Engineerica Education: Keynote Series
The Engineerica Education Keynote Series is a complimentary monthly webinar featuring a guest speaker who specializes in a topic of high interest to academic center staff. Register for the next live webinar, or watch one of our past webinars below.
Coming next month!
More Session Details are Coming Soon!
Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM EDT
The webinar is complimentary, but seats are limited. Please register by clicking the button below.
Watch Past Webinars
The Art of Tutoring: How to Build a Successful and Engaging Program
Dale Mommer, Director of a Learning Center at Blinn College.
This webinar focuses on developing a holistic tutoring program that engages students throughout the semester. Aspects of this program include:
- Hiring decisions for tutors
- How services will be implemented
- The elements of preparing tutors to engage with students
This session will also explore promoting tutoring to students, modifying or changing a tutoring center’s services as needed, and strengthening and building campus partnerships with faculty and student services. All of these elements combined will provide the foundation for the long-term sustained success of the tutoring resource.
Click here to download the presentation files.
Train What You Assess and Assess What You Train: Improve Tutor Development with Assessment & Evaluation Principles
Jered Moses, Northern Kentucky University’s Learning Assistance Program, Learning PLUS Associate Director for Tutoring Programs
Learning center managers want tutor training that is efficient and effective. However, they often encounter challenges that reduce training effectiveness and leave tutors confused about priorities, such as:
- A curriculum consisting of loosely connected topics covered one at a time
- Unreliable tutor observation protocols
This webinar will discuss how to approach tutor training and observation to address these issues, using the complete redesign of the tutor training program at Northern Kentucky University’s Tutoring and Writing Center as an example.
This webinar is for you if you are rethinking your training curriculum, want to redesign your observation rubric, or are interested in another perspective on training and assessment.
Click here to download the presentation files.
Improvement is a Science!: How to Apply it to Tutoring Services
Elaine Harwood, Coordinator of Learning Services at Berkshire Community College
Compassion fatigue is an issue that many employees across many industries face, including tutors at colleges and universities, where rates of anxiety and depression have always been high among students. While tutors are not counselors, they often find themselves exposed to difficult stories and situations, and events such as the COVID-19 pandemic only exacerbated these existing issues. Too often, tutors who experience this problem will quit before it can be addressed.
This webinar covered a study conducted by Bergen Community College’s Learning Assistance Center to better understand the impact of compassion fatigue on professional and peer tutors, including the findings of the study, as well as recommendations and practices that learning center managers can implement to help their tutors.
Click here to download the presentation files.
Understanding and Addressing Compassion Fatigue In Higher Ed Tutors
Dr. John Findura, Writing Center Supervisor at Bergen Community College
Compassion fatigue is an issue that many employees across many industries face, including tutors at colleges and universities, where rates of anxiety and depression have always been high among students. While tutors are not counselors, they often find themselves exposed to difficult stories and situations, and events such as the COVID-19 pandemic only exacerbated these existing issues. Too often, tutors who experience this problem will quit before it can be addressed.
This webinar covered a study conducted by Bergen Community College’s Learning Assistance Center to better understand the impact of compassion fatigue on professional and peer tutors, including the findings of the study, as well as recommendations and practices that learning center managers can implement to help their tutors.
Click here to download the presentation files.
Strategies for Assessing the Effectiveness of Learning Support Initiatives
Nisha Abraham, Senior Learning Development Specialist at Engageli
This webinar was about evaluating the impacts of your academic support programs through different qualitative and quantitative methods. If you would like to assess your program but find that elusive or difficult, this session will provide valuable insights that you need to complete your evaluation. The information presented applies to a wide range of services. Viewers will gain invaluable insights into the diverse range of data sources that can be employed to gauge program effectiveness. From quantitative metrics to qualitative analyses, we explore four real-world examples of benchmarks within an SI program that were difficult to assess.
Click here to download the presentation files.
Equity, Empathy, and Empowerment: Inclusive Best Practices for Supporting Students
Presented by Lindsay R. Masters, Buffalo Business 2023 Inclusion Diversity Equity Awareness (IDEA) Award Winner.
