81st Annual Conference & Meeting

Title: Diversity and Inclusion - Making a difference with an enhanced definition: Outline suggestions that promote D/I growth will be presented to spur the discussion of Are Colleges and Universities making a difference in the workforce when it comes to D/I?
Diversity and inclusion are crucial parts of business and societal successes and advances today, and they must be championed at every turn. For instance, HR departments might establish hiring initiatives and goals, but these policies won't impact company culture if they aren't promoted.

True leaders will ensure that their company's or collegiate environment support of diversity and inclusion are not simply words in the handbook – instead, they'll proactively work to create a more well-rounded team. Does the Millenial workforce have a different view of Diversity and Inclusion? This presentation shall outline ways to effect a tangible, positive difference in a company culture through inclusive practices.

Part of the presentation will also focus on an open discussion on: Are Colleges and Universities making a difference when it comes to Diversity and Inclusion? What's working on your D/I campus? Are we preparing a well-versed D/I student for the workforce? These questions should promote discussion where new ideas and analytical information will be shared towards thought-provoking takeaways for attendees.

Presenters include: Dr. Eloy Chavez - Dean of the College of Extended Learning, Northeastern State University, ACHE COI Chair

In order to remain relevant in a changing landscape of continuing higher education, we must recruit and retain diverse and innovative leaders. This session will describe the skills needed for leaders to learn and master in order to ensure continued growth for instructor and employee development as well as student participation across multiple generations.
At the conclusion of this presentation, participants will:
• Discuss the changing landscape of continuing higher education and the relevance of leadership skills.
• Review problem-solving strategic planning.
• Identify adult learning techniques across multiple generations in the workforce.
• Generate three actions to apply in the workplace upon return from the conference.

Tons of data flows into your office every day! It’s easy enough to collect data in your system, but are you using it to your best advantage? What is your demographic, has it changed, and where do they live? Are they self-registering online or calling you? Should you market with direct mailings or emails? Is your department sustainable? Are your facilities at capacity? Which are the most popular courses? I’ll show some KPI reports and dashboards that identify the most profitable courses, decide instantly whether it’s a go or no-go, market to past participants and measure the effectiveness of your marketing against results. All this and reconciling financials sounds like a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be. Join Simone McGrath as she shows the benefits and ease of making quick data-driven decisions.

This presentation will allow for discussion of how online faculty who are involved in working with adult, online students promote graduate level scholarship and writing, all the while overcoming issues known to plague adult learners. Professionals in their own field, non-traditional graduate students often are not trained for research and scholarship; and face a difficult challenge as they work to design and create their own research and inquiry.

Everyone wants to “win” the internet—and the shortcuts to victory are fun and entertainment. If you “get it,” if you “internet” well, you’ll see instant results, raking in the clicks, likes, comments, and shares. Even the news media has gone all-in, delivering clickbait headlines and Buzzfeed-style stories in place of substance. But are these victories truly moving the needle? What happens when we step away from the herd of memes and emojis? Is there a better path to building institutional reputation—and creating meaningful human connections—online?

This hands-on session will teach you how to stay true to your institution’s authentic personality on social media, differentiate yourself from your competition, and powerfully connect with the audiences that really matter.

The Philadelphia Special Education Leaders of Tomorrow is a collaborative partnership between the School District of Philadelphia and Drexel University to develop special education teachers into special education leaders. The program has completed one cohort of 25 new special education leaders. This session will explore how and why the partnership between the school district and the university was created. The program framework and assessment strategies will be provided. The session will close with success stories of the students as well as a blueprint for replication.

Tomorrow's adult and continuing education leaders are here now--our current staff members. The ACHE Mentorship Program is dedicated to developing the future leadership of continuing higher education. The program focuses on the needs of ACHE members along the continuum of Continuing Education professionals (i.e. ACHE members from entry-level, mid-level), as well as Institutional members (i.e. Deans, Directors, and Regional Chairs). Join our panel of past Mentors and "Protégés" as they explore their experiences in the program and how they have benefited from the experience. A description of the program and the application process for both mentor and protégé will also be presented.

The higher education landscape is saturated with OPM vendors – and it is time to think differently about strategic revenue-growth partnerships. Seeking to expand the impact of its online programs, Saint Louis University will share why they selected Collegis Education as a strategic partner and the impact to date of their flexible, collaborative partnership model.

