Student Success – Oriented Needs Analysis Framework: A Pilot Study

Student success research in higher education has provided an immense understanding of those factors that explain why students decide to leave, and to some extent, why students persist on to graduation. However, few studies have leveraged student success research to identify an inventory of needs that should be met in order for students to succeed in college. This paper leverages a collection of influential student success theoretical perspectives to develop a needs analysis framework to elicit and identify engineering student success needs. The framework provides a structured participatory method to translate vague student needs into actionable statements that holistically capture the needs of engineering students. The results of a pilot study are presented to demonstrate the applicability of this framework. I. Motivation For over 70 years, researchers have been attempting to unravel the complexities associated with enhancing student success in higher education 1 . Student success research has resulted in a better understanding of why some students decide to leave, and to some extent, why students decide to persist on to graduation. In spite of all the research that has been conducted, little work has been devoted to translating the various theoretical findings into specific strategies that will guide institutions in improving student success outcomes 2, 3 . This paper is a part of a larger research effort to develop a Student Success-Oriented System Design (S 2 OSD pronounced “SAWS-D”) methodology, which will integrate student success research with a growing body of knowledge on customer-oriented systems approaches in order to address the following pressing need: How can institutional leaders in higher education translate the needs of their students into actionable solutions that will foster student success? In order to provide a concrete course of action for institutional leaders to design practices that meaningfully facilitate student success, institutional leaders must first have an understanding of the needs of their students. Therefore, this paper presents a framework that describes the development and the results of a pilot study to test the Student Success-Oriented Needs Analysis (S 2 ONA pronounced “SAWNA”) framework. Specifically, this paper will provide: ≠ a framework that is guided by student success theoretical perspectives; ≠ a participatory method to elicit, identify, and document student success needs; ≠ a mapping process to develop precise need statements that holistically capture a comprehensive set of engineering student needs of students; and a ≠ questionnaire to evaluate the SONA framework II. Student Success Theoretical Perspectives The S 2 ONA framework (within the S 2 OSD methodology) is motivated by a collection of student success theoretical perspectives. A cursory review of the most comprehensive and influential theoretical perspectives is presented in Table 1 to provide an understanding of those factors associated with student success. P ge 15122.2 Table 1: Relevant Student Success Theoretical Perspectives Perspective Theory Purpose The Sociological Perspective Student Integration Model 4 Students’ decisions to persist or to drop out are based on their integration into the formal and informal academic and social systems of the institution. The Organizational Perspective Student Attrition Model 5 Concentrates on the impact that the institution (i.e., organization) has on the socialization and satisfaction of students. The Psychological Perspective Student Attrition Model 6 Focuses on the role of psychological characteristics that distinguish between those students who persist and those who drop out. The Financial Perspective Financial Nexus Model 7 Highlights the role that finances play in persistence decisions. The Minority Perspective Student/Institution Engagement Model 8 Emphasizes the unique challenges that diminish the quality of the minority student college experience.