And the Super Heroes Are...You! **
Salon A
Track: Program Planning and Implementation
Learn from a panel of veteran administrators in PCO education about how to make your unit more visible on campus, especially with top administrators of your university. Build upon your strengths (you are SUPER HEROES!) for needed supports and collaborations. Innovation and great ideas need to be shared with all stakeholders. Don't keep your great programs to yourself! You never know who can provide assistance and bring more value to the good work you do if you don't take the time to showcase and promote the programs and efforts of your team. Q & A will be included.

• Carolyn Jankowski, Stony Brook University
• Kristine Rabberman, University of Pennsylvania
• Lorelee Isbell, Pennsylvania's State System of Higher Education
• Carolyn Callaghan, Shippensburg University
• Melissa Lubin, James Madison University

Build an App to Solve an Ed Tech Problem... Without Coding Knowledge
Glen Echo
Track: Online Administration
Two applications have been successfully developed and implemented at the University of Delaware’s Division of Professional and Continuing Studies using AppSheet, a no-code development platform. The first mobile app was designed for the UD Online Testing Center and allows proctors to utilize digital signatures and timestamps for student identity verification and exam check in. The second app was designed for the Summer Faculty Institute in order to scan attendees’ name tags to create a log of event and session attendance. This session will introduce AppSheet and demonstrate these custom apps. Planning and design tips will be provided so you can get started on building inexpensive applications that will allow you to digitize paper-based processes, view real-time data, and improve data collection and analysis.

• Aviva Heyn, University of Delaware

Marketing - A Lighthouse in the Storm: How to Stay Focused on Marketing during Organizational Change
Salon C
Track: Marketing, Enrollment, & Student Services
This session will use a modified SWOT analysis to identify individual, organizational pressing issues, then present a working formula for focusing on building, maintaining and protecting the brand. In the form of a case study, SMU will present on the challenges facing an institution in the process of launching two brands and sun-setting another. The process of transforming initial brand confusion into brand clarity is clearly displayed in a timeline.

• Laura Cazayoux, MindMax
• Larenda Mielke, Southern Methodist University

The Fantastic Four: Super Powers You Need to Build a Successful Unit
Salon B
Track: Business and Operations
After 10 years, 5 presidents, 4 provosts and some luck we have established a continuing education unit at a small, traditional, four-year, primarily undergraduate liberal arts institution located in a rural area in the south. We will share our story and reflect on lessons learned based around four key areas (super powers): revenue, ideas, customers and customer service. We will share a timeline of our journey, ideas that worked and those that did not, where we found support & advice-including UPCEA, and where we are now and hope to be in the future. There will be two opportunities within the session for participants to discuss a prompt in small groups and then share single, key word answers with the whole group as well as two electronic opportunities to participate.

• Jeannine Perry, Longwood University
• Shelly Madden, Longwood University

Network Speed Dating
Forest Glen
In this kinetic session, meet representatives from each of the six UPCEA Networks--areas of practice that define professional, continuing, and online education. Find your professional home, network across the organization, and learn how you can get involved and take advantage of the Network resources to help you grow professionally.

Business and Operations: Patrice Miles, Georgia Tech  
Community and Economic Engagement: Janice Sitzes, NCSU
International: Cyrus Homayounpour, GWU
Marketing, Enrollment and Student Services: Tomea Knight, Penn; Melissa Feuer, GWU
Online Administration: Asim Ali, Auburn
Program Planning and Implementation: Dixie Cartwright, Mississippi State

Moderators: Beth Mulherrin, UMUC and Julie Uranis, UPCEA

Addressing Critical Employer Skill Gaps
Salon A
Track: Program Planning and Implementation
This working session will provide a use case on how to use an employer aligned strategy to connect modern day adult learners with employers in need of appropriately prepared workers to fill critical skill gaps. It is a significant challenge that can be overcome with the right strategy to make attendees “superheroes” for their schools.

