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Learning Center Alumni Engagement: Forging a Legacy of Student Success
By Amber Arnold, Elizabeth Coghill
Alumni student staff encompass an untapped resource for campus learning centers. Establishing connections after graduation fosters opportunities for student engagement, social media support, volunteerism, and financial investment. This session will chronicle the development, purpose, implementation, and vision for the Alumni Advisory Council at the Pirate Academic Success Center at East Carolina University. Presenters will address the important role tradition, campus belonging, social media, and alumni events play in the establishment in formalized alumni engagement, and will share the vision for future alumni relations.
Virtual Tools in Learning Centers for Tutors and Success Coaches
By Kaitlyn Crouse-Machcinski
This session will focus on all of the virtual tools used by the Learning Assistance and Resource Center (LARC) at West Chester University, which houses both the tutoring center and success coaches. The LARC staff also work to run the logistics of the University’s Writing Center. To help keep all centers running smoothly and organized, the LARC staff utilizes many virtual tools, including Qualtrics, Learning Management Systems, GroupMe, WC Online, Zoom, SharePoint, and OneDrive.
Exploring Multiple Ways of Knowing & Leading: Finding Partners in Our Work
By James Breslin, Dana Malone
“Find work-life balance.” “Practice self-care.” “Keep your personal life out of the office.” This isn’t working and we’re calling BS. Join a conversation that explores how we can unsettle harmful and dehumanizing constructs like professionalism, compartmentalization, and the notion that we should show up in our work as anything less than our whole selves. Engage in a candid discussion exploring these constructs of Western, colonized, white thought and how it’s time for a new take on developing relationships and finding heart/soul partners in our work. We’ll explore these issues and how unsettling them makes us better LC leaders.
Meeting Student Academic Support Needs Post-Covid
By Tammy Wyatt, Lance Smith(TutorMe)
The University of Texas San Antonio, a thriving HSI, has been laser focused on improving student success. We realized the need for on-demand academic support (pre-Covid), and through an iterative and lengthy process worked with campus stakeholders to identify and implement an online tutoring program. This session will describe the process from the discovery phase, through implementation and launch, to evaluating first-year performance and student outcomes.
Introducing LEO; a Platform to Ensure Academic Support Engagement
By Jim Barnes, Lauren Lobdell (Tutor.com)
Since COVID, higher educational institutions are now providing online academic support, often through a variety of technologies. Now that a majority of students surveyed* are looking for tutoring, coaching, advising and other support services online, we have developed LEO™ (Learner Engagements Online) to bring these services all into one central platform. Students no longer have to struggle to find what they need. Whether using our comprehensive scheduling tool or allowing your tutors to use our on demand system to tutor your students, NCLCA members will find a seamless setting to manage and conduct all of your academic support activities.
Choose Your Own Adventure: Enhancing Student Agency, Outreach, and Success (This session is scheduled to Stream VIA Zoom)
By Amy Caton, SarahAnne Murray, Adrienne Ashe
We flipped the traditional in-person outreach seminars about academic learning support programs at new student conferences to every first-time-in-college student utilizing universal design and gamification techniques. New challenges for balancing synchronous and asynchronous engagement provided an opportunity to empower students to discover their agency in the learning process and relate their learning to academic expectations of college through interactive, team-based games and discussions. Using Prezi, an interactive presentation software, student leaders from The Center for Academic Learning Support at Texas A&M University at Galveston partnered with student community leaders to conduct focus groups, design, create, train, and deliver a "choose your own adventure" style story outlining the first semester of college life at Texas A&M University at Galveston. We presented the activity during the new student welcome week prior to the Fall 2020 term. The goal of the activity is to generate awareness for common roadblocks of college life and introduce new students to the services and people that can help them clear the hurdles and achieve academic success with a healthy work/life balance.Veteran Academic Academy: Workshop for Student Veterans
By Michael Dvoracek
Student veterans are a unique sub-set of non-traditional students. Experience has taught them to solve problems on their own, which often leads to a reluctance to seek help. Texas A&M developed the Veteran Academic Academy workshop to proactively engage them to improve their academic success, persistence, and graduation. We will discuss the workshop and its evolution and success to date, and share ideas for how learning centers can improve outreach and service to these students.
