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SUNY COLLEGE AT BUFFALO MAPWORKS OVERVIEW For Faculty, Professionals, and Staff

WHAT IS MAPWORKS? • Mapworks is an interactive assessment tool, which allows Buffalo State to survey all first year students.

• This survey based tool will provide the student and the college with personalized feedback on academics, residential life, social life, and overall transition to Buffalo State.

• As an institution, we will analyze the feedback and help identify behaviors in students that contribute to success or a lack of success in the beginning of college.

• Ultimately, risk factors are identified through survey answers, prompting interventions by various divisions and offices on campus.

• Mapworks serves as a communication hub for a student’s various campus contacts, allowing for collaborative support. For example, if a residence director indicates that a student is experiencing severe homesickness, an academic advisor will have a more holistic view of the student’s experience.

• Mapworks considers the whole student when predicting risk.

• The result is a complete picture of each student—visually indicating who is most at-risk, and the contributing factors.

• Used daily, it can help track the progress of students, monitor the success of intervention strategies, and connect them with the resources that will help them achieve success.

What is my role with Mapworks? • The most crucial goal of Mapworks users is relaying the importance of survey completion to students:

• Explaining what Mapworks is and the benefits for participating in the survey to students • Motivating quality student participation in taking the survey • Strong student participation = strong data output • The first student survey will be distributed via e-mail by the end of September.

• Record interventions in Mapworks, allowing other offices and departments to support your words and actions so we are “all on the same page” with student interventions and referrals.

What are the benefits of student participation in the Mapworks survey? • RETENTION! Early alert and intervention will directly address the potential for student attrition by

prompting interventions and connection students with appropriate resources.

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• Mapworks is designed to help students gain a better understanding of their own strengths and weaknesses. The online survey offers the students immediate feedback analyzing the transition to college, both academically and socially.

• Faculty and staff are provided with directed “talking points” to guide student support interventions.

What are the theoretical foundations of Mapworks? • Early Adjustment to College: Upcraft, Gardner & Associates (1989) asserted that the success of first-

year students is determined largely by pre-enrollment variables, institutional characteristics, and institutional climate.

• They emphasized the importance of peer interactions – “establishing close friends, especially during the first month of enrollment” (p.10) – and indicated “there is overwhelming evidence that students’ success is, in large part, determined by their experiences during the freshman year” (p. 12).

• Mapworks focuses on the early adjustment of first-year students and emphasizes both academic and socioemotional adjustment.

• Tinto’s Theory of Attrition: Tinto’s (1993) classic theory describes the interaction between a student and the academic and social systems of a college environment.

• He emphasized the highly interdependent nature of those experiences and interactions as factors which affect a student’s commitment to the institution and educational goals.

• The theory flows through five main areas: pre-entry characteristics; goals and commitments; institutional experiences in both the academic systems and the social systems; integration (both academic and social); and the departure decision.

• Mapworks not only asks about every area in Tinto’s theory, the reporting is structured around some of these concepts.

For more information, please contact…

References Upcraft, M. L., Gardner, J. N., & Associates (1989). The Freshman Year Experience. San Francisco: Jossey-

Bass.

Tinto, V. (1993). Leaving College: Rethinking the Causes and Cures of Student Attrition (2nd ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Brian Dubenion Student Retention Specialist

Student Success Office Campbell Student Union 222 dubenibd@buffalostate.edu

Phone: 716-878-3506

Chelsea Montrois Graduate Intern

Student Success Office Campbell Student Union 222

merlocb01@mail.buffalostate.edu