This presentation examined the ways that students might be interpreting, or misinterpreting, your center’s best intentions regarding diversity and inclusion. It will provide you with some strategies you can employ right away to increase engagement and make them feel included in your classroom or student support center, both virtually and in person. Whether you’re a new DEI ally or a seasoned accomplice, professionals of all experience levels are welcome and will come away with something useful. Specific focus areas will include accessibility, the global majority, neurodivergent, and gender non-conforming student populations.
Click here to download the presentation files.
GROUP Tutoring for Student Success
- Transformative Learning (TL), the University of Kentucky’s centralized learning center model, prepares tutors to effectively build and facilitate a positive group learning environment using the GROUP mnemonics method:
- Greet & Gather
- Restructure the environment
- Establish clear Outcomes
- Understand strengths and knowledge gaps
- Ask Probing questions
Attendees will learn about each element of the GROUP method. We will also explore group learning strategies to understand better how to apply this model to your learning center.
Click here to download the presentation files.
Engaging Your Learners With Interactive Digital Strategies
Presented by Janine Rudnick, Professor & Technology Resource Center Trainer for El Paso Community College.
Learn to revolutionize your teaching methods with interactive documents. This workshop is for anyone who wants to create more engaging materials to reach students of the modern era. These invigorating and captivating techniques can be used in areas such as classrooms, online courses, SI sessions, and learning centers. From interactive PowerPoint slides to Excel fill-ins and even digital escape rooms, you’ll discover a range of tools to enhance learning and foster collaboration among your students. This step-by-step session will equip you with the skills to create dynamic materials that promote active engagement and deepen your understanding of class material.
Objectives included during the session:
Gamifying learning by designing immersive challenges that promote teamwork and problem-solving. • Discovering strategies for integrating interactive materials into your existing curriculum or student support sessions.
Click here to download the presentation slides.
Click here to access the interactive PowerPoint referenced in the presentation.
Click here to access the Digital Escape Room referenced in the presentation.
Helping Students On Academic Probation
Presented by Krissica Harper, Private Educator, and Coach.
This workshop offers guidance to higher education practitioners in effectively supporting students on academic probation with an emphasis on marginalized students. It emphasizes the importance of acknowledging and addressing the unique challenges these students encounter. The presentation will highlight practical strategies that create a more inclusive and supportive environment. These include tailored mentorship programs, holistic support services encompassing mental health and financial aid, and flexible academic policies. The workshop encourages practitioners to adopt empathetic and culturally aware approaches that empower them to provide comprehensive support tailored to the specific needs of vulnerable students on academic probation.
Click here to download the materials from this presentation.
Thinking Ahead: Helping Students Build Skill Awareness
Presented by Paige Mertz, Associate Director of Program Analytics at Sam Houston State University.
In today’s ever-evolving academic and professional landscapes, students’ diverse skill sets are vital to their success. This presentation will discuss the potential and importance of helping students hone their technical, soft, transferable, and adaptive skills, which are essential for both student degree attainment and competitiveness in the job market. Students, along with the academic programs and student resources that support them, need to understand these skills and how they strengthen engagement and achievement.
This presentation will provide practical tips and tools that prepare student support resources such as tutoring, advising, and career centers, to take a skills-focused approach to serving students. Attendees will be equipped with strategies to help students turn obstacles into opportunities on their paths to becoming in-demand professionals.
Click here to download the materials from this presentation. Additionally, we’d like to pass along these links which were shared or referenced during the presentation:
- Skills Categories: https://lightcast.io/open-skills/categories
- Liz Coleman TED: https://www.ted.com/talks/liz_coleman_a_call_to_reinvent_liberal_arts_education?language=en
- Lightcast: https://lightcast.io/
- CIP-SOC Crosswalk: https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/cipcode/post3.aspx?y=56
- Skills Extractor: https://lightcast.io/open-skills/extraction
Thu, Apr 4, 2024 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM EDT
- Transformative Learning (TL), the University of Kentucky’s centralized learning center model, prepares tutors to effectively build and facilitate a positive group learning environment using the GROUP mnemonics method:
- Greet & Gather
- Restructure the environment
- Establish clear Outcomes
- Understand strengths and knowledge gaps
- Ask Probing questions
Attendees will learn about each element of the GROUP method. We will also explore group learning strategies to better understand how to apply this model to your learning center.
