Translating Experiential Learning into College Credit with Prior Learning Assessment

CBE programs are becoming more ubiquitous in higher ed, but there is still a lot of gray area around ensuring accountability that experiential knowledge is commensurate with college-level learning. Many are still trying to answer questions like: what’s the best way to award and represent this learning and knowledge? How can we ensure an equitable experience for all students? Join us to gain a deeper understanding of Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) and how to implement it at your institution. Assessment evens the playing field but must meet quality standards. During this webcast, our expert, Donna Younger, will demonstrate how PLA can address high attrition rates and achievement gaps as well as encourage students to kickstart their success outside the classroom.

Authentic Assessment Strategies for
Online Learning

Online instruction continues to thrive, but instructors and designers struggle to develop effective forms of online assessment. How can an instructor know if students are meeting course objectives or achieving area competencies if tests and quizzes are not primary assessments? How can you ensure academic integrity and curb online cheating? What other forms of assessment are particularly effective in an online environment? Join us online to learn how to design and develop assessment tools in online instructional environments. Our expert instructor will share examples of assessment questions and how to improve them.

Improving Faculty Evaluations: A Training for Department Chairs

Faculty evaluations are one of the most challenging aspects of serving as a department chair. Emotions run high, performance rubrics aren’t always clear, and both parties may become defensive and react more than they listen. Still, these conversations don’t have to be difficult, and they don’t have to take a negative tone. They key is to develop an evaluation process that establishes clear goals, uses objective data to assess those goals, and allows you to treat performance-related issues before your annual meeting. Join us online to learn how to make your next faculty evaluation session easier and more productive by implementing four key steps: Goal Setting and Communication Using and Applying Evaluation Data Phrasing Comments Appropriately Delivering Feedback

Building a Faculty and Staff Giving Campaign

Enthusiastic partners can help you persuade faculty and staff of the value of philanthropic giving. Merrimack College was able to use giving ambassadors in a targeted campaign to increase their faculty participation rate from 20% to 59% in just one year. By recruiting the right leader to kick start the program, and by onboarding and supporting the right ambassadors, you can grow interest and convey authenticity to your institution’s ask. Join us online to learn how to create a similar movement on your campus that engages your faculty and staff in philanthropy and demonstrates the impact of their gifts. What You Will Get As part of your registration, you will receive a Campaign Ambassador Toolkit from Merrimack College that offers sample emails, meeting agendas, tracking tools, and campaign FAQs.

Case Management 2.0: Considerations for Enhancing the Impact of Your Mental Health Case Manager

Designed for institutions who already have an established, full-time Case Manager, this webcast will present the considerations you need in order to refine and improve the focus and services of your current case management model. Our facilitator will help you answer the following questions: What’s the scope of our current case manager’s role, and how do we assess whether we need to refine or expand the scope or size of our current model? What are best practices and strategies for enhancing the role’s reach and impact? How can we increase the visibility of these resources for both students and faculty/staff on campus? Join us for this online training and learn how to apply new strategic direction to the role of Case Manager to better meet the needs of your students.

Department Chairs: Maximize Your Productivity By Cultivating Your Academic Staff

As a department chair, you’re stretched between teaching, research, meetings, and overflowing inboxes. Especially if you’re newer to the role, you may feel tempted to field this day-to-day without help – because faculty members commonly work on their own. Even if you’re ready to ask your academic staff for assistance, you haven’t been trained to manage them or discuss their performance. Join us online to learn how to build the capacity of your academic staff, which will help you manage your time and workload and focus on your most important leadership responsibilities. In the session, we’ll cover: How to define staff roles and responsibilities with clear purpose and intention How to set boundaries within your own role as chair How to reinforce performance expectations with affirmation and feedback

Securing Transformational Gifts: A Conversation About Engaging Principal Gift Donors

Securing a principal gift can have an immense impact on the way an institution is able to meet its mission and serve students effectively. However, identifying and cultivating relationships with potential principal gift donors takes patience, intentionality, and compromise. In this useful question-and-answer virtual webcast, our expert instructor, Mitchell Spearman, will call upon his experiences working with philanthropic families who shared transformational gifts with institutions across the country. By engaging with participants and sharing his own insight and advice, Spearman will help advancement professionals to understand how to more effectively approach engaging principal gift donors and their families to secure transformational gifts. As a participant, you will have the opportunity to submit your questions in advance and we will do our best to incorporate these questions into the live event.

Supporting Neurodiversity in the Classroom

Why You Need This Resource As the number or size of your classes grows, you’ll likely find it increasingly difficult to meet the variability of your learners. Since research says neurodiversity is the rule (not the exception), one-off changes and accommodations will become tedious for both you and your learners. If you’re ready for a better way, use these resources to start serving many types of learners simultaneously through Universal Design for Learning (UDL). You will learn simple changes you can make today to both course materials and the overall learning experience.   You Will Learn: How to apply UDL principles to digital course materials Simple changes to make your classes more supportive of diverse learners   You Will Get: Downloadable Resources Instructional Videos Interactive Activities

Managing Difficult Colleagues

Difficult colleagues come in many forms: A colleague who hijacks a meeting by dominating the conversation A leader who is overly critical of others’ ideas A project team member who leaves the work for you or takes credit for your work Confronting these difficult colleagues can feel overwhelming. How will they react? Will they hold a grudge? How do you manage authority? Join us online and learn how to communicate with and influence your difficult colleagues. You’ll learn how to target specific strategies to seven unique personality types, and you’ll leave with advice on how to respond in the moment and afterwards.

Effectively Manage Matching and Challenge Gift Campaigns

Many educational institutions benefit from large matching or challenge gifts (not to be confused with corporate matching gift programs). A donor makes a gift or pledge with the expectation that the advancement shop will raise the same amount of funds from other donors. For example, a donor may pledge $50M to a new building project if the development staff can raise an additional $50M from other donors. These are exciting opportunities because they show your biggest donors that you care about growing the impact of their giving, but you also know they require a lot of hard work and careful management, often on a tight timeline. You probably have more questions than answers on how to manage these campaigns. Join us online to learn how to show your biggest donors that you care about growing the impact of their giving. You will hear from two experts who can answer your questions and provide best practices on how to successfully approach match and challenge gift campaigns. In this training, you’ll learn how to: Secure and cultivate donors who wish to provide a challenge gift as well as matching gifts. Structure a matching gift campaign that meets the development goals for both […]