The use of analytics has been expanding in higher education. While all institutions use analytics in a descriptive reporting format, more have moved to deeper analysis of what the data mean.  Use of historical and trend data has improved the understanding of institutional performance and student success. However, colleges and universities are still experiencing stagnant improvement in persistence and completion. Approaching analytics as a 21^st century team sport is a useful model to improve the launch and sustainability of analytics across institutions. A critical factor that many innovative users of analytics point out is the importance of a cross-functional team. But, just forming the team isn’t the solution to improving decision-making and student success. As with athletes and teams, analytics in higher education requires strategy and a playbook to be successful. Targeting the right data, recruiting and training skilled staff, developing processes, using the right equipment/tools/playbook, and moving to insight and action are critical to student success.

#21CTeamSport

Analytics is a Team Sport

Preconference workshops require preregistration. Sign-up during online registration. 

 This workshop will engage, inform and develop the ability of novice and experienced competency-based education (CBE) program designers, developers, deliverers and administrators to utilize the C-BEN Quality Principles and Standards for Competency-Based Programs. Participants will use the newly released (Spring, 2017) Quality Principles and Standards for CBE Programs to address elements of quality in CBE programs. In structured exercises, small-group activities and discussions guided by C-BEN experts, participants will learn rubrics for design of CBE programs to design and develop high-quality CBE programs.

#CBENWorkshop

Preconference workshops require preregistration. Sign-up during online registration.

Ever found yourself midway into a project, wondering where it’s headed and unsure why it felt off-course? Wondering what “done” looks like and whether it will meet users’ needs? Our approach is designed for creative endeavors with ill-defined, transient requirements. Using traditional project management tools in these cases can be frustrating; we have better outcomes using design thinking.  

This presentation offers a research design approach that incorporates elements of design thinking into scalable innovation projects. Participants will understand the value of utilizing of design thinking in the context of innovation pilots. They will be able to describe how design thinking can provide new perspectives for project management and have insights into how to apply the appropriate approach in a variety of situations.

#DesignSprint

Preconference workshops require preregistration. Sign-up during online registration.

Online education enrollments grow each year. Educational technologies are increasingly finding their ways into the traditional classrooms. Educational technology professionals used to be able to wait and see if any accessibility accommodations were required. What strategies are needed to meet those needs as educational technologies become more ubiquitous. WCET and the Online Learning Consortium are partnering to bring you more advice. Hear updates and come prepared with your questions.

#AccessibilitiesRole

What makes credentials valuable, how does that value vary for different stakeholders, what constitutes quality, and how are credentials connected to each other and to opportunities for the people who have earned them? Lack of transparency on these critical points is causing confusion and mistrust among educational institutions, learners, and employers as credentialing ecosystems rapidly evolve to meet the needs of our knowledge economy. Credential Engine, IMS Global, and others are collaborating to provide practical approaches and open standards for improving credential transparency. Credential Engine is a non-profit organization providing the open-licensed Credential Registry, Credential Transparency Description Language, and search application WorkIt. IMS is a non-profit member collaborative developing open standards for educational technology interoperability, including Extended Transcripts and Open Badges. Together we can help educational institutions improve the communication of competencies in their credentials; learners make decisions about which credentials to pursue; employers signal what credentials they endorse; and government agencies promote valuable, relevant credentials.

#CredentialTrans

  Slides

The goal of this unconference session is to collectively create a re-usable learning asset on how to create a remarkable, a “badass,” online learning experience. To this end, participants will be invited to co-construct a syllabus on how to build an online learning experience that’s “badass.” This syllabus could be thought of as an initial project plan or map for building an online course focused on how to optimize student and institutional success.

Together, participants will co-define:

• What makes a learning experience good?
• What does student success look like?
• What does a next-gen online learning experience look like?
• What specific features and functionality are the most important?

Although competency-based education has been around for decades, it is only in the last ten years that we have seen a significant increase in its application. With several programs across the country beginning to reach maturity, we now have the opportunity to examine the lessons  they learned through their early pilots, especially lessons that focus on improving student success. Although much of the conversation around CBE is focused on its promise of putting students first, those student voices are seldom part of our conversa that are in the workforce, are often looking for programs that will be flexible. This panel will look at the lessons learned from early CBE programs as well as unique student support systems so we can better understand how students are reacting to CBE, we will include current CBE students on the panel.  

