Berkshire Community College Center for Teaching and Learning

What do we mean by “Student Success?”

Does college success mean graduation? Approximately half of all students in the U.S. who start a baccalaureate degree graduate within 6 years.  Some educators argue that degree attainment isn’t as important as the learning that comes with it. Is a student who learns still a success, even without completing a degree?  While “enhanced lifetime earnings” is often cited at a primary reason for attending college, is that consistent with the mission of most academic institutions? With numerous measures in use by local, state, and federal education departments, many of them controversial, are there any consistent ways of truly understanding what it means to be successful in college? This conference will highlight promising ways of defining student success, interventions that enhance that success, and assessment practices or program evaluation strategies that focus on informing and guiding our work.

Schedule*

8:00 – 9:00 am Registration and Continental Breakfast, UMass Amherst Campus Center Concourse

9:00 am – 9:45 am Welcome Address, Campus Center Auditorium
Robert L. Caret, President, University of Massachusetts

10:00 – 11:00 am Concurrent Sessions, Campus Center Lower Level and 8th Floor

11:15 – 12:15 pm Keynote Address, Campus Center Auditorium
Dr. George Kuh, Chancellor’s Professor Emeritus and Director, National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment, Indiana University Bloomington

12:15 pm – 1:15 pm Lunch, Campus Center Auditorium
Dessert will be available on the Campus Center Concourse

1:30 – 2:30 pm Concurrent Sessions, Campus Center Lower Level and 8th Floor

2:45 – 3:45 pm Conference WrapUp with Dr. Randy Swing, Executive Director Association for Institutional Research

3:45 pm – 4:30 pm Wine and Cheese Social, Campus Center Concourse, Lower Level
Come follow-up with presenters, and catch up with colleagues

*Schedule is preliminary and subject to change.

Speakers

Keynote Presenters

George Kuh is adjunct professor at the University of Illinois and Chancellor’s Professor Emeritus of Higher Education at Indiana University Bloomington. George founded the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and related instruments for law students, beginning college students, and faculty. He directs two major projects, the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (with Stan Ikenberry at the University of Illinois) and the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP), the first-ever in-depth look at the factors that help or hinder the careers of graduates of arts-intensive training high schools and postsecondary institutions. At Indiana University he served as chairperson of the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies (1982-84), associate dean for academic affairs in the School of Education (1985-88), and associate dean of the faculties for the Bloomington campus (1997-2000).

Randy Swing is executive director of the Association for Institutional Research. AIR provides professional development and support for 4,000 members from 1,500 colleges and universities in using data for planning, managing and operating postsecondary institutions. He is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences, workshop leader, and author of books and articles on assessment, institutional research, and student success. Prior to joining AIR he was senior scholar and co-director at the Policy Center on the First Year of College and held leadership positions at Appalachian State University. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Georgia.

Featured Speaker

Robert L. Caret is president of the five-campus University of Massachusetts system. From 2003 to 2011, he was president of Towson University where he also served as a faculty member, dean, executive vice president and provost during his more than 25-year tenure at the university. Between 1995 and 2003, he left Towson to assume the presidency of San Jose State University. Caret presided over periods of significant growth at both universities and gained national acclaim for eliminating race-based graduation disparities at Towson.

Featured Sessions

Jane Wellman is the founding director of the Delta Project on Postsecondary Costs, Productivity and accountability in Washington, DC. The Delta Project’s mission is to improve productivity in higher education through better targeting of resources to protect student access and the quality of student learning. Wellman is widely recognized for her work in public policy and higher education, with particular expertise in state fiscal policy; cost analysis; strategic planning; state and federal regulation of higher education; accountability metrics and performance reporting; and quality control including accreditation. In November 2010 she was named the Executive Director of the National Association of System Heads (NASH), a membership organization of CEOs of the major public multicampus college and university systems in the U.S. She is also a member of the Association of Governing Boards Consulting Services and serves on the board of the Association of American Colleges and Universities.

Logistics

Lodging

For reservations at the UMass Amherst Campus Center Hotel, call: 1-877-822-2110 or go on-line: https://hotel.aux.umass.edu/

Getting to Campus

Here is a map and directions to campus. When you arrive, look for signs directing you to the Campus Center Parking Garage, located at B3 on this more detailed campus map. For GPS, the address is 1 Campus Center Way. We suggest parking on the second level.

