Gotta Love Apple and AppleCare...

Just a quick post to thank Apple Canada and AppleCare for some amazing customer support. On my recent trip to Omaha, the battery in my MacBook Pro (personally speaking the best laptop out there...) started to fail. It shut down my laptop even though the charge indicator showe hours of charge left.

When I got home yesterday, I called AppleCare - the customer service rep was excellent. She really knew her stuff, walking me through some trouble-shooting steps that I had already done myself, and she did it in a very professsional, non-condescending manner - a pleasant change from some of the tech support out there. She quickly resolved the issue, made arrangements for a new battery to be shipped to me free of charge (and I return the old battery the same way).

It was such a pleasure dealing with such a professional, engaged, and interested person. If you own a Mac and do not have AppleCare - go get, it's worth the money.

Thanks Apple Canada and you all have a Happy Canada Day! Bring on the iPhone!...

(Photo - Apple Logo from Apple Web site)

Building A Strengths-Based Campus Conference - Day One...

A great opening session - led by Idahlynn Karre - it was a conversation and a "River Walk" about strengths - you picked a "buddy" from the audience and went for a "walk" with them talking about strengths and how you handled the bends in the river, the smooth water, rapids, waterfalls, and tributaries in the river of your life - very cool - a great exercise that really started the conversations about strengths and their application.

The AHA! moment that I had is that tying strengths in with the development of learning environments and other engagement and retention practices could lead to better retention. Have learners do Strengths Quest as part of the initial advisement and enrollment process and then engage them throughout their stay at the college by getting them to reflect and confirm their strengths - maybe that way they would make a more informed decision on what programme best fits, they select a programme that works for them, and attrition drops. We could include strengths as a portfolio learning opportunity - have learners (and faculty and staff) reflect on how their strengths impact their learning, and their learning environments. This could help us identify early those learners at risk or in need of supports, advisement or other tools and resources that would enhance their lerning experience. Hmmm...

Breakout sessions start tomorrow - lots on engagement and retention (I sense a theme - it's what is really important to me right now as an educator) and how to implement Strengths Quest with faculty and learners...

Building A Strengths-Based Campus Conference - Strengths School...

Those of you who have followed my blog for any length of time know that I am a big proponent and fan of all things Web 2.0 and social networking as they relate to adult education. One of my favourite Web 2.0/social networking sites is Ning. At Ning you create your own social networks - it has amazing potential for setting up networks for programmes or courses.

One of the best uses of Ning that I have seen is the "virtualizing" of the Strengths-Based Campus conference that I will be attending starting tomorrow until Friday (I am currently in Omaha after a 12 hour travel day - OMG O'Hare is a zoo!). For those who cannot attend the conference in person, they can join Strengths School, a Ning network setup for the conference. Presentations, comments, feedback and conference notes will be posted to Strength School for all to see. So, if you cannot be here in Omaha, I highly recommend that you "attend" the conference by joining Strengths School.

Now THAT is social networking at its best...

Building A Strengths-Based Campus Conference...

I'm off in the morning to Omaha Nebraska to attend the Building A Strengths-Based Campus conference at Gallup University.

The research behind the strengths-based movement is the Strengths-Finder research developed by Donald O. Clifton. Srength Finders takes a positive approach to employee (or student) success - identifying your strengths and helping you identify strengths in others to help build optimal team and collaborative expeiences.

The actual Strengths Finders 2.0 instrument is a series of questions that ask you to choose from one of two possible answers. the scored instrument then returns your top five of a total of thirty-four identified strengths. My top five strengths are:

1. Learner
2. Intellection
3. Input
4. Developer
5. Responsibility

Over the years I have taken a lot of tests to evaluate my personaity, tendencies and other aspects of my personality, aptitudes, and performance. I cam honsetly say that Strengths Finder has come the closest to describing who I think I am and who others think I am. The strengths listed here support my current job as an academic chair to a tee.

Over the three days of the conference I hope to learn how others have implemented the Strength-based approach at their institutions for both employee and learner success. We are in the process of adopting this approach at NSCC and I look forward to finding out the good, the bad, and the ugly of this success approach. I am a believer in its potential - I like its positivity and the approach of looking at strengths in people not of looking at what people do not do well. Let's focus on success...

