3:15 pm-4:00 pm
Room TV 440/540
The ALLIES Framework: A Change Management Approach for More Effectively Serving Adult Learners
Dr. Scott Campbell, Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL)
CAEL’s “Adult Learner Leaders for Institutional Effectiveness” (ALLIES) framework guides institutions through the change management process for designing and implementing strategies and programs that seek to equitably elevate success for a diverse population of adult learners. The Framework contains a series of planning and operational domains through which institutions can more effectively support today’s adult learners. In this new framework, the focus is as much on the process for becoming an adult learner-focused institution as it is on the programs and services that are most visible to the adult learner as they make decisions about where to enroll. The ALLIES Framework represents an evolution from the original publication of CAEL’s Ten Principles for Effectively Serving Adults. Going forward, the ALLIES framework will guide CAEL’s work with institutions, and the Framework will inform new tools and resources for our members and partners.
Participants can expect to walk away with a deeper understanding of the importance of bridging adult learner/worker needs with opportunities for enhanced career services and connections, as well as practical ideas to implement in their respective organizations.
Room TV 320-C
Working with Adult Learners: Practices for Adult-Ready Institutions
Dr. Disraelly Cruz, Education Strategy Group (ESG)
In 2021, Education Strategy Group (ESG) released The Adult-Ready Playbook, a comprehensive guide to serving adult learners, that aggregates recent literature and evidence from the field over the last five years. Participants will engage with the presenters in an interactive discussion on the five priorities for transforming institutions to be ready for today’s adult learners, including an overview of the process for continuous improvement and the priorities for transformation. In addition to examples from our work, participants will be encouraged to share their institutional examples of the strategies to implement each priority.
Room TV 320-C
Moving Beyond SCND to Recruiting All Adults with Intent for Education
Andy Carlson, CollegeAPP
Most efforts to connect non-traditional, adult learners to higher education focus on bringing back some college, no degree adults back to college. Relying on stop out lists which may contain outdated information, many strong programs go underutilized and struggle to reengage and reenroll stop outs. A more inclusive, forward looking approach to recruit any potential adult learner with intent to pursue education and training is possible and expands the benefits of educational attainment to a broader population including those who never had the opportunity to access higher education in the past. A quick overview of this approach will be provided along with results from case studies from one rural and one urban community college both of which realized enrollment growth by moving beyond SCND to recruiting adults with the interest and intent to pursue higher education.
Room TV 640
The Transfer Challenge- Insights on Policy and Practice for the Adult Learner
Dr. Kim Poast, Christina Carrillo, and Nate Cadena, Colorado Department of Higher Education (CDHE)
Colorado is part of two related multi-state initiatives to examine and improve state- and system-wide transfer standards to advance equitable postsecondary attainment for transfer students. In these initiatives, CDHE partnered with The Attainment Network and the Denver Scholarship Foundation to assess student experiences and critically analyze policies that inhibit student mobility and success, particularly for adult learners. The work expanded the department’s efforts to advance Simplicity, Transparency, Equity, and Portability in transfer to create a more student-friendly transfer ecosystem and support increased access and affordability of postsecondary education. In this session we will share insights from these two important initiatives.
Room TV 320-B
A Multimodal Approach for Accessible Math Materials
Jennifer Maxwell, Community College of Denver
This presentation will provide attendees with a proactive and holistic approach to universal design for math content using a combination of free tools and procedures. Rather than focusing on any specific disability sub-group, the goal is to maximize accessibility of math content for all learners by producing printable PDFs, Braille-ready LaTeX, and HTML with MathJax compatible with stand-alone screen readers and lD2L. Materials created in Word or LaTeX can be converted to any of the above formats. We will also discuss the value of collaboration between subject matter experts and accessibility specialists to improve teaching and learning in STEM.