• Dr. Aleksandar (Sasha) Tomic, Boston College
• William Rieders, Meteor Learning

Become a Culture Superhero! **
Salon B
Track: Business and Operations
How can all levels of staff recognize and harness the power of culture to move the unit forward? Does your unit intentionally link office culture to mission? How does your team respond to organizational change? In this presentation, two leaders of Continuing Education (CE) units will explore the unique aspects of our work that present challenges to healthy office culture and stifle forward momentum. The presenters will apply Tuckman’s (1965) stages of team development to highlight the interdependence of content, process, and feelings, and they will lead participants to recognize their superpower – creating and supporting positive culture! This session will include an interactive workshop designed to help you link your office culture to the mission of your unit or institution.

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

Expand the Reach and Accessibility of Verified Learning Outcomes with Institution-Wide Digital Credentialing
Salon C
Track: Community and Economic Engagement
What happens when an institution taps into the potential of digital credentials across not just one type of program or another - but many, all at once? Rutgers University recognizes learning outcomes through digital credentials across the institution’s mission, staff training, and both credit and non-credit achievements with a focus on employability skills. Join us for a conversation with key decision-makers at Rutgers University who fully embrace the portable, verifiable, mappable potential of digital credentials across a variety of credit, non-credit and mission-based programs.

• Pete Janzow, Credly
• Richard Novak, Rutgers University
• Xenia Morin, Rutgers University

To Partner or Not to Partner? How an Institution Decided to Partner with an OPM and then Changed Its Mind
Glen Echo
Track: Online Administration
Auburn University's most recent Strategic Plan called for starting undergraduate degree completion programs in select areas. In order to jumpstart its efforts in 2014, Auburn opted to partner with an OPM. In 2018, Auburn ended its partnership. This conversation will allow participants to go through an exercise to determine scenarios where working with an OPM is advisable for an institution, lessons learned in establishing a partnership, and key ways of transitioning from an OPM relationship to in-house management.

• Asim Ali, Auburn University

Engage in a highly interactive session with a panel of senior leaders on where our dynamic field is headed. Alternative credentials, shifting demographics, and new models are already shaping how institutions serve students. This group of panelists will provide their unique perspectives on organizational and market forces that are emerging, how they are responding at their institutions, and how UPCEA members will lead us into the near-term future (2025!).

• Nelson Baker, Dean, Professional Education
  Georgia Institute of Technology

• 

  Sandi Pershing, Assistant Vice President Engagement
  University of Utah
  
  President, UPCEA
  
  
  
  

• 

  Joellen Shendy, Associate Vice Provost and Registrar
  University of Maryland University College
  
  
  
  

• Bob Hansen, CEO
  UPCEA

Building Your Professional Profile **
Salon C
Track: Business and Operations
Your everyday job can be part of a bigger story. Learn about building your professional profile and actively shaping your career from those who’ve been there before. Hear about the key inflection points on their career paths, how to identify your own, and key steps you can take today to create the career opportunities you want for yourself, your teams, and your organization.

• Amy Heitzman, UPCEA
• Thomas Kowalik, AGB Search
• JuanEs Ramirez, Appalachian State University
• Karen Bull, Syracuse University
• Jessica Brinker, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
• Laura Jacobsen, Radford Univeristy

Bull's Eye: A Multi-Layered Approach to Target Marketing
Glen Echo
Track: Marketing, Enrollment, & Student Services
This session will walk attendees through the process of target marketing through a variety of high-engagement activities. This presentation will cover the enrollment funnel, generational overview and marketing strategies for Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, Zennials, Millennials and Gen Z, copy writing, branding, and good examples of ROI.

• Davia Rose Lassiter, Kennesaw State University

Focus on Funding
Salon B
Track: Business and Operations
Mississippi State University Center for Distance Education underwent a major transformation in 2012 which included leadership, funding, and name change. Prior to 2012, five different funding models had been used in a ten year span. This session will briefly cover the past and current funding models and processes along with the factors which mitigated change and growth. Attendees will be encouraged to share their institution’s models.

