Successfully Engaging Adult Learners in Multigenerational Contexts

• Mary McCall: Office of Diversity and Inclusion, SMU

• Dr. Kerry Mitchell: Lead Faculty, Regis University

• Track: Supporting the Life Cycle of Adult Learners

• Within the last two decades, technology has proliferated at an unprecedented rate, creating new means for adults to obtain education. This proliferation of technology has also caused differences in students’ brains, attention span and learning preferences. In this session, we will discuss the challenges in all learning contexts of engaging learners across generations who often have different learning expectations. In this session, two educators of adults (one a recent adult student herself) will outline the unique challenges that many adult students face in the academic environment (e.g., different motivations for learning, academic skill anxieties, work and life experience, etc.) and offer multiple tools to engage all learners.  Activities and discussion will be included in the session.

Supporting the Neurodiversity of SLD in an Online Environment

• Dr. John O’Malley: Clinical Assistant Professor, University of Denver

• Track: Engaging Different Types of Learners

• According to the National Center for Learning Disabilities, 24% of young adults who are diagnosed with a specific learning disability (SLD) in high school do not believe they have SLD after leaving high school, even though the issues associated with learning disabilities are a lifespan issue continuing into late adulthood. Are you ready to support these students in your online classroom? Join Dr. John O’Malley as he provides best practices and guidance on working with students with neurodiversity in an online course environment. Participants will come away with tangible recommendations on helping students with LD build a positive self-concept and find success in the online environment. John’s interactive facilitation style gives plenty of opportunity for audience participation and engagement.

Using Data to Enhance 'High-Touch' Advising and Position for Growth Without Diluting a Superior Student Experience

• Robert Balke: Academic Advisor, University of Denver, University College

• Dr. Bobbie Kite: Associate Teaching Professor and Director of the Healthcare Management Program

• Track: Creating a Strong Value Proposition for Adult Learners

• Data informatics and analytics are terms increasingly gaining momentum with each passing day.  But what is it exactly and is it something we can learn and/or develop?  Let's begin with and never deviate from the initial conversation with our team members to collectively move toward the 'yes' and gain the affirmative that we can collaborate by capitalizing on each other's strengths to develop a data system.  The benefits for us are many and most importantly to our constituency but without the 'buy-in' and like any other change, it won't have a chance.  By expressing a genuine value in each team member's strengths, creativity and innovations, you can develop a system which positions for growth and enhances a superior student experience.

Innovation in Higher Ed.: Policy, Practice & Purpose

• Spencer Ellis: Director of Educational Innovation, Colorado Department of Higher Education

• Track: Utilizing Technology to Deliver Quality Experiences

• The Colorado Department of Higher Education is emphasizing innovation in education through its current work. This includes work around open educational resources (OER), industry partnerships, exploration of blockchain technologies. Come learn about what the department is doing and how you can be a part of it all! Additionally, attendees will receive a short briefing on current state higher education policy items, including prior learning assessment.

Teaching and Storytelling with Digital Maps and Spatial Data

• Dr. Joseph Kerski: Faculty, University of Denver

• Track: Utilizing Technology to Deliver Quality Experiences

• The key issues of the 21st Century--water, climate, population change, human health, energy, sustainability--are all spatial issues--they occur somewhere and exhibit spatial patterns.  Today's digital maps from a web-Geographic Information Systems environment are multimedia, cloud-based, customizable, and can be shared and crowdsourced.  How can you effectively use these tools to teach, collaborate, and share research?  Join Geographer Joseph Kerski in this hands-on workshop where you will gain skills and confidence that you can use these tools in your work now and in the future.

Shame: Addressing the Elephant in the Adult Classroom

• Holly Boerner: Coordinator of Supplemental Instruction, MSU Denver

• Track: Supporting the Life Cycle of Adult Learners

• We all experience shame in our lives - and the more we try to avoid it, the more it controls us. Shame may be the biggest elephant in our adult classrooms today and has the potential to completely shut down learning unless we effectively acknowledge and navigate its presence. Imagine years of cumulative shame about challenges in school, or feeling stigmatized for seeing a counselor, or struggling to balance school with everything else in life, or a myriad of other things... How can we create campuses and classrooms that promote learning while also reducing the shame by our students? Discover ways to use research and the context of real student experiences to help adult learners successfully navigate shame.

2045: The Adult Learning World without the White Majority

• Brian Gonzales: Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs, Clinical Assistant Professor University of Denver

• Heather Arnold-Renicker: Clinical Assistant Professor University of Denver

• Track: Engaging Different Types of Learners

• Adult learners are becoming the majority student population just as the United States is projected to be minority white by 2045. No longer is it providing accommodations for the non-traditional student, we must redefine how we teach and be adaptive to diversity vs. reactive to change. Instructors, regardless of discipline, can leverage these new demands by flexing their pedagogical style to provide inclusive, purposeful, and meaningful learning for all adult students. Diversity and inclusion have become essential to organizational strategy and success, and the expectations of us in the classroom are no different. Drawing upon anti-oppressive practices used in organizational trainings, participants will explore how this framework can support teaching efficacy. Specifically, making your content, its delivery, and its application, support adult learners from the classroom to the workforce. 