Using Microsoft Power BI to Analyze Student Learning
By Lindsay Hull
AskRose, a division of the college’s Learning Center, provides free math and science tutoring for students in grades 6-12. Through a partnership with teachers, we are helping students develop the competencies for successful placement in the workforce and providing a strengthened foundation for students to pursue post-secondary education. AskRose embarked on a Data Collection Project to gather information on tutoring sessions in relation to state standards beginning in 2018. In 2021 we began using Microsoft Power BI to analyze our findings and are using the results of that analyzation to inform our tutoring practices and resource development.
Elevated Responsibility: Cultivating Student Leadership
By Lindley Workman Alyea
As learning center professionals around the world strive to serve growing student bodies with limited full-time staff, this session will examine the pros and pitfalls of empowering student leadership. This interactive session is designed to help participants think outside the traditional supervisory box of undergraduate and graduate student administrative responsibilities.Session 3 | 10:30 - 11:20 a.m.
TracCloud Introduction
By Luis Frias (Redrock)
Redrock Software's presentation will introduce the latest member of our Trac family, TracCloud. TracCloud is center management software that allows you to "Trac" interactions with students as well as give students the ability to book and manage their own appointments. The cloud based system reduces campus IT overhead, has increased reliability, speed, and security. TracCloud has improved key areas such as a streamlined interface with more custom options as well as reporting functions. It supports online meetings (like WebEx, Zoom, etc...) and much more. Come and see how we've continued to take many of the great features of TutorTrac and improved it with TracCloud.
Developing Student Organizations to Promote Engagement and Student Success
By Olivia Fitch
Engagement influences student success, particularly during natural disasters and civil unrest. Student wellness organizations like the National Alliance for Mental Illness on Campus provide a platform to discuss mental health, boost student morale, and engage their community. In this workshop, we will discuss how you can develop a student wellness organization to encourage leadership, create engagement opportunities, and direct the human capital of peer engagement to create an environment of resilience.
StudyCon: A Collaborative Event for Student Success
By Kirsten Komara, Maria Cabaniss, Sabrina Zertuche
Our writing center and library collaborate on an event called StudyCon. Held on the last day of classes, StudyCon creates a liminal space and offers a holistic approach to finals. Using Gloria Anzaldua’s concept of nepantla, a state of in-betweenness whether physical, spiritual, or psychological, this panel will discuss our collaboration in three-parts: StudyCon’s theoretical purpose, the Library and Writing Center roles in students’ academic development, and the event’s logistics physically and virtual
Fostering Leadership: A Student Supervisory Role in Learning Centers
By Kaitlyn Crouse-Machcinski
Peer Tutor Coordinators (PTC) are direct supervisors to a group of tutors, communicate with them virtually and in-person, observe them, and give them constructive criticism to help them improve. PTCs also assist in CRLA trainings, keep the center open past regular business hours, and support in a variety of other tasks. The PTC positions allows tutors to gain valuable leadership and supervisory skills, while supporting the learning center to improve the services offered to students.Lunch 11:30-1:20 p.m.
CLADEA Fellows Induction and NCLCA Awards Ceremony
Learning Journey: Building an Online Course for Learning Centers
By Anna Hammons
In Fall 2019, LSU’s Center for Academic Success (CAS) launched an online course designed to introduce students to a variety of topics, including metacognition, learning strategies, and time management. The course is intended for independent student exploration and instructor course supplementation. It adheres to effective online teaching practices and the universal design process. This presentation will discuss changes in design, feedback, and content as CAS developed this online course across several semesters.
Mining Within: Peer-to-Peer Mentorship for Learning Center Employees
By Skyler Meeks, Laurie Toro
Although a successful employee mentorship program sometimes occurs naturally, there is great value in more formally establishing an employee mentorship program as an extension of training in order to benefit the long-term growth of a space. This session will introduce participants to one university’s Lead Tutor Program, show how the framework can be adapted for other learning centers, and engage in discussion about implementation and results.Facilitate Student Success - Let's Get Connected!
