Mind Mapping for Student Retention 

 Challenge 

 One challenge at my institution is the inability to retain and graduate as many students as we 

 believe we should .   We are an open access institution serving students who attend on mainly a   part - time basis ( 79 % ) , the majority of our student population are minoritized students from low   socioeconomic statuses .   In addition , our average student age is 24 years old .   We are a public   two - year institution providing students with the opportunity to complete a small selection of four- year degrees .   Our credential offerings span from post - secondary adult vocational certificates to   baccalaureate degrees .   Our fall - to - fall retention rates have hovered around 53 % over the past   five years .   As a public institution , we are limited by legislation in our state as it relates to   program offerings and the composition of these offerings , the amount of tuition and fees we   may charge students , the amount of dollars we are permitted to maintain on hand to serve   students , and the jurisdiction from which we are to focus on recruiting students . 

 Tool Selection 

 I have chosen the mind mapping tool , which is used as a visual representation of all the data 

 collection that took place throughout the “ what is ” phase .   The mind map was set up as a virtual   gallery to be “ walked through , ” so stakeholders across the college could explore the quantitative   and qualitative data collected .   The format of a virtual gallery was used due to the pandemic , at   our institution we are no longer able to physically congregate .   We chose to represent our data   in a gallery format so each person walking through the gallery would experience a closer   connection to our students and the individuals directly serving them as well as to ensure we had   a common understanding of the problem we were trying to overcome .   These ideas for the   presentation of data and the virtual gallery were informed by the video from lesson three that   Professor Moore discussed in the course . 

 Application 

 Our team identified 25 stakeholders to invite to a gallery walk through , which was hosted on 

 the same day for everyone .   Participants were able to mill through each ’ “ room ” as they wanted   within an hour and a half time period .   Each stakeholder was asked to take notes while   reviewing each artifact because these notes would be used later in our discussion session .   In   the virtual gallery , we had graphs and charts setting the stage with quantitative data related to   three student cohorts , one that started at our college in the fall of 2016 , another in the fall of   2017 , and the final cohort which started in the fall of 2018 .   In addition , we included qualitative   data we were able to collect while working with students , staff , and faculty .   We had a total of   three students provide visual presentations of their experience and depict what impacted their   inability to be retained .   We had an additional seven students provide journal reflections   recounting difficulties they faced and how they managed to stay in college .   Finally , we had   faculty and advisors describe in either words through reflections or pictures through visual   presentations what helps and what hinders them while trying to best serve students and   understand their needs . 

 After the virtual walk through , the 25 stakeholders were asked to take 15 minutes to group 

 their own notes into themes or groupings .   Once each person had an opportunity to organize   their own notes , they were randomly broken into five groups of five , each group was facilitated   by a member of the design team that was facilitating the day .   This person captured the themes   on a shared document so everyone was able to see the clusters of themes the group had   identified .   The facilitator then pushed each of the groups further to try to uncover insights 

 beyond the obvious .   Facilitators were taught to ask so what to dig deeper into the reasoning   behind why these patterns and themes are important and really shine light on what they were   uncovering .   This was quite hard for some of the groups to push beyond the obvious findings   and to stop themselves from focusing on identifying solutions . 

 The use of the mind mapping gallery was definitely beneficial for the entire group to 

 experience , however ; the desire for almost everyone to jump to the solution finding process was   something we will have to continue to work on .   Taking action and moving forward quickly is   deeply engrained in our culture and making sure we take time to really internalize “ what is ”   before we try to move to “ what wows ” is a continued work in progress . 

 Insight 

 The use of the gallery for mind mapping really opened my mind to the need to tell a story 

 through a variety of formats . I tend to be focused on facts rather than emotions , but by hosting a   gallery walk through using a variety of visual formats I was able to help myself and others to   empathetically connect to our users .   In addition , the facilitated smaller group conversations   were beneficial to help push stakeholders beyond stating the obvious while trying to keep   people in the space of what is before jumping to solutions .   Another great insight that surfaced   from this process was the importance of going beyond the “ usual suspects ” for stakeholder   input and feedback .   We have a lot of employees at our institution and frequently the same   people are called upon to engage in discussion , the gallery process allowed us to pull from a   wider variety of areas at the college to uncover and spend time in the “ what is ” portion of the   overall process . 

 Approach 

 The gallery walk through was a great format to help get a broader group of stakeholders on 

 the same page regarding the problem at hand .   We tend to work in siloed approaches to   overcome problems , which leads to duplication of efforts as well as individual areas identifying   different interpretations of the same problem and then moving forward with solutions to the   problem they ’ve individually identified .   I plan on using this format for future problems we   identify while trying to positively impact student success at our college .   As a publicly funded   institution of higher education , we have limited resources and getting as many stakeholders   across the college on the same page in regards to the problem at the onset will benefit both our   institutional culture as well as our use of resources both human and financial and we continue   to innovate and focus on continuous improvement . 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: 
PHONE_NUM: 
STREET_ADDRESS: 
URL_PERSONAL: 
USERNAME: 

