table of contents - starlink · 2013-11-19 · connections: keeping the classroom relevant _...

“Connections: Keeping the Classroom Relevant”

Table of Contents

Agenda 3

Panelist Roster 4

Abstract from an Upjohn Institute Technical Report 6

Post-traditional Learners and the Transformation of Postsecondary Education 8

'Introduction to Ancient Rome,' the Flipped Version 11

Alamo I-BEST White Paper 15

Blank Page for Participant Notes 18

STARLINK 2013-2014 Programming Schedule 19

Evaluate “Connections: Keeping the Classroom Relevant” 20

2


Agenda

Mark Milliron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Today’s Opportunities

Kathryn Wetzel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Old School New School

Jennifer Ebbeler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flipping and Blending

Jennifer Osborne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . If They Can’t Come to You

Gary Richter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Self-Discovery

3


Panelist Roster

Dr. Mark Milliron, Co-Founder, Chief Learning Officer, and Director, Civitas Learning Dr. Milliron is an award-winning leader, author and speaker who has worked with universities, community colleges, K–12 schools, foundations, associations and government agencies nationally and internationally. Most recently, he was the founding chancellor of WGU Texas. Prior to WGU, Dr. Milliron was the deputy

director of Postsecondary Improvement with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He served as a senior lecturer and director of the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development in the College of Education at The University of Texas at Austin; vice president of Education Practice at SAS, Inc.; and president and CEO of the League for Innovation in the Community College.

Dr. Kathryn Wetzel, Department Chair, Professor of Mathematics and Engineering, Amarillo College Dr. Wetzel is one of the four 2011 national winners of the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education’s (CASE) 2011 U.S. Professors of the Year. The program, launched in 1981, salutes the most outstanding undergraduate instructors in the country—those who excel in teaching and positively influence the

lives and careers of students. In addition to her recognition as the 2011 U.S. Professor of the Year in the category of Outstanding Community Colleges Professor, Dr. Wetzel has received multiple other awards for her superb teaching skills, including recognition as a Minnie Stevens Piper Professor in 2007.

Dr. Jennifer V. Ebbeler, Associate Professor of Classics, University of Texas - Austin Jennifer Ebbeler is an Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Texas, Austin. She is the author of Disciplining Christians: Correction and Community in the Letters of St. Augustine (Oxford, 2012) and has published a number of articles and book chapters on Latin letter-writing as well as late antique Roman and Early

Christian literary and cultural history. She teaches a 400 student Introduction to Ancient Rome course, which has been redesigned in accordance with the principles of blended learning. She is writing about her experience with this course and about the role of blended learning in higher education in her current book project, Beyond the Flipped Classroom: The Politics and Practice of Blended Learning.

4


Dr. Jennifer Osborne, Professor of English, Alamo Colleges, St. Philip’s College Jen Osborne, PhD, teaches developmental and college-level writing at St. Philip’s College in San Antonio, Texas. She was a technical writer in the banking industry before her teaching career began in 1997. A fifth-generation Texan, Jen grew up in El Paso and graduated from UT El Paso cum laude in Philosophy. Her Master of Arts

is in English Language & Literature (St. Mary’s University) and her PhD is in Technical Communication & Rhetoric (Texas Tech University). Jen also conducts educational research funded by the Carl D. Perkins grant and studies accreditation issues. She has also managed the St. Philip’s QEP and has taught for the Alamo Colleges Student Leadership Institute. She has also conducted international research focusing on helping people use expressive writing to recover from traumatic experiences.

Dr. Gary Richter, Associate Professor of Mathematics, Southwestern University Gary Richter has been teaching mathematics at Southwestern University since 1977. He has a B.A. degree (Plan II) from the University of Texas at Austin, an M.S. degree (mathematics) from the University of Houston, and a Ph.D. degree (mathematics) from the University of Texas at Austin. His graduate research was in the area of

geometric topology. He prefers to teach using a modified version of the Moore Method, a form of guided inquiry teaching.

5


Upjohn Institute Technical Reports Upjohn Research Home Page

2013

Net Impact and Benefit-Cost Estimates of the Workforce Development System in Washington State

Kevin Hollenbeck W.E. Upjohn Institute, [email protected]

Wei-Jang Huang W.E. Upjohn Institute

Upjohn Institute Technical Report No. 13-029

Citation

Hollenbeck, Kevin M., and Wei-Jang Huang. 2013. "Net Impact and Benefit-Cost Estimates of the Workforce

Development System in Washington State." Upjohn Institute Technical Report No. 13-029. Kalamazoo, MI: W.E.

Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. http://research.upjohn.org/up_technicalreports/29

This title is brought to you by the Upjohn Institute. For more information, please contact [email protected].

6

http://research.upjohn.org/

mailto:[email protected]

http://research.upjohn.org/up_technicalreports/29



Abstract

This study estimates the net impacts and private and social benefits and costs of 11

workforce development programs administered in Washington State. Six of the programs serve job-ready adults: Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Title I-B Adult programs, WIA Title I-B Dislocated Worker programs, Community and Technical College Job Preparatory Training, Community and Technical College Worker Retraining, Private Career Schools, and Apprenticeships. Three of the programs serve adults with employment barriers: Community and Technical College Adult Basic Skills Education, IBEST, and Division of Vocational Rehabilitation programs. The other two programs serve youth: WIA Title I-B Youth programs and Secondary Career and Technical Education.

The net impact analyses were conducted using a non-experimental methodology.

Individuals who had encountered the workforce development programs were statistically

matched to individuals who had not. Administrative data with information from the universe of

program participants and Labor Exchange registrants (who served as the comparison group

pool) supported the analyses. These data included several years of pre-program and outcome

information including demographics, employment and earnings information from the

Unemployment Insurance wage record system, and benefits from the Unemployment Insurance

system.

The empirical work undertaken for this study resulted in the estimation of short-term

(defined as three full quarters after exit) net impacts that examined outcomes for individuals

who exited from the education or training programs (or from the Labor Exchange) in the

fiscal year 2007/2008 and longer-term (nine to 12 full quarters) impacts for individuals who

exited in the fiscal year 2005/2006. Short-term employment impacts are positive for nine of the

11 programs and negative for the other two. Short-term earnings impacts are also positive for

all 11 programs, although one of the estimates is not statistically significant. The longer-term

impacts are similar. Employment impacts are positive for nine of the ten programs (one of

the programs does not have longer-term outcomes) and negative for the other program;

earnings impacts are positive and statistically significant for all ten programs. The benefit-

cost analyses show that virtually all of the programs have discounted future benefits that far

exceed the costs for participants, and that society also receives a positive return on investment.

Click Here To View Full Paper

7

http://research.upjohn.org/up_technicalreports/29/


8


9


10

http://www.acenet.edu/news-room/Pages/Post-traditional-Learners-and-the-Transformation-of-Postsecondary-Ed.aspx


'Introduction to Ancient Rome,' the Flipped

Version

Lauren Rolwing for The Chronicle

By Jennifer Ebbeler

I spent last year "flipping" my 400-student "Introduction to Ancient Rome"

course. For those unfamiliar with the term, "flipping a class" means that students

watch lectures online outside of class and then spend class time participating in

discussions and working on problems.

It's a concept that has gotten an undeservedly bad name because supporters of so-

called disruptive education have tied it to the controversial massive-open-online-

course movement, which says students are served just as well, if not better, by an

absent "star" professor than by faculty members employed by their university.

11

http://chronicle.com/article/Introduction-to-Ancient/140475/

http://chronicle.com/article/Introduction-to-Ancient/140475/


That's a pretty serious misunderstanding of what a well-run, successful flipped class

looks like. It takes a lot of effort to make one work, but the rewards can be great, as I

have learned.

For me it all started last August, when I naïvely assumed that the students would be

delighted to listen to short lectures at their own pace and away from an uncomfortable

and noisy auditorium.

The problem, I soon discovered, was that nobody told the students they were

supposed to hate lectures. They were genuinely disoriented when I didn't spend class

time lecturing. Only about 25 percent of them watched the prerecorded lectures before

class. As a result, class discussion of content became an exercise in futility. Their

comments at the end of the semester made it clear that about two-thirds of them

preferred a typical lecture class.