By Jeanne Wiatr
A generic college/university service structure will be reviewed to present ideas for networking with campus departments in order to support students. An overview of working cooperatively inter-departmentally and of teambuilding will be presented. An example of connections currently used at one university will illustrate ways to develop a network on campus to help students succeed from freshman orientation to graduation. An exercise designed for audience members to initiate/fill-in an outline of successful networking will serve to apply this information and energize the idea of establishing, strengthening, and developing networking on campus.
Supporting Students’ Productive Responses to Failure Experiences
By Samantha Tackett
This presentation will provide information and practice with three approaches to helping students respond productively to academic failure experiences. Specifically, I will discuss a self-awareness approach, evaluative approach, and productive coping approach. The learning objectives for attendees are to identify a) key characteristics of the three approaches to resilience and b) questions to ask students while supporting their development of resilience.
GRIT Workshop Curriculum
By Tyler Laughlin, Brittney Oliver
This session presents the content and curriculum for GRIT, a workshop series offered to students on academic probation. The session is a follow up to the 2019 NCLCA presentation on the creation and implementation of the workshop. A brief overview of the development of GRIT will be provided. Additionally, two different lesson plan templates, including activities, main themes/topics, and supplementary resources will be presented. Updated assessment numbers will also be included.
By Yvette Hester
This session will detail hallmarks of a Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) grant awarded to Dr. Hester for improving/enhancing the experience of TSI co-enrolled students over the course of a year, including mid-term grade reviews and advising, peer mentoring, peer tutoring and assessments. Discussion of successful high impact practices, desired learning outcomes and their achievement, feedback received from the students, and assessments will be presented.Increasing Learning assistance usage while maintaining effectiveness
By Jennifer Hewerdine
In two years' time, the learning assistance program at a large public institution saw a 251% increase in student usage, and at the same time the program saw an increase in the GPAs of students who use services, particularly those who use the services on a weekly basis. This presentation will detail the steps taken that may have led to these increases, and the presentation will close with a discussion and brainstorm.
Forging Your APA (7th Ed.) Expertise: A Session for Emerging Scholars -Julia Visor Graduate Student Award
By Jonathan Lollar, Russ Hodges
The official writing style of the American Psychological Association (APA) originated in 1929 as a published article, then into the APA Publication Manual, now in its 7th edition (APA, p. xv). APA style is commonly used in education, psychology, and social sciences and is the required format for NCLCA’s The Learning Assistance Review (TLAR), among other journals, within our field. APA standards for writing citations, references, and formatting provide a foundation for effective scholarly communication.
Do Better, Not More: Evolving Assessment Planning Thought and Practice (This session is scheduled to Stream VIA Zoom)
By Dana Malone, James Breslin
This session provides an introduction and overview of a new assessment planning framework, the Inquiry-Based Praxis Model (IPM). Offering a highly flexible and adaptable set of conceptual and practical ways to thread assessment into learning center work and leadership, we explore how this evolution in assessment practice can take your work to the next level. In this session, participants will learn how the IPM builds on established assessment concepts, explore foundational model components, and review key practical elements that direct all assessment endeavors. Implementing this model in our work has resulted in increases in student outcomes and institutional funding/support.
Helping Students Avoid Transition Gaps and Traps
By Leonard Geddes
New students start college with 16,000+ hours of academic work hours under their belts. Yet, many are unable to capitalize on their years of experience. Educators have tried numerous approaches to boost retention, completion and graduation rates, yet those numbers still sag far behind expectations. Why aren’t students benefiting from their past academic labor? And what can educators and higher education institutions do to ensure more students thrive in school and beyond?