The Grass can be Greener: Leveraging Challenges in Online Course Development

• Dr. Stacy Pinto: Clinical Assistant Professor, University of Denver

• Track: Utilizing Technology to Deliver Quality Experiences

• Designing an online course carries unique challenges. While the challenges vary between content and available technology, generating original online coursework requires a unique approach characterized by resourcefulness, optimism, and a flexible mindset. This presentation identifies types of challenges that course designers may face, provides an opportunity for participants to think critically about their own current or potential challenges, and offers both evidence- and experience-based solutions that assist in not only overcoming the challenges, but transforming them into strengths in the delivery of the course material.

The Myth of Differentiated Instruction

• Dr. Kim Hosler: Director of Instructional Design, United States Air Force Academy

• Engaging Different Types of Learners

• What comes to mind when you hear the terms differentiated instruction? Do you immediately think, I’ve got to create individualized assignments and activities for learners, and who has time for that?

• We know that no matter how we teach, each learner makes sense of the content in varying ways. It is mythical to think we can accommodate the unique needs of every adult learner. 

• Participate in this lively round table discussion busting the myth that differentiated instruction means personalized instruction.  Discussion will centered on what differentiated instruction is and is not, how to structure assignments that allow for differentiation, and the role of universal design in differentiated instruction.

• Come ready to offer your questions, ideas and experiences regarding differentiated instruction.

From Classroom to Conference Room: Teaching that Draws Connections and Opens Doors to Professional Application

• Cindy Cragg: Academic Director and Assistant Teaching Professor, University of Denver, University College

• Track: Engaging Different Types of Learners

• You know that feeling of sheer exhilaration when a student describes a professional "win" as a direct result of your teaching? This session will help post-traditional educators facilitate more of those moments by analyzing the context, barriers, and connections that contribute to or impede the implementation of these powerful learning experiences.

Suspicious Minds: Decoding and Facilitating Student-College Communications and Interactions

• Dr. Ann McCalley: Director of Student Learning and Support; Community College of Denver

• Track: Supporting the Life Cycle of Adult Learners

• It’s one thing to want to meet students where they are at in the student life cycle, yet another to circumvent suspicious minds.  Like Elvis, students and advisors often feel caught in a trap when addressing degree changes, satisfactory progress, appeals and more.  Why can’t I get through to that student?  Why doesn’t my advisor help me?  This session focuses on how to engage students so they can better understand navigating institutional policies and practices while also advocating for themselves.  Crafted conversations are a tool to engage with students in terms they will understand and in a more efficient manner.  Participants will learn about a coaching approach and how to implement it into their practice.

Organic Theater in the Adult Classroom

• James Walsh: Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Colorado Denver

• Track: Engaging Different Types of Learners

• This workshop will engage attendees in an arts-based approach to learning, focusing on the work of the Romero Theater Troupe and their fifteen-year record of using Storytelling Theater to engage diverse audiences in a narrative and oral history-centered strategy of connecting learners to the liberal arts.  The first half of this workshop will lead attendees into the theory of Augusto Boal and Paulo Freire, exploring the historical practices of using theater for community organizing and social change.  This will also include the value of stories as tools for learning and social activism.  The second half of the workshop will engage attendees in the practice of organic theater, offering them an opportunity to tell stories from their experiences and to demonstrate those stories through organic theater.

When “Rain Man” Goes to College: Understanding Support for Postsecondary Students with Autism

• Siva priya Santhanam; Assistant Professor, MSU Denver

• Track: Engaging Different Types of Learners

• Students with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are attending universities in increasing numbers. Common legally mandated accommodations (e.g., extended time on tests, note takers, etc.) that support students with disabilities are not sufficient to support the needs of those with ASD. Indirect support is often provided by members of the university including staff and faculty. Therefore, building awareness and understanding among faculty members is of utmost importance. The goals of this presentation are two-fold:(1) to describe the neurological, social, and learning differences of young adults with ASD; (2) to share strategies with faculty to support students with ASD.

Double-Loop Learning: Academic Fantasy or Achievable Reality?

• Dr. Anton Camarota: Adjunct Faculty at University College, University of Denver

• Track: Creating a Strong Value Proposition for Adult Learners

• Double-loop learning involves confronting the underlying assumptions and norms that form the basis of any body of knowledge. In an adult learning environment such confrontations can be problematic because they require sustained commitment over time, a motivation to tackle the complex unstructured problems vexing our world such as climate change and social inequality, and a willingness to challenge one's inner map of the world. Although many classes operate at level 1 learning, it is only by creating an environment that supports level 2 learning that students can obtain lasting value from their education. This session will outline approaches for creating a level 2 class environment that supports deep learning.