(Photo from Strengths Finder 2.0 Web site)

Conference Prep - What A Concept

We've been sending faculty and staff to the STLHE (Society For Teaching and Learning In Higher Education) annual conference for three years now and NSCC is a STLHE institutional member. This year's conference is at the University of Windsor in Windsor, Ontario. I attended STLHE 2007 last year at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.

The STLHE conference celebrates teaching and learning at the university and college level in Canada and attracts presenters and attendees from all over Canada and the world. It is a jammed-packed conference, like most, and for many the hardest thing is how to "attack" it and get the most out of the conference.

For the past two years we have taken an interesting approach to preparing our attendees before they attend STLHE. Current attendees along with past attendees are brought together off campus in a hotel meeting room to have a conversation and a meal - the conversation is "How to get the most out of STLHE (all of the attendees at STLHE (and any conference that we send people to) must prepare a report on their return to share what they have experienced and learned with the larger College community). the conversation strats with everyone introducing themselves and for the previous attendees adding what one thing they got the most of at STLHE.

We then talk about tips and hints - how to select what to see, how to "translate" the abstracts in the programme to get a quick understanding of the presentations, how to work together to maximize learning, what works and doesn't work while attending the conference and any other thoughts that come to mind. It gives the new attendees a sense of comfoert as they head off and builds our "STLHE alumni" community within the college.

As our president, Dr. Joan McArthur-Blair says, it's "a community of learners supporting a community of learners". What a great way to share knowledge and to ensure that learning opportunities are maximized - thanks very much to our Organizational Learning stff for including me in the process - it was a great way to reflect back on STLHE 2007 and to lok forward to hearing about what was learned at STLHE 2008...

STLHE 2008 logo from the conference Web site

History Happened And I Watched...

Last night history was made in the U.S. and I watched. Barack Obama won the Democratic presidential nomination after a long and hard campaign against Hillary Clinton in the prmary season, becoming the first person of colour to win the presidential nomination of a major U.S. political party. The political face of the the country changed last night and I think it changed for the better. The world-wide reputation of America is a little better this morning.

But will it stay that way? Now that the campaign will switch to a national campaign, the attention of the U.S. electorate will switch to McCain and Obama. Here is Senator McCain's speech from last night in New Orleans - the first shots of the national campaign have been fired and they were awkward at least in my mind:



Senator McCain's speech was a one of "I am good and my opponent is wrong and has crazy ideas", a typical old-style political speech, the same old, same old. He praised Hillary Clinton and took shots at Obama, a blatant attempt to win over disgruntled Clinton voters. Looks like the gloves are off. Now for something completely different - Barack Obama's victory speech from last night - it was conciliatory, upbeat, focussed on his new approach and started the national campaign off on a positive note:



But for me the last word, and the one that highlights for me what U.S. politics are all about is Hillary Clinton's speech from last night - she does not concede and say she will carry on. Is it to be part of the "dream" Obama/Clinton ticket? Is it because she says she won the popular vote even if she didn't win the most delegates (a system that I have always found odd), or is there another motivation? Either way, it is time for the Democrats to figure out that Obama is their nominee and that they need to get behind him if they hope to win the White House in the general election.



It's going to an interesting time from now until November, for the USA and the world...

NISOD 2008 - A Few Days On...

I've been home from NISOD 2008 now for six days now and I've had some time to reflect on the experience. What did NISOD 2008 do for me? What did I get out of attending NISOD 2008 and how will it influence me and how I do my job over the next few months?

All great questions that I need to answer in order to take in the NISOD experience. I'd like to compare it to my attendance at STLHE 2007, a very similar conference focussed on teaching and learning being held this year at the University of Windsor.

Both conferences were about teaching and learning - at NISOD 2008 I got to see the issues and concerns of the U.S. community colleges and realized that we share many of the same issues with engagement and retention, with literacy and numeracy, and with reaching our current generations of learners. I also came to see that there are many differences between us and the U.S. based community colleges - teaching chairs, more adjunct faculty, less learning and teaching resources and that we are doing a good job at NSCC meeting the needs of our learners and supporting faculty and staff. I saw many of the exact same issues at STLHE, so these issues are not isolated or restricted to one country - they are in many ways systemic issues that we all must address.

At NISOD I got to listen to, meet, and talk with (briefly) to Vincent Tinto, who is to me the expert on engaging and retaining learners, particularly in that critical first semester of their college experience. I will take away a lot of what he presented and incorporate it in my practice. If you are an educator who is at all concerned about engagement and retention take a look at Tinto's work.

