“Accudemia helps to provide a more coordinated and organized effort to academic support. Whether it be its kiosk function or helping to reserve a class tutor, Accudemia makes the process seamless for the student-athlete, and thus making it easier to achieve our desired academic results.” – Tom Bieber, Associate Athletics Director of Academic Support, Monmouth University
The Mission of Monmouth’s Athletics Academics Resource Center
Monmouth University’s Athletics Academic Resource Center (AARC) exists in order to develop and enhance the academic experience for student-athletes. They do this through a variety of academic support systems and various forms of life skills programming. Their services include academic progress monitoring, general academic counseling, tutorial support, and life skills development. The AARC ensures practice schedules and competitions don’t interfere with class time or obligations. They also make sure that student-athletes meet all NCAA eligibility requirements and university standards.
Included in these standards is a specific number of study hours. All incoming student-athletes and returning student-athletes with less than a 2.40 cumulative GPA must attend a minimum of 5 study hours per week. Coaches and the Athletics Director for Academic Support may also require additional hours of study for their students. To facilitate these study hours, the AARC houses a study hall on the lower level of their University Library and allows students to study in the Tutoring, Math, and Writing Centers.
“Our mission and vision,” states Associate Athletics Director Tom Bieber, “is essentially to house a safe and quiet space of study for all student-athletes that caters to both individual and group study.”
Using Accudemia to Measure Standards of Success
Key to these operations is a system for tracking and reporting study hall hours. For this, Monmouth turned to Accudemia. There is a sign-in computer located in the middle of the study hall’s open space where athletes can log their hours by signing in and signing out. Accudemia holds this information and generates reports to help ensure hour requirements are met. Accudemia plays a big part in holding the student-athletes accountable in terms of making their required hours each week and in sending those reports to the coaches every Friday.
“Accudemia has a sleek interface that makes it easy to determine who is signed in as well as reporting how many hours were completed within a certain time frame.” – Tom Bieber, Associate Athletics Director for Academic Support
Taking the data compiled within Accudemia and then comparing it to the GPA’s of those students who were required to put in study time and then to the GPA’s of students with no such requirement is one way Monmouth assesses the success of the AARC’s standards and goals. Bieber states that “[the investment in Accudemia] validates how seriously we take academics.”
Accudemia is also used by students to make appointments for tutoring and other services that the AARC offers.
UPDATE: How did COVID-19 affect the way you utilize Accudemia?
“It forced us to allow study hours to be completed from anywhere, thus a virtual login and logout link was created for them to access,” said Bieber. “The ability to sign in from anywhere was crucial using a link.”
With additional features that were quickly added, the university was able to adapt to meet the needs of its students. Students were allowed to sign in using their laptops or phones due to safety policies and capacity limits in the buildings.