Hi there! I’m Misha, your friendly email marketing guru. By day, I’m crafting emails from Academic Impressions that make institutions and students alike do a happy dance. My mission? To spread the word on how Academic Impressions can transform your institution and boost student enrollment. Fun fact: I once set a goal to meet Sir Paul McCartney, and guess what? I turned that dream into reality. When I’m not busy perfecting emails and shaking hands with rock stars, you’ll find me jet-setting to the Caribbean, lacing up my running shoes for thrilling races, jamming out to some seriously good tunes, and diving into captivating books.
As of July 2023, the National Science Foundation updated the responsible and ethical conduct of research (RECR) requirement for all faculty and personnel who will be supported by NSF grants. The requirements state that those supported by NSF grants have a responsibility to “generate and disseminate knowledge with rigor and integrity,” and “conduct peer review with the highest ethical standards; diligently protect proprietary information and intellectual property from inappropriate disclosure; and treat students and colleagues fairly and with respect.” This course was designed to meet the new RECR requirement through a focus on peer review, authorship concerns, data management concerns, creating a safe research environment, mentorship, and collaborative research. This course is specifically designed for faculty who will be submitting grant applications through the NSF, but it may also be applicable to postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduate students participating in those research projects—or to those simply looking to better understand research ethics and integrity.
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.
The news is filled with accounts of extended pay freezes and tightened departmental budgets. More than ever, it is crucial to identify creative, meaningful, and low-cost ways to reward and retain high-performing faculty. Mary Coussons-Read, professor of psychology and acting chair of the department of physics at the University of Colorado Denver, reviews low-cost practices that can make a difference. Rethink Performance Rewards “Don’t get so caught up in the trees that you don’t see the forest,” Coussons-Read warns. “The forest is the need to help your faculty feel good about the work they do. There are many trees you can shake besides the salary adjustment tree.” While rewarding performance will rarely be free of cost, you can consider a variety of low-cost and one-time expenses that allow you to appreciate faculty. The difficulty of a salary increase is that it is a permanent addition to the ongoing budget. There are many options for rewarding performance for which that is not the case. Look for one-time expenses. Beyond salary increases, you can recognize faculty achievements and, at the same time, use those achievements to encourage a high-performing faculty culture by: Making the most of your faculty awards competition Inviting high-performing […]
Funding for higher education ebbs and flows based on government support and tuition revenue. When the dollars flow, we have the tendency to spread our wings. New capital infrastructure adds valuable square feet that are filled quickly, whether they are needed or not. These periods of space affluence are generally short but they favor a high degree of space and timetabling flexibility for faculty. In some cases, this flexibility lends value to teaching and learning but in many others, it is simply a case of hoarding, serving wants more than needs. So, what is space flexibility? Space flexibility is more than just adding square feet to a school’s footprint. Flexibility can include scheduling two spaces at once to be able to move fluidly between two types of lessons (such as lab and lecture). It can include a space that is designed for both classroom lecture and student project work. It can also involve flexibility in faculty schedules, such as not teaching before 10:30 am or not teaching on Friday afternoons. Any behavior that contributes to lower room or seat utilization rate can be attributed to space flexibility. Space flexibility can provide value but it comes at a cost that few […]
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.
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
In my previous article with AI (“4 Things Academic Deans Can Do to Help Students Succeed After Graduation,” in August 2015), I offered advice on how academic deans and career professionals can collaborate to improve student career mentoring. In this follow-up article, I would like to offer four curricular strategies that can immediately improve student career prospects, by connecting more clearly what a student studies and what they aspire to do after college. Four strategies to make this happen: 1. Work directly with admissions to break the myth that specific majors lead to specific jobs. I have often found myself speaking to groups of prospective students and their parents immediately after an admissions director has literally drawn lines between specific majors and particular jobs. “If you want to be an A you should consider majoring in X,” s/he would exclaim, much to my chagrin. Parents especially like this equation, while students who are often not sure of what ‘they want to be’ usually find it uncomfortable. My subsequent presentation forcefully (and politely) breaks this myth by focusing on three simple notions: WHAT TO DO: Develop a small team that includes an academic dean, an admissions director and a career services director […]
This article is an excerpt from Sue Ohrablo’s acclaimed book High-Impact Advising: A Guide for Academic Advisors, which you can find here. After an academic year begins, advisors can start to breathe a little easier once most of the fires have been put out, questions have been answered, schedule adjustments have been made, and students are mostly settled into their classes. The anxiety that accompanies long, fast-paced days may begin to dissipate. During this time, advisors are left scratching their heads, asking themselves, “Why can’t these students register themselves?”; “Why does this student continue to check with me even though I already gave her the information?”; and, even, on the worst days, “What is wrong with these students?” As things calm down during this period, I encourage advisors to reflect on the nature of student needs, and reconsider the dynamics involved in the student experience and the role of the academic advisor. As an advisor, there are several factors you can address to reduce a student’s continued reliance on you. These are: 1. Readiness Developmental advising involves taking a holistic approach to advising and forming partnerships with students. Students will most likely not expect to engage in a developmental advising relationship, as they […]
Philanthropy is critical to helping institutions meet their academic missions, and at its core, it is all about building and maintaining relationships. Although fundraising is just one of the myriad responsibilities overseen by an academic dean, the development officer is a key partner in assisting the dean in achieving those fundraising goals. To find success in academic fundraising, the relationship between an academic dean and a development officer must be one built on mutual respect, trust, and clear communication. Successful fundraising teams develop complementary skills that, when combined, are more effective than the skills of one individual. Through this three-hour virtual training, you will be able to better prioritize fundraising goals as a dean and development officer team. You will learn how to build trust and set expectations with mutual fundraising goals in mind, establish a process to effectively move donors through your pipeline, and practice essential skills such as making an ask.