I'm pretty sure my students would have been no more interested in watching a

Superprofessor lecture on Ancient Rome than they were in watching me—it wasn't

me or my style (as they clearly said in the surveys); it was the extra work required of

them.

That fall cohort taught me a lot about how to flip a class. First and foremost, assume

resistance and disorientation. Assume that you will need to spend a large amount of

time training students in how to take such a class, and in what their role in a flipped

class will be (and what yours is). Provide a lot of structure, including weekly quizzes

that require students to stay on top of the course content. Recognize that, in a large

class, students will need to consume about 50 to 60 percent of the content in forms

other than class lecture.

As well, recognize that you can't just throw students into a flipped class; you have to

ease them in and, in a very large class, probably can't ever entirely abandon lecture

even if it can be greatly minimized. I found that my students needed to know that "the

12


Professor" was still there, still in charge, still setting the vision and monitoring

progress.

My Spring 2013 class was a pretty clear success. The students' graded performance—

especially in the A-B range—advanced remarkably over previous versions of the

same course. The same content, more difficult exams, and new instructional methods

led to improved learning. More anecdotally, the students were able to discuss the

complexities of Roman history in a way I've never seen among non-majors. They

were clearly thinking hard and engaged in the course content.

This kind of success is why more and more colleges are considering partnerships with

education-technology companies, like Coursera and Udacity, which want to make the

process even more efficient. Instead of teaching multiple sections of the same course

on a campus (or at campuses in a state system), the "best" professors will be tapped to

provide the content delivery, and then faculty members (or more likely, teaching

assistants, or even some new breed of course curator) will be expected to use this

content to flip their classes.

At first glance, this seems like a winning proposition. The best lecturers, either at

other partner institutions or at that particular institution, do the lecturing while

instructors work closely with individual students in their quest to master the course

content.

But in the humanities, at least, a flipped class is unlikely to work very well with

content created by someone other than the instructor because doing so reduces the

instructor's authority in the eyes of the students. Mohamed Noor, a biology professor

at Duke University, used his own Coursera course to flip his campus-based course.

But I suspect that the flipped class would have been substantially less successful if he

had been required to use someone else's lectures and other course materials as the

"textbook" of his own course.

13


In basic terms, every instructor tells his or her own story with the course content. Not

only is that part of the fun, but it's the place where our research intersects with our

teaching. Furthermore, students tell us that an essential component of a successful

flipped class is a strong connection between in-class and outside-of-class activities.

Another key secret about flipping a class: Content delivery is the easy part. The hard

part is figuring out what to do in class that keeps students engaged, and motivated to

prepare for class. In other words, they have to come to see the value of doing assigned

pre-class work and then see that coming to class is an efficient way to learn (or, more

precisely, to earn high grades). It will take considerable effort and resources, not to

mention additional classroom support staff in larger classes, to run pedagogically

sound flipped classes. It will take a lot of energy to develop activities that work for

one's particular audience—and what works for my group may well not work for a

class at Haverford or Yale.

I have emerged from this experience a proponent of the flipped-class model—but also

a careful and candid one. Contrary to what the fashionable disruptive innovators

might have us believe, flipped classes are not easy to teach, and they are not easy to

take. An effective flipped class requires much more classroom support than a

traditional lecture course, and it requires more contact with and more engagement

from students. At the same time, it can increase student learning and raise grades,

even in a large cohort.

Any educator would like to see every course on campus capped at 30, but this is

unrealistic at most publicly supported institutions. Given these limitations, the

techniques of blended learning, applied judiciously, using evidence of effective

practice, and coupled with instructor mentoring, can do a lot to improve classroom

teaching—and learning.

Jennifer Ebbeler is an associate professor of classics at the University of Texas at

Austin.

