COMPLIANCE AUDIT REPORTS

Section 3: Comprehensive Standard 3.4.9
The institution provides appropriate academic support services.

Statement of Compliance: Dyersburg State Community College is in compliance with Comprehensive Standard 3.4.9.

Rationale for Judgment of Compliance:

Dyersburg State Community College (DSCC) provides appropriate student academic support services, including academic advisement, tutoring, College 101 (The College Experience: Teamwork), job placement, career counseling, library services, Help Desk for on-line students, testing and assessment services, and student Web services.

Academic Advisement:  DSCC recognizes advisement as a significant factor in determining student success. All students are assigned an advisor when they enroll. Students who declare a major upon enrollment are assigned a faculty member appropriate for this major. In addition to individual faculty advisors, students have the option to be advised at the College’s Advising Center. The Advising Center is open during the summer months, between semesters, the first two weeks of fall and spring semesters and other times as designated by the Director [Ref 1].

Tutoring:  The College offers two opportunities for peer tutoring.

Student Support Services - For more than 20 years, DSCC has received federal funding for a Student Support Services (SSS) Program. This TRIO program provides peer tutoring for up to 185 at-risk college students at the Dyersburg campus and the DSCC Jimmy Naifeh Center. The program includes advising, counseling, and transfer counseling, as well as peer tutoring in academic areas [Ref 2].

Student Success Center - The Student Success Center is another opportunity for students to receive peer tutoring on the Dyersburg campus and the DSCC Jimmy Naifeh Center at Tipton County. At both locations, students have access to this drop-in tutoring center open to any and all students with a need for tutoring. Students at the Gibson County Center have access to tutoring through a desktop link with the Dyersburg campus. The Student Success Center is directed by a full-time faculty member who is responsible for hiring and training peer tutors [Ref 3].

College 101:  College 101 (The College Experience: Teamwork) is a course designed for freshmen and is recommended to all first-time, degree-seeking students [Ref 4]. This course includes learning styles assessment, career planning strategies and study skills development techniques. The results of the learning styles assessment are posted beside a student’s name on class lists found in the student information system. Learning style assessment serves to assist faculty as they develop lesson plans and implement learning strategies.

Job Placement:  Job placement is coordinated by the Counseling Office and the Dean of Business and Technology. Students are offered assistance in resume writing and interviewing techniques. Each year the resumes of graduates are collected, put on a CD, and sent to area businesses, and to members of various advisory committees [Ref 5].

Library Services:  The Learning Resource Center (LRC) offers a full range of support services for students as summarized in the LRC Program Review. These services will be enhanced by the completion of two new LRC facilities. The New Academic Building at the DSCC Jimmy Naifeh Center (JNC) contains a 6,000 square foot LRC. On the Dyersburg campus the 25,000 square foot LRC will be completed in March 2007 [Ref 6]. The facility in Dyersburg is open six days a week, and a member of the professional library staff is on-site at all times during its 60 hours of operation. The LRC at the JNC is open five days a week.

Faculty can request that the LRC provide information about the library’s resources and services as well as three levels of information skills instruction to their classes: basic searching skills, researching skills, and discipline-specific researching skills. Instruction can be tailored to meet the specific needs of a class. The instruction is “hands-on” in the LRC Information Skills Lab. In 2005-2006, 151 classes with 3,247 students participated in the program.

Surveys of information literacy reveal a 15 percent literacy rate for incoming students and a 72 percent literacy rate for students surveyed at the end of the academic year [Ref 7].

All students have access to the library’s online databases through the LRC Information Gateway Web page [Ref 8].

Help Desk:  The LRC operates the DSCC Help Desk, which supports DSCC online students as well as students who enroll in the Regents Online Degree Program through DSCC.

Because the Help Desk is located in the LRC, it also provides assistance to students in on-ground classes who are using the LRC [Ref 9].

Computer Labs:  DSCC has four computer labs at the Dyersburg campus, three computer labs at the JNC, and two at the Gibson County Center for instruction in addition to several smaller departmental computer labs. The LRC Computer Labs function as open computer labs. The LRC’s in Dyersburg and at the JNC provide wireless access. The student-to-computer ratio at DSCC is 4.7 to 1. Results on the Student Satisfaction Survey about the adequacy and accessibility of computers indicate that students are satisfied with DSCC computers and labs [Ref 10].

Student Web Services:  Student Web services presently include the DSCC Web page, while Luminis will be available in fall 2008. Luminis will provide a single point of access for students to the Information Gateway, their email, online and on-ground classes, student information system in the administrative database used by DSCC, and general College information and services.

Testing Services:  Testing services are provided through the Office of Student Services. These services include GED testing, national and residual ACT testing for individuals under 21 years of age, ACT Computerized Placement Assessment & Support System Test (COMPASS) placement testing for students ages 21 and over, Health Education Systems Incorporated (HESI) testing for students wishing to enter the nursing program, Nursing Acceleration Challenge Exam I – Foundations of Nursing testing for LPNs wishing to enter the nursing program, National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) for students that complete the associate degree program in nursing, Psychological Services Bureau Health Occupations Aptitude Exams for students entering and exiting the surgical technology program, and graduate testing for all DSCC graduates.

Evaluation and Effectiveness of Academic Support Services

The LRC Student Satisfaction Survey [Ref 11], Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) [Ref 12], the Student Satisfaction Survey [Ref 13] and the Alumni Survey [Ref 14] indicate that students are satisfied with the academic support services provided by Dyersburg State. 

Authored by Dr. Mary Ann Sellars in coordination with the SACS Leadership Team

Documentation: