Thomas Hodges

Excellence in Teaching
CHEP Status: Active
CHEP Awarded: 11/26/2017
Excellence in Leadership
CHEP Status: Active
CHEP Awarded: 01/05/2018
Excellence in Campus Operations
CHEP Status: Active
CHEP Awarded: 01/26/2019

Badge Evidence | Completed Courses (4 Hours Each)

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA or the Buckley Amendment) is a federal law in the United States designed to provide students with access to, and the privacy of, their educational records. The law applies to students in higher education and educational institutions that receive funding under a program administered by the U.S. Department of Education. This course is designed to provide participants with a working knowledge of FERPA guidelines to ensure proper handling of educational records and other institutional requirements.
Is your campus ready for a full unannounced visit at any time? Onsite visits are becoming more frequent in recent years and unannounced visits even more so. This training is designed to aid campus leaders to be prepared, using best practices and practical tools, to host an onsite visitor at any time, including visits that are unannounced, by any organization such as state agencies, veterans' organizations, regional, national and programmatic accrediting agencies and the Department of Education.
This course provides faculty, staff, and administrators with an understanding of the legal mandates regarding equal access for students with disability. More importantly, it provides a practical framework to help institutional personnel know what to say and do in the context of their defined role and interactions with students with disabilities. Topics include the civil rights nature of applicable Federal law, definitional issues, the impact of disability on traditional education activities and pursuits, reasonable accommodations, and the unique responsibilities of faculty, staff, and administrators as prescribed by their position.
This introductory course covers the essential roles of a teacher and the competencies required to be a successful instructor in an educational institution. Proven techniques and strategies for planning and preparation are presented and discussed. In addition, the course offers effective methods for conducting the first class meeting and delivering course content. This course provides a solid foundation for new instructors and serves as an excellent refresher for more experienced instructors.
The instructor is the real key to student retention at any educational institution. Instructors must keep focused on student motivation and retention each and every day of class. Developing strategies for retaining students throughout the entire training sequence is both complex and rewarding. All instructors should have the goal of seeing all of their students successfully complete their class. This course helps you reach that goal by helping you to understand your students and use proven motivation and retention techniques to keep them enrolled and engaged in the learning process.
Educators work with students who want to learn specific skills that will lead to fulfilling careers. As educational instructors it is our job to help each student to achieve this goal. Just as you may have a particular style of teaching that you prefer, your students have preferred ways of learning. This course will help you to identify the different learning styles of your students so that you can adjust your instruction to better accommodate them. Good teachers also regularly monitor the effectiveness of their instruction by assessing their students’ learning. This course will examine several aspects of assessment including how to create good tests, how to ask effective questions and how to get your students to actively participate in their learning by asking questions themselves.
This course provides methods and techniques for managing students and class activities. We start by reviewing the steps instructors need to follow as they introduce a class to new students. We then discuss strategies to effectively deal with unfocused and challenging students. The course ends by describing common mistakes made by instructors and ways to avoid them.
This course shows instructors how to develop a comprehensive approach to effective and efficient instruction. From preparation for the classroom to selection of instructional delivery methods, the course provides effective ways of planning instruction to help instructors keep the content focused and the students engaged. We also cover the steps to set up a complete evaluation system that will work in all settings.
This course provides methodologies and examples to help instructors increase content retention and application by students in need of support. The course starts by covering the skills needed by instructors to be clear communicators. We then discuss ways instructors can become effective in monitoring students and using student groups as learning tools. The course concludes by covering techniques and strategies to instruct diverse learners, including learners with disabilities.
Retention is an issue, and what happens in the classroom is a critical factor influencing a student's decision to stay or go. The classroom environment may be hurting your students' view of the quality of your programs. In this course, you will learn tips and techniques to deal with environmental influences such as your role as the instructor, the classroom, the interactive activities, the support materials, and the sequence of instruction as well as other subtle influences. You will learn to view the environment from the student's perspective to increase your teaching effectiveness and student retention.
This course covers the different ways individuals learn and apply new knowledge. We start by covering the steps the brain goes through as it processes new information, and how knowledge is stored and retrieved. We then discuss how intelligence is measured and how learners process information through the use of multiple intelligences. Moving from theory to practice, the course shows instructors how to use the learning needs of students to increase knowledge acquisition and retention. The course includes a number of easy to implement strategies to help students retain and use new content.
Outstanding teachers serve their students by guiding them through their coursework and motivating them to complete program requirements. Instructors at educational institutions are often faced with high stress resulting from heavy teaching loads and limited time. When teachers cannot manage their own time and stress, they cannot fully serve the needs of their students. This course will show instructors how to manage time and stress in their lives and teach some of these skills to their students.
This course provides an introduction to the concept and philosophy of active learning, and describes a variety of methods to help instructors "activ-ate" their class. The course includes active learning examples that utilize both critical and analytical thinking skills. We also identify the risks that may discourage instructors from using active learning strategies and offer suggestions for managing them. A three-step method is suggested for developing an active lesson, and a comprehensive model is offered as a guide for creative active learning strategies.
This course begins by identifying the two most significant issues that influence the motivation of adult students: security and autonomy. The course explains how increasing students' sense of security can enhance their motivation during instruction, questioning, activities, and evaluations. This is followed by a discussion of how motivation can be improved by enhancing students' sense of autonomy when making assignments, selecting instructional methods, implementing classroom procedures, and developing and planning evaluations. The course concludes by comparing and contrasting extrinsic and intrinsic motivators and by suggesting a variety of "miscellaneous motivators" for instructors to consider.
This course compares and contrasts four styles of classroom management. The course includes "virtual visits" to animated classrooms where participants observe four instructors who exhibit different management styles. The style that is preferred by most students is identified and described, and suggestions are offered on how instructors can modify their personal style to increase their effectiveness. A four-step model for developing successful classroom management strategies is presented and is followed by a discussion of a practical, behavioral approach to classroom management. Characteristics that foster good discipline in the educational institution and in the classroom are listed and explained, and tips are offered that can improve both institution-wide and classroom discipline. Finally, a number of scenarios involving common discipline problems are described.
Questioning can be one of the most effective classroom teaching strategies. However, many instructors are not familiar with the techniques and research findings associated with good questioning. This course begins by comparing and contrasting the major types of questions and their most appropriate uses. Some relevant statistics and research findings are presented, followed by a discussion of four effective questioning practices. The course concludes by offering a few tips and suggestions for instructors to consider.
The purpose of this course is to provide instructors with a very basic introduction to the concepts of soft skills and emotional intelligence (EQ). It is designed especially for new instructors in career schools who have little or no training in educational techniques and who are unfamiliar with the basics of emotional intelligence. The course provides a comparison of hard and soft skills, including people skills and workplace behaviors. Ten important soft skills are discussed in detail and the relationship between EQ and soft skills is explained. The course concludes with tips and suggestions to help instructors enhance their soft skills and EQ.
The majority of careers require the ability to think critically and problem solve at one level or another. Employers seek individuals who can think independently, propose solutions, and solve problems. The content in this course provides the foundation for critical thinking and demonstrates how people with different interests, abilities, and aptitudes approach problem solving. The course covers the different kinds of intelligence and how they impact critical thinking, for a broader understanding of how people process solutions to problems. It concludes with step-by-step instructions for helping students develop and refine their own critical thinking skills.
Studies reveal that as much as 85% of classroom communication is nonverbal. This course consists of eight entertaining modules that include audio tracks, animation and interactivity. Topics include the importance of nonverbal communication in the classroom, as well as our everyday lives. The modules describe the use of body language, effective vocal cues, proper appearance and the effective use of space (proxemics) and time (chronemics). A variety of support materials accompany the modules, including an assessment tool that instructors can use to evaluate their nonverbal skills.
This course will provide you with a basic overview of the background and history of an innovative instructional method called Adaptive Learning (AL). AL is growing in popularity and differs from traditional educational methods as it focuses on individualized, personalized instruction for everyone. With the rise of technology, AL has a definite place in education. This course discusses the background, importance, issues, attitude changes, implementation and future of AL. The advantages outweigh any disadvantages as AL can help create individualized instruction and increase student success.
Planning Effective and Efficient Instruction provides new and experienced instructors with practical ways to design and deliver learning experiences that establish an environment that facilitates learning. The course summarizes important academic concepts while providing specific strategies for planning lessons, reaching learners, asking questions and assessing student mastery of the course and program objectives.
