Arkaive Inc. is an education technology startup that builds education management tools for students and instructors of higher education. Our goal is to make the management and storage of academic records easy, accurate, and efficient. Class attendance is one of the key factors that determines a student's academic success. This is why many professors value regular student attendance. The attendance-taking procedure, however, has always been time consuming. The traditional pen-and-paper or roll-call method is inefficient and flawed. Arkaive’s geolocation attendance application solves the problem and replaces the traditional method, by accurately and efficiently check students into their classes. In the 21st century, we believe attendance management should be hassle free. Arkaive system is as easy as 1-2-3. With two mouse clicks, everyone is on the same page for attendance. Come see how this technology has helps 7,000 institutions.

The Utah System of Higher Education (USHE) Majors’ Guide, www.UtahMajors.org, launched in 2004, redesigned in 2014, provides information on 2700+ certificates and degrees. Search by institution, subject, award type as well as searching “backward” by occupation to college program enable prospective students to narrow their search for programs of interest. Links to campus websites point to program descriptions and details and to degree maps, semester-by-semester plans for taking all classes needed to earn the award. Integration with Utah Department of Workforce Services labor market data connects college students’ programs to income and job projects in related career fields. 
 
MajorsGuide records Regent actions to approve new programs or program changes. System staff record Regent approval dates, first and last semester offered, changes such as department consolidations, and minimum require credits.  Such information allows staff to respond to questions about institutional offerings. 
 
USHE is working with the State Board of Education to introduce MajorsGuide to future college students as a curricular resource in middle school college and career classes. Exploratory Major Pathways, following the national metamajor movement use CIP codes to group academic programs into broad pathways.
 
The presenter will demonstrate the public view and administrative dashboard of this web-based resource.  Questions and suggestions, sharing other system’s resources will be encouraged.
 

Learning to Adapt 2.0: Evolution of Adaptive Learning in Higher Education

Over the past three years, adaptive learning has gone from an ill-defined concept in higher education to an important category of teaching and learning technology. This session features insights from recent research by Tyton Partners on what has changed in the adaptive marketplace since 2012 and what has not. Next the discussion will look to the future. Vendors have made strides to better define and enable adaptive teaching practices through use of their products. What are predictions for adaptive within the next three years. Institutional innovators in the adaptive learning space will share their thoughts on the future of adaptive learning.

Capella University, a leader in online competency-based learning, in a continuous improvement effort to increase internal consistency and external validity for its portfolio of 48 degree programs and more than 1800 courses, has implemented an agile inspired curriculum and course development process.  Originating in software development, the agile methodology holds that requirements and solutions should evolve through the constant collaboration of cross-functional teams.  Through this approach, working software is delivered to users at regular, short intervals.  At Capella University, our belief was that these design practices held promise for the creation and maintenance of our academic offerings.  The presentation will detail our innovative approach, reflect on the experience from a faculty and instructional design professional perspective, include lessons learned, and plans for expanding and scaling.

Presentation slides. 

Colleges used to believe that their role was to prepare students with the critical thinking, problem solving and executive function skills to help get their fifth job. Today, however, the importance of the first job to future earnings – and the ultimate return on the tuition investment – is increasingly clear. In some states, political leaders are challenging institutions to ensure 100% employment from the most popular majors; some schools are responding with job guarantees.

At the same time, however, it has been said that students at elite universities are risk-averse, and that therefore they're less likely to enter "risky" fields like IT or biotech without the kind of clear, safe, low-risk pathways they have for more established professions, like medicine, law, and investment banking. Today, however, we’re seeing the emergence of pathways for these higher-risk and higher-return fields. During this session, come hear from Ryan Craig of University Ventures, author of College Disrupted: The Great Unbundling of Higher Education, and Joe Mitchell of Revature, on how emerging pre-hire training intermediaries are allowing universities to improve the value of their bachelor’s degree programs, and create no-risk pathways toward high value careers. 
 

At last year's WCET Annual Meeting, staff from Texas Tech University hosted a highly interactive discussion on how one large public research institution was tackling captioning.  This session would be a continuation of that discussion, an update on what has happened in the last year.  This session will outline the university’s captioning resources, levels of captioning support could be utilized, training, and additional information on the levels, and any costs associated with the various levels of support. It will be highly interactive allowing participates to discuss what they have done at their institutions, what has worked, what hasn’t, and lessons learned. Participants will walk away from the session with a quasi-white paper with resources, points of discussion throughout the session, contacts, and possible next steps that they can take back to their institutions.
 

Presentation slides.

Due to student demand and digital learning expectations, employer requirements, and the evolution of robust technical capabilities, the learning landscape is changing. What does the timeline look like for the next generation of learning and data platforms and how do data insights, personalization, and the evolving infrastructures impact faculty role, instruction and learning opportunities? In this session you will hear experts share their insights on evolving learning models, how learners are using and interacting with new models, and why fostering the evolution of the learning landscape is critical to supporting optimal outcomes for our students, faculty, and institutions.