Embedding Substance Misuse Prevention in Peer Academic Coaching
By Paige Schilt, Darcy Barrick
Substance misuse is a serious public health problem among college students. The SHIFT initiative at UT Austin aims to transform the culture surrounding drugs and alcohol by focusing on 40 evidence-based protective factors that can enhance students’ coping skills and reduce risky behavior. Since 2019, the Sanger Learning Center has partnered with SHIFT to embed protective factors in Peer Academic Coaching. Our presentation shares the challenges and rewards of incorporating prevention in an academic setting.Mini-Engagement Session 3:30-4:00 p.m.
Meta-learning through dominos: 42 "The National Game of Texas"
By Amy Caton
The lesson I designed aims to educate students in understanding learning as an iterative process regardless of the topic or skill. The focus of this lesson is on critical thinking which is essential to developing strong meta-learning skills. This activity is designed for synchronous delivery and based on the historically Texas domino game called 42. The two learning goals of this lesson are to describe learning as an iterative process and relating learning stages to self / learning goals. At the end of this lesson the learner should be able to indicate that they better understand learning as an educational process.Thursday Breakfast 7:30-8:15 a.m.
Forging academic success through a lens of equity and inclusion
By Jennifer Bebergal, Brittanney Adelmann
There are few interventions that so clearly impact course outcomes for students in underrepresented groups as the Learning Assistant (LA) model. In this presentation, we will share inequities we have discovered in specific course outcomes at our institution, the data that shows how the LA model increases course outcomes for all students with a greater impact on students from marginalized backgrounds, and the development of inclusive learning environments for all students. We will share how our learning center has partnered with departments across campus to increase student success by transforming courses and implementing the LA model.
Enhancing Student Success by Forging a Sustainable Call Center
By Lauren Brown, Dana Talbert
Gen Z is the most connected generation yet. Today’s students expect quick results and high-quality customer service. To stay on top of this trend, colleges and universities are turning to student call centers as solutions to enhance their outreach and retention initiatives. This presentation will explore the advantages learning centers have to housing student call centers, share the University of South Carolina’s successful model, and help attendees plan for implementation on their own respective campuses.
Support from the LC for More Student-centered, In-person Instruction
By Linda Green
This presentation will explore how the learning center can engage with faculty and students as campuses shift from virtual instruction to the in-person classroom. For faculty, there is an opportunity to capitalize on asynchronous material (e.g. recorded lectures, online quizzes) and transform the in-class experience to more interactive, student-centered practices. For students, we can promote a campus culture of how students can better engage with course before and during class.
Embracing Hybrid Formats Together with the help of Accudemia: Manage Your Center’s Virtual Services Seamlessly and Your In-Person Services Safely
By Jenelle Conner (Engineerica, NCLCA Silver Sponsor)
Academic Advocacy: The Next Level in Learning Center Holistic Student Care (This session is scheduled to Stream VIA Zoom)
By Amanda Knapp, Delana Gregg
Academic advocacy is an emerging support model in college learning centers-a coordinated case management approach which can increase visibility, reduce student confusion and centralize access for student support. Leaders of the Academic Success Center will share how adding Academic Advocacy to the learning center portfolio has deepened campus partnerships, increased student usage of services and improved student retention and graduation rates. Participants will discuss how to implement Academic Advocacy on their campuses.
Challenging Students' Irrational Beliefs that Prevent Academic Success
By Mark May, Terrence Johnson
The presenters will discuss how insights from Albert Ellis’ (1962) Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) can help students challenge and replace the irrational thoughts that interfere with their ability to succeed in college. Ellis’ basic insights have been used effectively in athletics, learning disabilities, school counseling, and traditional therapy.
The presenters will discuss the philosophical foundations of REBT. Examples of irrational beliefs include: “I am unable to do math;” I am a first- generation college student who cannot fit in well;” and “When I give a speech, everyone judges me negatively. We’ll explain various strategies to help individuals counter irrational beliefs.