14


ALAMO I-BEST Integrated Basic Education Skills Training

OVERVIEW: As the economy improves, it is becoming increasingly important that Alamo Colleges deploy new

ways to train San Antonio’s diverse workforce for high-growth and high-demand occupations. The Board and

Chancellor of Alamo Colleges have called for an assertive and transformational agenda to expand and build

strategic innovations that will increase the transfer rate of adult basic and lower-level developmental education

students into college credit programs.

Alamo Colleges has launched a multi-year system enhancement initiative that aims to ensure that the five-college

system can deliver on its mission to empower San Antonio’s diverse communities for success. Work-based

English Solutions, a department in the Economic and Workforce Development Division, leads the

implementation this innovative initiative that will deliver technical training in high- demand and emerging

industries to workers whose basic skills or limited English inhibit their access to higher education and training.

The Alamo I-BEST Initiative provides training and employment assistance to workers and students who require

basic skill development in order to succeed in technical training. I-BEST student’s benefit from technical training

that is aligned with reading, writing, math or language skills needed for the job. Individuals eligible to participate

in this program include developmental and adult

basic education students, individuals with limited

English, military veterans and spouses, high

school dropouts and others

GOAL: The goal of the initiative is to develop

sustainable models at the Alamo Colleges that

deliver under-skilled students with training and

education in high demand occupations.

THE CHALLENGE: For San Antonio to remain

a prosperous city, attracting new companies and

raising household incomes, it must ensure that its current and future workforce remains well-educated. The city’s

Hispanic population is significantly larger than that of Dallas, Houston or Austin,1 and Hispanic representation

in workforce training programs is forecasted to increase from just under 55% to 75% by 2040.2 In Texas, this

growing segment of the workforce has the highest drop-out rates, lowest educational attainment rates and largest

percentage of limited English proficiency. Within the Alamo Colleges the majority of students in developmental

education is Hispanic (56%) and research points to dismal degree completion rates among Hispanics and low-

income students. The city requires a higher education solution.

LEGACY MODEL REDESIGN: Students requiring basic skills or English development often face a one-

size-fits-all approach in community college assessment and training models. Workbased English Solutions’

training and services are customized for these students, utilizing researched and community-tested models.

15


Customer Council of

Governments One-stop center customers Healthcare consortium, rural

services GI Forum and of

veterans Recruitment, support

employment placement

assistance

Back

Colleges) Foreign trained healthcare

workers Workforce intermediary

Center

Consortium sustainability

Interface with city

government, public utilities

and universities QUEST students Workforce intermediary 20 Service

& San

Antonio School

District

Adult education students integrated with

technical training, professional

development

Antonio Centers High school drop outs Recruitment, support

employment placement

assistance Alamo One-stop center customers Urban services

COMMUNITY ACCESS: To better engage communities that may not see college and training as a viable

“option,” Alamo Colleges leverages the high recognition and “community currency” that collaborating

organizations have to recruit and provide program support services to populations that often face challenges

accessing higher education, such as veterans, high school drop-outs, and students with limited English. The

initiative is based at the Westside Education and Training Center (WETC), an emerging center of excellence

designed to provide college access for low-income and immigrant customers on San Antonio’s culturally vibrant,

yet economically depressed, Westside. Training will occur at WETC as well as at the Alamo Colleges main

campuses.

ASSESSMENT INNOVATION: Rather than traditional computer-based admissions testing, Workbased

English Solutions uses a comprehensive assessment protocol that results in a quantitative and qualitative

profile of knowledge, abilities, career goals and support needs. The process recognizes, legitimizes and

incorporates the significant learning and work experience of many students and includes tests normed on

adult basic education populations, including Spanish language assessments. This assessment process includes

a review of job interests, career awareness, knowledge of the work environment and a determination of

outside support needs. The result is a robust body of evidence that allows students and staff to collaborate in

making informed decisions about placement, employment interest and needed support services to ensure

retention and employment success.

STRATEGIC ALLIANCES: Funding from the U.S Department of Labor and the Texas Higher Education

Coordinating Board has

allowed Alamo Colleges

to deliver an initiative in

collaboration with a

broad alliance of diverse

workforce development

organizations that will

deliver recruitment,

support services, basic

education, technical

training and

employment assistance.

