User-friendly videos and activities to educate employees and improve outcomes for students facing barriers to success.

The success of a college or university is reflected in the success of its students. Many factors may help or hinder a student’s journey to degree completion. Small changes in the way your school engages with students can result in big improvements for your students who encounter barriers to success. Whether your school is in a rural or urban setting, whether you operate a large university, or a small community college, the challenges facing your students related to diversity, equity, degree completion and social mobility are likely to be significant.

When employees understand the challenges that students encounter tied to socioeconomics, status, race, gender, religion, and other factors, they are better prepared to respond and support students. Informal interactions may improve, and policies, procedures and business practices can be modified to better meet the needs of students. Students are more likely to persist, learn, and complete their degree when they feel seen and heard, and when essential needs are met. Every point of contact with a student—financial aid, student account services, course registration, building services, dining, etc. —offers an opportunity to reduce barriers and improve student outcomes. The training resources gathered here can help any employee, in any role, be better prepared to support today’s diverse college students.

These resources are available at no cost, due to the generous support of Ascendium Education Group. Materials may be shared freely throughout your organization.

Why use these modules?

• Flexible—They can be used in any order, with groups or individually.
• Free—There is no cost to use these modules. The content included is available in the public domain.
• Efficient—Content is concise and accessible.

How to use these modules:

• Modules can be used in conjunction with:
  • Staff meetings
  • Division retreats
  • Individual employee orientation
  • Progressive professional development programs
• User guidelines are provided with each module

What is included in these modules?

• Video resources, available in the public domain.
• User guidelines and supplementary materials, where relevant.
• Print resources that vary in length. and duration.

NOTE: There are many resources that were worthy of inclusion in this project. To ensure that module content is concise and easy to navigate, resources were selected based on relevancy, duration, and alignment with learning outcomes. If you have content you would like to see included in future revisions, please send recommendations and links to publications@nacubo.org.