Learning Outcomes:
• How SLU approached their search for a collaborative partner outside of OPM vendors
• Steps to build an internal enrollment foundation through program strategy and differentiation, admissions augmentation, process optimization and digital marketing.
• Breeding a culture of continued innovation and constant improvement
• The measurable impact within the first year of partnership

This two-part concurrent session is geared toward beginning professionals and faculty who want to map out a plan for career development. Career planning can help us reduce stress and increase our chances of achieving our goals. The focus of this first session is to begin thinking about our career values and our personal values. Participants will then begin shaping a personal vision statement so they may determine the “wildly important” aspects of their work. Participants will also learn more about the stress cycle and time management. In this first session participants will complete a Career Development Competency Assessment. Participants in Part One of this session are encouraged to return to part two later in the conference.

What are alternative credentials? Why might an individual want to obtain an alternative credential in addition to (or instead of) a degree? Why are alternative credentials becoming more important in the workplace? What role does continuing education play in providing and supporting alternative credentials? Please join us for a discussion addressing these questions.

As comprehensive student success programs become more integrated into the fabric of student support, institutional leaders are turning to student coaching as a best practice for enhancing student outcomes. However, building a sustainable program that leverages the latest advances in behavioral science, data analytics and technology is no simple task.

Leaders from BYU-Pathway Worldwide will walk through how they disrupted standard practices and collaborated with an outside partner to build an innovative coaching program with the foundation to sustain it long-term.

This session will be structured as a guided interview with Steven K. Thomas, Director of Mentoring at BYU Pathway-Worldwide, discussing BYU-Pathway’s experience of building a scalable mentoring program. Q&A will be facilitated throughout the session. Session attendees will gain insights on everything from executive decision-making to staff development, partnering with external providers, and delivering a success coaching model that is scalable to a worldwide student population.

An organization will only grow as far as its organization will allow. Take a real-life look at how an organization and its processes can be set up to assure growth in your enrollment and revenue. It is not worth wasting time with obstacles you face internally when there are so many on the outside. Come learn how to streamline your team and your department.

Continuing Education marketers face the challenge of communicating with multiple audiences who behave very differently online; therefore, they must promote and engage with each audience with a different effort and focus. Between high school students, parents, career changers, adult learners, and workforce training audiences, etc. there is a lot of ground to cover when strategizing and executing an effective social media campaign. In this session, we will discuss how Social Media is a great platform to reach and engage with all these audiences and accomplish a variety of different goals. We will break down the many social platforms, audience behaviors, capabilities within social networks, and best practices for social media marketing. Let’s talk social!

For over 40 years, CLEP testing has been in practice within higher education. Even so, most traditional faculty are reticent to accept ACE recommended scores and to grant course equivalencies for these exams. This is evident in a review of CLEP policy at 26 universities, which demonstrates significant variability in scores and credit equivalencies set by traditional faculty. Moreover, most universities require higher scores than ACE recommends. This variability presents concerns for Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) programs and limits student opportunity. This workshop explores advocacy strategies for aligning CLEP policy with ACE recommendations so that institutions can better serve adult students.

Today’s workforce includes millions of adults who started college and left with no credential. Inviting students back to finish what they started without fundamentally changing the student experience does not work. Discover the lessons learned from both the University of Memphis and Complete Florida’s early Welcome Back campaigns that have resulted in a variety of best practices for degree completion that focus on accelerated and low-cost alternatives while maintaining academic quality. A key strategy in the Welcome Back process is to increase both access and equity to educational attainment by partnering with employers to identify their employees with the most need and putting systems in place to support student success.

New Mexico struggles with a persisting teacher shortage and underachievement of P-12 students. To address these challenges, an innovative approach was required to trigger the creation of new matter! Participants will explore the powerful outcomes that can evolve as a result of creative partnerships that allow for unlikely “atoms” to collide! Presenters will share the journey of the three partners: New Mexico Highlands University, the Pojoaque Valley School District, and the Los Alamos Laboratory as they engaged in mutually beneficial partnership to create a holistic and synergistic approach to educator preparation and professional development. Over a two year time period partners collectively developed a regional partnership school that provides comprehensive and sustained professional development for pre-service and in-service teachers. This session will be interactive prompting participants to reflect and explore ways to implement innovative partnerships that allow for the creation of new matter in their own institutions.

