COACHING FRAMEWORK
Online success coaching has been an effective tool for student support at many different types of institutions. However, with such a variety of coaching models out there, it is important to take a look at peer reviewed findings for what makes coaching successful.
Coaching can support learner persistence and have a positive impact on academic outcomes (Linkow, et al.2019). An important piece to the coaching puzzle is to take a holistic approach to coaching. Coaching should provide students with general support for their academic and non-academic needs (Price, et al. 2021). Coaches should be consistent in their support and use data to determine early outreach (Price, et al. 2021). A study from the North Carolina community college system found that providing students with this type for support was key to increasing retention rates for their students and these findings were especially profound in closing the racial equity gap for underrepresented students. Similarly a study from Boston observed results from transition success coaching for 12th grade and lower-classman groups of college students. This coaching program focused on topics including academics, financial, career planning, and managing life responsibilities (Linkow, et al. 2019). This holistic coaching approach also significantly improved outcomes for underrepresented student groups in their college system (Linkow, et al. 2019).
In this coaching model both coaches and faculty use their professional judgment to determine which student is in need of proactive outreach. Both faculty and coaches can access student participation, grades, and other data recorded in their learning management system. Some community college systems use predictive analytic software which use algorithms to outreach students (Hall et al. 2021). When a coaching system that serves underrepresented groups relies solely on algorithms to support outreach there are ethical concerns with how these models could leave certain student groups out (Hall, et al. 2021). Coaches and faculty use some standard predictive analytics, like failing grades or missing assignments, to reach out to student groups but they also have the flexibility to look deeper into student data identifying patterns and trends to determine outreach they deem necessary for the groups of students they are serving in that semester.