May 12, 2014 | SharkAdmin Northwest Vista College has been working on improving degree completion rates for the last four years and the efforts are helping as more students are obtaining their associate degree or certificate. From the 2012 to 2013 academic year, there was a 9.2 percent increase in degrees awarded. Alamo Colleges' recent district-wide effort to increase completion is helping different college departments improve their measures in order to track degree completion initiatives. In February, the NVC Public Relations team conducted a survey to measure students’ knowledge about degree completion before conducting a new communication campaign. “The results of the survey revealed that students understand the third and fourth steps in degree completion, which are to follow a degree plan and to apply for graduation,” said Renata Serafin, director of NVC Public Relations. “However, the survey results also showed that students are not completely clear about the first and second steps to completion, which is to meet with an advisor and choose a major.” The Public Relations team collaborated with the Graduation team to improve student communication about the steps to completion. For the past two months, an updated communication campaign included messages on steps to completion. The messages were deployed on computer screen backgrounds in classrooms and in computer labs, on teleVISTA (digital signage on hallway televisions) and Web billboards. One of the webpages on the GetYourDegreeAtNVC.com website was revised to include “Things to Remember,” a page that contains more detailed steps to completion as well as information that may be hard to explain on a short billboard such as what happens when the requirements change for a degree. For the past month, students have also received weekly emails as well as social media posts on NVC's Facebook and Twitter pages, which provide links to the “Things to Remember” webpage to help students find the needed information. NVC’s Sr. Coordinator of Degree Completion, Roque Heredia, says “Getting students to complete and graduate is everyone’s job, and we’re counting on faculty and staff to further reiterate to students the steps to completion, deadlines and financial savings and the benefits to earning a degree or certificate before transferring to a university.”
