>> Next speaker, the next topic, I'm pleased to introduce our next speaker to you,
as I've just gotten to know her just over just the last few months.
When did you join DCTC?
>> Three months ago.
Natalie Kramer is one of our new enrollment advisors if it student services.
She has been a student at State College State, and has the numerous things
in her young professional life already.
What she's going to speak on, because another aspect, when you're talking
about student success, there's how to manage stress, because we're all experiencing that,
but as a DCTC student, as a student in the Mizzou system, for that matter,
you have a number of different electronic portals available to you.
We're still amazed how many students don't use them or don't understand them.
We're talking about e-services.
We're talking about D2L.
so Natalie's topic is going to be on virtual success.
What you didn't know, you needed to know.
Ladies and gentlemen, Natalie Kramer.
Give it up.
[ Applause ]
>> Hey guys, so I have a written out introduction that was kind of funny,
and Patrick introduced myself, but bear with me.
We're going to go through the introduction, because that's leading up to my presentation.
So my name is Natalie.
I'm an enrollment advisor here at Dakota County Technical College.
Any idea how I got started in enrollment advising?
I guarantee five-year-old Natalie was not playing as a child going,
I'm going to be an enrollment advisor someday.
High school Natalie definitely was not looking at what colleges,
programs for enrollment advising had the best educational options out there.
And college Natalie, well, college Natalie was struggling.
If you list off any challenge that you guys have had as a student, I guarantee you,
I have gone through that challenge.
I have been in school longer than I wanted to.
I ended up with a second degree and a licensure as an EMT,
because I didn't follow [inaudible] right.
I didn't ask questions.
What I learned is I am incredibly good at figuring
out whatever college system you place me in and figuring out the best way to get a person
out of there fast and cheap, and I found this out one day as I was helping my friend,
because she was looking at not being able to graduate, because she missed a class
because something happened, and she goes, "You should do this for a living."
And I started laughing, and I'm like, what?
And she's like this, right here.
I'm like, this isn't a job.
I'm just helping you out.
She's like, "Seriously, I just sat down with an advisor for the last hour,
and you fixed it in five minutes."
And I'm like, oh, my gosh.
I can do this.
So this is where the concept of everything you didn't know you needed to know comes up.
Having gone to school, having been at the -- in the program that I was in,
I learned a lot about student development and why schools work the way we do.
High school, teacher tells you everything, and then college is this magical shift
where now we expect you to come to us with what you want to do.
Well, how many of you guys were told, hey, it's college.
You're in charge.
We'll be there for you.
Or were you just told show up, get it done, we'll take care of you?
Kind of like you still are looking to us for help.
Somewhere in there, we're missing that communication with students,
that we want you guys to be in control.
Every single one of you is capable of being a student, capable of taking care
of themselves, and we gave you the tools.
We just never told you what the tools were.
So starting with the services in the background, or on the screens, I mean,
you guys have all seen your e-services account.
The number one thing that everyone should do the first day is make sure
that their address is correct.
And if you go into the accounts management section up there, address info,
address and phone number, demographic info.
For some reason, at the very bottom,
after you go through all your demographic info is your email.
I know. It makes complete sense.
Let's throw your email in with your demographics
and not your address and other contact information.
But I didn't create it.
So that's another story for the day.
If you guys don't have those updated, we can't get a hold of you,
you're not going to get important information.
Also, the one thing I want to highlight is your degree audit report.
Anyone here know what a degree audit report is?
Registration's coming up in a couple weeks.
How many of you guys have looked at your degree audit report and started thinking
about what classes you want to take next semester?
How many of you guys are going to go to your faculty
and ask what should I take next semester?
Do you know you don't need to do that?
I mean, you do have to follow the sequence of the program,
but you don't need us telling you what to do.
You can look at it and go, hey, I'm a part-time student.
I only want to take six credits, that I want to make sure they're at night.
Well, you have the power to do that.
One of the big issues students have is we look to our faculty for guidance.
Well, now that I'm on the other side of the equation, I don't know you.
I don't necessarily know what your life is like in what's going on.
