3.8 Stay on the Path
The third pillar of GP is to help students stay on their pathway.
Once students have committed to a program of study, we want them to:
- Make informed decisions about how to move forward
- Know what will slow them down
- Be able to take the courses they need to complete on time
Two Key Aspects
Staying on the pathway means tracking student progress and checking in with them if they go off course. It also means scheduling classes in a way that is supportive of the student.
Tracking Progress and Providing Just‑In‑Time Support
Tracking Student Progress Is Key: For students to receive the full benefit of program maps, we need to track their progress along the way and check in with them if they go off-course. While some students may want to explore other areas, they should understand the costs in both time and money that result from deviating off their selected path.
Both Students and Counselors Benefit: Unfortunately, students who are most in need of advising are often the least likely to seek it out. Enabling counselors to easily identify these students is an essential step toward helping them succeed and creating structures that work from a student perspective.
Scheduling Courses with Student Needs in Mind
Course Scheduling Challenges: Many colleges struggle to schedule classes in such a way that students can enroll in the ones they want without having classes cancelled because of low registration. Students can struggle to complete their programs because required courses often conflict with other responsibilities, such as work and family. These are parallel problems, and GP can help with both.
Data Driven Course Scheduling: When students are in a clearly-mapped program and the college knows where they are on those pathways, the college can utilize that information to schedule courses more effectively. This helps colleges to ensure that students can take classes necessary to graduate and avoid classes that must be cancelled because of low enrollment.
Scheduling Strategies: Other scheduling strategies that align with the commitment to always design and decide with the student in mind include:
- Scheduling classes at optimal times for students, which might mean increasing the number of night courses
- Grouping students into cohorts to encourage the development of learning communities
- Offering courses within the same pathway into blocks, helping students to easily balance school, work and family responsibilities
Page text and graphics adapted from An Introduction to Guided Pathways, available on the Vision Resource Center Links to an external site., by the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office Links to an external site.