Students (both veterans and non-veterans) with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are enrolling in career education in increasingly larger numbers. Instructors need to have a basic understanding of what PTSD is and how it impacts the lives of students. This course covers what PTSD is and the characteristics that students with PTSD may display. In addition, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is discussed as many students enrolling in career education have both PTSD and TBI. Instructional strategies to support the learning of students with PTSD and/or TBI will be discussed and examples given. Participants will also be given sources where they can gain additional insight into how to support the learning of students with PTSD and/or TBI.
Contrary to some current notions, it is the responsibility of ALL instructors to include literacy development in their instructional planning and delivery, regardless of academic, vocational, or professional discipline. This course defines literacy skills, including new and newer literacies, and describes how instructional planning must include all areas of literacy development for every student. Throughout this course, participants will have an opportunity to apply various strategies and methods in literacy development and understand how to focus on the aspects of literacy that apply specifically to successful students in their discipline.
As students from different generations are enrolling in post-secondary settings today, instructors are presented with the challenge of how to engage, instruct and relate to these multigenerational learners. This course gives profiles of different generational learners and how they engage in the learning process. Content is shared on how to relate to learners of the different generations and how to use students' life experiences as learning opportunities. As technology is an essential part of instructional delivery, strategies are given for building on the abilities of multigenerational students to use social networks, portable media (given the parameters of school policy), and personal interaction. In addition, instructors are given methods that can be used to help students develop the critical thinking and interpersonal skills needed for career success.
Cultural diversity includes a wide scope of differences. While we plan instruction to meet outcomes that are usually supporting a set of pre-determined standards, instructors are faced with a high level of diversity in every class group. It is important for instructors to be aware of diversity and strive to include every student, regardless of difference, in their learning community. This requires intentional planning and accessible instructional design that includes all students and empowers every student to succeed.
The term "Competency-Based Instruction" (CBI) is emerging as a new and preferred approach to education and the management of education. CBI is currently being evaluated at all levels of education, from K-12 to higher education and beyond. In traditional higher education it is referred to as CBE (Competency-Based Education) as it relates to specific competency-based programs. This course explores the topic in terms of the various characteristics of competency-based teaching and learning and highlights the most commonly agreed-upon benefits for students. The course also addresses the teaching approaches required to support a competency-based learning environment most effectively.
Did you ever hear that we only use about 10% of our brains? Were you ever told that you are more right-brained or left-brained? Did you know that males and females learn differently as a result of differences in their brains? Did you know that people have different learning styles? Did you ever hear that you retain more of what you do or see than of what you read or hear? If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, you have experienced a "myth-understanding." The purpose of this course is to explain the background and truth about these myth-understandings that pervade much of the popular literature to this day. All persons who are involved in the education of others must guard against these myths and ensure that they do not influence their professional practices. Note: Many learning theories have been developed that represent the efforts of researchers with different perspectives on how individuals develop and learn. As within any field, facts and myths may be driven by controversial opinions and philosophies that need to be considered by individuals engaged in professional development.
The most effective instructors are scholars, but they are also facilitators. Good scholars have a command of knowledge in their field of expertise that is both broad and deep. For a scholar to become an instructor, he or she also needs to be a facilitator. Facilitators help others to learn, which is as important as scholarship. In this course we will define "the scholar" and "the facilitator" as individuals (although they are two aspects of one person), as well as compare and contrast their nature and their roles. You will examine issues and challenges faced by instructors, both on-ground and online, and look at developing and improving your facilitation skills.
This course explores the different components of student empowerment and the value that it has in learning success. Student empowerment is a necessary component for students as they transition to and through postsecondary training. Content will be presented that will raise awareness of what student empowerment is and how it can enhance the learning process for students. Strategies are given for enhancing the development of student empowerment that can be implemented both online and onsite.
Many consider storytelling to be in the realm of fairytales and small children, but when storytelling is used well and with purpose, it can strengthen students' understanding no matter their age; it can also link contexts to aid in understanding, suggest applications to real life, and humanize the learning process. This course will identify the characteristics of storytelling that are useful in teaching and learning and will provide examples and contexts within which storytelling increases students' interest and connection. Characteristics of useful storytelling will be identified, as well as supportive resources. Examples will be given to help educators focus on the aspects of storytelling that will enhance their content and how these strategies will fit within various instructional settings.
Instructional planning and delivery is undergoing dynamic changes with the availability of technology and expanded avenues through which information can be provided. Instructors need to be aware of how they can expand their instructional formats to include the latest technology and learning theories. This course provides information about the different forms of learning and how they can be implemented into classrooms and laboratories. Other topics covered in the course include different strategies for learning including transformative and cooperative methods as well as collaborative and experiential methods that help to engage learners.
