Student Experience
The Guided Pathways model entails a systemic redesign of the student experience from initial connection to college through to completion, with changes to program structure, new student intake, instruction, and support services.
As one of the three focus areas of Highline’s Degree Pathways, the student experience area of Guided Pathways focuses on redesigning student experiences and processes.
Every new credential seeking student is provided structured exploratory experiences (through orientation, entry advising, college success course, ethnographic experience, etc) informed by labor market information and designed to support their choice of a pathway upon enrollment, and confirm a program/degree map within no more than two quarters. Orientation and intake activities are mandatory and designed to build a sense of belonging, clarify student career and college goals, and to create a comprehensive individual education and financial plan based on program/degree maps.
Equity competent Educational Planning is mandatory, accessible, and highly engaging for all credential-seeking students. It provides meaningful information for student pathway/program decision making within two quarters. The college educational planning services monitor and provide ongoing educational plan adjustments as students’ progress through completion or transfer. Professional educational planners, college navigators, advisors and faculty maintain close cooperation to ensure equitable access to all programs for each student.
The college identifies when students are losing momentum in progress toward completion and has communication tools, policies and supports in place to work with students to address their identified barriers. Students who are not making progress toward accessing selective admissions programs (nursing, dental hygiene, etc) are provided relevant information regarding additional pathway options leading to a family sustaining career.
Faculty are active partners in improving student success. Faculty provide meaningful and equitable learning experiences for all students and assess whether course design is resulting in student mastery of outcomes without disparities by race or gender. The college uses disaggregated student course outcomes data in addition to regular feedback from faculty and students to support focused professional development opportunities designed to improve instruction, course design, pedagogy, and assessment.