North Carolina is home to the third largest military population in the United States. East Carolina University (ECU), is uniquely and geographically positioned to help service members continue their higher education and prepare for promotion or post service careers.

During this session, participants will learn about the challenges service members face while trying to continue their higher education and how ECU is addressing their needs. Participants will be informed about the current, multi-modal continuing education strategies taking place at ECU (e.g. BS in Industrial Technology degree, BS in University Studies degree, AMP-Up, and off-model programming). We will provide an overview of how these distinct programs work independently and collaboratively with one another to support the educational goals of the military-affiliated student and how these may be applied at other institutions. Participants will have the opportunity to discuss and explore their own initiatives and share through small working groups.

In part two of the Career Development for CE Professionals session, participants will use the results of the Career Development Competency Assessment to being setting goals for their development. The presenters will explore goal setting and career development best practices and provide actionable suggestions for skill development through education/training and developmental experiences. Participants will begin to create a career development plan which aligns with their values and vision.

Adult learners are continuously looking for flexible, convenient programs to further both their education and careers. In this session, participants will learn how to create successful and unique partnerships between community colleges and 4-year colleges or universities with the adult learner in mind. The type of partnerships that we will be discussing offer bachelor degree coursework on the community college campus. We will discuss ways to identify viable bachelor degree programs to offer, the research needed to identify sustainable community colleges to partner with, and the steps to creating a collaborative partnership. Participants will gain insight on both the successes and challenges our institution has faced. This session will not only be beneficial to the 4-year colleges and universities, but to the community colleges looking to offer alternative transfer opportunities. You will leave with ideas and examples on how to create dynamic partnerships on your campus!

As a metropolitan university, the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) is committed to providing a quality, accessible higher education experience for students. Yet, with academic and credentialing requirements, some students are unable to complete their initial program of choice for a variety of reasons. Students who may not otherwise complete their course of study are able to reach their goal of degree attainment through the Bachelor of Multidisciplinary Studies (BMS).

This session will share how our team fosters relationships with campus colleagues in order to refer students to the BMS program and, ultimately, our commitment to “fulfill our institutional promise” to educate students. Utilizing examples and data, we illustrate the impact of developing strong cross-campus relationships in order to meet our commitment to this promise.

Stop overpaying for technology. Technology is more affordable than ever. The marketplace abounds with off-the-shelf solutions that can bring real value to your organization, helping you reach more students faster. So why are most CE units still paying large sums for registration systems, CRMs, and marketing automation?
In this session we'll show you how to leverage technology products available to start-ups and lean organizations use to do everything you wish you could do and more at little cost. Some of the tools are even free.

Designing curriculum has its inherent challenges. Add in the “traditional governance” process within higher education and designing innovative curriculum presents additional challenges. In the University of St. Francis’s College of Business and Health Administration, we have re-designed four graduate programs that each provide “stackable certificates” for students. Each program allows students to begin in a certificate program that leads to a masters program. One of the programs provides for the students to earn three certificates that stack together for the masters degree. All of this has been achieved through the traditional governance process. This session will share the curriculum models and will discuss the process used to shepherd these models through the approval and implementation process.

How have agreements and terms with OPMs changed for institutions working with OPMs? How do colleges within a University and System forge agreements for joint participation in the larger online enterprise? What do institutions of higher education need to consider when developing programming agreements where one entity (an OPM or institution) provides online program management services for the other? As Universities continue building their own in-house capabilities in online program delivery, new questions around revenue sharing, shared services, incentives, and governance have all arisen. This session explores the issues involved in the changing nature of these agreements and offers several recommendations on ways to align revenues, incentives, and governance for partners that seek to work together to offer online programming.

The term working smarter produces thoughts of “balance” to one’s life, work, time, and resources. Adult, post-traditional students and online faculty seek balance with fulltime job and family responsibilities and continuing education. What if working smarter at your institution starts with creating a team focused on promoting innovation and collaboration for online operations? This presentation examines current literature and professional experiences to help participants to create a leadership team intent on innovation and collaboration to positively impact online teaching and operations. Throughout the presentation, participants will engage by setting goals and outcomes designed to specifically meet purpose within their organization.