Beyond the Field: How Learning Centers Can Support College Athletes
Presented by Rena Roberts, Director of the Academic Resource Center, at the University of California, Riverside.
College athletes have a unique college experience, one which learning centers may find challenging to support. Due to their strenuous schedules, athletes often find it difficult to utilize academic support services, yet their academic success is usually a requirement for involvement in athletics. But with the right framework, learning centers and their institutions can make it easier for college athletes to access learning support services.
This presentation will discuss the unique aspects of the college athlete experience, and why it is important for learning centers to ensure that college athletes can access and utilize support services. The presentation will share how the Academic Resource Center (ARC) at UC Riverside supports athletes and provides recommendations for how learning centers can collaborate with athletic departments to support this unique student population.
Click here to download the materials from this presentation.
Promoting College Student Success with Appreciative Advising: Moving from Theory to Practice
Presented by Dr. Claire Robinson (Assistant Provost of Undergraduate Advisement and the inaugural Director of the University Advising Center) and Joshua Weakland (Assistant Director of Exploratory Advising and Academic Coaching) from the University of South Carolina.
Colleges and universities across the country provide undergraduate students with a wide range of support services. At the University of South Carolina, the Office of Exploratory Advising and Academic Coaching uses the Appreciative Advising framework to support 4000-5000 students per year – including students on academic probation, students changing majors, and students in need of comprehensive advising support. These methods can be used by a variety of different student support centers to help students succeed.
In this webinar, viewers will be introduced to Appreciative Advising as the intentional collaborative practice of asking positive, open-ended questions that help students optimize their educational experiences and achieve their dreams, goals, and potentials. This framework is an ideal foundation for how centers can move from theory to practice. Finally, assessment techniques will be shared to demonstrate the positive effect these techniques have on retention, graduation, and student success.
Click here to download the materials from this presentation.
Developing a Successful Academic Coaching Program
Presented by Natasha Ziegler who is the Assistant Director of Academic Success in the Center for Academic Achievement office at Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) in Fort Myers, Florida.
Many institutions and student success programs are fast recognizing the value of academic coaching, which goes beyond subject tutoring to focus on the student’s entire learning experience and important soft skills that can help them be more successful in college and beyond.
In this session, we’ll discuss the theories, practices, and philosophies that can influence an Academic Coaching program structure and how to incorporate them into staff training. Some of the theories, practices, and philosophies that will be discussed include:
- Carl Roger’s unconditional positive regard
- Solutions-Based Focused Therapy
- Appreciative Advising
Click here to download the materials from this presentation.
Decolonizing the Student Experience
Presented by Drs. Laura Pipe and Jennifer Stephens
In this presentation, Drs. Laura Pipe and Jennifer Stephens share insights about how the student experience can be transformed by intentional changes in how institutions and individuals approach student learning and engagement. More than just a buzzword, decolonial praxis requires each of us to question the very rules that shape and govern the landscape of higher education and the academy today, from how we promote education to how we evaluate it.
Pipe and Stephens, editors of Ignite: A Decolonial Approach to Higher Education through Space, Place, and Culture will introduce the Toward a Liberated Learning Spirit (TALLS) model for developing critical consciousness and invite attendees to consider the impact of colonizing educational experiences on their own learning while imagining how they might challenge the systems and structures of higher education to support students in their own journeys.
Click here to download the materials from this presentation.
We’re Doing What Now?: Navigating Organizational Change
Presented by Dr. P. Brandon Johnson
If your institution is considering or currently involved with organizational change, this is the webinar for you. In this live session, we will show you how the Student Success Advocates, a coaching-adjacent program at the University of Utah, was transformed into a Student Success Coaching program.