Supplementing more with less: A peer-facilitated model for upper division courses
By Katie Molina-Gallo
Peer-Led Undergraduate Studying (PLUS) at UT Austin supports historically difficult upper-division courses. Learn from the PLUS program coordinator how this tiered model uses former students to recruit and manage 170+ currently enrolled students as volunteers to facilitate weekly study groups.Virtual Tools for Enhanced Academic Support
By Merry Low, Peter Disabb (Tutor Matching Service)
In
our presentation, we will highlight the ways in which our academic
support center, the Learning Commons, has partnered with Tutor Matching
Service. Our main areas of emphasis will include our math and science
tutors’ use of GoBoard, as well as the Online Tutoring Essentials
training program for all of our staff. We will also include our most
recent initiative in training certain staff members in the use of the
Oculus Virtual Reality headsets for tutoring. We will also showcase
student success rates in College Algebra after using StudyEdge
LecturePAL video support.
Session 8 | 10:30 - 11:20 a.m.
ADPIE: A Slice of Consistency in Tutor Training and Practice
By Tricia Fox, Melissa Williams
This presentation will cover the mneumonic ADPIE and how we use it to train our student tutors to follow a standard process with each tutoring appointment. The memory aid, which is normally used in nursing, was adapted by our staff to help tutors follow a process of assessing the student’s issue, using diagnostic tools like a VARK to determine student learning preferences, planning the session, creating the intervention, and wrapping up the appointment by evaluating it. We have found this mnemonic helps our student tutors deliver a consistent experience with students seeking help, which in turn has raised our student satisfaction on campus.
Students on Probation Conduct Research as a Success Strategy
By Megan McClure, Meredith Hart
A small group of students on academic probation were given the opportunity to participate in undergraduate research with the Academic Success Center. Students investigated whether this idea, probation students conducting research, was supported or opposed in the academic literature. The development of this idea, how it was conducted, preliminary research results, and student success outcomes will be provided. A student participant will be a co-presenter and provide personal experiences and insights.
You Started, Together We Finish: Building Your Learning Center Brand
By Skyler Meeks, Sarah Callison
Developing a cohesive and professional identity is an important part of any effective learning center, but strong branding requires a level of research and detail that is unsustainable by most organizations. This session overviews one program’s approach to marketing that fostered more student engagement and better communication across campus. Our goal is to help learning centers go beyond a basic flyer and explore brand identity, social media, website design, classroom communication, and so much more.
"Hold the Door": Using Academic Coaching Workshops to Lead Students to You
By Nikki Overcash, Liz Hommowun
A core element to a successful academic coaching program is buy-in from students and campus partners, including faculty. Integrating academic coaches into First Year Seminar courses via workshops introduces students to the idea of academic coaching while also highlighting coaches' expertise and approachability. This session will offer an overview of the Illinois College model and discuss workshop topics that have led to student engagement, faculty support, and return in terms of coaching appointments.
Bureaucracy, Budgets, and Keeping the Faith: An LC Leader “Ask Us Anything”
By James Breslin, Anna Sharpe
We get into the field because we fall in love with supporting students and being part of those moments of learning. We often seek leadership roles as ways to contribute at a more systemic level or we’re thrust into them by administrators asking good people to do more work. However, we rarely know what good leadership looks like before we’re trying to do it. This “ask us anything” session is designed for aspiring and current LC leaders. We’ll break down issues we’ve experienced around finances and politics, finalize topics with attendees, and guide an unvarnished/real conversation about LC leadership.Poster Sessions | 11:30 - 12:00 p.m.
Forging Ahead: Best Practices in Learning Center Operations with limited resources
By Christina Rodriguez-Gonzalez
Learning centers (LC) have a critical role in providing academic support, but that doesn’t just happen overnight. LC professionals, especially those new to the LC field, must be resourceful and work diligently to ensure that all aspects of their LC’s operation meets professional standards with effective procedures, as well as securing adequate funding and institutional support. In addition, trained staff who deliver excellent customer service by facilitating their students’ learning is key for the center’s approval from students, faculty, staff, and administrators. Moreover, through assessments, LC directors continuously evaluate to improve the quality and effectiveness of student academic support services.
Forging a Student-Facing Database for Academic Support Across Campus
By Paige Schilt, Jay Whitehead
Finding the right fit for academic support can be challenging on a diverse and dispersed campus. UT Austin created the PEARL (Personalized Academic Resource Locator) to display a customized list of resources based on an individual student’s class schedule. While the problem of silos and overlapping services is particularly acute at a large research university, it is not unique to four-year public universities.