I got to spend a great two hours listening to Ron Berk talk about and demonstrate the use of humour and multimedia in the millennial classroom - check out his work too - it will add a lot to what you can do in your classrooms and online spaces.

I got to sit in on other good presentations that I have already posted about, all of which have given me ideas that should make me better at what I do. I met some amazing people, go to hang out with several colleagues from NSCC, and even got some shopping and sight-seeing in!


I have taken away from NISOD that we are doing a good job at NSCC and that we need to celebrate that more - one way that I can do that is to go back to conferences like NISOD and STLHE, but the next time go back as a presenter, sharing what it is that makes us who we are at NSCC...

NISOD 2008 - Closing Session And Excellence Awards...

This being my first NISOD conference I was not sure what to expect at the closing general session. It was very well done. For the past 20 years NISOD has been awarding excellence awards to educators (faculty, staff, administrators and others) from member institutions. the member institutions develop their own criteria and nominate their employees. the employees who attend NISOD are identified by the medals they wear around their necks for the duration of the conference (and quite possibly beyond - who knows?)

One of the coolest part of the closing ceremony was asking the award winners to take off their medals and to hand it to a friend, loved one or the person next to them. This person was then asked to ceremoniously place the medal around the neck of the award winner - a very nice touch.

NISOD 2008 was a very interesting conference with a lot of great ideas and discussions. I'll wrap it up in my next post...

NISOD 2008 - Getting To The Collaboration Zone - Professional Development That Results In Action...

The last breakout session that I attended was presented by two colleagues of mine from NSCC, Shelley Zwicker and Todd Verge. There presentation was about a faculty self-developed and self-directed professional development programme known as the Faculty Learning College Portfolio or FLCP. the FLCP is a five-year plan with significant reviews built in that upon successful completion adds $5,000.00 to the faculty member's salary.

The began by reviewing the FLCP which is a self-defined and self-determining PD programme. It is based upon the idea of Significant Learning espoused by Dee Fink. One of the big issue of developing the FLCP is determining what is needed - what is significant learning? I know that when I developed my own FLCP plan that I spent a lot of time figuring this out only to realize that a lot of my significant learning, being IT faculty (at the time) was simply staying current in my field, so that became one of the learning activities of my plan.

Another key element of the FLCP is aligning it with NSCC's strategic plan, mission and vision. there are four currencies that need to be addressed in the plan as well:

• Teaching/Facilitating Learning - Includes activities that support faculty efforts to acquire, enhance, and continuously update and demonstrate understanding of learning theories and innovative practices.
• Occupational/Professional - Includes activities that support faculty efforts to maintain and continually update the relevancy of their occupational and professional skills and knowledge
• Organizational - includes activities that support faculty efforts to sustain awareness, support, and promote the strategic directions of the College and its values.
• Portfolio - Incorporates all the learning achieved throughout the Faculty Learning College Portfolio experience.

Each learning activity developed for your FLC must address each of these currencies.

The presentation ended with some of the issues that occurred while going through the FLCP planning process. Creating an appropriate scope and depth is important to the success of your FLCP as is managing the scope through the life of the plan. Several challenges were also pointed out by Todd and Shelley:

• Getting buy-in - believing in the value of the FLCP is important
  
• Midway changes in direction - not a bad thing s many fields will change significantly over a five year period, but one that needs to be addressed
  
• Intellectual property - needs to be clarified to the satisfaction of all
  
• Culture of trust and sharing - a big part of the FLCP is the portfolio - the sharing of what you have learned with your colleagues and the body of knowledge of the college.

The FLCP is a great PD opportunity that wold work at any college focussed on being learning centred...

NISOD 2008 - Sculpting And Spanning Spaces - The Learning-Centred Community College Course

This session was presented by Claudine Lowry, Dean of Organizational Learning and Craig Collins, Principal of the Lunenburg Campus of the Nova Scotia Community College. (NSCC) I am an academic chair at NSCC and attended this session to provide support to my colleagues and to see what other attendees thought about our amazing faculty and staff development programme - the Community College Education Diploma Programme (CCEDP).

