Accelerated Learning for a Two-Speed Labor Market
Presenter: Peter Walton, Associate Director, Writing and Communications Program, Continuing Studies Lifelong Learning, Simon Fraser University
Canada boasts one of the most educated populations on earth. More than 56 percent of 25 to 34-year-olds in the country have post-secondary credentials. But there’s a problem: a growing divide between have and have-not occupations. Our highly educated, creative graduates are increasingly under-employed or unemployed in what analysts call a two-speed labor market: one is high speed, where skilled jobs go unfilled, and the other is a low-speed market awash with educated workers who can’t find jobs. This session will explore one solution for people without jobs and jobs without people – accelerated PSE continuing studies programs.
Flex Your Distance Education Muscles
Presenter: Kevin Shanley, Manager of Distance Education, Utah State University
For years online education has been known for its flexibility and availability to adult learners. Recently the online program at Utah State University has expanded this flexibility by breaking the traditional semester mold, offering condensed online courses and more open entry/open exits options. These new flexible approaches have allowed students to take courses when the traditional semester dates don't fit their schedule, or if they have are considering a planned leave of absence. This presentation will cover the new course models, the challenges presented, and solutions we've found to provide a highly flexible program without compromising our current course quality, registration processes or course delivery infrastructure.
Big Data/Small Data: Analytics on a Local Scale
Presenter: Margaret Worob, Student Support Manager, Extended University, Montana State University
Montana State University has been surveying users of its learning management system since spring 2010; students every semester and faculty once a year. This session will focus on how the resulting data are used to make administrative decisions about learning management system implementation, to advocate for its effective use, to identify and respond to common concerns, and even to pass information back to the vendor. While we find sophisticated analytics products tantalizing, we find valuable nuggets in our own rough ore. The session will allow time for attendees to share some of their own experiences and suggestions for ways to leverage local data.
Advancing Rural Development Through Regional Campus and Distance Education Systems
Presenter: Steven Hawks, Dean and Executive Director, Moab and Southwest Region, Utah State University
This session will consider the outreach role of regional campuses and distance education programs as they relate to a variety of development outcomes within rural communities. Specifically, the presentation will adopt a historical perspective in: 1) Considering the justification for efforts that target rural development, 2) Reviewing the many challenges involved with rural program delivery, 3) Exploring a variety of strategies for rural engagement, and 4) Outlining potential future directions for enhancing rural access to higher education. An overview of Utah State University's multi-campus system will be presented with respect to rural development objectives, including organizational, fiscal, program, and leadership strategies. Participants who attend this session will be provided with a broad perspective on the impact of higher education on rural development, and will be provided with an opportunity to explore a variety of operational strategies for accomplishing rural development goals at their home institutions.
The Theory of Margin or How Much Can Your Students Handle?
Presenter: Karl Stevens, Director of SUU Online, School of Continuing & Professional Studies, Southern Utah University
You have issues of daily life to contend with. This is your “load.” You also have resources to help you deal with your load. This is your “power.” The load-to-power ratio determines your “margin in life,” the unused capacity you have in your life for additional responsibility. This session focuses on Howard McClusky’s Theory of Margin and how it can inform us as continuing education professionals where and how our programs and services fit in our students lives. What can we do to reduce students’ load or increase their power? It might even provide insight into your own life. Individual results may vary.
Best Practices in Faculty-Led Study Abroad Program Development
Presenters: Adrienne Richart, Program Director, College of Extended Studies, San Diego State University; Kevin Carter, Program Director, College of Extended Studies, San Diego State University.
As the national trend toward short-term study abroad programs continues, institutions are looking to their continuing education units to meet the demand for faculty-led study abroad. This session will focus on how the College of Extended Studies (CES) at San Diego State University is managing growth by streamlining institutional practices while prioritizing student safety and security abroad. CES staff will share their model that successfully addresses risk management, recruitment, and payment challenges in an environment of ever-increasing demand.
Success Strategies for Growing Your Corporate Business
Presenters: Erik Sherman, Account Manager, Augusoft, Inc., and Joe Miera, Associate Dean Business Operations, Continuing Education/Extended University, University of New Mexico
Your corporate business programs require special strategies to grow and flourish. Making the right moves in the right order will minimize risk and burnout while you make your way to success. Get the essential tactics to get your program on track for growth and success, one step at a time, from someone who has taken a program from less than $0 to $4M.