Niner Navigation: Streamlining the Hiring and Staffing Process of Tutorial Services
By Dayla Beckett
COVID-19 globally impacted learning centers at higher education institutions, however student success had to remain a top priority. The need for Peer Tutors became greater. This poster will display the step-by-step process of streamlining hiring/staff.
Virtual Escape Rooms in Tutor Training: A Mixed-Methods Research Study
By Kaitlyn Crouse-Machcinski
The Learning Assistance and Resource Center (LARC) staff at West Chester University implemented a virtual escape room (VER) as part of orientation in Fall 2020. Due to COVID-19, the LARC had to hold a virtual tutor orientation and used the VER.
Lunch 12:00 - 1:20 p.m.
NCLCA Business and Membership Meeting
Using the Inquisitive Mindset to Build and Maintain Student Success
By Kelly McKenzie
This presentation will explore, through discussion, reflection and activities the importance of integrating The Inquisitive Mindset (IM)into learning center practices to enhance student success. IM is a mindset model developed by faculty at East Stroudsburg University that invites students to develop and assess their own ability to problem solve and make multiple attempts when the first attempt may not produce the best results. IM gets students thinking about the processes that leads to success. The key components of IM are motivation (incentivizing action), innovation (creative action), evaluation (critical action), determination (persistent action), reflection, and achievement (culminating action).
EXPIRED: Turning a grant-funded project into a campus-wide training center
By Michael Saenz, Julie Murphy, Anne Benjamin
The University of Texas at Dallas - Institute for Peer Education is a model designed by a grant-funded project to streamline the peer leader training process and develop high quality peer leaders across campus. This session explains how participants can build a campus-wide peer education institute that fits their needs and create buy-in.
Trench Data: Data That Matter About Students Who Matter
By Leonard Geddes
Higher education institutions have sought various ways to use data to control core academic quality outcomes, such as retention, persistence, completion, and graduation rates. But the current profile of data we capture, and the data models we use have not systematically improved these outcomes. Even worse, the most common data model exacerbates the equity gaps that schools and society are trying to eradicate.
This session shares a learning center-centric model for capturing new sources of data that solve academic-related retention problems and eradicate equity gaps.
Designing refreshers and exam reviews for problem-solving courses
By Jay Whitehead, Nisha Abraham
The Sanger Learning Center at UT Austin has offered various Refreshers and Reviews for the past 15 years, mainly for Mathematics. Refreshers survey prerequisite material in preparation for an upcoming course, and Reviews provide an overview of exam material prior to exams. Many problem-solving courses could benefit from this support, so we have experimented with various factors, including determining appropriate courses, access to current coursework, recruiting/selecting presenters (graduate, undergraduate), problem and solution set updates, logistics (timing, duration), structure (presenter-driven, mock collaborative) and analysis of effectiveness. This presentation will assist others in exploring the possibility of creating refreshers/reviews at their institution.
"No Appointment Needed" - The Establishment of a Drop-in Tutoring Center- Julia Visor Graduate Student Award
By Emily Richardson and Sara Beth Kramlich
If I Could Save Time in a Bottle: Integrated Time Management Examples
By Michael Dvoracek
Time Management is a common, and often repetitive topic of many academic coaching sessions. We all have multiple methods and examples we use. However, many of these examples were developed separately and can seem disjointed. Examples made by students can be better, but sometimes miss key elements. To provide a more useful product, we developed a comprehensive, integrated set of time management tools with examples that can help improve student use and success.
How to Engage Returning Peer Leaders in Non-Leadership Positions: The A.C.E.E. Program (Assist, Compete, Engage, Evaluate)
By Ben Estep, Kirby Fitzpatrick
Training and developing our peer leaders is crucial to the success of a peer-to-peer academic support program. In order to do this effectively, peer leaders of all statuses, including new peer leaders, returning peer leaders, and peer leaders in leadership positions, must be engaged during training and throughout the semester. This presentation will explore how the UofSC Student Success Center's Peer Consultant (Academic Coaching) program successfully engaged returning peer leaders through training and activities designed specifically for Peer Leaders not in a leadership position.