This session focussed on one of the ten courses that learners in the CCEDP (all new faculty and professional support staff at NSCC must take CCEDP to get regular status) - The Learning-Centred Community College. This course introduces learners to what it means to be learning-centred and to work in a learning-centred college.

The session was conducted very informally as a talking circle, one of the actual tools and techniques used in the course - it was a very cool way to present the course after having sat in on so many formal presentations that revolved around the screen at the front. It was interesting to hear the questions being asked by the audience - it made me realize just how blessed we are at NSCC to have such an amazing learning opportunity that CCEDP is. I'm so glad that I chose to sit in on this session - sometime you have to leave home to realize just how good you have it...

NISOD 2008 - Humor And Multimedia as Teaching Tools For The Net Generation...

This session was presented by Dr. Ronald Berk, professor Emeritus at John Hopkins University. A statistician by trade, Ron has published several books on using humour to teach, including "Professors Are From Mars, Students Are From Snickers".

In this informative, entertaining, funny, and transformative presentation, Dr. Berk presented an approach to using humour and multimedia to reach our current millennial students. he began by talking about the parts of the act of teaching;

• Content (the what)
• Pedagogy (the how)

Further breaking pedagogy down:

• Learner-Centered Teaching (over 1000+ articles 119 studies)
• Technology - online, offline, inline, and outtaline

We looked at the characteristics of the Net Gen digital native learners, the fact that they are visually oriented, that there is a need to address multiple intelligences and learning styles, and that the use of humour can go along way to reaching students. Include humour in your tests, take a "commercial break" when things are lagging and eyes are glazing over, use humour, demonstrations and even role plays to introduce complex or confusing topics, and connect with your learners.

His entire presentation was full of sound clips, vidoes and other cultural references that the audience and his students would get - an amazing use of technology and tools to use humour to break down barriers, present difficult topics and most importantly reach millennial learners with language and symbols that the understand.

One of his key pieces of advice (and there were many) was this - if you want to identify what is in your students' world - ASK them, conduct a survey - great, simple advice. as he put it "We are working together in the room".

Perhaps his best quote of the presentation, and one that encapsulates something that I have believed for a long time is this:

"PowerPoint by itself is a bunch of dead words on a screen"

Add sound, video, interactivity - bring life to your PowerPoint - great stuff.

there is no doubt that this approach to teaching, which I believe works is time consuming - the depth and richness of Dr. Berk's presentation must have taken hours to prepare. I think that the end result was well worth it though - a jam-packed room full of engaged learners.

This was an amazing presentation, perhaps the highlight of NISOD 2008 for me so far - best way that I can sum it up is to say that I wish I had been one of Ron Berk's students and I am so glad that for a very short two hours I was...

NISOD 2008 - KConversation With Amado's Friends...eynote -

This keynote was a moderated conversation with Larry Gatlin, the 2008 winner of the Amado Pena, Jr, Journey of Excellence Award and Dr. Don Cameron, president of Guildford Technical Community College, home of the Larry Gatlin School of Entertainment Technology.

Larry Gatlin is many things, an entertainer, a songwriter, a business man, but most of all he is a teacher. His memory and recall are amazing, attributed to teachers that he had. He spoke of the how important teachers have been in his life, telling stories of several of them with great affection, how his family was blessed with several teachers, and how important education has been to him (when was the last time you have heard a country star quote Chaucer from memory?).

Dr. Cameron then spoke about the Larry Gatlin School of Entertainment Technology, how it was conceived up to today where it has moved into a brand new facility.

Larry Gatlin then lead what was basically a short master class in songwriting, walking through his process of writing a song - a very natural, learning and teaching moment. He is a teacher, a supporter of education and an entertainer - what a great way to start the day...

NISOD 2008 - Integrating Ethics Into Your IT Courses

This session was presented by Dr. Peter Meggison of Massasoit Community College. The presentation was on his experience delivering a one credit (five week) course in compute ethics.

He recommends three possible ways to deliver ethics to IT students:

1. A full course in computer ethics (3 credits, one semester)
2. A short course (1 credit, five weeks - his method)
3. Integrated into a computer applications course with an ethics component

Ethics falls into the area of "soft skills" which are in many ways more in demand by employers than technical skills (which they can provide themselves). This is also very true of employers in Halifax, so interesting to see that employers have the same concerns in the Boston area.

