The Walter E. Dennis Learning Center of the College of Education (School of Educational Policy & Leadership) at The Ohio State University continues to improve and expand its services to provide learning and motivational support to students. Highlights include:

The EPL 259 course

· EPL 259

o This is a five-credit elective study skills course, called Individual Learning and Motivation: Strategies for Success in College. The course is taught in both a blended format and in a distance format. In the blended format, the course material is online; however, students attend class in the computer lab of the Dennis Learning Center twice a week and have an instructor. In the distance section, the entire course is delivered online.
o In 2004-05, 1,167 students took the course. This reflects a steadily increasing enrollment rate; when we started the course in 2000-01, there were 225 students.
o Demographics

§ 54% percent of EPL 259 students were male; 46% female.
§ Minority students comprised 37% of EPL 259 students. African-Americans represented 24.4% of student enrollment; Asian/Pacific Islander, 6.1%; Hispanic, 2.7%.
§ Freshmen were the largest group to take the course (41%). Sophomores came in second at 25%. Together these two groups accounted for about two-thirds (66%) of the student enrollment. The remaining third of enrollees were juniors, seniors, graduate students, and professional students.

o GPA and Graduation Status results

§ The course had a significant positive impact on the GPAs of students who took the course compared with a matched set of non-course takers, in the quarter subsequent to that in which the course was taken (mean GPA of course takers of 2.6, compared to 2.3 GPA of non-course takers; p = .006).
§ For the first time we conducted an analysis of graduation status, initially of our first-year course takers (2000-01), compared to closely matched controls. We found that a highly significant 5.4% more course takers than controls graduated, BUT only among females. There were no significant differences among males.

o Student comments. Apart from the quantitative impact seen in the GPA results, the course had a noteworthy impact on students in non-quantitative terms. Below are some representative comments made by students in their confidential course evaluations, concerning the impact of the course on their learning patterns, motivation, and self-concept.

§ "I really appreciate the section on procrastination, taking bite sized pieces, and taking responsibility for your own actions. I already catch myself using many of these techniques from these sections. I believe I am becoming a better student and a better person because of it."
§ "I feel that thinking positively is one of the greatest ways to earning success. I think that it is great that this course teaches that the way YOU think determines your outcome."
§ "I feel that the four strategies for achievement were very important and the most useful to me. I may have known them subconsciously but to put them down on paper and in my own words mad them more real and able to use them more."
§ "I think some of the things we learned in the book were actually spirit raisers. It gives you motivation and pride in yourself to get done what you need to get done."
§ "The most important part is that the course touched on so many subjects, even if you don't remember everything, you will still come away knowing yourself better, and how to better your life."

o Upcoming Initiative. In September, the Walter E. Dennis Learning Center is partnering with the Office of Minority Affairs for OMA's Bridge program, which provides incoming freshmen with supplemental preparation for college-level work. Students will participate in an abbreviated version of the EPL 259 study-skills course, tailored to meet their specific needs.

Outreach and Individualized Services

· Altogether, Individualized Services served over 5,780 students in 04-05. Highlights:

o Learning Specialists provided over 175 contact hours with OSU students involving one-on-one academic support.
o Survey Classes

§ Conducted six sessions to introduce OSU freshmen to services at the Younkin Success Center.
§ Served over 200 students.
§ Partnered with Survey courses in USAS, PAES, Engineering, and CIS.
§ Collaborated with Career Connection and Counseling and Consulting Service on the survey classes.

o First-Year Experience Workshops

§ Over 560 students attended the workshops.
§ Ran ten workshops in Creative Note-Taking, Learning Styles, Procrastination, Preparing Papers & Speeches, and The Secrets of Academic Success.

o LMS Outreach Programs-"LMS to Go"

§ Conducted thirty-three LMS workshops on campus.
§ Served over 1,075 students.
§ Conducted programs in a variety of campus venues including residence halls, OUAB Graduate Student Council, the Health Science Scholars Program, Office of International Education, and the PAES study skills course.

Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE) Grant

o Strategies for College Success, an innovative course to help students increase their motivation and learning skills has been used with great success at community colleges, high schools and a middle school over the past two years.
o The successfully-met goals for the second year of the project were: modification of course materials to better fit the target audiences, student increases in GPA and retention rates, and wide dissemination of results that led to the enlistment of new adopters nationwide.
o In 2004-05, six additional community colleges and high schools were added.

§ Currently Participating Middle Schools
· Starling Middle School, Columbus, OH
§ Currently Participating High Schools
· Brookhaven High School, Columbus, OH
· Columbus Alternative High School, Columbus, OH
· Central High School, Kansas City, MO
· Eastmoor Academy, Columbus, OH
· South High School, Columbus, OH
· Africentric Alternative School, Columbus, OH
· JFK High School, Cleveland, OH
· Richmond Heights, Richmond Heights, OH
· Warrensville Heights, Warrensville, OH
· Westerville South High School, Westerville, OH - Fall '05
§ Currently Participating Community Colleges
· Columbus State Community College, Columbus, OH
· Gateway Community College, Covington, KY
· Ivy Tech Community College, Indianapolis, IN
§ Starting Soon: High Schools
· Mifflin High School, Columbus, OH
§ Starting Soon: Community Colleges
· Cuyahoga Community College (Tri C) Cleveland, OH - Spring '05
· Lee College, Baytown, TX - Summer '05
· Lorain County Community College, Elyria, OH - Summer '05
· Tomball College, Tomball TX - Fall '05
· Western Nevada Community College, Carson City, NV - Fall '05
§ Starting Soon: Universities
· John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, NY - Fall '05

Technology

o Thirty-four new student computers were installed
o Fifteen new administrative/instructor computers were acquired and installed
o Asynchronous student forums were upgraded twice
o We moved to new domain name
o We revised our main website
o Our FIPSE project website was built
o Multiple generic versions of Strategies course were produced for different platforms (e.g.WebCT, BlackBoard, Angel)