• Lyla Garner, Mississippi State University

Teamwork and Tools: Aligning Instructional Design and Project Management
Salon A
Track: Program Planning and Implementation
Manage your projects like a pro by using what you already know about instructional design. By paying careful attention to their needs, you can build a system that promotes your team's ownership over its design process. Discover the tools that will help you learn more about this process, build in accountability, and optimize your team's productivity.

• Ashlie Pincince, Auburn University

Communicating Through Effective Feedback **
Salon C
Track: Online Administration
Providing feedback can be time consuming, especially in a written format. Feedback provided can often be taken out of context or misinterpreted in the online environment. This session will help faculty members avoid being overwhelmed and fatigued in the feedback process. Effective strategies will be identified to avoid feedback pitfalls deescalating student complaints and conflict.

• Dannett Babb, Walden University

From Robin to Batman: Bringing CE to the Core of the Future University
Salon B
Track: Business and Operations
CE Divisions sit at the hub of a triangle that brings together students, employers and the main campus. But as main campuses lag in meeting the needs of the other two groups, CE divisions have a major role to play in modernizing the campus and positioning themselves at the center of the modern and future university. This presentation will share insights from leaders across North America—and examples from a long-tenured campus leader—on how this can be accomplished.

• Amrit Ahluwalia, The EvoLLLution
• Jim Broomall, University of Delaware

Taste of Our Own Medicine: Stepping into Online Teaching from Digital Administration
Salon A
Track: Program Planning and Implementation
After a couple of decades running prominent online learning programs at Stevens Institute of Technology and NYU, encouraging faculty to put aside their anxieties and other negative attitudes towards digital education, Robert Ubell will report on his own experience developing his first online course at The New School’s professional studies unit. He will reveal his own trepidation and discomfort in accepting the assignment and throughout online course creation. In parallel, Ilan Jacobson will report on how The New School’s process of engaging faculty, coupled with hands-on guidance, starting with expert partnership in course development through to top-of-the line video recording and other professional facilities and staff help alleviate faculty insecurities to produce high-quality virtual courses designed to generate active student participation.

• Ilan Jacobsohn, The New School
• Robert Ubell, The New School

The Impossibles:  Identifying the Barriers to Awarding Higher-Education Credit for Workplace Professional Development
Glen Echo
Track: Community and Ecnomic Engagement
Why has awarding credit for prior learning yet to be accomplished wide-scale? This session will provide a general overview of the changing demographics of higher-education, the educational needs of a 21st Century Workforce, and identify barriers that hinder a wider implementation of awarding credit for prior learning. An overview of current non-credit to credit conversion programs will be touched upon and best practice approaches will be highlighted. This session will include a discussion to share ideas of how to break barriers looking at the topic through the lens of the 1966 animated Hanna-Barbera superheroes The Impossibles.

• Osmar Padilla, Louisiana State University
• Kara Neidell, Western Kentucky University
• Nicole D. Hurlbutt, Penn State University

Group Awards: Showcase
Forest Glen

• Nichole Henry, Syracuse University

Jason Tyszko, Vice President, Center for Education and Workforce
U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation

Deep Dive: U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation Talent Pipeline Management™ Initiative
Salon A
Track: Community and Economic Engagement
Dive deeply into the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation Talent Pipeline Management initiative, and explore ways to help your institution mobilize the business community to close the skills gap by applying lessons learned from supply chain management to education and workforce partnerships

• Jason Tyzsko, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation
  
  

Strategic Look at Emerging Technologies **
Salon C
Track: Online Administration
New and emerging technologies are changing the delivery modes and certifications of learning in our field. Blockchain, augmented reality, virtual reality and even more advanced technologies enabled by artificial intelligence and machine learning are on the horizon for the near term. This session will introduce the terms and technologies as well as applications in continuing and professional education. The focus will be strategic implementation and competition.

