The Virtual College has an established plan for improving student retention.  There are two types of retention:

1. Student Enrollment
2. Student Success

Enrollment retention measures whether students were withdrawn or remained in courses to earn grades.  Student success retention measures how well students complete courses.  The goal of the Virtual College is to have students not only remain in VC courses but to achieve grades of "C" or better.

The Virtual College Retention Plan addresses both enrollment and student success.  Faculty activities that are required or recommended to occur to increase student enrollment and success retention are listed on the Virtual College Retention Faculty Check Sheet that will be available in the Faculty Lounge under Forms.

These activities provide support for the following functions:

• Promote the Virtual College program and the courses
• Provide timely and accurate information to students
• Prepare courses in advance for teaching
• Get students through the "Virtual Door" and into the online courses
• Build a learning community to keep and support students in a course
• Facilitate ongoing effective communication with and among students
• Provide effective instruction that supports student mastery of the course's learning objectives
• Give timely feedback to students on their participation, work, and overall progress in meeting the course's learning objectives
• Monitor student participation, progress, and enrollment
• Manage course and students
• Evaluate instructor, course, and Virtual College program
• Use evaluation feedback to revise and improve courses, instructional strategies, and the Virtual College program

Check points for progress should be established on your calendar to make sure everyone is caught up or at least has the help they need.   There are many ways to facilitate check points.  The first check point in a VC course should be when the instructor checks for 'No Shows" and tries to reach the students that have not shown up for class yet.  This is the most critical check point for student enrollment retention. 

Besides the initial critical check point conducted at the beginning of a Virtual College course, plan to have the following additional check points for monitoring and facilitating student success retention: