Business and Operations Track

Sponsored by the UPCEA Center for Research and Strategy


Wednesday March 14th | 4:15 - 5:15PM

Succession Planning: Tales From a Successor-Predecessor Duo
Level: Strategic  || Location: GB 9-10
What if your dream position arrives and you cannot pass it up? What if your supervisor leaves and surprise!, you are asked to lead the area or assume additional responsibilities? What if you’re leaving and need to do an unexpected mind-meld with the person stepping in to fill your shoes? Join a former first- and second-in-command duo as they discuss succession planning in a constantly evolving continuing, professional, and online education field. They will engage the audience as they reflect on the outcomes of their actual succession planning - what worked and what didn’t, what they wished they knew beforehand and would have done differently, and how such leadership changes affect online and continuing education at the institutional level. Additional discussion points include strategic preparation for succession planning for the unit and individual skill sets, and strategies for new team building and rebuilding after a leadership departure.

  • Carolyn Callaghan, Shippensburg University
  • Christina Sax, Maryland University of Integrative Health

Moderator: Greg Milton, Sonoma State University


Leadership in a Creative Continuing and Distance Education Organization

Level: Strategic  || Location: Dover C
With the number of non-traditional students on the rise, now is the perfect time to turn your extension school, online education, or CE department into a high-demand educational powerhouse that keeps students coming back for more. Leaders need to understand the best strategies and tools that are needed to work in an organization built on innovation and creativity. In this session, hear from industry leaders on their leadership styles and the styles of those within their institution they observed and collaborated with to bring successful ideas and techniques to their departments. This session will include practical outcomes for you to leverage at your institution, an overview of leadership styles and techniques, as well as take-away plans for working with your teams.

  • Asim Ali, Auburn University
  • Melissa Walden, Texas A&M University System
Moderator: Meni Sarris, Jenzabar

Thursday March 15th | 8:00 - 9:00AM

Budget Models and Organizational Structures: An Exploration
Level: Strategic  || Location: Laurel AB
At tables, participants will share and explore the opportunities and challenges of their different operational and budget models. Participants should be prepared to provide context with a 2-minute elevator speech about their budget model and another about their organizational structure. There is no lecture or presentation in this session: just interaction with your colleagues.

  • Lyla Garner, Mississippi State University - Center for Distance Education
  • Beth Laves, Western Kentucky University
  • D Terry Rawls, Appalachian State University

Moderator: Randy Jones, North Carolina State University


Managing a Diverse Program Portfolio
Level: Applied  || Tag: Emerging Leaders || Location: GB 9-10
Learn about human resource perspectives related to managing a portfolio of diverse continuing education programs and offerings that often require varied leadership approaches. The presenters will outline project management tools that have helped them as managers while empowering staff to take ownership of projects. This presentation will help attendees learn how to better articulate staffing and resource needs to senior leadership. We will conclude by exploring the theme of leading through change, acknowledging budget constraints and the need to justify staffing decisions to your team and senior leadership.

  • Maggie Place, Widener University
  • Nicole Westrick, Temple University

Moderator: Kris Rabberman, University of Pennsylvania

 


Thursday March 15th | 9:30 - 10:30AM

Business & Operations Network UPCEA Talks: Data & Technology
Level: Foundational  || Location: GB 9-10
Moderator: Teri Fuller, University of Denver

Building and Implementing an Digital Technology Roadmap: Bridging the Gap Between Institutional Objectives, Data Demands and Technology Selection
This session focuses on the importance of having a technology roadmap that incorporates current digital demands, online user experience of the student, considers data needs that are in disparate applications and requires the right technology tools to meet today’s continuing education demands.  The presenters will discuss the challenges institutions face with disparate data and managing a online student experience that encourages conversion and repeat enrollments using UCLA Extension as a case study.

  • Wayne Smutz, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Adnan Adamji, Xcelacore
  • Mansoor Anjarwala, Xcelacore


REPORTER: An Enterprise Level Approach for Supporting Institutional Noncredit Activities
In the non-credit, outreach and engagement world, the lack of available automated or enterprise applications to manage the admission, enrollment, and financial transactions of participants is generally the reality. Despite institutions' commitment to operational efficiency, the majority of higher education management of non-credit programs and activities is fragmented and comprised of a disparate set of systems and processes. While the current decentralized structure keeps institutions adaptive and innovative, it confounds institutions’ ability to report, analyze their collaborative work, and to measure the impact of these efforts. Discover how NC State navigated the multi-year journey to our solution. We will share our experience as we moved from traditional off-the-shelf software approaches to an opportunity for digital transformation via an Application Platform as a Service , established business services standards and developed a customized enterprise level system. This presentation will provide experiences and lessons learned from customers, business services and IT.

