Spring 2019 PD Day (Tuesday, January 8)

Student Retention: Tips from Faculty

9:00-10:10 a.m., RJ Wills Lecture Hall

Presenters: Faculty Panel, including Kate Earney, English Instructor; Elizabeth Reves, Outreach Coordinator/ Workplace Essentials Instructor; Meredith Stanton, English Instructor; and Gary Winkler, Business Instructor

A panel of veteran faculty will present some of their techniques for retaining students and increasing student success and engagement.  Participants will have a chance to ask questions and to share some of their own tips.

Learning Objective:

• Learn about various techniques for increasing retention

10:15-11:00 a.m., RJ Wills Lecture Hall

Presenter: Jasmine Williams, Curriculum, Assessment, and Technology Specialist

Life is hectic; sometimes students fall off track. Nudge your students in the right direction with the help of the Blackboard Retention Center. This easy-to-use alert system, will keep you and your students in sync with their progress throughout the semester.

Learning Objective:

• Learn how to use the Blackboard Retention Center

11:10 a.m.-12:10 p.m., RJ Wills Lecture Hall

Presenter: Academic Impressions recorded webinar

As instructors, we owe it to students to make classrooms as engaging as possible. There is a new, and welcome, attention being given to doing more to maintain student interest, to engage students in new and different ways, and to ultimately retain and graduate more students, especially those who are at-risk and may already feel disengaged from the college experience.

We will explore ways we can be more creative:

• First day/week of class, setting the stage
• During lectures (e.g., tag team lecturing)
• During discussions (e.g., protocols for divergent student voices)
• Throughout course (e.g., photo challenges, song challenges, and readings/viewings)
• During formative and summative assessments (e.g., co-constructing exams, stories/digital stories (Adobe Spark), podcasts, and photojournalism)
• Providing Feedback

Learning Objectives:

• Learn how to provide multiple access points for your students’ learning more effectively in your classroom
• Learn how to evaluate your current teaching methods and consider ways to incorporate more choice and creativity in your classroom

1:00-1:30 a.m., RJ Wills Lecture Hall

Presenter: Mason Campbell, Dean of Student Affairs

In this session, you will learn how to navigate and utilize the Jenzabar Early Alert System.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the basic structure and function of the Early Alert System
• Learn the importance of Early Alert as it relates to student retention and success
• Be able to identify specific tools within the Early Alert System
• Be able to submit and follow up on an Early Alert

1:45-2:45 p.m., BTC 222

Presenter: Jayne Pyle, Program Director, Professional Development Institute

Student engagement impacts student satisfaction and retention and persistence rates. This is especially true for online courses, where students are removed from the campus and may have little interaction with the instructor or other students.  In this session, we will discuss a variety of tools to creating and improving student engagement in both online and face-to-face classes. I will provide examples of how these tools may be utilized in various courses, and I will provide links to free and low-cost options available online. Attendees will be encouraged to think outside the box to come up with new ways to use the resources.

 

Learning Objectives:

• Learn about different online tools you can use to enhance student engagement
• Gain first-hand experience from the student’s perspective

3:00-3:20 p.m., BTC 222

Presenter: Magna Publications recorded webinar

Many students don’t have a clear understanding of what learning really means and how to go about it. Too often, they rely on ineffectual passive methods such as reviewing their notes or skimming their textbooks. They underestimate the difficulty in learning and overestimate their understanding.  Educators have to instruct their students not only in the course material itself, but also in how to learn it, how to engage with it, how to consider interrelationships and draw inferences. The presenter lays out diverse, ready-to-go approaches that educators in any discipline can apply almost immediately.

 

Learning Objectives

• Identify common student misperceptions about learning
• Acquire instructional strategies to help them as learners
• Teach them the value of interrelationships between concepts
• Assign projects that require deep work, interpretation, and application
• Focus on productive task characteristics
• Consider the place and importance of using rewards

3:30-3:50 p.m., BTC 222

Presenter: Magna Publications recorded webinar

Students who put more effort into their coursework almost always see better results. More importantly, this effort equates to a growth mindset that nurtures lifelong learning. Other students exhibit a fixed mindset, concentrating on short-term measurements like grades, without developing their natural talents to the fullest. With a combination of strategies, teachers can transform students’ fixed mindsets, boost their confidence in their abilities, help them overcome setbacks in their education, and strengthen their persistence to learn.

Learning Objectives:

• Grasp the concepts of grit, tenacity, perseverance, and persistence, including presenters' three-part strategy for teaching grit.
• Discover both instructional and classroom strategies that promote a growth mindset.
• See how to get students to want to learn and how to draw students into the dynamics of the class and use their feedback to ignite their interest.

Schedule-at-a-Glance

Time	Session Title	Location
9:00-10:10 a.m.	Student Retention: Tips from Faculty	RJ Wills
10:15-11:00 a.m.	Blackboard Retention Center	RJ Wills
11:10 a.m.-12:10 p.m.	Engaging Students through Creativity in Instruction	RJ Wills
1:00-1:30 p.m.	Early Alert Basics	RJ Wills
1:45-2:45 p.m.	Using Technology to Enhance Student Engagement	BTC 222
3:00-3:20 p.m.	How Can I Help Students See that Sweat—Working Hard and Smart—is Key to Their Success?	BTC 222
3:30-3:50 p.m.	How Does Grit Team with a Growth Mindset to Cultivate Lifelong Learning?	BTC 222