At last year’s WCET Annual Meeting this group of panelists shared examples of how data informs retention initiatives and practices at their institutions. Follow them on their journeys one year later to continue the conversation of the ongoing challenges in selecting risk factors and interventions and then deciding what to do with that data, when to intervene, and how to measure impact. The panelists will discuss organizational capacity, process improvement through analytics, and progress towards targeted goals of student success and institutional performance. How can we use data more intentionally to meaningfully impact student success in a real and measurable way? How can we collaborate across units (student affairs, academics, institutional research) to leverage and act on data based on a shared understanding of metrics and goals? Learn of successes and challenges as their institutional strategies evolve, and hear updates on key projects and next steps.

So many internal and external pressures are changing the learning landscape—student demand, employer requirements, affordability demands, and robust technical capabilities. But what does all of this mean for higher education students and faculty and how quickly will we see change? At the heart of many of these changes is the question of how technology will change the interactions and relationships between faculty and students. What does it mean to teach in an age of technology, automation, learning outcomes, standardization, high stake assessment, and performance-based funding? Are we moving to a time when technology quits being merely a mediator for learning and instead supplants the instructional role of the faculty? Are we looking at a future where TeachBots replace faculty, where artificial intelligence trumps a PhD? Come listen (and participate) in the debate and maybe a bit of debacle as our panelists battle it out for your vote on what the future should hold.
 

Join this thought-provoking in-depth session on postsecondary credentials.  Why is this national dialogue of credentials so critical to institutions, the economy, and our graduates?  Opening speakers will discuss how public and private sector interests have lost faith in the value of a degree, while students are incurring significant debt, and good jobs remain unfilled.  Institutional representatives will share promising practices with “enhanced” digital learning records that provide students with explicit, transparent, and valid credentials of what they can do.  Learn about published quality dimensions of credentials and how Quality Matter is integrating digital credentials into its existing quality assurance system.

Acquiring, implementing, and managing instructional technology and student support services for your institution can be a challenging venture with many potential barriers. Many times, administrators underestimate the time to evaluate, negotiate, implement, assess, and continue relationships with vendors. Vendor relationships are complex and require an investment of human resources to experience full benefits of the purchased tools and/or services. Poor management will leave you in a muddle - experiencing fear, uncertainty, and doubt that you made a sound investment. Attend this session to learn from our experiences forging and navigating successful partnerships with a range of vendors including services such as proctoring, online program management companies, and after hours / weekend technical support.

Presentation slides.

In 1886, impressionist artists Georges Seurat and Paul Signac developed a technique known as pointillism, in which thousands of tiny individual dots are painted to form patterns that make up a large, complete image.  The technique was digitized in the 21^st century, serving as the basis for developing television pixels and computer monitors.  Just as Seurat and Signac connected their dots to form the big picture, this session will focus on analytics tools and strategies that are enabling institutions to create a more complete and cohesive picture of student retention, progression ,and success trends.  The two speakers will present – via the intense 6 minute 40 second Pecha Kucha method – how predictive analytics are powering insights and action to improve student retention.

Successful faculty are not created or nurtured in a vacuum.   It takes an institution-wide commitment to developing those 21st century skills in ways that enhance student learning.  What does your institution do to put the scaffolding in place that allows faculty to experiment with new technologies in their teaching in ways that will impact student success?   How can institutions encourage and support their faculty to use technology to engage students who are coming to campus ever-more connected, expecting instant feedback and increasingly accustomed to using multiple devices in their academic pursuits? This interactive panel will share how their institutions have seen technology, not as the enemy or an inevitability but, as a robust tool to support effective instruction and enhance student learning.
 

Challenging times require leaders with strong transformative skills for problem solving, crisis management and resiliency in rapidly changing environments. In this interactive session, participants develop critical skills sets guided by a usable, interactive dashboard including As (accountability, analytics and authenticity), Bs (bold business models), and Cs (culture, collaboration, and courage.)
Change agent leadership creates the capacity and environment to move into this future while preserving the values and core missions that make institutions strong. Change agent leadership must determine what made institutions strong in the past versus what will make them strong in the future: strong in terms of articulating the value they provide to students, communities and society as well as strong in terms of accreditation in an ever changing environment. Change agent leadership must identify future trends and needs, lead change agendas, articulate and invest in what makes a difference, and remain authentic in terms of accreditation. To do so requires leaders with strong transformative skills. 
 

Presentation slides.

Almost all (95%) students transfer to Metropolitan State University from other institutions, particularly MnSCU community and technical colleges. To better serve these students, Metro State has strengthened existing and developed new partnerships with these institutions through MetroConnect, sharing expertise, particularly in adult learning success, credit for prior learning and competency-based education.
Effective components of evolving partnerships and collaborations include cross-institutional advising helps students plan for their 4-year degree while completing their 2-year degree; this includes: attention to requirements and prerequisites for particular majors, formal articulation agreements identify institution-specific course equivalencies at 2 and 4-year levels, with focus on core courses for business and other majors, scheduling courses on partnership campus sites enable students to conveniently complete part or all of the work for their degrees nearer where they live or work, collaborative financial aid processes enable students to apply aid from their primary institution to pay tuition at partnership institutions, MetroConnect cobranded dual admission, as well as streamlined transfer policies and procedures improve progress and completion of degrees, improved marketing, including social media, informs students of possibilities for attaining their educational goals throughout partnership campuses, sharing resources (including computer labs and classrooms) saves money.

