In this issue:
- Letter from the Editors: This Month’s Theme
- Webinar: Supporting Digital Learning: Preparing Faculty and Students for Online Courses
- Virtual Table Talk: Fostering a Culture of Equity
- Reminders & News: National Student Clearinghouse Updates, State Systems Planning “Chattanooga Accord” Meeting in June, Thank you from AIR, Frontier Set Annual Learning Logs
Letter from the Editors
During April’s webinar, we explored how to engage faculty in digital learning. This month we build on this by offering a webinar titled Supporting Digital Learning: Preparing Faculty and Students for Online Courses. This is based on AIR’s fifth Promising Practices Brief, which looks at how 4 different Frontier Set sites optimized faculty and student preparedness for online classes in order to ensure the outcomes for online classes were on a par with those for in-person classes.
We invite you to engage with your peers on the platform on questions you might have around engaging faculty in digital learning. We also encourage you to join Indian River State College’s Tina Hart and other Frontier Set peers in a virtual table talk on Fostering a Culture of Equity.
All of the previous Frontier Set Webinars can be found in the Online Community Platform.
All the best,
Victoria Matthew, Gila Aispuro, and Lisa Ponce
frontierset@venturewell.org
Webinar
Supporting Digital Learning: Preparing Faculty and Students for Online Course
Date: Wednesday, May 30, at 12:00pm ET
Speakers: David Whitehead, Distance Education Coordinator, Davidson County Community College; Jason Frank, Instructional Designer, Santa Fe College; James Smith, Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP Director), Wake Technical Community College; Christopher Dunst, Senior Director of Online Learning, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Target Audience: Faculty and staff who oversee strategic decisions around implementing, training, and support for online learning for an academic department or student services unit.
Description: Join us to hear how 4 Frontier Set sites addressed the challenge of online course pass rates consistently lagging behind those in face-to-face settings. Learn how Davidson County Community College, Santa Fe College, Wake Technical Community College and the University of North Carolina Greensboro addressed this challenge by developing approaches to better prepare instructors for online teaching, and students for online learning. This webinar is based on AIR’s Promising Practices Brief 5 Supporting Digital Learning: Preparing Faculty and Student for Online Courses. We encourage you to read the brief ahead of time and come with your questions.
Register here
Virtual Table Talks
Fostering a Culture of Equity
Date: Thursday, May 24 at 12:00pm ET
Host: Christina Hart, Indian River State College
Target Audience: Administrators seeking to better engage faculty and staff in equity focused work.
Description: Promoting a change in culture is not easy, but if done right can have significant outcomes including an improved ability to respond to changes initiated externally and internally. During this table talk, learn how Tina Hart has and continues to foster a culture of equity at Indian State River College. Bring your best practices and the challenges you would like discuss and troubleshoot with your peers.
What is a virtual table talk? Table talks are not formal presentations. They are opportunities for group knowledge-sharing in small groups. The goal of these virtual conversations is to allow peers to openly and candidly discuss their successes and challenges on the topic in question, and glean advice for dealing with challenges.
Register here
Reminders & News
National Student Clearinghouse Updates
If you have not completed execution of the data sharing agreements with the Clearinghouse and Coffey Consulting, please make it a priority to complete those agreements as soon as possible. As soon as your data sharing agreements are executed, it is time to submit your data to the Clearinghouse! Please remember that the Spring 2018 Data Intake Window is OPEN! Data must be submitted and validated by May 25, so don’t delay in sending your Course and Cohort files to the Clearinghouse. For additional guidance on submitting data to the Clearinghouse this Spring, please view the webinars here.
If you have questions about the data sharing agreements or data submission, please send them to pdpservice@studentclearinghouse.org.
State Systems to plan a one day “Chattanooga Accord” in June
Tennessee Board of Regents and University System of Georgia will meet in June to discuss the structures and supports that will foster continued coordination of efforts between the two systems and advance their work related to equity, leadership, and institution transformation. There will also be a focus on how the State Systems can better support the work of fellow institutions in Frontier Set that are part of State Systems and vice versa. Stay tuned to hear the outcomes from that meeting!
Thank you from AIR
Many Frontier Set sites are participating in their first follow-up visits this spring. Thanks from the American Institutes for Research (AIR) for your time, energy, and hospitality. If you have any questions related to site visits, please contact your AIR evaluation lead.
Frontier Set Annual Learning Logs
Annual reflections were due April 30, please make sure your institution’s has been submitted on the platform. Check out what other sites have written by going to the Learning Log tab on the platform and sorting by “Annual Learning Log”. We are back to our regular learning log submission schedule for May.
This is the first published newsletter. To review past newsletters in the future, click here.