About the Speaker: Dr. P. Brandon Johnson is a senior associate dean for student success and transformative experiences in the Office of Undergraduate Studies at the University of Utah. He is a published author who has served as section editor for the Handbook of Research on Black Males. Dr.Johnson’s research and professional activities have produced several presentations at national and regional conferences, webinars, and symposia concerning student retention, the first-year experience, academic coaching, and advising
Click here to download the materials from this presentation.
Teaching Students How to Study, Learn, and Grow
Presented by Correy Hammond.
In this session, we’ll discuss how to coach students using metacognitive techniques, and how to guide them through essential academic tasks that will ensure their success, such as:
- Note Taking
- Reading
- Studying
- Utilizing campus support services
About the Speaker: As an educator in higher education for over 15 years, Correy Hammond has spent his life using his personal and career experiences to help students define, clarify, and achieve their educational and personal goals. Correy received his Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration (Marketing) from Xavier University and a Master’s Degree in College Student Personnel (Higher Education Administration) from the University of Dayton. He is a business owner, author, and trainer with over 15 years of experience in the leadership development arena. Correy has made it his life’s work to help youth and young adults become the best version of themselves by simply shifting their mindsets.
Click here to download the materials from this presentation.
Finding the Right Support Employees for Your Learning Center
Presented by Michael Frizell.
This session from Michael Frizell explores ways to navigate the process of finding the best student workers for your center. Learn about marketing, see example applications, unpack effective interview questions, and explore the performative aspects inherent during the interview.
About the Speaker: Michael Frizell, M.F.A., is the Director of Student Learning Services at Missouri State University, where he serves as co-director of the Bear CLAW (Center for Learning and Writing). Additionally, Michael serves as an adjunct faculty member for the Theatre & Dance Department and teaches a capstone course in writing for the Honors College. Michael earned the National College Learning Center Association’s Certified Learning Center Professional (Level 4) lifetime achievement designation in 2012. Since then, Michael has been the editor of The Learning Assistance Review, NCLCA’s peer-reviewed journal.
Incorporating Equitable Student-Led Study Groups Into Your Learning Center
Presented by David R. Arendale
Student-led study groups can be a great way to enhance the offerings of your learning center without overtaxing your existing resources. Whether you already have study groups set up or are considering setting them up, it’s important to consider issues of race and marginalization to make sure you’re setting up students for a productive and equitable experience.
After a brief introduction to student-led study groups, this webinar discussed antiracism policies and practices for student-led study groups, based on a careful review of scholarly articles, books, and existing guides. Attendees learned about effective learning practices that can be adapted and adopted for use in supporting higher student achievement, closing the achievement gap, increasing persistence to graduation, and meeting the needs of culturally diverse and historically underrepresented students.
David R. Arendale is an associate professor emeritus of history in the Curriculum and Instruction Department at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. His research interests include learning assistance, peer learning groups, equity, inclusion, and Universal Design in Learning. He has published in various journals, including the Journal of College Academic Support Programs, the Journal of Developmental Education, and the Journal of Peer Learning.
The Invisible Student: How Learning Centers Can Leverage Campus Supports for Neurodiverse College Student Success
Presented by Dr. Elizabeth Coghill
This webinar introduces the importance of neurodiversity and its impact on student success in post-secondary institutions. As the number of college students with learning differences has grown, learning center professionals are challenged to create learning environments that support the academic success of all learners.
This session examine neurodiversity and executive functioning skills in higher education, explore learning ecosystems and Universal Design for Learning approaches, and provide a foundation for understanding neurodiverse students and how learning centers can impact their collegiate success.
Dr. Elizabeth Coghill has served as the inaugural Director of the Pirate Academic Success Center at East Carolina University for the past 15 years. Coghill’s professional experiences include learner support services, academic advising, registrar, systems training, career services, and admissions.
Tutor Training Beyond Matter: Bringing Academic Coaching into Tutoring Sessions
Presented by Yve Solbrekken
In this webinar, Yve Solbrekken focuses on how to train tutors to provide real, immediate, and useful feedback and tools to students at all stages of their learning. Using many of the same techniques used in academic coaching, tutors can help students become better and more engaged learners. This leads to a more effective tutoring center and a marked increase in student and tutor satisfaction rates.