The nontraditional college student (NTS) population seeking degree completion has increased consistently and significantly over the past three decades becoming an important majority on college campuses throughout the United States. However, the NTS has various issues and concerns that serve as barriers to successful degree completion which include competing responsibilities, course scheduling, access to financial resources, full-time employment, past academic failures, and lack of self-confidence about academic achievement. This session presents unique and engaging doctoral research findings of NTS enrolled in an accelerated degree completion program. These adult students defined persistence and success in an accelerated degree completion program, shared their experiences of the program and how the institution’s Accelerated Degree Programs (ADP) addresses the barriers nontraditional students encounter. By understanding the needs and motivation of NTS and how an accelerated degree program facilitates degree completion, colleges and universities could attract, retain, and graduate self-motivated adult learners seeking degree completion.

Today’s buyers want hyper-personalized and engaging content from companies they interact with at every touchpoint. Nurturing leads from the moment they initiate interest to when they make a purchase decision is imperative to increasing top-line growth. Although this is a shared sentiment in marketing these days, how does one effectively put this in place? When prioritizing marketing channels to elevate your agency’s identity and facilitate a thoughtful lead to customer experience, email is king. According to Econsultancy, three-quarters of companies state that email offers excellent to good ROI while Campaign Monitor cites for every $1 spent, email marketing generates $38 in ROI. The moral of the story here is that if you aren’t leveraging personalized email marketing, now is the time!

Whether you are just starting a career in higher education, mid-level, or considering a position change, professional development is a key part of the growth process. This interactive session will challenge attendees to assess their current skills, leverage unique opportunities, and develop an action plan that factors in change. The facilitator will also share her experience with ACHE’s Emerging Leaders Institute which led to personal growth and professional advancement.

California State University Dominguez Hills explored issuing digital credentials for non-credit programs. After extensive research, the Extended Education unit elected to work with Parchment. The objective was to issue digital credentials easily accessed by the learner and easily shared on social media networks, and provide more in-depth details with the ability to mouse over an awarded badge icon to display metadata embedded within. The badge would include relevant course information, learning objectives and learning outcomes. The information could be accessed by an employer reviewing the submitted credential for a new hire, promotion or pay increase, revealing more data than a paper certificate can convey.

The project to date as been successful, but it was not all "rainbows and unicorns." Learn how CSUDH worked with Parchment's technical team to bring the project to fruition through frequent communication and collaboration. The session will cover lessons learned, best practices and next steps.

The purpose of this session is to examine and discuss the nature of experiences that contribute to the successful completion of a bachelor's degree by veteran students utilizing the Post 9/11 GI Bill. Special attention will be paid to the institutional services and support structures established by institutions of higher education and how they were used to aid veterans in the completion of their programs. This session will be structured in the following way – lecture style presentation followed by a group discussion and Q&A.

Continuing education units come in many shapes and sizes, and the operational model is often built and rebuilt over time. The terms “centralized vs. de-centralized units” has also been a topic of conversation within continuing education for decades. On many campuses, this reality has ebbed and flowed along the spectrum and has shifted based on budget, market conditions, mission-driven directives, leadership preferences, and other data or (in some cases) non-data-driven decisions. If this is our past, what is our future? This session will share a brief case study of a small continuing education unit that cycled its operations between extremes over a twelve-year period. The session will then encourage dialogue on the advantages and disadvantages of various types of structures and where we collectively see the future of continuing higher education.

The Journal of Continuing Higher Education (JCHE) is a forum for the reporting and exchange of information based on research, observations, and experience relevant to continuing higher education. Join JCHE Editor Dr. Walter Pearson for a discussion about writing for publication and how you can provide intellectual leadership to the field and support changes in professional practice.  

The growth in artificial intelligence and robotics poses profound challenges and opportunities for society. In this workshop we will sample applications of artificial intelligence that are available for education, think together about the big trends that arise from artificial intelligence and robotics, learn which jobs are at risk and which will thrive, and spend some time thinking together on how we can organize education in the near future to best serve our students and society.

This session will present an emerging conceptual framework of course-based "knowledge capital" and alternative credentialing that re-visualizes how for-credit course content and learning components might be re-leveraged to meet an expanding and increasingly diversified higher education market for alternative credit and non-credit learning.

In Summer, 2019 Auburn University’s Department of Aviation begins a multi-year re-design of the Aviation Management program’s core courses. As part of this initiative, the Department will work with doctoral students in the College of Education’s Department of Adult Education to explore and identify new opportunities and innovative strategies for leveraging the program’s “knowledge capital” to better meet its outreach and continuing education mission.