Dr. Meggison provide a series of resources that he uses in his course including his process of ethical decision making:

1. get the facts
2. identify all of the stakeholders
3. consider the consequences of the decision
4. weigh various guidelines and principles
5. develop and evaluate options
6. review decisions
7. evaluate the results of the decision

This is very much a critical thinking course.

I believe that there is a definite need to include ethics education in all of the programmes we offer. It was good to see one instructor's approach to delivering this important subject area...

NISOD 2008 - e-Portfolio + Reflective Writing = Enhnced Student Learning

This session was on a combination project between the Colorado department of Labor (e-Colorado), a writing instructor and an IT instructor, both from Pikes Peak Community College.

e-Colorado is a shared resources for workforce development and the instructors from Pikes peak used it as a repository for student portfolios - tying together reflective writing pieces with course work, the advantage was greater exposure of students to employers and students writing reflective pieces on their work, getting a better understanding of who they are and what they have done.

It was interesting to see how another institution, combined with a workforce development initiative used portfolio. I really liked the idea of having a site like e-Colorado to display student portfolios to industry. At my college we are much further developed in the use and integration of portfolio into our learning, but we do not have a "portal" for e-Portfolios like e-Colorado - I think it is something that we need to explore...

NISOD 2008 - Welcome To College! Don't Let the Door Hit You On The Way Out...

This session was presented by Vincent Tinto and Arleen Arnsparger, project manager MetLife Foundation Initiative on Student Success, along with two students from Austin Community College. The session was conducted as a panel discussion with the students being asked questions about their college experience, specifically their experiences as new students. What a great hing to do - actually have learners at an education conference. I had the opportunity to talk to Dr. Tinto later in the day and I thanked him ofr including learners in the session. we need to inlude learners more in opportunities like this.

The research behind this session comes from a couple of sources - CCSSE - the community college survey of student engagement and SENSE - the survey of entering student engagement. The focus of this panel discussion was starting right - a first look at engaging entering students. These initiatives were launched to determine why 50% of students leaving college were leaving before completing one semester.

Dr. Tinto used a metaphor approach to ask questions of the students - a process that he has used extensively with focus groups of students, faculty student services folks, and presidents. His advice on running a focus group was:

• serve food
• ask questions
• 6-8 participants

Here are the two questions that were asked of the students using the metaphor approach:

1. The process of enrolling in college was like...
2. My first two weeks of classes were like...

and the students completed those statements. Some of the advice that they had for us (and other students) included:

• make skills courses credit courses more students will take them
• communicate what you need
• take advantage of advisors/counsellors
• talk to people

The interesting thing listening to the students is that both became successful when they took responsibility for their own college experience - they were engaged in the process.

So what needs to be done to help learners get engaged in their learning and at their institution? The learner experience of new students must be improved:

• be available and accessible
  
• advise, be open and honest
• care about students
• embedded advising - advisors go to class

This session was an amazing opportunity to hear about engagement and retention from the very people we are trying to engage and retain - learners! It was interesting to hear two students from Texas describe experiences that I know are happening at my college. We all need to get better at this critical piece of getting learners into college in the right programmes and then giving them the tool and resources that will keep them there.

It was also very cool watching Dr. Tinto interact with the students and the audience of educators. I learned a lot observing someone who is a master of their domain...

NISOD 2008 - A Learning-Centered Ph.D For Community College Leaders

This session, conducted by two community college presidents who are both faculty mentors in Walden University's Community College Leadership program, highlighted the program and what it has to offer to learners.

I've been researching various PhD and EdD programmes and learning options for several months now, with an aim to staring an EdD sometime in 2009. I attended this session to get detailed information on Walden's programme and I was not disappointed.

Walden takes a scholar/practitioner orientation in its programme - a combination of online and residency (a total of 20 days of residency), built on the Learning College principles. The key learning opportunity in the Walden programme are the Knowledge Area Modules or KAMS. Five KAMS are completed as part of the programme along with course work and a dissertation. the cool thing about the KAMs is that they are areas of research and learning that you want to do - a customized learner and learning-centered approach.

Walden offers a 25% discount to candidates in the CCL PhD programme - $3037.00 per quarter with a typical completion time of 3-4 years. Still expensive, but nice to get the break.

An informative session that has kept Walden firmly on my list of potential PhD/EdD programmes. The research continues...

NISOD 2008 - What Does It take To Become A Successful Chair?