Academic Lessons from a 5-Year-Old Boy and a 7-Year-Old Girl
By Tyler Laughlin
We often forget that some of the best lessons about learning can be taught by children. This workshop focuses on collegiate academic practices from observing how my 5-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter learn socially, physically, and scholastically. Of the different tools that we use to help our students learn, concrete and relatable examples provide real-life insight when discussing metacognitive strategies. How children provide lessons for learning, and how attendees can think of their own applicable examples will be discussed.
A Future We Want: Unsettling Neoliberalism and Colonization in Our Work
By James Breslin and Anna Sharpe
We can no longer pretend that what happens off campus doesn’t have direct and meaningful impacts on our work and leadership. The events of recent years; the murders of black, brown, and trans people; the political turmoil; and the vitriolic attacks on higher education itself demand that LC leaders consider how students and the work are impacted. This session introduces basic concepts around neoliberalism and colonized thought, and how these and related ideas combine to dehumanize us, our students, and our work. Ultimately, we’ll explore our individual and collective roles in unsettling and dismantling these structural realities.
Constructing a Two-Way Bridge: The Learning Center’s Role in Reaching Distinct Student Populations (This session is scheduled to Stream VIA Zoom)
By Jennifer Tilbury, Rich Carr, Ryan Shek
As writing center tutors, we focus on promoting our general ability to address all writing and writer concerns yet may miss the particular needs of a group. UAF Writing Center’s outreach links our center to Rural Student Services, a program originally designed to address the needs of Alaska Native students (currently 19.6% of UAF’s population), now expanded to encompass all students from a rural background. Presenters will address engaging learners from distinct communities and ways of adjusting our roles. By doing this, we can better connect to writer and writing tasks, contribute to student success, and promote retention.
Mini-Engagement Sessions | 3:30 - 4:00 p.m.
Virtual Escape Rooms in Tutor Training
By Kaitlyn Crouse-Machcinski
The Learning Assistance and Resource Center (LARC) used Qualtrics to create a virtual escape room (VER) for tutor orientation during the COVID-19 pandemic. This activity will show how Qualtrics (or any survey tool) can be used to create a fun, interactive activity for tutors to learn more about the center, logistics, or staff members in a virtual setting. This activity will use Qualtrics and general trivia to guide the participants through the VER. The audience will participate in the facilitator-led VER and see if they can beat the time of LARC sample groups.
Seeing the Person in the Student: A diversity training activity for tutors
By Dawn Shedd
The session will demonstrate a tutor training activity intended to help tutors understand their own personal influences and how they are affected by them. This, in turn, allows tutors to identify with students and understand that they are impacted by the cultures and subcultures that they belong to and participate in. Attendees will complete a mock version of the activity, which includes a questionnaire and then facilitated group discussion.
Friday Breakfast 7:30 - 8:15 a.m.
Training with Humility
By Samantha Ansley
Hosting successful professional development and staff trainings requires more than content expertise. This presentation explores the value of infusing humility theories into learning center trainings. The inclusion of this perspective can immediately lead to attendees' reduced learning resistances and a long-term positive impact on participants’ relationships with their students. There will be a discussion of humility theories, a synthesis of relevant literature, benefits and challenges, opportunities for application, and directions for future research.
Forging a new student experience: Incorporating reflections into a collaborative learning program
By Brandon Johnson, Mike Saenz
The Learning Assistance and Resource Center (LARC) at West Chester University of Pennsylvania houses Tutoring, Success Coaching, and Writing Center Services. Through changes in the services model over the course of three years and challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, Campus Partnerships have been critical to the growth, outreach, and support for student success. Learn how we broke through silos and increased partnerships on campus to support students and grow our services.