Awareness has grown in recent years that, to be effective today, learning must include more than knowledge and "hard skills," or technical ability. In a world where work is often team-based and project-driven, teaching needs also to encompass attitudes and social competencies. This course will describe ways students can enhance their professional skills across the curriculum. Strategies for teaching effective personal interaction and ways to support student professional growth and development will be discussed. This course will also explain how students can improve their writing skills and computer literacy across the curriculum.
When designing instruction for adult learners, it's important to consider a host of factors. This course describes the characteristics and motivations of adult learners, and the best practices and techniques for teaching them. It discusses the different theories of adult development and adult learning, and their relationships to the classroom experience. In addition, this course examines brain-based teaching strategies, the theory of multiple intelligences, and how the different parts of the brain are affected by new learning.
As opportunities for education become more prevalent, educational institutions must compete to increase, or even maintain, their student enrollment levels. More and more institutions are adopting the strategy of treating students like customers in order to be successful. This course will review the characteristics of adult learners and determine the reasons adult students leave the institution. It will discuss the concept of interacting with students as though they are customers and how the students-as-customers concept relates to the instructor and the classroom. This course will also describe the methods and techniques of effective communication. Included are guidelines and techniques for advising and mentoring students.
Have you ever wondered how to make your health classes more "real" world? In this course, you will learn ways to get students thinking in terms of successfully applying their skills in the workplace. Utilize instructional tools and actual sample methods for teaching critical thinking in both the clinical and didactic learning environments, and share ideas that have worked for you.
This class will review communication, collaboration, and time management soft skills that can be instilled to help a student excel not only in the classroom, but also on the job. A variety of ideas and methods to implement the growth of those soft skills will also be shared in the course. Learning content is only part of the goal to empower students and graduates to be attractive to potential employers. The human side of the business world - the people - is what makes a company great, so it is imperative to foster the learning of both content and soft skills as students travel on their educational path to a job and career.
This class will review adaptability, problem solving, conflict resolution, self-motivation, and feedback soft skills that can be instilled to help a student excel not only in the classroom, but also on the job. A variety of ideas and methods to implement the growth of those soft skills will also be shared in the course. Learning the content is only part of the goal to empower the students and graduates to be attractive to potential employers. The human side of the business world—the people—is what makes a company great, so it is imperative to foster the learning of both content and soft skills as students travel on their educational path to a job and career.
The purpose of this course is to build cultural competency in instructors who teach students from diverse backgrounds. This will include a review of critical terms, ideas, and real-world case studies, providing instructors and administrators with useful information and takeaways they can apply to their practice. The goal of this course is to help develop a better understanding of cultural competency and produce tangible resources to help implement plans, strategies, and ideas at your institution. In addition to lecture videos, resource links, and assessments, you will be able to utilize Journal and Learning Activities, which will continue to be useful after successful completion of the course.
This course emphasizes teaching strategies that can be implemented within different types of lessons to promote teacher proficiency, student motivation, and achievable outcomes. Topics relating to teaching methods include direct, indirect, interactive, and independent instruction. By utilizing various teaching strategies and methods, an instructor can approach teaching topics in a variety of ways. The goal of this course is to help develop a better understanding of essential teaching strategies, and produce tangible resources to help implement plans, strategies, and ideas at your institution. In addition to lecture videos, resource links, and assessments, you will be able to utilize Journal and Learning Activities, which will continue to be useful after successful completion of the course.
Motivation can be the difference between success and failure. In this course, the idea of how motivation impacts people will be discussed. Activities will focus on improving motivation in students, and other people you interact with, as well as yourself. The goal of this course is to help develop a better understanding of the topic, and produce tangible resources to help implement plans, strategies, and ideas at your institution. In addition to lecture videos, resource links, and assessments, you will be able to utilize Learning Activities, which will continue to be useful after successful completion of the course.
The Flipped Classroom model has become one of the most commonly implemented educational models seen in classrooms today. Through this course, we will explore the basics of the flipped classroom, how and why it works to increase student retention, and go over steps to start incorporating flipped classroom elements in your courses. The goal of this course is to help develop a better understanding of the topic and produce tangible resources to help implement plans, strategies, and ideas at your school. In addition to lecture videos, possible resource links, and assessments, you will be able to utilize the Journal and Learning Activities.