The collaborators will present and discuss the barriers and opportunities identified as they evaluated learning content for alternative credit and/or non-credit credentialing options such as stacked and micro-credentials, online certificates, nanodegrees and digital badges. Strategies and recommendations will be shared and an opportunity for session participants to apply these to their own institutional contexts will be provided. In addition, applicable continuing education models will be discussed.

How do you find a way a way to build community and provide student success information to adult degree completion students in a fun and informal setting? Lifelong Learning on Tap! When your campus is located in Beer City USA you take advantage of community resources. Join us to hear about one innovative way we engaged adult degree completion students outside of the classroom. This program repackaged traditional student success seminars by connecting adult students with each other, university staff, and community members at a local brewery. Adult learners were able to meet other learners on campus they could identify with and build community in a meaningful way as well as learn about resources both on and off campus and an emerging industry in the community.

The goal of this PDW is to share with academic community the BE-EDGE instrument, which is built to enhance graduates’ employability. The BE-EDGE method speaks directly to those standing at the threshold of change—whether the college student about to graduate with an advanced degree or the established professional seeking a new position, and to those (university professors, program directors and career centers) who are searching the way to help graduates to succeed after graduation. It provides students and faculty a clear framework for integrating a consulting case assignment into the personal strategy and job crafting efforts and helps administrators consider ways to embed the curriculum to increase enrollments and meet placement goals.

Columbia, South Carolina is home to Ft. Jackson, the largest army training post in the country, along with the University of South Carolina and its system innovation for off-campus and online delivery, Palmetto College. Learn how these two partners are collaborating to provide success for soldiers and their families through the development of new and innovative programs that prepare soldiers for the workforce once they complete their tour of duty. Key components of the partnership provide on-site delivery of courses at Ft. Jackson, along with online degree programs, coupled with both a physical and virtual one-stop shop, meeting both the educational and career development needs of soldiers. Columbia is known as the "Most Friendly Military Community in the Country" and the goal of this collaborative partnership is to make USC Palmetto College the "Most Military Friendly Educational Opportunity in the Country!"

Leadership skillsets are evolving due to volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) contexts in which we operate in the Higher Education environment today. These changes require leaders to alter their mindset and apply new methods and skills rather than using outdated concepts. The increasing complexity of the Higher Education environment including rapid rates of change, globalization and cultural heterogeneity of the workforce, increasing access of information, improvement and expansion of technology, as well as application of technology into the work processes and procedures of higher education will continue to demand leaders who possess expert, broad and deep cognitive capabilities. These include not only analytic skills such as logical reasoning, problem-solving, optimizing and planning, but also significant non-linear systems-based skills such as pattern recognition, novel idea generation, creativity, and multiple-agent coordination. Join this session and find out what skills are necessary to lead in today's Higher Education VUCA environment.

Higher education is being challenged with increasing costs of delivering quality education, national competition invading local markets, increased fixed costs associated with campuses, and escalating expenses connected to security needs of open campuses and academic freedom. These costs are draining funding institutions rely on to sustain academic support centers and events promoting social and cultural cohesion of the higher education community who remain committed to their values and mission. Increasingly, institutions are implementing technology to streamline services, and adopting new policies to tighten decision-making. While these actions support the financial viability of institutions, there is a potential loss of cultural and academic functions which underpin values and mission. This session provides a new model for higher education to consider with respect to faculty development and support, most specifically for those adjunct and contract faculty who are key in serving students and integrating institution mission and values into the curriculum.

Prospective students are doing their research; and sometimes, independently. It is difficult to attribute which marketing source drove them into your applicant funnel. It can also be difficult to engage these prospects in a voice to voice modality. These challenges should not discourage or terminate efforts to enroll the prospective student due to lack of data as this is the nature of the stealth applicant. Once the stealth applicant has revealed themselves, it is critical to engage them and get them started quickly. We will review the top hurdles that prevent students from getting started and how to overcome those hurdles. Once they have started, we will run you through best practices to keep students from stopping out.

At the completion of this session, the participants are expected to identify how a focused curriculum revision utilizing accessibility, acceleration, and articulation can meet student educational needs for LPN to BSN degree completion.