State Authorizations Panel
Panelists: Dr. Marshall Hill, Executive Director of the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA) Dr. Rebecca Van de Vord, Associate Director, Washington State University Global Campus Lindsay Gunther, online course consultant, Linfield College
Moderator: Kelly Newell, Director of non-credit programs, Washington State University Global Campus
New this year, the State Authorization Panel is designed to start a conversation about the process, issues and future of State Authorizations as they relate to distance and online education programs. Dr. Marshall Hill, executive director of the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA), will discuss the movement toward reciprocity between states as they apply to state authorizations. Dr. Rebecca Van de Vord, associate director of the Global Campus at Washington State University, will discuss the decision-making process, along with the process they have followed to ensure a comprehensive plan for the university. Lindsay Gunther, an online course consultant at Linfield College, will discuss the perspective on state authorization that a small liberal arts institution holds, with regard to the impact on student enrollment, the costs to the institution, and how a small college makes decisions regarding the return on investment for establishing state authorizations.
Non-Credit Program Management: Organizational Modeling For Success
Presenter: John DeLalla, Director, Continuing Education, University of Arizona Sierra Vista
Based upon a presentation from the last UPCEA Region West Conference in Park City, and with new data from a statewide study of non-credit continuing education programs added in, learn about an organization model used for non-credit program management. Stories are used to illustrate points relating to the four E's (Education, Experience, Enrollment, Economics) of continuing education. You should attend if you’re a CE leader or manager that is starting, revitalizing or simply want to achieve greater success with your program. You’ll be presented with a model through stories, examples and theoretical knowledge of how to create and run a successful (measured by revenue and student satisfaction) non-credit program. Lively discussion often follows from fellow participants – be prepared to contribute and learn how to innovate your program to higher levels of success.
Exploring the World of MOOC Higher Education
Presenters: Mark Novak, Associate Vice President and Dean, College of International and Extended Studies, San Jose State University; Karen Girton-Snyder, Director of Distance Learning, California State University, Northridge; Jeet Joshee, Associate Vice President and Dean, College of Continuing and Professional Education, California State University, Long Beach.
Will MOOCs (massive open online courses) "change higher education as we know it" as some people claim? This panel presentation will explore the potential of the MOOC format. Representatives of three large California State University campuses will report on their exploration and practice of MOOC courses and programs. The panel will explore the pros and cons of MOOC education as seen from their institutions' perspective. The panelists will describe the approaches they've taken in learning about and developing MOOC courses and programs. The session will encourage audience dialogue in order to broaden our collective understanding of MOOC potential.
Starting from Scratch: Leveraging Campus Resources to find Non-Credit Success
Presenter: Brian Sly-Haley, Professional Programs Manager, Division of Extended Programs, Western Oregon University
Creating new non-credit programs can be a daunting process. They’re often financially self-supporting, appeal to a narrow student population and face many of the same challenges small businesses face during early development. In 2010, Western Oregon University’s administration faced a decision: after years of steadily decreasing non-credit enrollment the university could either discontinue offering non-credit programs or rebuild and redefine campus non-credit programming. We chose the latter. We ultimately found our way to career training programs and the Healthcare Interpreting Program after 14 months of planning, community conversations and needs assessments. Started in 2012, this popular program has already trained over 60 students, created a unique language learning partnership with Rosetta Stone and generated industry interest to expand the training into other fields of interpreting; particularly court, conference and community interpreting. This UPCEA presentation will share our process and challenges faced when rebuilding a department and developing a new program from scratch. Participants should leave the session with an idea of how they could create similar business and community focused training programs on their campuses.
Leadership Discussion Forum
Presenters: Bill Fornadel, Associate Dean, and Wendy Evers, Executive Director of Initiatives and Outreach, College of Extended Studies, San Diego State University; Rita Martinez Purson, Associate Dean, Outreach College, University of Arizona; Lisa Templeton, Executive Director, Extended Campus, Oregon State University; Fred Holman, Vice Provost for Extended Studies, University of Nevada, Reno; Jenni Murphy, Sr. Director Communications & Emerging Markets, Sacramento State, CSU
Continuing education leaders must constructively and consistently redefine “business as usual” to face internal and external challenges. This facilitated workshop will employ leadership groups to address and discuss specific questions, challenges and scenarios in continuing education. How has the economy, reduction of workforces, state deficits, changed the way we do business. How can we be more innovative with the changes? Seasoned, creative, and novice leaders are encouraged to attend.
