Tutor Training and Professional Development. Wichita State University (KS) (approved Promising Practice 9/25/13) Taken from the abstract: "Peer tutoring has become a familiar tool that many schools utilize to reinforce classroom teaching and increase student success. For this reason, the Student Support Services (SSS) Project at Wichita State University (WSU) has implemented a Tutor Training and professional development program to assist new and returning tutors to develop strategies to support learning and enhance academic performance and improve the tutoring process to establish, implement, and maintain a comprehensive and quality tutor-training program." [Click on this web link to download the education practice.]
Tactics That Engage Community-College Students Get Few Takers, Study Finds
"Most community colleges have begun using a suite of expert-approved strategies to get more students to graduation. But those programs are often just window dressing, as relatively few students participate in them. Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/10/17/community-college-completion-strategies-lack-scale-report-finds#ixzz2hzE3Mnqe at Inside Higher Ed
That’s the central finding of a new report from the Center for Community College Student Engagement. And Kay McClenney, the center’s director, places blame for the shallow adoption of “high impact” completion practices squarely on colleges and their leaders, rather than on students. “Requiring students to take part in activities likely to enhance their success is a step community colleges can readily take,” McClenney said in a written statement. “They just need to decide to do it.” The study draws from three national surveys that seek to measure student engagement at community colleges that collectively account for 80 percent of the sector’s enrollment. One is the center’s flagship survey -- the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE)....The 13 strategies include the use of academic goal-setting, student orientation, tutoring, accelerated remedial education tracks and student success courses (see box for full list). While experts and faculty members might not agree on whether all of the practices work well, there is an emerging body of evidence that they help boost completion rates.
For example, 84 percent of two-year colleges offer student success courses, which are designed to help new students navigate college and get off to a good start. The courses are particularly helpful to large numbers of lower-income, first-generation college students who attend community college, and who rarely get the support of family members who know the skinny on how college works. Yet only 20 percent of surveyed students took a success courses during their first term, according to the report. The other 12 practices showed similar gaps between being offered and being used. Take tutoring, which has obvious benefits to struggling students. Fully 99 percent of the surveyed colleges offer some form of tutoring, but the report found that only 27 percent of students had taken advantage of it during the current academic year."
Asking students to volunteer for service will not work. They don[t want to face stigma for doing so, they don[t have time for activities that conflict with their two or three part time jobs they have to pay for tuition, and for all the others commitments in their life. The solution is Universal Design for Learning where essential services and support are built directly into classes and required for all students.
California Basic Skills Completion Practices to Increase Student Success
The following is from the document and states its purpose. I highly recommend it for reading on practical resource guide. Click on the following link to open the document and download it if you like. [Open Document] I think it is important to consider as we rethink the future of learning assistance and developmental education programs.
"This document is intended to be a practical resource guide for faculty, administrators, and staff to use as they develop, modify, and adapt data-supported and scalable programs and projects on their campuses. These programs include orientation, helping students learn to help themselves, classroom interventions, and course redesigns. Each year, the 112 California Community Colleges receive supplemental Basic Skills Initiative funding. Our hope is that this resource will help our colleges research, plan and implement programs and practices that will assist their students. This resource is neither a research paper nor a thought piece. It is also not a step-by-step “how to.” Instead, the resource is a guide to assist colleges in developing and implementing action plans for using their Basic Skills Initiative funds and any other available funding to increase student success. We encourage colleges to use these funds to institutionalize successful programs and practices and we discourage colleges’ use to implement new pilot programs that cannot be scaled up or sustained long term."
Disruptive Innovation: Embedding Learning Technology into the Classroom (Kellogg Institute Workshop)
On July 15 and 16 I presented a workshop at the Kellogg Institute on embeding learning technology within the classroom and campus learning center. Click on this link to connect with a special web page that contains all the handouts, PP slides, and web links to other resources. Most of the technologies shared are those I actually use with my gobal history course at the University of Minnesota. Others are ones that I plan to pilot text over the upcoming years.
One basic principle to remember when contemplating use of a new learning technology is a basic one, why? How will the technology help achieve student outocmes better than what is currently used? How difficult will it be for the instructor and the students to use the technology? Students have told me repeatedly that they like learning technology in the classroom as long as it is meaningful. Never make the assumtion that it is easy for students to use without tutorials and support. It is a learning curve for both the instructor and the students.
I am geeky by nature, but make a point to conduct focus groups with students before I introduce new technologies into the classroom. These focus groups often give me insights into new emerging technologies that they are using that could be adapated for use within the classroom. It has taken me a decade to add the learning technolgoies into my class, generally no more than one new thing during an academi semester. I hope you find one or two ideas to experiment with from all the materials provided through this web site. Best wishes with your work.
Embedding Universal Learning Design in the Classroom Workshop, Maricopa Community College System, June 4, 2013
On June 4th I conducted a workshop with a group of educators from the Maricopa Community College System in Arizona on how to embed Universal Learning Design in the Classroom and within Student Services. Below are links to some of the resources shared during the workshop that help explore this topic.
Click on this web link for a separate web page of all the resources shared during the conference.
Additional resources are available through a blog page maintained on this topic. The web site contains audio interviews with some peer study group leaders, links to online resources, and links to training programs from nationally-known organizations. Click on the following web link, PALgroups.
Intentional Teaching Conference, 05/22/13, Eau Claire, WI
On Wednesday May 22, 2013 th I provided an online presentation for a 2nd annual gathering of Wisconsin college developmental educators and others involved with college student success. The host institution was Chippewa Valley Technical College. The following items were referenced through the keynote and concurrent presentations and may be helpful as the reader explores this topic. Click on the web link to download.
Additional resources are available through a blog page maintained on this topic. The web site contains audio interviews with some peer study group leaders, links to online resources, and links to training programs from nationally-known organizations. Click on the following web link, PALgroups.
Models and Resources for Training Peer Study Group Leaders
On Friday, April 26th I provided an online presentation for a gathering of Wisconsin college learning center directors and others involved with college student success. The following items were referenced through the presentation and may be helpful as the reader explores this topic. Click on the web link to download.
Click on this link for a web page devoted to resources shared during this conferencesession.
Additional resources are available through a blog page maintained on this topic. The web site contains audio interviews with some peer study group leaders, links to online resources, and links to training programs from nationally-known organizations. Click on the following web link, PALgroups.