To help prevent “stop outs” and improve retention, Northeast Wisconsin Technical College’s Green Bay campus overhauled most courses to be intense eight-week classes. Over the course of a semester, students take two classes per eight-week period, for a total of four. This quickened pace can help students perform better and persist when facing out-of-class hardships, according to instructors and administrators.
Kathryn Rogalski, NWTC’s vice president of academic affairs and workforce development, told Wisconsin Watch that college leaders want students juggling jobs, families and more to be able to “take a break when they needed to, but then not have to be gone a whole semester or a whole year before they could start back.”
“Everybody wants shortened learning,” Rogalski said. “Nobody wants to be in a class for 16 weeks anymore. That’s not the pace of learning. That faster pace, that more intensive time together, I think, is making the difference.”
Data from NWTC backs this up, showing that retention rates are up, fewer students are dropping out, more students are earning higher grades on average and more are graduating on time, reported Wisconsin Watch.
Read more about their efforts and successes here.