Yve shares the techniques she developed that have helped thousands of students for the past decade, and how you can pass them on to your tutors. Some key principles that will be discussed include:
-Providing students with evidence-supported practical solutions.
-Creating a tool belt for success in all situations.
-“Studentship skills,” which are the study, learning, and life skills that a seasoned student has acquired, and how tutoring sessions can help them on their academic journey to build these skills.
The Pot at the End of the Rainbow: Fiscal Growth and How to Cultivate Donors, Sponsors, and Gifts for Learning Centers
Presented by Dr. Geoff Bailey
College and university learning centers often struggle to find sufficient fiscal resources to support the diverse academic needs of their students. In an era of tight resources and the impending Demographic 25 cliff, it’s more important than ever for academic centers to find new ways to leverage their strengths, data, and partnerships to cultivate the financial resources they need.
This presentation shows how one university learning center has diversified its financial support through campus and community partnerships as well as corporate sponsorships to help augment services and scale up their impact on student success.
Click here to download the materials from this presentation.
Supporting At-Risk Students Through Proactive Tutoring
Presented by Dr. Barbara Hong
This webinar will address critical issues facing at-risk college students. This is a particularly important topic when enrollment is decreasing and students’ learning gaps are widening. Using evidence-based strategies, you will learn how to reframe tutoring services so that they are student-initiated, student-centered, and student-directed.
You will also discover the real impact data can have on sustaining effective tutoring programs and how to present such evidence to your administration and faculty for their buy-in. Most of all, you will learn how to build and position tutoring services as a transformational and ubiquitous service for all your students.
Questions answered during this webinar include:
- Who are considered at-risk students?
- Why do colleges wait until students are on probation or suspension before intervening?
- What barriers do at-risk students face as they transition to and through college?
- Do Early Alert programs work?
- How do colleges determine which interventions are effective?
- How can institutions empower students to take charge of their own education?
How to Scaffold Working Memory to Aid Learning
Presented by Dr. Rick Bryck
Working Memory (WM), a fundamental executive function, can be harnessed by learning centers and other student-serving departments in higher education to improve student outcomes, especially for neurodivergent students or students with executive function challenges.
WM serves as a gatekeeper to information processing and knowledge acquisition. This session covers fundamental attributes of WM, including its limitations, connections to learning, and the related concept of “cognitive load.”
Viewers will be able to take away the following from this presentation:
- Learn how to “hack” WM with strategies for efficient use of this limited but crucial component of learning during tutoring and learning sessions.
- Understand the connections and importance of working memory to learning.
- Modify academic content to empower learning centers and their support staff to maximize WM capacity, and thus make learning sessions more efficient.
- Understand and employ other strategies for supporting WM in learning centers, especially in students with executive function challenges.
Click here to download the materials from this presentation.
Get Hire-Ed: Strategically Planning Your Career in Higher Education
Presented by Wendy Simmerman
Are you passionate about higher education but feeling stuck where you are? Do you enjoy your job but find yourself wondering if other roles would be more fulfilling? Would you like to take on more responsibility and grow into more senior roles, but aren’t sure where to start? This webinar is for you!
In this webinar, we discussed the nuts and bolts of strategically planning your career in higher education, with lots of practical exercises and tips you can use immediately. Whether you are just starting out in higher ed or a seasoned mid-career professional, this webinar will provide value and direction; demystifying a process that can be confusing and complex. You will leave the webinar with a personalized strategy for career growth in higher education.
Click here to download the materials from this presentation.
Bringing Tutors into the Classroom: Piloting Embedded Tutoring
Presented by Luke Matulewicz
Embedded tutoring can reduce the DFW rates of a traditionally difficult course. It can also generate a large increase in tutoring traffic, higher test grades for students who attend tutoring, and higher final course grades. During this webinar, you’ll learn about the experience of Kansas State University with embedded tutoring: their successes, challenges, and data story – with statistical significance. You’ll also learn how you can duplicate these results at your own institution.
Click here to download the materials from this presentation.