Registration

Upon arrival, park in the Campus Center Parking Garage on the second level, then exit the garage by walking through a short tunnel. After a set of glass doors, turn left and walk directly into the Campus Center. The registration table is located on the lower level. You may take the escalators down, which will be on your left, or the elevators, which will be on your right. For a photo essay of these steps, click here.

Questions

Questions should be addressed to Jackie Brousseau-Pereira, Director of External Affairs, in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences: 413-545-1933

If you are interested in open educational resources, you may join this webinar TODAY at 3pm, no cost, and you don’t need to be working on the TAA grant. Here is the login link:

http://goo.gl/RHRRa

About OPEN:

The Open Professionals Education Network (OPEN) will provide free support and technical assistance to all grantees of the $2 billion Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College & Career Training (TAACCCT) grant program from the U.S. Department of Labor. For information about TAACCCT, visit http://www.doleta.gov/taaccct.

OPEN will help grantees meet the provisions laid out in the solicitation for grant applications, including the CC BY open licensing requirement. OPEN services will be provided by Creative Commons (CC), Carnegie Mellon’s Open Learning Initiative (OLI), Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) and the Washington State Board for Community & Technical Colleges (SBCTC), which have individual but complementary areas of expertise in openness and the design of educational resources. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has recognized this expertise by funding OPEN for three years to coincide with the first wave of the TAACCCT grant.

Want to improve your college teaching skills or your competitive edge in the academic job market?

Consider enrolling in one of our practical, theory-based graduate courses in pedagogy for higher education.

Preparation for the college classroom involves more than a solid base of knowledge in a discipline; it requires a systematic inquiry into the pedagogies and processes that facilitate learning. The Colleges of Worcester Consortium’s Certificate in College Teaching program is grounded in the latest educational research on best practices in college teaching, and is designed to enhance the teaching and learning experiences for faculty and students at our member institutions. The primary focus of the Certificate is to prepare graduate students, adjunct and full-time faculty who aspire to, or who are currently engaged in, a career in academia.  Courses carry Worcester State University graduate credit and may be taken individually or toward completion of the six-credit Certificate. A complete course schedule, full course descriptions, and sample syllabi are available on our website.

SUMMER 2012 COURSE OFFERINGS:

(All courses carry Worcester State University graduate credit.)

CT 901 – Seminar in College Teaching

(ONLINE) 2 graduate credits; no prerequisites; May 23 – July 10

The Seminar in College Teaching, the first course in the Certificate sequence, is designed to acquaint participants with basic principles and theories of education and instructional practices associated with effective college teaching. These concepts apply across numerous disciplines as the emphasis is on pedagogy, not course content. Learn the basics of college teaching: designing and developing courses, choosing and using a variety of teaching methods, and assessing student work. The foundational course Seminar in College Teaching is a prerequisite for some Certificate courses. Read what Seminar participants have said about this course!

Read what Seminar participants have said about this course!

CT 913 – Teaching with Technology

(ONLINE)  1 graduate credit; CT 901 helpful but not required; May 23 – July 11

With a focus on the instructor as the primary user of technology in the classroom, this course offers participants an opportunity to deepen their thinking about effective teaching with technology and challenges them to make on-going improvements to their teaching practice. The course supports participants in creating an on-line portfolio featuring lessons or projects that exemplify effective instructor use of technology to promote student learning and demonstrated proficiencies. Teaching technologies include (but are not limited to) the following: Web pages, multimedia presentations, spreadsheet activities, desktop publishing, interactive quizzes, and learning management systems. The central focus of the course is for participants to understand a variety of roles that technology can play in supporting teaching and learning; be comfortable discussing various teaching technologies and how they apply to classroom teaching; share strategies and resources with other educators within their community of practice; and develop an on-line portfolio which demonstrates proficiency in selected teaching technologies.

