Research Poster Symposium
Staff Summaries

Assessing Mentoring Culture and Aligning It with Strategic Innovation
Barton, D. and Lari, P. Business Administration
Business and Public Services Technologies
Instructional Design and Development eLearning Support and Instructional Design

Mentoring culture serves as a foundation to support innovation and the sustainability of the organization. For the purposes of this research, a mentoring culture assessment instrument composed of fifty questions and a 5-point Likert scale ranging from always to don’t know was administered via SurveyMonkey® to college employees, including adjuncts. Using mentoring culture, organizational culture, and innovation theories as the lens, results show that a large percent of the college’s employees are not aware of the current mentoring initiatives across the college, yet the mentoring programs in place received high ratings. The results reflect that while mentoring is valued, there is not the clear alignment with strategic goals, leadership development, and infrastructure required create a mentoring culture supporting strategic innovation. A more congruent approach to mentoring would allow more employees to be involved in and benefit from mentoring.

New Methods for Determining the Bachelor's Completion Rates of Our Students
Bartek, C., Sumithran, S., Wang, K., and Workineh, Y.
College Initiatives and Assessment
Effectiveness and Innovation

The credential completion rates for students, and the extent to which they transfer and complete bachelor’s degrees at four-year institutions, are important measures of educational effectiveness at both two-year and four-year colleges (Jenkins and Fink, 2016). For this research, the authors demonstrate how Wake Tech tested, applied and customized these methods using National Student Clearinghouse data to determine the bachelor’s completion rates of our transfer students and to identify our top and lowest performing transfer partners. This information is being used to develop strategy as part of our SPARK! strategic planning process.

The Impact of Employing the Terry O'Banion Advising Model on Persistence, Success, and Satisfaction with Advising for Pre-Nursing Students at a Large North Carolina Community College
Blackwell, C.
Curriculum Support
Curriculum Education Services

The purpose of this mixed-methods research study was to determine the impact of mandatory developmental academic advising on the persistence, successful course completion, and grade point average of pre-nursing students at a large-sized urban community college within the North Carolina Community College System. With data obtained through student interviews, the study was also designed to describe the impact of the affective experiences of pre-nursing students who were advised in accordance with a developmental advising model. The t-test and chi square test were used to analyze the quantitative data. Interviews with students provided responses reflected in the themes identified in the qualitative analysis. Implications for practice and recommendations are conferred.

First in the World COMPASS Project: Increasing Success and Retention for Students of Color
Evans, S. and Shahid-El, L.
Strategic Innovations
Effectiveness and Innovation

Wake Tech’s First in the World Grant initiative, Project COMPASS, was designed to improve the retention and success rates of students in online courses. COMPASS, an acronym for “Constructing an Online Model to Promote At-Risk Student Success,” is particularly interested in improving outcomes for students of color. As a part of Wake Tech’s innovative intervention, Project COMPASS instructors have employed “high-tech” tools and “high-touch” course redesign strategies that enhance the student experience and increase teaching, social and cognitive presence in the online environment. Results from this 4-year study indicate improvement in withdrawal rates and an increase in student success rates for all students, with greater improvements for students of color.

Wake Technical Community College Teaching and Learning Certification
Kalbaugh, L., McNary, J., Powell, C., Jones, M., Osborne, C., Harrell, L., Langton, R., Greene, T., and Blount, B.

(TALA) Teaching and Learning Academy (Committee) Academic Success and Transition Resources. TALA is a team effort to create a comprehensive series of PD courses that would provide faculty with a baseline of knowledge in areas critical to student success, persistence and completion through faculty excellence. Our poster will provide knowledge and advertisement for this new structured training program for our traditional classes. It is our belief that better teaching = better student outcomes.

Using Applied Benchmarking to Jump START (STEM Academic Research and Training) Student's Careers
Knox, R. and Swanik, J.
Mathematics, Sciences and Engineering

The Applied Benchmarking process was used to begin an undergraduate research program in the Mathematics, Sciences and Engineering Division. The program, now in its third year, consists of 22 students, 10 faculty mentors, a steering committee, and an internship program. The criteria for internship status includes 20 hours of work throughout the semester, communication of the semester’s work either in oral or written format, and a mentor’s feedback on student performance. Projects are faculty-mentored and range in topics from using drunk fruit flies to investigate alcoholism to exploring how campus changes effect the ecosystem to 3D printing and exploring algae to make biofuels to discovering antibiotic-resistance bacteria in the environment.

An EPIC Journey
Smith, J., Sumithran, S., Popp, J., Bartek, C., and Madsen, R.
College Initiatives and Assessment
Effectiveness and Innovation

In 2014, Wake Technical Community College launched EPIC (eLearning Preparedness Initiative across the College), a Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) based on best practices in eLearning. Online students are a significant portion of Wake Tech’s student population and Wake Tech offers more online classes than any other community college in North Carolina. However, student performance in those classes has lagged behind that in traditional classes by about 5% on average. The disparity is particularly evident in high-demand, “gateway” courses, and student surveys confirm that many lack the skills they need to do well in an online environment. For this poster, the researchers share findings from the Department of College Initiatives and Assessment’s research on EPIC Priority Online course success rates.