More than 100 current and former PathwayConnect and BYU-Idaho online students in Mexico City, Mexico met with BYU-Pathway employees in early December to provide feedback and share experiences regarding different aspects of the program.
BYU-Pathway Student Success Vice President, Ben Packer led members of the Student Success team, along with Area Manager Nathanael Adams on the excursion to Mexico to host the events and interview students.
The focus groups centered around the students perspective of the year-long PathwayConnect program, communication practices, experiences with advisors, reasons for withdrawing, and other needs the students felt were important for employees to know. Among these topics, students expressed their need and desire for more English grammar and writing help.
From these discussions, employees are striving to create better communication opportunities with the BYU-Idaho online instructors in the United States, improve the student-to-mentor interactions and retain the withdrawn students by highlighting PathwayConnect objectives and outcomes earlier on in the program.
“Students who complete PathwayConnect report an amazing experience that increased their spirituality, ability to learn and job prospects. While we have room to improve, we are pleased with these outcomes. But we are not satisfied with the proportion of students who do not make it to completion. We want to increase that rate in the coming years,” Ben Packer said. “To that end, we visit various locations around the world to better understand the student experience and to get perspective from local leaders and missionaries. This Mexico trip was very successful in that regard and promises to inform our work to increase student retention. We loved interacting with the students, missionaries, and others involved in PathwayConnect in Mexico City. It will be a trip we remember for the rest of our lives.”
The student experience continues to be the priority of BYU-Pathway Worldwide. Focus groups, like this, will enable employees to better help the students and meet their expectations.
