Strategic Direction 2: Enable Success and Skills for the Future
Pittsburgh Technical College will increase student success by cultivating a caring and engaging learning environment that incorporates comprehensive student support systems to seamlessly improve enrollment, persistence, retention, and completion.
SD #2 Work Group
*Co-Chairs
Deb Barnhart
Chuck Eltringham
Nancy Feather*
Shawn Fellner
Monique McMillan
Andrea Schrenk*
The PTC student body is over 60% PELL eligible and
includes underserved students who will
benefit from innovative and inclusive success strategies
that support professional and personal growth.
OBJECTIVE 1
Develop a comprehensive student support model and systems to enhance student learning and success. Incorporate early alerts, micro-nudging, tutoring, and academic and social integration systems to support College connections.
Strategies
- Support faculty to embrace innovative teaching strategies that streamline time to completion for students, and to utilize education technologies that make the delivery of instruction and classroom management more effective and efficient.
- Support faculty and staff innovation to improve equitable student success and pedagogical innovation and practices.
- Provide innovative, data-driven teaching methodologies. Support professional development with resources for faculty to evaluate and share instructional best practices of systematic research and evaluation of student success, retention, persistence, and equity.
- Hire, train, and sustain a highly motivated, talented, knowledgeable, and diverse workforce recognized for teaching and service excellence to ensure rigor and high levels of student success.
- Reimagine advising and support services to deliver them at scale through centralization efforts.
OBJECTIVE 2
Establish a comprehensive academic advising model that supports academic excellence and is led by academic chairs.
Strategies
- Implement a comprehensive, customized Student Education Plan (SEP) to support success.
- Incorporate micro-nudging during identified critical points for students through email blasts, text messaging, and the communication center.
- Institute a tiered approach to academic support that includes supplemental instruction, peer-led study groups, and peer tutoring.
- Expand efforts to provide stackable credentials and embed certifications into certificate and degree programs.
- Develop a strategic approach to address academic and economic inequities without stigmatizing students through summer bridge and boot camps, mentoring, and engaging families.
OBJECTIVE 3
Identify and remove institutional obstacles to success and implement core strategies
to foster a success-oriented mindset and sense of belonging.
Strategies
- Implement a comprehensive financial aid literacy and wellness program to address institutional default rates.
- Remain current in technological trends and practices and upgrade technology related to financial aid and enrollment to significantly reduce the need for students to engage in in-person enrollment processes.
- Conduct a Finance and Student Financial Aid Business Process Review to further improve efficiencies.
- Create facilities that optimize learning, leverage technology and enhance the student experience beyond the classroom, including providing adequate space for student engagement, student life, and student clubs and activities.
- Develop facilities that inspire pride of ownership, build community among stakeholders, support a commitment to health and wellness, ensures equitable access to underserved populations, persons with disabilities and physical challenges, and exceed standards for sustainability and environmental stewardship.
OBJECTIVE 4
Expand partnerships with community organizations to increase job skills
and education for community members.
Strategies
- Expand workplace learning beyond internships to include work experience opportunities such as apprenticeships.
- Integrate multimodal communication skills, data analytics, and other 21st century competencies and certifications into degree pathways.
- Produce great curricular coherence by working with departments to ensure that courses are integrated and synergistic.
- Strategically align curriculum with state and regional business and industry needs to better support economic development and reduce unemployment and underemployment.
- Promote Pittsburgh Technical College’s work-based learning, career services, and high in-field placement rate as a central driver for attendance.
OBJECTIVE 5
Invest in technology and software to improve technology infrastructure to provide seamless interface of all operations and automation of services.
Strategies
- Routinely conduct systematic research on students who drop out and actions to address improvements.
- Examine retention and drop rates to focus on strategies for students in disproportionately impacted groups.
- Leverage instructional technologies to facilitate student learning and eliminate barriers to success regardless of modality, including: low-cost or no-cost course materials and textbooks, universal design, student engagement, and quality course design.
- Continue to enhance security and risk management efforts to improve institutional response to cyber-attacks.
- Expand effectiveness of online infrastructure and virtual support for online and hybrid education.