So I'm going to give you the best educated guess on what you should be doing,
but how do I know that you can't take night classes if you don't tell me?
How do I know your car's busted up right now, and you can only come
in one day a week, unless you tell me?
So I might put you in a class that you can't get to.
Happens all the time.
Don't be afraid to say hey, this isn't right for me.
Hey, I have a problem.
You need to think in advance.
I knew I had a problem when I was a student, and I never went in.
I didn't want to be that person to ask a question and go, hey,
I don't think this is right, because they were my teachers.
They worked there.
Clearly, they must know what they're doing.
Yes, we do, but when my degree wasn't right, it's not something that they're going to see
in less I point it out, because, hate to break it to you guys with a couple thousand students
and only five advisors, we're not sitting there going through every single one
of your [inaudible] every day going, yep, this is a change.
This needs a change.
We need you guys to come in and say, hey, I noticed this wasn't right.
That's what we want you to do.
It's a good thing to do it.
It took me four years.
We're going to say four years before I got comfortable with that aspect, and I'm just going
to do a public service announcement.
Don't be me.
Don't wait four years to get comfortable asking a question.
Just ask it right away.
That's what we're here for.
>> Do you want me to click on the [inaudible] first?
>> Yeah, can you pull up the audit report?
>> Can you make it bigger, by any chance, for the back?
[ Background Discussion ]
So how many of you guys, this is your first semester?
You started in January?
Okay, one thing that you're going to see in your degree audit report
that wasn't there before is who your advisor is.
I know it's really far in the back, and it's kind of hard to see,
and that's what you all get for sitting so far away.
You could have sat closer and been able to see the screen.
Just saying.
But now your advisor is going to be listed.
This is your faculty advisor.
So the difference between me and a faculty advisor, I'm your enrollment advisor.
If you have an issue with financial aid,
your degree audit report, grades -- not grades, excuse me.
Degree audit report, anything that has to do with your account itself, come to me.
I'm great with those questions.
If you have a question on where can I find an internship?
What's this class like?
Do you think this is too much of a workload, depending on your program?
Definitely ask your advisor.
I guarantee I have not taken a single one of the classes they offer here
and cannot give you an accurate description.
Whereas the faculty who have been teaching it
for years know exactly what their class is going to be like.
So that's a different between faculty and enrollment advisor.
New students, everyone here, your faculty advisor is where you're going.
Those of the people you want to start contacting this week,
next week, and saying, hey, here's my plan.
What do you think?
Have I beaten the degree audit report to death?
Questions?
Concerns? If you scroll all the way down, it lists every single class you need to take.
If it's green, you're good, you don't have to worry about it for your graduation requirement.
If it's red, it still needs work.
So the student has done nothing for their degree, which is fine,
because it's our dummy account, and if our dummy account was taking classes, I'd be concerned.
Okay, so D2L.
Is everyone here fairly comfortable with D2L, or did you have questions?
Or do you still have questions?
Hands, you're comfortable.
Hands, you have a question.
Hands, you have no idea what I'm talking about.
Okay, we're going to go into my D2L account really quick just to highlight some things
in here that you might not have known you have.
I apologize.
It's the faculty account.
Now that I'm no longer a student, I can't seem to convince them to give me a student account
to show you guys what looks like, but faculty accounts look almost the same.
The number-one thing you should know is there's an announcements page,
and that's where you can find general information about the school,
things that are coming up, events, ideas.
I'm not sure how any of you guys found out about Student Success Day,
but I do believe it was listed in here somewhere at one point.
Yes Patrick?
No Patrick?
>> I don't know.
I don't go into D2L for anything.
>> It was listed.
>> And I got an email.
>> Thank you.
I know we send a lot of emails, and it's really easy just a click
and pass them, but there's good information.
Try and make a habit of going into D2L once a day.
Kind of a personal question.
No one needs to raise their hand.
How many of you guys were dropped from a class a couple of weeks ago
with a failure no show, an FN grade?
That grade you got because you weren't putting in an online presence in D2L
It's really easy with an online class or a hybrid class to say I'll check next week.