Presentation slides.

Arkaive Inc. is an education technology startup that builds education management tools for students and instructors of higher education. Our goal is to make the management and storage of academic records easy, accurate, and efficient. Class attendance is one of the key factors that determines a student's academic success. This is why many professors value regular student attendance. The attendance-taking procedure, however, has always been time consuming. The traditional pen-and-paper or roll-call method is inefficient and flawed. Arkaive’s geolocation attendance application solves the problem and replaces the traditional method, by accurately and efficiently check students into their classes. In the 21st century, we believe attendance management should be hassle free. Arkaive system is as easy as 1-2-3. With two mouse clicks, everyone is on the same page for attendance. Come see how this technology has helps 7,000 institutions.

The Utah System of Higher Education (USHE) Majors’ Guide, www.UtahMajors.org, launched in 2004, redesigned in 2014, provides information on 2700+ certificates and degrees. Search by institution, subject, award type as well as searching “backward” by occupation to college program enable prospective students to narrow their search for programs of interest. Links to campus websites point to program descriptions and details and to degree maps, semester-by-semester plans for taking all classes needed to earn the award. Integration with Utah Department of Workforce Services labor market data connects college students’ programs to income and job projects in related career fields. 
 
MajorsGuide records Regent actions to approve new programs or program changes. System staff record Regent approval dates, first and last semester offered, changes such as department consolidations, and minimum require credits.  Such information allows staff to respond to questions about institutional offerings. 
 
USHE is working with the State Board of Education to introduce MajorsGuide to future college students as a curricular resource in middle school college and career classes. Exploratory Major Pathways, following the national metamajor movement use CIP codes to group academic programs into broad pathways.
 
The presenter will demonstrate the public view and administrative dashboard of this web-based resource.  Questions and suggestions, sharing other system’s resources will be encouraged.
 

Join this thought-provoking in-depth session on postsecondary credentials.  Why is this national dialogue of credentials so critical to institutions, the economy, and our graduates?  Opening speakers will discuss how public and private sector interests have lost faith in the value of a degree, while students are incurring significant debt, and good jobs remain unfilled.  Institutional representatives will share promising practices with “enhanced” digital learning records that provide students with explicit, transparent, and valid credentials of what they can do.  Learn about published quality dimensions of credentials and how Quality Matter is integrating digital credentials into its existing quality assurance system.

Higher education institutions are in a time of great change and transformation. As a leader driving the digital strategy on a campus, it is important to lead tactical as well as high level and often disparate discussions. But, there’s so much happening! Through the collective work of WCET and the Online Learning Consortium (OLC), we are combining our strengths resulting in the conduct of a scan of the top issues confronting our members, whether in their own work, as an institution/organization, or in the future of technology-mediated education. This highly interactive session will gather input from all participants…so come ready to contribute. In a new partnership, in the coming year we plan to jointly provide advice on how you can tackle some of the top issues in your own setting. As the title aptly states, it’s not a crystal ball, but…
 
 

Some institutions have recently invested in new online program operations, while others have had long-time investments in online program enterprises. Some of the original pioneers of online learning are transitioning to other roles inside and outside the institution. Who is ready to take their place? What have we learned from them? Prepared leaders are a key component to driving institutional success in the online learning marketplace. With this in mind, even the most prepared leaders sometimes deal with unforeseen challenges. In this session, the panelists will share their real-life application of strategies and skills that have helped them influence positive organizational change, overcome challenges, and achieve sustained success.

OLC, Tyton Partners, and SRI International, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, developed the Courseware in Context (CWiC) Framework, a research-based tool to support institutional stakeholders in their evaluation of digital courseware solutions. This session will include a brief overview of CWiC Framework as well as perspectives from members of the Advisory Committee who contributed their insights and expertise to the development of the Framework, in an effort to ensure value for faculty and administrators and ease of adoption.

In 2012, Rasmussen College launched a fully-revamped developmental education experience, including new courses, entrance assessments, faculty training, and course development models. With a developmental education student population which is non-traditional and nearly fully online, Rasmussen College has increased its developmental education pass rates by more than 15% while significantly decreasing the number of developmental education seats through diversifying its entrance assessments. The new courses are accelerated and taken concurrently with major coursework. Online students attend synchronous collaborative learning sessions with faculty members.
 
Through its revamped developmental education experience, Rasmussen College has achieved higher developmental education pass rates, a reduction in developmental education seats, and long-term success for these students – all with a population who learns mostly in an online environment. The Rasmussen College developmental education model emphasizes collaborative learning, motivation, and the presence of online tools to promote student voice and application.