#StudentsFirst

#StateRegs&eLearning

The advent of the MSU Hub for Innovation in Learning and Technology generated some interesting challenges to our campus infrastructure, and quickly “broke” some long standing workflows and processes. We realized that:

1. We had to work together more effectively and efficiently, as well as build a shared culture of transparency within the team

2. We had to mobilize (and be mobilized by) campus stakeholders more effectively, building a culture of efficiency, and shared vision

3. We needed a culture that embraced failure while valuing efficiency

Existing campus processes needed to be re-configured via building new culture and process that works with existing reporting requirements and channels. For the past year, the teams at the MSU Hub and MSU Information Technology worked to generate a process that is more inclusive, transparent, and agile. From more purposely including students in projects and leadership, to developing a weekly rhythm for our workflow that allows time for creativity and public intellectual pursuits, to creating transparent, visible task boards and project intake and feedback processes. As a part of this presentation, we will also make our tools available to anyone.

#AgileAsAmplification

Recently, the University of Alaska consolidated three separately self-hosted learning management systems into a single statewide system. This change was tasked to be done in 60 days, and include no stakeholder input or consultation. Sound like a recipe for disaster? It was and it failed. Fast forward nine months, and we have a single working system but are still not without problems and missing data. This session presents a case study of the entire project including the good, the bad and the ugly.

#SystemwideLMS

Much of today's Academic leadership cannon is built off 20th-century sensibilities. While there are more women in the workforce and progressing through their own leadership journeys, there remains a widening gap for women in Academic Technology. This session will explore five ways in which an emerging theory of feminist leadership can help us grow and leverage our influence to manage, negotiate and lead in complex academic environments. 

#ScaffoldingSuccess

The liberal education ethos differentiates “education” from “training,” say many. But operationalizing liberal education with explicit processes comprising an intentional, coherent action plan to ensure such an education is daunting. Transformative Learning (TL), though, can accomplish this, and many international institutions have a double interest in TL for inculcating liberal education: 1) instructional strategies that are more effective than lecture and rote-memorization, and 2) graduates equipped and motivated to contribute to the social good at the community, regional, and national levels. Municipal, provincial, and national governments in some countries mandate that postsecondary institutions educate future citizens who can solve societal problems. Conversants in this spotlight session will engage South African, Kenyan, New Zealand, and Iraqi ideas about the critical role higher education must play to solve society- or culture-threatening challenges.

#TransformativeLearning

WCET's Predictive Analytics Reporting (PAR) project spun off to become its own non-profit organization and was recently acquired by Hobson’s. The resulting proceeds were used to create the Foundation for Student Success (FSS) in 2016. This year FSS launched its first project and is influencing the success of over 98,000 American Indian, Black and Latino students at 21 Mentee campuses across the country. Come hear how the thoughtful use of data has allowed the students at the seven Mentor campuses in the project to make remarkable progress in success rates.

#PARsNewLife

Sometimes the grant applications or the funding process for innovation can be tired, dreary, and frankly not particularly innovative. Minnesota State decided to disrupt that model. Inspired by the television show "Shark Tank" Minnesota State hosted an event that balanced joyful celebration of innovation and healthy competition among prospective innovators. Administrators (CIOs, CAOs, Vice Chancellors), college and university faculty, faculty working in professional development, IT staff, students, campus academic technology teams, and business/industry leaders from across the state came together for an evening that included poster sessions and video vignettes from 11 innovations funded in 2016 and to watch 16 new hopeful participants 'pitch' innovations for new funding. This event accomplished several things simultaneously:  1) focus enterprise energy around innovation; 2) bring together individuals from a variety of roles in state higher education; 3) share outcomes from real, implemented, and funded innovations; 4) spark creativity in real-time funding pitches; 5) involve business and industry representatives on the 'investor' panel with students and educators.

#SharkTank