Memo

Probation Outreach Program

Rose A. Wedemeyer
For more than twelve years, the Academic Skills Center (ASC) at Oakland
University has been responsible for
administering the academic probation and dismissal policy of the university. The ASC serves students on
academic probation and in dismissal
option status through the Probation
Outreach and Dismissal Option Status
programs. Several initiatives involving technology have been developed
and implemented in an effort to improve the efficiency of these programs
through increased communication
with students. Implementation of these
initiatives, which are described here,
was instituted at minimal cost ($100)
to the ASC.
Probation Outreach Program Expectations. First, students were encouraged to review a PDF file describing the
Probation Outreach Program Expectations. Then text-to-movie versions of
the expectations were made available
for students to view.
Contract for Educational Progress. In previous years, students were
required to complete a contract in the
ASC lobby upon arriving for their initial
appointment. Now students can access a
Microsoft Word version of the updated
Contract via the Probation Outreach eportfolio site. Recently the form was
modified using Adobe Acrobat Pro software. Students have pronounced this
version of the form more user friendly
than the Microsoft Word version. Some
1,600 contracts are completed and uploaded to the site each year.
Tutorial. A six-item tutorial was
developed for the e-portfolio site. This

10

tutorial provides an overview of the academic probation and dismissal policy

and Probation Outreach Program requirements. Approximately 1,200 tutorials are completed annually.
Item analysis indicates that students on academic probation are
aware of the minimum cumulative
GPA required to return to good academic standing, but are not aware
that their participation in the Probation Outreach Program is mandatory
(1625% of responses to this item are
incorrect compared with 38% incorrect responses on most other items).
Academic Probation Hold Removal. To meet the needs of the large
number of students on academic probation, ASC staff developed an online
hold removal request option. Students
who complete the tutorial, upload a
contract, and review the expectations
have the opportunity to submit an online request to have an academic probation hold temporarily removed for
registration. Some 940 online hold removal requests are processed by ASC
staff annually.
Probation Outreach Program. Students on academic probation who meet
the terms and conditions of the Probation Outreach Program consistently
outperform students on academic probation who do not. The 626 students
who met with ASC staff members during last years fall and winter semesters ended the year with an average
cumulative grade point average (GPA)
of 1.85. When compared with these
students beginning-of-term average
cumulative GPA (1.45), this represents

a .40 increase. The 345 students who

did not meet with ASC staff members
ended the year with an average cumulative GPA of 1.53. These students
began the fall and winter terms with
an average cumulative GPA of 1.44.
These findings suggest that Oaklands
attempts to increase communications
with students using technology are on
the way to achieving their goals.

Rose A. Wedemeyer is a graduate

assistant for the social work program
at Oakland University in Rochester,
Michigan.

Assessment Update MarchApril 2012 Volume 24, Number 2 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. doi:10.1002/au

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