11 Rules of Responsible Web Design: Building accessible, mobile-responsive, touchscreen-friendly websites
Presenters: Ian Cavalier, Lead Web Developer/Designer, Extended Campus, Oregon State University; Jeremy Reukauf, Web Developer/Designer, Extended Campus
In 2013, users expect their experience on your website to adapt across all devices they use. Recently, the practice of building separate mobile (m-dot) versions of websites has shifted to responsive design. Responsive sites enable a broad range of devices and browsers to have access to a single source of content. These websites can elegantly adapt to any screen size, including smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktops. But responsible web design goes beyond device form factor, and focuses on creating satisfying, relevant experiences for users of all abilities. Content accessibility should exceed "508 compliance." As web designers, we strive to ensure that complete content is always available in a useful format. We will discuss how to make responsive, finger-friendly websites for modern touchscreen devices. We will share principles of accessible design to better serve individuals with different categories of disabilities, including visual, motor and hearing. We will demonstrate examples of progressive enhancement, including WAI-ARIA landmarks, to make your site functional without a keyboard or mouse, or when using assistive technology like screen readers and ability switches.
Promoting Best Practices through Collaboration, Staff Training, and Technology
Presenters: Emily Moore, Program Director, and Becky Ryan, Senior Program Director, College of Extended Studies, San Diego State University
Discover how to leverage technology resources and instructional design methodologies by collaborating with staff members throughout your organization to curate and deliver your most efficient, effective business processes. Learn from a case study presented by the developer of the College of Extended Studies (CES) Learning Resources Portal and a member of the committee that informed design of the Portal and also collaborated to create a comprehensive staff training program to support the reorganization of the college’s programming areas at San Diego State University’s CES. After participating in live trainings and accessing recordings of the training sessions, job aids, learning activities, and related resources from a single online password-protected location, staff members demonstrated improved knowledge of job-related information. Take away recommendations for how to develop a comprehensive staff training program and accompanying learning resources to support effective program management, best practices, and innovation at your institution.
Thinking Strategically About the Value of Competency Based Education
Presenters: Nancy Salzman, Dean, and Vicki Brannock, Director, School of Extended Education, Brandman University
What is “Competency Based Education” (CBE) and how can it provide value to our continuing education portfolios, target audiences, and bottom line? Brandman University has been recognized as a leader in this movement. Join in the discussion as they define competency based education, detail its benefits and challenges, consider various delivery modes, explore ROI as compared to other educational models, and provide examples as to how you can use the same in your programming. Leave this workshop with an understanding of competency based education and a plan for delivering competency based education and training that meets and exceeds the expectations of your students and corporate clients.
Deserve the Students you Need
Presenters: Chōkdee Rutirasiri, Founder and CEO, Story+Structure, and Janet Gifford, Director of Marketing, Division of Continuing Education, Linfield College
Marketing professionals have always embodied a pioneering spirit; staking claims for our institutions in new digital frontiers, social media and many others. Many marketers in PCE units are being tasked to once again go into new territory: enrollment marketing. Enrollment marketers have to do more than generate leads for their institution. They have to create and manage strategies to develop and cultivate those leads as well as provide data on the success of their efforts. In this interactive session presenters Guy Felder and Chōkdee Rutirasiri will provide insights on developing the foundation for a strong recruiting strategy based in empathy and the understanding that we must deserve each student that registers/applies for our programs. Once a solid recruiting strategy is in place, PCE marketers can leverage that strategy to guide marketing and communications planning. This session will apply to those who have marketing responsibility for one program or 100 programs.
Creating a Trail for the Future: Intentional Reinvention
Presenters: Sarah Sharp-Aten, Assistant Dean and Director of Business and Student Services; Anne Jones, Associate Dean and Director of Education Programs, UC Riverside Extension, and Sandra Richards, Director, Science, Law and Humanities, UC Riverside Extension
As an effective, self-sustaining arm of the University, it is all too easy to continue doing “business as usual.” However, in an effort to leverage our success, we proactively chose to consider change during a particularly productive time our organization. Motivated by a recognition that we needed to re-examine the ways in which we might expand our program offerings and fine-tune business practices to serve our future clientele, the UCR Extension leadership engaged an outside facilitator to conduct a strategic planning retreat. What emerged from this process of intense self-examination was a shared realization that we were on a collision course with obsolescence, which inspired a transformative vision for institutional transformation. This session will discuss the journey of institutional self-discovery and our vision for formulating an inclusive strategy for comprehensive reinvention. The session will focus on an interactive dialogue about leading during a time of transformation and change.