• Ray Schroeder, UPCEA & University of Illinois Springfield

Striving for Excellence: Creating an Instructor Development Program for Non-Credit Instruction at UTC
Salon B
Track: Business and Operations

The journey toward an instructor development program began with a recognition that our instructor team was as much a marketing investment as it was a payroll expense. After all, who is the face of the product line you are selling? Naturally, it's the person in front of the room imparting knowledge to your participants. As UTC continued to have these conversations, internally, we recognized that we would need to establish standards and ask our instructors to adhere to them. To this end, we began a process of instructor auditions, reviewed by peer evaluators to determine that a potential instructor had the necessary skill sets to be successful in a classroom. To share highlights of the development process, this session will be presented by the director of the Center for Professional Education and the lead instructor responsible for developing the model.

• John Freeze, Univesity of Tennessee at Chattanooga
• Carrie Woods, Univesity of Tennessee at Chattanooga
  
  

Tell Me about Yourself:  How to Prepare your Interdisciplinary Studies Majors for the Job Market
Glen Echo
Track: Program Planning and Implementation
Once students earn their undergraduate degrees, they’re ready to take their skill set to the job market and land their dream job. Students who have majored in a specific field may be better equipped to find a job because of the nature of their major. But what about students who have chosen an interdisciplinary studies degree? How do they sell their degree to potential employers? Are colleges preparing them to begin a job search or enter a graduate program? The College of Arts and Sciences at Mississippi State University developed an online capstone course entitled the Professional Seminar to address this with distance students enrolled in the online Bachelor of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies (BSIS) program. This one-hour credit course was designed to help prepare students for the job market and/or further study beyond their undergraduate degree. In this session, attendees will learn best practices for developing an online capstone course for an interdisciplinary studies program and offer examples of content, delivery, and assessment.

• Marian Montgomery, Mississippi State University
• Kali Dunlap, Mississippi State University

Come meet guide dogs in training and meet representatives from our official service project supporting the organzation Guiding Eyes for the Blind. To donate to the organization, click here.

8:00 – 9:30 a.m. 

Breakfast + General Session | The Millennial Manager (Salon D)

This presentation by Jim Fong, Chief Research Officer for UPCEA, will focus on how higher education is being shaped by the growing audience of millennials which is quickly becoming the majority of decision-makers, influencers, managers, directors, and organizational leaders.

Jim Fong, Founding Director
UPCEA Center for Research and Strategy

Branding and the Student/User Experience
Salon C
Track: Marketing, Enrollment and Student Services
The programs you offer are often unique to your institution and come from your very one-of-a-kind department. Having a strong brand and seamless student/user experience is critical to marketing, recruitment, registration, and matriculation. Come find out what Texas A&M did in their rebrand and how the student/user experience should look for maximum results.

• Melissa Walden, Texas A&M University
• Meni Sarris, Story+Structure

 
Online General Education Templates: Partnering Toward Quality
Salon B
Track: Online Administration
Sound online education course template generation is a highly intentional multiple stakeholder planning process heightens standards-based pedagogical dialogue, elevates students' user experience, and improves consistency. Presenters will review process, share products, and hopefully inspire participants to move forward with similar initiatives.

• Daniel White, Temple University
  

The CRM Spectrum – Finding the Solution That Fits
Salon A
Track: Marketing, Enrollment and Student Services
Managing student relationships and communication is challenging. Technology and processes greatly impact how, and how effectively, we accomplish our enrollment and advising goals. Examine solutions from simple spreadsheets to complex CRM and Marketing Automation integrations. Learn when and why you should upgrade your CRM technology.

• Eric McGee, Education Dynamics
• Davia Rose Lassiter, Kennesaw State University

Transparency in Higher Education: Workforce Development and your Institution **
Glen Echo
Track: Community and Economic Engagement
For decades, college degrees have been an important component to workforce development. With a national dialog focused on the value and importance of college degrees juxtaposed with non-degree credentials from alternative credential providers, transparency in higher education has never been more important. Credential engine, a non-profit organization focused on creating transparency in the credential marketplace, is working with institutions, industry groups, states, and national organizations to create collaborations and new opportunities in the workforce ecosystem. Join leaders in credentialing as they discuss the benefits of being involved in this important movement in workforce development.

• Scott Cheney, Credential Engine