The Importance of Clear ROI for Adult Learners

• Alexandra Peterson: Skillful Colorado, Markle Foundation

• Track: Creating a Strong Value Proposition for Adult Learners

• Many adult learners recognize the importance of lifelong learning and upskilling in today’s rapidly changing economy. But many are hesitant to invest in further education when a program’s return on investment isn’t clear. When we consider adult learners’ many obligations (e.g. full- or part-time work, childcare, elder care, etc.), it’s easy to see why adult learners aren’t enrolling in higher education programs. Drawing from their collective experience leading higher education initiatives, Skillful Manager Drew Ceccato and Senior Manager Alexandra Peterson will facilitate a discussion on how higher education can make itself more accessible to adult learners, the importance of outcomes transparency in higher education, how these changes will positively impact adult learners and higher education, and current efforts being made to realize these goals.

Building a Skill-Set for Career Progression

• Dr. Rose Beane: Director Career & Transfer Center at the Community College of Denver

• Track: Supporting the Life Cycle of Adult Learners

• Skillful, a non-profit initiative of the Markle Foundation with many partners, is working to achieve a skills-based labor market and educating employers on Skills-Based Recruiting and Hiring in Colorado and other states.  This session will provide a framework that presents how to skill-set for career progression that aligns with skills-based recruiting and hiring.  Learn the definitions of foundational competencies and occupational competencies for the skill-based job postings.  Learn how to equip adults with a self-directed method for upgrading their skill-set throughout their life cycle that will enhance their personal brand with a skill-based resume and cover letter that ensures an interview and provides the preparation and identifies the skills they need to get the job. 

PLA+CBE+Flex Delivery= Post-Traditional Student Accelerated Degree Pathways

• Bitsy Cohn: Senior Consultant at Cohn Solutions Group, LLC

• Track: Considering Alternative Credentials/Pathways

• You work in the "real world" - have you learned anything since you left college that would be considered college level?  If you had to, could you use it to complete a degree in your own discipline?  Has your maturing in a job taught you how to learn new things? Adults in today's workforce have significant post-secondary learning that can be demonstrated and evaluated. They also don’t fit the college model that expects course and program equivalencies to be exact, rather than evaluated against job expectations and there is often a difference. Perhaps they need to complete a degree to move up at work. Maybe it’s time to try a new field that stretches their potential. If they have limited time and money, and are motivated to be successful, what could you offer them? Come to this session to learn about two unique programs, one in Colorado, one in NYC,  that are tackling the idea that past learning plus current independent learning plus flexible college curriculum delivery can lead to a degree faster and at a lower cost to the student and the institution.

An n > 1: Supplemental Instruction and Group Learning Helping Adult Learners Thrive

• David McCoy: Director of the Academic Success Center, Front Range Community College

• Mike Workman: Supplemental Instruction Leader, Front Range Community College

• Track: Engaging Different Types of Learners

• Gateway math courses such as College Algebra and Statistics are historically some of the highest failed courses on any college campus. To combat this, Front Range Community College (FRCC) implemented its Supplemental Instruction (SI) program. Since its implementation, there has been a substantial improvement in both passing rates and A’s in courses that have been paired with SI Leaders. This trend has been particularly pungent for adult learners in Statistics. Come discover the SI program FRCC put into place, see the numbers for yourselves on how adult learners are thriving in Statistics when paired with an SI Leader, and explore how your own school could implement a similar program.

Career Transitions & Owning Your Job Search

• Track: Supporting the Life Cycle of Adult Learners

• Presented by Jenny Haas

• Assistant Director of Alumni Career & Professional Development at University of Denver

The Education-Career Mismatch

• Catherine D. Norbeck: Director, Human Resources, Prologis

• Track: Supporting the Life Cycle of Adult Learners

• There is a mismatch between how we are preparing our students for career success and the workplace realities they encounter. Three components contribute to this mismatch critical self-management skills, students’ orientation towards learning after graduation, and the combination of breadth and depth that companies require to deliver on strategic priorities like inclusion and innovation.

• This session highlights crucial “employability skills” and offers suggestions for how to build them before day one on the job; presents brain-based learning techniques to prepare students for effective lifelong learning; and connects ability and willingness to learn with inclusion and innovation, common strategic priorities across all sectors.

Successfully Engaging Adult Learners in Multigenerational Contexts

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• Mary McCall: Office of Diversity and Inclusion, SMU

• Dr. Kerry Mitchell: Lead Faculty, Regis University

• Track: Supporting the Life Cycle of Adult Learners

• Within the last two decades, technology has proliferated at an unprecedented rate, creating new means for adults to obtain education. This proliferation of technology has also caused differences in students’ brains, attention span and learning preferences. In this session, we will discuss the challenges in all learning contexts of engaging learners across generations who often have different learning expectations. In this session, two educators of adults (one a recent adult student herself) will outline the unique challenges that many adult students face in the academic environment (e.g., different motivations for learning, academic skill anxieties, work and life experience, etc.) and offer multiple tools to engage all learners.  Activities and discussion will be included in the session.