guidelines, FAQ's, and templates to support onboarding incoming faculty to the online SINQ mentor workshops
  • UNST hosted a faculty feedback forum to better understand the needs of students and faculty and the essential role of mentors.

In Progress

  • Working with OAI to move the curricular learning resources to a more accessible hosting platform
  • Developing a communication plan for faculty so they know where to access materials and how to use them
  • Researching auxiliary tools that can support students in the absence of mentors.
  • Reviewing the transferable parts of the online mentor curriculum to ensure they are accessible and preserved.
  • Developing a sustainability plan to ensure materials are updated if needed

Project Health

  • Changes to PSU internal structures or course offerings could impact the project.
  • Project team needs to consider work capacity for a project that may have a limited shelf life
  • Inadequate or inconsistent staffing can impact the communication and sustainability of materials

Project Team

Executive Sponsor: VPSS
Project Sponsor: Andrea Garrity and Lindsey Wilkinson
Leads: Lindsey Wilkinson and Meredith Michaud 
Project Manager: Pamela Bock
Project Review Team: Meredith Michaud, Sarah Dougher, Misty Hamideh, Lindsey Wilkinson (Ad Hoc)
Online Mentor Curriculum Development Team: Dana Lundell, Daneen Bergland, Rowanna Carpenter, Meredith Michaud, Nicole Browning, Sarah Dougher (Ad Hoc), Misty Hamideh, 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