This presentation was done by Dr. Jim Hammons of the University of Arkansas. Dr. Hammons is the "godfather' of what has now become the Chair Academy, and has many years of research and practice dealing with chairs.

I've been an academic chair for about nine months now and was interested in attending this session to see if I was on track and if there were any tips and hints that would make me more effective in my job. The presentation started with a definition of what a successful academic chair is:

"A successful chair is one who has the ability to take an ill-defined job that none of your colleagues would consider taking and perform it at a level acceptable to your faculty and your boss with no orientation or training and without being given the time, information, or other institutional support necessary to do so" - Hammons 1991

While this definition received much laughter, there is a certain grain of truth to it in that the chair's job is busy and in many cases looking in both directions - teaching and learning with faculty and administratively "up" with the larger College perspective. My own experience is that I have had the support of faculty, administration and my institution in doing my job, and i was very fortunate in that I was mentored for several months by my predecessor - an invaluable experience and one that I would recommend as the norm for anyone entering a chair's position.

I am a non-teaching chair and this presentation was focussed on the US college model where most chairs are still in the classroom. I think being a non-teaching chair, and having come from the ranks of faculty, is a distinct advantage. I understand the issues faculty face and I have the time to deal with them (well some days I do... :-)). The biggest thing about being a chair, and one that was emphasized during this presentation is that a chair has such a wise variety of roles that you cannot be expert in them all. There is a need for development opportunities for chairs.

Dr Hammons included a couple of instruments in his presentation handout, one dealing with institutional support factors influencing chairperson performance, and the other one a self-testing instrument for chairs on how do you rate your skills? He suggested that the second one be filled out by a chair and also be their faculty - I think that this is a great idea and will try it with my faculty.

What I got from this presentation is that chairs no matter where they are are very busy people. Most importantly I got some perspective on my own position as an academic chair - I like our system of non-teaching chairs and the broad scope of work that we do. I am an administrator, but I am also a leader and I must remember that as I do my job. There is a need for formal training for chairs, to help all of us be as good as we can be at our principal task - supporting learner success...

NISOD 2008 - Keynote - Access Without Support Is Not Opportunity...

The Monday morning keynote address was given by Dr. Vincent Tinto, Distinguished Professor, Syracuse University. Dr. Tinto is a leading researcher and authority on learner retention in College. To demonstrate his influence on community colleges, Dr. Walter Bumphus who introduced Dr. Tinto asked those in the audience who had read or used an if Dr. Tinto's work to stand up. Dr. Tinto received a standing ovation form the audience, well over 1000 strong.

Learner engagement and retention is an area of concern and research for me and it was great to finally get to hear Dr. Tinto speak after having read so much of his work.

The theme of his address was that Access without support is not opportunity. Simply getting learners into college isn't enough - they have to stay there and succeed. In the US access to college and university education is greater today than it has ever been, but at the same time stratification by income limits where and how people attend post-secondary education (PSE). Low income enrollment was over 60% a few years ago and is currently less than 45% - low income has become the decider of college attendance, not academic ability. At the elite colleges there is less income diversity than racial diversity. College completion rates are lower amongst low income learners - in 1995 60% of high income learners earned a BA withing six years, only 25% of low income learners earned a BA in the same amount of time.

Restructuring is needed to solve the problem:

• Supplemental Instruction
• Promoting success within the classroom - many low income learners only have time on campus to be in the classroom and cannot use the other facilities
• Must meet student needs in the classroom
• Academic supports connected to a class
• Alingment of support activities of the class
• One class at a time - this is how most low income learners complete their education - we need to be aware of that - it is their reality
• Basic Skills Learning Communities
• Students enroll in connected classes together
• Course content is aligned
• Academic supports are linked
• Learning communities improve performance and retention
• Teaching in context - Content Course - Skills Course linked"We learn better together"

Dr. Tinto spoke about SPECC - Strengthening Pre-Collegiate Education in Community Colleges, a Carnegie Foundation initiative loking at 11 California community colleges rethinking basic skills training. SPECC is looking at basic math and language skills - developmental skills needed for PSE success. There is a need to change the experience of at risk learners , and this goes beyond simply starting a retention program - the whole college experience needs to be changed.

The attainment of two and four year degrees needs to be improved - it's more than just access - access without support is not opportunity. We must support our learners - I think in general at my college we are doing a good job, but there is still room for improvement.