I'll check next week.
The whole purpose of that failure no show is to remind you guys to do it right away,
after a week or so, and it's just, hey, you're a student.
Make sure you're checking your classes.
I'll admit it.
I've been an online student.
I've waited until the last two weeks to do a class.
Don't do that.
Don't -- really.
Don't do that.
That was the worst two weeks of my life doing an entire class,
doing an entire class in two weeks.
Don't. Check your D2L once a day.
If you scroll up to the top, very top bar, you'll see red dots that pop up.
Patrick, way up [inaudible].
>> Up here?
>> Yeah, just a little to the left.
Right there.
Those are announcements.
Any time your faculty post something in your class,
you're going to be able to see it right there.
You're able to select a course also up on that top banner.
If you go little ways to the left, there's a drop down.
I know some students like to scroll all the way down to their classes.
This is just a quicker, easier way to find all your classes that are listed right there.
When you have a D2L class, if you have homework, your faculty expects you
to use the dropbox to turn in your homework.
So don't email them.
That's the number one topic.
Students come to me, and it's like, well, I turned in my homework and I got no credit.
How did you turn it in?
I emailed them.
Yeah, teachers don't check their email.
Or they do, and they get like 200 emails a day.
Don't email your teacher that way.
That's just mean.
Okay, one cool thing that we have that probably no one ever take the time
to look at is Smart Thinking.
It's on the right side.
It is an online tutorial program.
So anytime you have a question, you can go in there and find an answer for a class.
It's not Dakota County's tutoring, but it's an online tutoring system
where they compile information from all the different classes and all the different schools.
You can find answers to just about any topic out there.
So, 2 AM, you're working on your homework.
It's due 8 AM the next day, and you know you're not going to be getting a hold
of faculty to help -- to get help.
Smart Thinking is there for you.
>> I clicked on it, and nothing happens.
>> Okay, apparently, our link is broken.
We will fix that for you guys.
Sorry about that.
>> It works.
>> It works?
Okay.
>> I wonder if this is because it's a dummy account.
>> Probably.
>> Probably because it's a dummy account, and we're using a fake student's account right now.
Well, we're using my account, which still isn't a real account.
[ Inaudible Speech ]
So I've shown you some things that you may have known or you may not have known.
There is one final thing that I want you all to take away with this.
School, it's expected to be challenging.
It's expected to be difficult.
How many of you guys have seen a little kid learning how to walk?
Like they fall like what?
A couple of hundred times a day, something like that, and they get back up.
None of them think anything about it.
How come we get to school -- college, and all of the sudden we're like, oh, this is hard.
I must be dumb.
This is hard.
Something's wrong with me.
No, it's learning.
That's what is there for.
We all expected to be hard.
We all want you guys to learn.
If it's not challenging, you're not learning.
What we don't expect for you guys is to not try.
So when you email a teacher or you email me and you have a question,
and you're saying, "Hey, I can't do this."
That's not good enough.
Or, "Hey, I don't know this."
That's not good enough.
I want you guys to be specific.
I know, for the most part, before you emailed me,
you've tried a few things, and you looked into it.
But if I hear, "Hey, I don't know what my grades are.
Hey, I don't know what class to take."
Have you guys looked?
What was your actual question?
Really think about what your question is.
I know you're all trying, but for us to be able to help you best, we want to see that.
So, instead of saying, hey, I don't know what my financial status is.
Email me and go, hey, I looked at my financial aid, and it's saying this,
and I have no idea what that means.
That shows me that you care.
That shows me that you tried.
That makes me more likely to help you.
Not more likely to help you.
That's a horrible way of explaining it.
That makes me better able to help you, because I can pinpoint exactly what you need.
If it's a miscommunication, great.
I can fix it.
If it's simply you don't know where to go, great.
I can tell you where to go.
But when you say I don't know, just blanket statement, there's not much I can do
for you right in that one statement.
So there's my 15-minute public service announcement.
It's probably shorter than that, because I never talk long.
Any questions, comments, concerns?
Okay.
>> Give her a round of applause.
Thank you, Natalie.