Math Strategies for the Math-Wary Student
By Elizabeth Wallace
This session will focus on teaching math learning strategies to the math-wary student. Drawing from the experiences of real students, I’ll introduce math anxiety and identify some tips for assisting students experiencing math anxiety. I’ll discuss strategies for coaching the math-wary student, including teaching students to grapple with concepts in words before numbers, and reinforcing concepts with visuals, images, and graphic tools. Finally, I’ll discuss a stepwise, logic-based format for training students to solve problems.
Embracing Neurodiversity to Support Students on Extended Projects
By Stephanie Craven
Semester-long/multi-semester projects can challenge upper-division students who succeeded in more structured introductory courses, but find themselves requiring new strategies, sometimes in isolation. Difficulty navigating such projects can promote affective issues, especially if a student has preexisting doubts about belonging in academia. A neurodivergent-informed lens lets students consider strategies that play to their strengths. The session introduces this lens and applies it to practical aspects of coaching these students such as planning, time management, and motivation.
Session 12 | 9:30 - 10:20 a.m.
Facing Race: Beyond Diversity Education and Bias Training (This session is scheduled to Stream VIA Zoom)
By Paige Schilt, Nisha Abraham
This session is for learning center professionals who want to take their anti-racism efforts to the next level. Drawing on the insights of Critical Race Theory, the presenters will share a rubric for developing trainings that 1) acknowledge the racialized assumptions ingrained in learning assistance, 2) eschew ideologies of color-blindness, and 3) prioritize the voices and experiences of BIPOC staff and students. In the spirit of constant learning, the presenters will share challenges and opportunities we have faced as we enter our second year of anti-racism training for student and professional staff.
Academic Capital: A New Tool for Post-COVID-19 Learning Support
By Jack Trammell
This session will briefly review what social capital is, and how it relates to education. It will then introduce and define the newer concept of academic capital, provide a review of the pros and cons for learning assistance particularly post-COVID-19, and demonstrate the overall utility of the concept. Finally, a new instrument, the Introduction to the Combined Measures of Academic Capital Survey (CMACS) will be shared, as well as a call for volunteer pilot sites.
Thriving through COVID-19: Supporting First Generation students and navigating student involvement during the pandemic
By Carols Williams, Antoinette Newsome
As the number of first generation college students grows, UMBC’s First Generation Network works to provide equitable learning opportunities for these students. By providing interactive events through collaboration with various on campus departments and organizations, the Student Engagement Committee of the First Generation Network was able to establish a number of events & programs to discuss topics important to this population and provide campus resources to get the students connected, keep them engaged and to optimize on their success at the University. This presentation will inform participants how UMBC was able to maintain engagement with first generation students during the COVID pandemic. We will share our lessons learned and our most memorable moments maintaining student engagement during the pandemic.
Current Practices in Designing and Developing Effective Learning Centers in Postsecondary Education
By Juan Jimenez
Ever wondered how to go about remodeling your learning center space once you receive approval to do so? Then, this session is for you. This presentation is based on a qualitative case study conducted to understand the process learning center administrators used in the creation or remodeling of a learning center space at 2-year schools. Participants of the study were learning center directors, facilities, information technology, or administrator team members. Join this presentation to find out the process used and how pedagogy, space, and technology impacted their design. The first part will be an overview of the research study. The second part will be open for questions and conversation among all attendees.
Affiliate Meetings | 10:30 - 11:30 a.m.
Some affiliates may choose to meet during the NOTT event (Thursday Evening) or during the Hospitality Suite (Wednesday Evening).
Florida - Hybrid meeting at this time in room; zoom link in Conference schedule
Louisiana - Hybrid meeting at this time in room; zoom link in Conference schedule
Maryland - Meeting at this time in assigned room
Missouri - Meeting in the Hospitality Suite on Wed., Sept. 29 at 9:00PM
Ohio - Informal meetup in the Hospitality Suite on Wed., Sept. 29 at 9:00PM, Affiliate meeting will take place Fri., Oct 1 at 10:30 AM. Register here
Southeastern - Hybrid meeting at this time in room; zoom link in Conference schedule
Texas - Meeting at this time in assigned room
Utah - No Information at this time
Wisconsin - No meeting