College Student Success Course Takers' Perceptions of College Student Effectiveness.

College student success courses are designed to help students develop effective self-regulating learning (SRL) skills. Little research has examined students’ perceptions of SRL at course end. The purpose of this study was to examine student perceptions of “what makes an effective college student” in regards to SRL after course completion. Participants were 187 undergraduates enrolled in a course offered by the campus learning center at a large Midwestern university. Document analysis of student essays revealed that students most often viewed time management and motivation as critical to becoming effective college students. Implications for student success course curriculum are discussed. College Student Success Course Completers’ Perceptions of College Student Effectiveness Student success is a hot topic is higher education. Discussion and research on “what makes an effective college student” abounds. Self-regulated learning (SRL) has been identified as a critical contributor to students’ success in college (Fitch, Marshall, & McCarthy, 2012; Schunk & Zimmerman, 2007). SRL is the proactive process whereby students take control of their own learning (Pintrich, 2000). In other words, effective self-regulated learners step into the driver’s seat of their college learning instead of letting outsiders—such as instructors and parents—decide when, where, why, and how they should learn. In order to help college students achieve postsecondary success, many institutions have implemented 56 | TLAR, Volume 21, Number 2 intervention program or courses designed to increase students’ SRL (Wolters & Hoops, 2015). There is one intervention often utilized to strengthen students’ SRL engagement and ability: the college student success course (Bembenutty, 2008; Wolters & Hoops, 2015). College student success courses are semester-long course interventions designed to assist students in becoming more effective self-regulated learners in order to promote their academic success. Student “success” in these courses is often defined and measured by higher semester grade point averages (e.g., Bail, Zhang, & Tachiyama, 2008), retention (e.g., Tuckman & Kennedy, 2011), graduation (e.g., Lang, 2007), and higher levels of self-reported engagement in SRL by course completion (e.g., Hoops, Yu, Burridge, & Wolters, 2015). Indeed, these course interventions appear to make college students more successful—even promoting greater SRL. However, little is known regarding the perceptions of course completers regarding what is needed to become an effective college student. Understanding the types of skills and traits college students themselves feel are needed to succeed in college is important for three main reasons. One, student success course curriculum should be tailored to meet the specific needs of the student population that each course exists to serve (Hofer, Yu, & Pintrich, 1998). Two, although student success course curriculum is often based on current theory and empirical research, we assert that additional student needs might exist that have yet to be identified by theory. Three, course curriculum may not be calibrated to best meet students’ SRL needs. For example, courses may spend too much time covering material college students find irrelevant, or less useful, to their overall success in college. The purpose of this study was to examine student perceptions of “what makes an effective college student” in regards to SRL after completing a student success course. Three specific research questions guided our inquiry. 1. Which aspects of SRL are viewed as most critical to being an effective college student most often by student success course completers? 2. What factors do course completers deem as aspects of an effective college student outside of SRL? 3. Are students’ views of what makes an effective college student consistent with: College Student Effectiveness| 57