  • Adalia Sova, North Carolina State University
  • Wendy Laing, North Carolina State University
  • Jack Foster, North Carolina State University

 


Thursday March 15th | 1:45 - 2:45PM

Becoming a Data-Driven School To Create Value for Learners
Level: Applied  || Location: GB 9-10
Recently, the McKinsey Global Institute indicated that data driven organizations are 23 times more likely to acquire customers, six times as likely to retain those customers, and 19 times as likely to be profitable as a result. This presentation outlines the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies journey in establishing decision support tools across the life cycle of our students’ experience with the school. From enrolment forecasting, section planning, enrollment support services through to course evaluations and grade reports we will highlight the analytic tools and methods that support academic planning and decision making and how this has translates into creating value for our leaners. Discussion will also highlight the challenges the School faces in our quest to embrace value-driven decision-making. Using our experience as a case study, the presentation will also share guiding principles and proven practices to help your data analytics strategy a success.

  • Steven Boyle, University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies
  • Michael Kung, University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies
Moderator: Patrice Miles, Georgia Institute of Technology

Thursday March 15th | 4:30 - 5:30PM

Appreciative Inquiry: A Positive Approach To Change
Level: Applied  || Tag: Best in Show: New England || Location: GB 9-10
Appreciative inquiry (AI) is based on a simple assumption that every organization has something that works right—and AI begins by identifying what is positive and connecting to it in ways that heighten energy and vision for change. This strength-based perspective is far more successful than one which is rooted in a focus on deficits. In this powerful session, discuss the unintended consequences of deficit or problem-based change approaches, and contrast them with the focus on using strengths to create shared positive images of future possibilities that underlies the AI theory and method.

  • Deborah Mathews, University of Rhode Island
  • Lori Herz, University of Rhode Island
Moderator: Edward Howard, Virginia Commonwealth University


Business & Operations Network UPCEA Talks: Faculty & Staff Development
Level: Foundational  || Location: Essex
Moderator: Janet Staker Woener, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Building an Adjunct Faculty Development Structure
With tight budgets and limited resources, the Wentworth Institute of Technology College of Professional and Continuing Education has defined a way to provide adjunct faculty the services and acknowledgement they seek. A faculty structure is presented that offers a path toward recognition, long-term teaching, development, and service opportunities.  The focus is on implementing, building, and maintaining the structure, as well as methods to partner with academic departments. Examples of the structure include faculty titles, service opportunities, and the correlation of course evaluation results to long-term teaching goals.  Research, data sources, and experiences are shared on which the structure is based. Benefits, challenges, and lessons learned are reviewed. Attendee input on successful strategies from their home institutions will be solicited through the conference and spotlighted within the presentation.

  • Kimberly Hall, Wentworth Institute of Technology

 
Building and Developing a Faculty Body
What does it mean to be a 'school?'  UVA's School of Continuing and Professional Studies tackled this question seven years ago. One step towards answering the question: establishing a faculty body beyond the pool of hundreds of wage faculty.  This session will cover the steps taken, the benefits gained and lessons learned.

  • Cindy Reed, University of Virginia
  • Ray Johnson, University of Virginia
  • Barbara Kessler, University of Virginia


Strengthening Your Inner Core:  Implementing a Mentorship Program That Is Valued By Staff

Successful organizations today rely on strong teams and the ongoing development of staff. Staff look for unique opportunities to increase their skill set; mentoring is one such opportunity.  Implementing a Mentorship Program in your unit can provide staff the ability to broaden their work perspective and produce the ability for staff to connect with a more seasoned staff member so that they can grow professionally.  This session will begin with a research-based introduction to mentoring, and provide guidelines for what is good, or effective (and bad, or ineffective) mentoring in the context of continuing and professional education.  The purpose and value of an internal mentoring program will also be discussed.  Presenters will share the model and process that they used to implement a mentoring program in the Rutgers Division of Continuing Studies, share lessons learned, and explore participant/program outcomes based on interviews and surveys of the pilot study.

  • Barbara Rusen, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
  • David Shernoff, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey


Pedagogy To Practice: Competency Based Staff Development Models

Learn how the University of Maryland University College's Office of the Registrar is using AACRAO's Professional Competencies as the foundation for a competency based staff professional development model. This program uses a industry aligned set of competencies tied with a project-based approach, including rubrics and assessments, to allow staff to grow and demonstrate targeted competencies. In this session, you will learn  how to leverage existing resources to engage and guide staff in ways that mirror our pedagogical competency based methods. See how, with facilitated discussion, this framework can be modified to meet the unique needs of your office.

  • Insiya Bream, University of Maryland University College
  • Joellen Shendy, University of Maryland University College

Friday March 16th | 9:45 - 10:45AM


Learn more about the Business and Operations Network.


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