Cindy Rote EDUC 804 Assignment 3A by Cindy

Current academic issues impacting student-athletes.

crote6 — 2014-11-10 21:51:34 UTC

The University of North Carolina academic scandal news story concerning student-athletes is not of surprise to anyone who works in athletics. Priorities at major institutions are not always academic driven for SA in high profile sports.
Many at-risk SAs are recruited and admitted to major Universities based on their athletics skills.
Many SAs restricted on what they can and cannot do academically at their University due to practice schedules and athletics demands.
Many athletic departments invest in academic support services to assist at-risk SA.
Universities need to evaluate the student-athlete academic support services to determine if the academic needs of the SA are being met and if the priorities are academics.

Important details about the program that I am focusing on.

crote6 — 2014-11-10 21:51:34 UTC

Perceptions of students and staff may differ on what is needed or of value in preparing for the first semester at UHM.
The UHM SAAS SBP is more of a transition program for SA to assimilate onto campus, it does not focus on remedial subjects such as math.
From a SA perspective, what may be needed to strengthen the program?
How do SAs feel the SBP program assists them in becoming prepared for their first semester?
How and why do the they feel they way they do about the SBP?
In what ways can the SBP be improved to meet the needs of the SA from their perspective rather than the perspective of faculty and staff?
How can the data be used to provide athletics administration the information to allow academic more autonomy in planning a SBP tailored toward the specific needs of the SA without influencing athletic factors such as practice times?

Brief introduction

crote6 — 2014-11-10 21:51:34 UTC

The Student-Athlete Academic Services (SAAS) at the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM) provides a summer bridge program (SBP) designed specifically for recruited incoming student-athletes who have been identified as academically at-risk and underprepared.
The program is an intensive highly structured 6-week academic readiness and transitional program that includes two academic courses, daily meetings, tutor sessions and athletically related activities such as summer practices.
The current program is designed around the needs of the coaches and is not geared towards academic and transitional needs of SA.

Feedback from Matt Baltz

baltzm — 2014-11-10 21:51:34 UTC

Nice job here Cindy! I like the background you have chosen and the overall layout and organization of your Padlet wall. I am also very intrigued by your topic and find it to be quite interesting. I have two brothers who are collegiate baseball coaches, and I am a football coach, so this is a topic that certainly resonates with me.

Do you believe that responses and experiences could differ depending upon the athletic program, and its specific demands? If so, you would you be collecting demographic information on the respondents?

A couple other notes:

-In your purpose of the program section, "prepared" should read "prepare".

-You may want to look at your wording of points in the evaluation purpose section.

-Have you considered using a a few likert scale questions on the survey for some basic data on preparedness and then you could include some of your more qualitative open-ended questions as well? I know you voiced some concerns about survey use, but it may be a way to collect some basic ideas from SA's.

Overall, I am really interested in your evaluation. I think you are off to a great start and certainly are demonstrating a level of self-awareness regarding your areas of comfort, concerns, and interest. Great job and continued good luck!

Andrea's comments

2014-11-10 21:51:34 UTC

Good morning, Cindy, your padlet looks great. It's clearly oraganized and pleasing to the eye. The audio explanation is well spoken and understood. My one recommendation would be to go back through some of your posts and bullet them out so they ready more like bullet points rather than paragraphs. Otherwise, great job!!

University of Hawaii Student-Athlete Academic Services Summer Bridge Program

crote6 — 2014-11-10 21:51:34 UTC

Brief Narrative of SBP evaluation plan

crote6 — 2014-11-10 21:51:34 UTC

Logic Model

crote6 — 2014-11-10 21:51:34 UTC

Data Collection and Analysis

crote6 — 2014-11-10 21:51:34 UTC

Qualitative data collection using a case study design.
Small focus groups of 8-9 students, individual interviews and a short online survey with two open ended questions. tilize voice recordings, notes and memos.
SA may not be familiar with surveys and response rate with open ended questions may be limited. Intention of focus groups and interviews are to ensure descriptive data of SA perceptions is collected.
Data will be transcribed and organized with a chart by themes prior to coding. Looking for similarities, differences, patterns.
Considering using a sample focus group after transcribing to ensure data accurately reflect how SA responded.
As transcribing, answer the question, "What are the students saying that answer my questions?” . e-read and re-listen multiple times.

Sample questions

crote6 — 2014-11-10 21:51:34 UTC

Concerns about my plan?

crote6 — 2014-11-10 21:51:34 UTC

I have concerns with my key questions. I tried to keep the question general as possible due to my audience. The main goal is to get meaningful response from the SA to improve the program from their view considering their needs. The SAs are a unique student group with additional demands of participating on a sports team. In addition to participating in the SBP the SA are required to attend an
informal "voluntary" team practice and participate in conditioning,
which accounts for a minimum of three to four hours. Some incoming SAs are required
to participate in local summer leagues late at night. To better understand
the needs of the entering SA descriptive qualitative feedback is
needed.

For data collection, should I have all the questions asked during the focus group? Is it worth having the online survey? I was also considering having the same focus group answer the same questions at the completion of their first semester. The academic advisers and coaches have full control of the SA and participation and completion rates
are not a concern. Time will be scheduled during regularly schedule team study
session to complete the evaluation if I were to add a data collection component
at the end of the first semester. The reason for adding this component would be
to see how the SA reflects after they have experienced. I left this component
to keep everything as simple as possible to focus.

Purpose of SBP Evaluation

crote6 — 2014-11-10 21:51:34 UTC

The purpose of the SBP evaluation is understand the SA perception of the program to determine what elements they value to redesign and strengthen the program to meet their needs. The focus is getting descriptive feedback from the SA on the program.

Key focus questions for the evaluation.

crote6 — 2014-11-10 21:51:34 UTC

1) In what ways do student-athletes feel prepared for their first semester at the University of Hawaii after after participating in the summer bridge program?

2) In what ways could the summer bridge program be improved to assist student-athlete during their first semester at the University of Hawaii?

Purpose of SBP program

crote6 — 2014-11-10 21:51:34 UTC

The purpose of the program is to prepare at risk student-athletes for their first semester at UHM.

Cindy Rote

crote6 — 2014-11-10 21:51:34 UTC

Assignment 3A