### Task: You are a PII (Personal Identity Information) Detection. Given a essays written by students, you have to identify ONLY the following:
NAME_STUDENT - The full or partial name of a student that is not necessarily the author of the essay. This excludes instructors, authors, and other person names.
EMAIL - A student’s email address.
USERNAME - A student's username on any platform.
ID_NUM - A number or sequence of characters that could be used to identify a student, such as a student ID or a social security number.
PHONE_NUM - A phone number associated with a student.
URL_PERSONAL - A URL that might be used to identify a student.
STREET_ADDRESS - A full or partial street address that is associated with the student, such as their home address.
### Input: Mind Mapping for Student Retention 

 Challenge 

 One challenge at my institution is the inability to retain and graduate as many students as we 

 believe we should .   We are an open access institution serving students who attend on mainly a   part - time basis ( 79 % ) , the majority of our student population are minoritized students from low   socioeconomic statuses .   In addition , our average student age is 24 years old .   We are a public   two - year institution providing students with the opportunity to complete a small selection of four- year degrees .   Our credential offerings span from post - secondary adult vocational certificates to   baccalaureate degrees .   Our fall - to - fall retention rates have hovered around 53 % over the past   five years .   As a public institution , we are limited by legislation in our state as it relates to   program offerings and the composition of these offerings , the amount of tuition and fees we   may charge students , the amount of dollars we are permitted to maintain on hand to serve   students , and the jurisdiction from which we are to focus on recruiting students . 

 Tool Selection 

 I have chosen the mind mapping tool , which is used as a visual representation of all the data 

 collection that took place throughout the “ what is ” phase .   The mind map was set up as a virtual   gallery to be “ walked through , ” so stakeholders across the college could explore the quantitative   and qualitative data collected .   The format of a virtual gallery was used due to the pandemic , at   our institution we are no longer able to physically congregate .   We chose to represent our data   in a gallery format so each person walking through the gallery would experience a closer   connection to our students and the individuals directly serving them as well as to ensure we had   a common understanding of the problem we were trying to overcome .   These ideas for the   presentation of data and the virtual gallery were informed by the video from lesson three that   Professor Moore discussed in the course . 

 Application 

 Our team identified 25 stakeholders to invite to a gallery walk through , which was hosted on 

 the same day for everyone .   Participants were able to mill through each ’ “ room ” as they wanted   within an hour and a half time period .   Each stakeholder was asked to take notes while   reviewing each artifact because these notes would be used later in our discussion session .   In   the virtual gallery , we had graphs and charts setting the stage with quantitative data related to   three student cohorts , one that started at our college in the fall of 2016 , another in the fall of   2017 , and the final cohort which started in the fall of 2018 .   In addition , we included qualitative   data we were able to collect while working with students , staff , and faculty .   We had a total of   three students provide visual presentations of their experience and depict what impacted their   inability to be retained .   We had an additional seven students provide journal reflections   recounting difficulties they faced and how they managed to stay in college .   Finally , we had   faculty and advisors describe in either words through reflections or pictures through visual   presentations what helps and what hinders them while trying to best serve students and   understand their needs . 

 After the virtual walk through , the 25 stakeholders were asked to take 15 minutes to group 

 their own notes into themes or groupings .   Once each person had an opportunity to organize   their own notes , they were randomly broken into five groups of five , each group was facilitated   by a member of the design team that was facilitating the day .   This person captured the themes   on a shared document so everyone was able to see the clusters of themes the group had   identified .   The facilitator then pushed each of the groups further to try to uncover insights 

 beyond the obvious .   Facilitators were taught to ask so what to dig deeper into the reasoning   behind why these patterns and themes are important and really shine light on what they were   uncovering .   This was quite hard for some of the groups to push beyond the obvious findings   and to stop themselves from focusing on identifying solutions . 

 The use of the mind mapping gallery was definitely beneficial for the entire group to 

 experience , however ; the desire for almost everyone to jump to the solution finding process was   something we will have to continue to work on .   Taking action and moving forward quickly is   deeply engrained in our culture and making sure we take time to really internalize “ what is ”   before we try to move to “ what wows ” is a continued work in progress . 

 Insight 

 The use of the gallery for mind mapping really opened my mind to the need to tell a story 

 through a variety of formats . I tend to be focused on facts rather than emotions , but by hosting a   gallery walk through using a variety of visual formats I was able to help myself and others to   empathetically connect to our users .   In addition , the facilitated smaller group conversations   were beneficial to help push stakeholders beyond stating the obvious while trying to keep   people in the space of what is before jumping to solutions .   Another great insight that surfaced   from this process was the importance of going beyond the “ usual suspects ” for stakeholder   input and feedback .   We have a lot of employees at our institution and frequently the same   people are called upon to engage in discussion , the gallery process allowed us to pull from a   wider variety of areas at the college to uncover and spend time in the “ what is ” portion of the   overall process . 

 Approach 

 The gallery walk through was a great format to help get a broader group of stakeholders on 

 the same page regarding the problem at hand .   We tend to work in siloed approaches to   overcome problems , which leads to duplication of efforts as well as individual areas identifying   different interpretations of the same problem and then moving forward with solutions to the   problem they ’ve individually identified .   I plan on using this format for future problems we   identify while trying to positively impact student success at our college .   As a publicly funded   institution of higher education , we have limited resources and getting as many stakeholders   across the college on the same page in regards to the problem at the onset will benefit both our   institutional culture as well as our use of resources both human and financial and we continue   to innovate and focus on continuous improvement .
### Output: 