CT 919 – Teaching and Learning in the Diverse Classroom

(ONLINE)  1 graduate credit; May 14 – June 22

As higher education continues to become increasingly diverse, faculty members will be faced with the challenge of preparing and delivering instruction to students with widely divergent cultural, economic, social, and linguistic backgrounds. In this course, we will look at theoretical and practical ways to prepare ourselves to teach (and learn from) students in ways that reflect culturally relevant pedagogy. Students in the class will analyze and discuss individual and social differences as they manifest themselves inside and outside the classroom, and will have opportunities to design practices that can be applied in their own teaching.

REGISTRATION: Application procedures are described on our website.  Follow the appropriate link under “Course Registration” or “Certificate Application Process.”  When using the online pre-enrollment form (for beginning the registration process) you will have to pay by credit card.  Have your card in hand.

TUITION: Tuition for Certificate courses is $299/credit for participants from Colleges of Worcester Consortium member institutions and $479/credit for external participants.  In addition, there is a $75/semester pre-enrollment fee. (Because Worcester State University is the CCT program’s credentialing host, WSU current students, faculty and staff pay $262/credit.) You must pay for courses at the time of registration, but you may qualify for tuition reimbursement. Consult with your adviser, faculty development center, or HR Department for details about applying for tuition reimbursement from your institution before you register for any courses.

Founded in 1968, the Colleges of Worcester Consortium, Inc. is an alliance of 12 public and private colleges in Central Massachusetts that works cooperatively both to further the missions of the member institutions individually and to advance higher education regionally.

First Annual Lynton Colloquium

A day of conversation, reflection, and celebration honoring the pioneering work of Ernest A. Lynton

Friday, Sept 21, 2012, 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM

University of Massachusetts Boston, Campus Center Ballroom

 NERCHE’s First Annual Lynton Colloquium will feature presentations and panel discussions inspired by Ernest Lynton’s framing of faculty scholarly activity as inclusive and collaborative work in which academics and community partners share knowledge and expertise in the process of public problem solving. The event will also explore the legacy of Ernest’s influence among scholars and practitioners today and into the future. The keynote presentation will be delivered by the recipient of the 2012 Lynton Award for the Scholarship of Engagement for Early Career Faculty.

More information about this inaugural event – including details about registration and sponsorship — will be made available in the coming weeks, but please save the date!

On Thursday, April 19, 15 faculty and staff gathered in the CTL to discuss the notion of a “safe zone” for LGBTQ students and staff. An informative and open discussion was held of classroom and other issues that come up in creating a safe zone. Those topics included

• transgendered student preferred names, pronoun – sometimes differs from the official academic record
• how to relate to colleagues or students who are expressing anti-gay (LBT) sentiment
• referring to significant others as “spouses” avoids heterosexist language
• students’ learning can be rapidly shut down if they are members of communities that have “invisible differences” and they are exposed to demeaning comments or actions
• students from other cultures may have set views on homosexuality; we must meet them where they are and encourage them to understand US norms and codes of conduct concerning bias
• slang that demeans LGBTQ people, like “that’s so gay” – how to deal with this

Participants were interested in continuing the dialog, and materials were made available to help understand use of language, terms, etc.

Learning Assistance Association of New England

Call for Proposals

29th Annual Conference – Friday, October 26, 2012

Greenfield Community College

One College Drive

“Student Success:  There’s an App for That!”

Keynote Speaker:  Dr. Brenda Matthis

Lesley University, Cambridge, MA

Turn It In has just listed a number of live and on-demand (you can watch them whenever you want – play, fast forward, pause, etc.) available for the next few months. Here is the link to register on their community page on Linked In:

http://linkd.in/HjzfiR

There is also a broad range of resources and guidance at BCC’s Turn It In Central site:

http://blogs.berkshirecc.edu/turnitin

From Ohio State University “6 Things You Should Know About Grading in Microsoft Word”  http://ocio.osu.edu/elearning/toolbox/brief/grading-in-microsoft-word/6-things-you-should-know-about-grading-in-microsoft-word/

From Duke University Trillium project, a number of faculty blog posts on how they have tried green and paperless classes http://sites.duke.edu/trillium/blog-posts/

A math instructor blogs about “Experiments in Digital Grading” http://chronicle.com/blognetwork/castingoutnines/2011/12/01/experiments-in-digital-grading/