I found Dr. Tinto's address quite compelling - I sit on my campus retention committee and it is more than simply having a retention plan - we need to determine why we are losing learners early in their college careers - is it lack of preparation, lack of or the wrong skill sets, motivation, something else or a combination of these and other factors? Researchers like Dr. Tinto not only give us lots to think about, they point the way to improving how we deal with our learners and help enhance their college experiences. Today's college learners are the operators of tomorrow's national infrastructures - we must be better at helping them succeed at college...

NISOD 2008 - Keynote - "America's Community Colleges: The Nation's Best Defence

This keynote address was given by Dr. Ronald Williams, Vice President of the College Board. Much of his address was based on a College Board report " Winning the Skills Race and Strengthening America's Middle Class: an Action Agenda for Community Colleges".

Community Colleges in the US currently enroll 46% of all undergraduate students and community colleges are much more diverse than universities. It was pointed out by Dr. Williams that the US lags behind most developed nations in most educational measures and that it is community colleges that are preparing the current and next generations of the people that will run the national infrastructure.

There are four threats to the community college:

• Rising costs
• Mismatch between demand and resources
• A culture that has emphasized access more than success
• The challenge of monitoring outcomes

We are looking at very similar issues in Canada and it was somewhat reassuring to realize that institutions in the US are dealing with many of the same issues.

A thought provoking address that I am sure gave US-based faculty and staff lots to think of. If you get a chance, take a look at the report - it has lots of relevance for colleges outside of the USA as well...

NISOD 2008 - Factors Affecting Student Performance and How to Influence Them...

This pre-conference workshop was delivered by Dr. Jim Hammons, professor in the Higher Education Leadership Program at the University of Arkansas.

This was a very good workshop - Dr. Hammons has many years (over 40 by his count) of experience and presented in a very inclusive and participative manner - a great example of how to get your information across by engaging the audience in the process.

Two things were looked at:

• Factors that influence student performance
• Ways to influence them

Here, in raw form, are the factors that influence student performance:

• A = Ability (what a student can do)
• M = Motivation (a student's ability to use ability)
• O = Opportunity (the chance to perform (and learn if they did so correctly))
• C = Classroom Culture (the way things are), Classroom Climate (how students feel about it)
• O = Organization (the organizational unit where instruction occurs)
• C = Organizational Culture (the way things are), Organizational Climate (how faculty feel about it)
• E = Environment (factors outside of the classroom that affect student performance inside the classroom)

The whole model together is described as C5AMEO2 - a way of looking at the factors affecting student performance. I found it a simple and clear way of identifying the factors that create the learning environment that your learners find themselves in, and then it allows you to figure out how to support learners (and yourself) deal with these factors. The bulk of the workshop was the discussions on how to influence these factors and support learners.

One of the influencers that was discussed was student success courses, a new concept for me, but one that many in the audience were familiar with. Effectively student success courses provide the knowledge and skills that learners need to succeed (or at least start on as level a playing filed as possible) at college. We have something similar that we call "College 101", but these student success course are much more formal, mandatory at some institutions, and in my mind a great idea that all learners should take at the beginning of their college career.

Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATS) and the use of counsellors were also consistently mentioned as influencers that have an impact on student assessment - CATS inside the classroom, counselling outside the classroom. I firmly believe that learning IS a team sport and counsellors, student success processes, learning centres, in class assesment, and other resources are all part of the modern learning "team".

I believe that the factor with the greatest potential impact on student assessment and performance, and the one that we sometimes tend to overlook as educators is E, the environment that learners exist in. Fortunately, Dr. Hammons spent a significant amount of time discussing this factor and drove home its importance to everyone. From my own experience, the learner's environment, their "life" is what is going to impact the most on their learning experiences - knowing this, it is so critical to get to know your learners, to realize that they are people and to be proactive in supporting them.

Simple things like open computer labs for students who cannot afford their own computer, financial services and advice, counselling, proper academic advising and other tools that engage you in the learner's educational journey will allow you to assist learners to manage their environment and increase their opportunity for success.

This was a great workshop. If you get an opportunity to sit in on a presentation by Dr. Hammons, do so. He says he doesn't travel much anymore, but if you can convince him to travel to your institution or conference, do it, it will be a great experience for all...