CAREER EASE:

Following assessment,

students enter a short-

term, industry-specific

Career Exploratory and

Skill Enhancement

(Career EASE) course. This courses provides cluster-specific basic skills or English language development as well

as information related the industry, employer expectations, and work environment. The intent of the course is to

begin basic skills development for students while providing students with information that will assist them in

being informed consumers of training services and make strong decisions about the best technical training options.

16


I-BEST Model: Legacy instructional sequences have proven to not work for lower skilled students. Few navigate

the lengthy sequence of basic education to enter standard community college training programs. To address these

challenges, Alamo Colleges is implementing the I-BEST model (Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training)

tested over several years in the Washington State college system. I-BEST pairs Developmental Education and

professional-technical instructors in the classroom to concurrently advance student gains in basic and professional-

technical skills. This model is designed to more rapidly progress students through certificate training with industry

certification and credits that apply to A.A.S degrees.

Specific Services to Internationally Trained Health Workers: One of the segments of the workforce most left

behind are professionals who have been trained outside the U.S. but who require English as a Second Language

and other specific services to reenter their fields of study. As part of this initiative, Work-based English Solutions

is aligning specialized services for internationally trained health professionals through its Welcome Back Center.

This resource welcomes internationally trained health professionals living in the San Antonio area back into the

healthcare industry through customized employment and training services. The model is proven in eight

locations across the country.3

These highly-skilled professionals can assists Health Services organizations in attending

to the need for linguistically and culturally competent workers.

For more information on I-BEST initiative, contact

Anson Green or Carrie Tupa

CONTACTS

Anson Green, Project Director

Work-based English Solutions [email protected]

Carrie Tupa Project Co-Director

Work-based English Solutions [email protected]

1

US Census Bureau 2006-2008 American Community Survey 3-Year Estimates

2 Murdock, S. (2003). The New Texas Challenge.

3 For more information on the Welcome Back Center, see http://welcomebackinitiative.org/sf/.

17




http://welcomebackinitiative.org/sf/


Blank Page for Participant Notes ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

18


2013-2014 Programming Topics (Dates and Topics subject to change)

www.starlinktraining.org **November 18 – December 9, 2013

"How to Soar like an Eagle in a World Full of Turkeys" with Robert Stevenson November 25 - December 16, 2013

"Connections: Keeping the Classroom Relevant” February 17 – March 3, 2014

"The First Year Experience" **March 3 – March 17, 2014

"Jim Cramer’s Getting Rich Careful" with Jim Cramer March 3 - March 17, 2014

“Early Intervention Systems: Advising & Counseling” **March 17 – April 7, 2014

“The New Social Entrepreneurism” with Blake Mycoskie **April 7 - April 21, 2014

"From Secretary to CEO" with Carly Fiorina April 21 - May 5, 2014

"Improving Student Outcomes in Developmental Math Courses"

**Student Leadership Programs

Click to view 2013-2014 Complete Programming List

19

http://starlinktraining.org/Programming_Schedule_2014.pdf


Evaluate “Connections: Keeping the Classroom Relevant”

Click here to fill this form out online

On a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the highest, rate the video/conference in terms of its

value to you.

Excellent Poor

Timeliness of topic 5 4 3 2 1

Program‘s format 5 4 3 2 1

Program Host 5 4 3 2 1

Panelists or Instructors 5 4 3 2 1

Handouts 5 4 3 2 1

Technical quality 5 4 3 2 1

Overall evaluation of program 5 4 3 2 1

Local site activities were held __ __YES _ ___NO

1. Institution name: _________________________________________________

2. My current position is: (circle one)

a. Faculty c. Classified Staff/Professional Staff

b. Administrator d. Other____________ __

3. What did you like most about the videoconference?

4. What could have been done to make it more valuable to you?

5. What topics would you like to see addressed in future videoconferences?

Return to:

STARLINK, 9596 Walnut St., Dallas, TX 75243

Fax: 972-669-6699

Email: [email protected]

20

http://starlinktraining.org/EvaluationForm.aspx

table of contents - starlink · 2013-11-19 · connections: keeping the classroom relevant _...

Documents