Holistic Strategies for Meeting the Needs of Students in 2022 and Beyond
Presented by Julie Loppacher
As institutions adjust to the new normal, how can colleges best meet the holistic needs of students especially when some of them have been profoundly affected by the COVID pandemic and other major events? This webinar discusses dynamic and adaptable strategies and approaches to help faculty, learning center managers and other college support staff learn how to approach struggling students with respect, nuance, and relevancy.
Prioritize Your Wellbeing: How Learning Center Professionals Can Adopt Self-Care Practices as an Act of Self-Compassion
Presented by Abe Saunders
This webinar outlines best practices for incorporating self-care as an act of self-compassion. The presentation includes a discussion to enhance awareness, knowledge, and skills in the areas of self-care and mental health and wellness.
Click here to download the materials from this presentation.
The Perfect Semester Kick-Off: Planning An Academic Success Conference for Students
Presented by Rachel Hoover
In the Fall of 2018, Lamar University experimented with a new method to help its undergraduate students prepare for the new semester to increase their chances of college success. This method worked so well that they have used it ever since.
The concept is innovative and can be applied by any college that wants to help its students succeed. Watch this webinar to learn all about this innovative student success initiative including Staffing, Budgeting, Facilities, Attendance incentives, Marketing, Recruiting strategies, Scheduling, Student retention, and success results.
Click here to download the materials from this presentation.
Managing in the Face of Change: Planning for Adaptability, Sustainability, and Growth
Presented by Stacey Blackwell
In this presentation, a learning center director who has managed a large operation of over 300 student leaders, four physical centers, online services, in-class supports, courses, training programs, and supplemental academic support programs will share some promising practices for managing in the face of change, with a focus on how to plan for adaptability, sustainability, and growth.
Extreme Academic Makeover: Maximize College Student Learning in Just One Session
Presented by Melissa Brocato
As Learning Center professionals, students build trust with us, and share information about their lives and situations. These times are often teachable moments through which we can mentor students with the learning strategies needed to equip them for college-level learning and beyond.
This webinar presents a variety of activities designed to teach learning processes and strategies to engage students, and are also invited to share their own success stories and tools.
Metacognition: The Key to Educational Equity and Excellence
Presented by Saundra McGuire
Many students come to college lacking the thinking skills and strategies required to be academically successful. This may be particularly true for minoritized and first-generation students.
This presentation addresses how to close the achievement gap plaguing many institutions by teaching students metacognitive learning strategies that enable them to move from memorization and regurgitation to analysis, evaluation, and creation.
Learn More or download the Webinar Resources.
Transforming Students into Self-Regulated Learners: Supporting Students to Support Themselves
Presented by Dr. Linda Nilson
Most students have serious misconceptions about learning, especially about the amount of effort and focus it requires and your role as a learning facilitator.
Teaching students how to become self-regulated learners dispels these misconceptions and helps them understand what learning actually involves. Watch to learn specific strategies for accomplishing this and teaching students the learning process.
Learn More or download the Webinar Resources.
Peer Tutor Trainings that Inspire, Educate, and Challenge: Approaches to Tutor Training
Presented by Daniel Sanford
Tutor training programs have the potential not only to provide peer educators with prerequisite concepts but to guide students in their growth as educators and draw them into the educational mission of the institutions we serve.
In order to accomplish this, we need to approach tutors as the advanced students and gifted educators they are, challenging them with intellectually engaging ideas and modeling the pedagogies that we hope to see them use in the center.
Learn More by reading our blog.
Level Up Your Online Engagement: Leveraging Technology to Educate Your Support Services
Presented by Marci Powell
In this webinar, we will focus on how to create high-quality virtual meeting experiences that increase engagement, foster interaction, and promote better outcomes for students using new technological trends and developments such as alternate reality, virtual reality, AI, gamification, and more.
Learn More by reading our blog.
Equity and Inclusion: Decolonizing Learning Centers
Presented by Dr. Torri Staton
This interactive workshop will examine vocabulary and historical context that contributes to the equity and inclusion of our learning centers while understanding our roles in creating more accessibility in our learning spaces.
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