Technology Enhanced Learning: A Project Case Study of How a Large Urban Public Comprehensive University is Developing and Offering Online Summer Classes
Presenters: Eric Bullard, Associate Dean, College of Continuing and Professional Education, California State University Long Beach; Debbie Hildreth Pisarcik, Associate Director, and Marvin Mayo, Instructional Designer, Technology Enhanced Learning Center, California State University Long Beach
This presentation will provide insight into how Summer Session is being used as an impetus to develop fully online courses at a large urban public comprehensive university. Although campus administrators and faculty have been slow to adopt technology as a strategy to improve student learning, this ongoing project has opened new dialogue that has resulted in the use of technology becoming a core strategy for meeting the learning and schedule demands of the campus’ 21st century student body. The incorporation of online summer classes has resulted in increased enrollment during Summer Session, and online classes that were developed for the summer are now being used during the fall and spring semesters. The session will provide in-depth information on how to engage and persuade campus administrators and faculty to develop online courses using Summer Session as the primary driver. Discussion will also include obtaining buy-in from university leadership, solicitation and selection of faculty participants, financial models, instructional design perspectives, pre- and post- project assessment, enrollment information, student participation, student persistence, best practices, and lessons learned.
Developing an Intake System for a New CE Unit
Presenters: Chris LaBelle, Director, and Bridget, Egan, Program Manager, Professional and Noncredit Education, Oregon State University
As the requests entering our unit's queue have grown over time, we've needed a more objective and discerning process to evaluate new project proposals. As our team defined the process and needed toolset, some of the questions that surfaced were instrumental in defining our direction: How do we define priority? How do we make our process more “democratic” and should we create a custom online system or repurpose existing tools? Is it possible to include a return on investment assessment attached to each new project evaluation? Come and learn more about how our relatively new unit designed, developed and then rolled out this new tool and how our clients welcomed this more automated approach to project intake. We’re eager to learn more about how your group handles intake and assigns priority to projects, so be prepared to share.
Driving Institutional Change: How Online Strategy is Creating ‘Winners’ and ‘Losers,’ What that Means for Traditional Continuing Education Units, and Why it Matters to UPCEA
Guest Speaker: Robert Hansen, UPCEA Chief Executive Officer
In this session, Bob Hansen shares brief profiles of several representative institutions approaching online education in very different ways. He reflects on the implications of those stories, both for the future of our universities and the professions served by UPCEA. A dialogue with conference participants concludes the session.
Dean’s Panel 2013 — Peering into the Crystal Ball: The Top 10 Issues CE Leaders Should be Watching in the Next 1-3 Years
Panelists: Sheila Thomas, State University Dean for Extended and Continuing Education for the California State University, Office of the Chancellor Joe Shapiro, Dean, College of Extended Studies, San Diego State University Nancy Salzman, Dean of the School of Extended Education, Brandman University Martha Van Cleave, Interim Director, Division of Continuing Education, Linfield College
Moderator: W. Reed Scull, Associate Dean, Outreach School, and Director, Division of Outreach Credit Programs, University of Wyoming
You won't want to miss this session, rated "Best in Conference” by attendees last year!
Continuing education deans are often looked to for anticipating and preparing for issues that will have immediate, short- and long-term impacts on the direction of their organizations. Some issues are manageable (e.g., budgets), while others are simply unavoidable (e.g., accreditation). Deans on the panel have been asked to identify and share their top 10 issues, and the moderator will generate discussion on issues that might not appear in the deans’ lists and on others that appeared across the deans’ selections. Through the panel discussion, it is hoped that CE professionals at a variety of organizational levels and with a variety of specialties will develop a more keen sense of what the future might hold for them and their organizations. Time will be available for questions and answers, and participants are strongly encouraged to bring their own “top 10” lists to the session to guide their comments and questions.