This introductory course will provide you with the knowledge and skills to create successful online courses, whether for faculty-supported distance education delivery or as a supplement to classroom instruction. You will learn to design and develop online courses that have structural integrity and navigational simplicity with a focus on student-centered learning and intellectual interaction. The course covers various learning activities that are supported in an e-learning environment and describes the typical components of an online course. We will provide you with the media strategies and course design methodologies that will allow you to develop online courses in an effective and efficient manner.
Your degree of success as an online instructor relies heavily on several factors, among which are your level of preparedness before the date on which the course is launched; your ability to make a smooth transition into the roles and responsibilities associated with teaching in an online environment; and the effectiveness and efficiency with which you manage learners, instructional transactions embedded in the course as well as the learning environment. In this course, you will learn how to project your authority and presence into the e-learning environment, build a relationship with each learner, promote and nurture learner participation, provide informative and constructive feedback in a timely manner, minimize attrition, manage communications, manage unacceptable behavior and resolve disagreements.
This course will provide you with basic information to teach in a virtual learning environment and understand the importance of organizing course content. You will learn about the important role technology tools play in teaching and organizing an online course. You will also learn the difference between synchronous and asynchronous learning. As the components of each are discussed, you will further identify appropriate methods, develop guidelines, organize content, and establish a pattern of teaching for each method.
This course outlines the main characteristics of "dynamic" course design for blended instruction and highlights effective teaching methods that facilitate the learning process. Participants in this course will have an opportunity to customize the design principles and methods presented to suit their individual professional context.
This course will provide you with strategies and techniques to help prepare students for the online environment. To do so, you must also assess your strengths and weaknesses as an online instructor. As you help students assess their readiness for online learning, you are also preparing them for the expectations and realities of the online environment. By identifying students' strengths and weaknesses, you can provide guidance to help them achieve the learning outcomes. This course not only notes the necessary technical skills, it also discusses non-technical skills as well as techniques for successful learning and helping students develop their online persona.
This course offers proven-successful techniques that ultimately prevent student loan delinquencies and defaults. Because there is not one miracle that reduces the chance of student loan defaults, this compilation of ideas and practices collectively greatly reduces those risks by giving ownership of the loan responsibilities to the students who benefit from them. By integrating effective borrower education and interaction from the day your students walk through your front door, your students will embrace the state of mind needed to give them lifetime accountability for their Federal Student Loans obligations.
This course will help participants to interpret the many rules and regulations that are required by educational institutions offering Title IV funding. It will aid in preparing management and faculty in recognizing that compliance is the responsibility of the entire institution and is not just the job of the Financial Aid Office. Course content will also aid the individual in building a "culture of compliance" which will encourage teamwork and secure the cooperation of others on campus.
This course explores the critical differences between management and leadership. Participants will be introduced to definitions and myths about each area as well as how management and leadership must coexist for an organization to operate effectively. Participants will explore their own management/leadership tendencies.
Not everyone is suited for, or desires, a leadership position. One of the first steps to being an effective leader is to understand the desire to lead in the first place. Participants will explore their motivation to lead and develop a deeper understanding of their leader style(s).
Beyond understanding the role of the leader, the ultimate effectiveness and impact of a leader takes into consideration the followers and the situation, too. This course defines leadership impact and explores the Interactional Framework for Leadership.
The higher education industry provides a wealth of opportunities and challenges for those seeking leadership positions. In this course, participants will gain a deeper understanding of the higher education sector and themselves. The importance of higher education institutions will be explored along with developing a personal leadership legacy.
Get ready to add a number of skills to your toolkit as you develop as a leader! This course focuses on increased self-awareness in communication styles and learning; developing deeper understanding through empathic listening; and motivating through innovation.
This course provides you with a framework to put your self-discovery and learning into a workable plan to further develop your leadership skills. A step-by-step process is offered to help you create a meaningful Personal Leadership Development Plan (PLDP) complete with the development of SMART Goals and advice from some of today's leaders in the higher education sector.
This course provides a synopsis of the essential tasks of leadership setting direction, aligning people, and motivating others. You will learn how to recognize the skills and characteristics of effective leaders, create an inspiring vision, and energize people to support and work toward your goals.
In this course, you will learn how to establish a team with the right mix of skills and personalities and create a culture that promotes collaborative work. The course covers steps to leading an effective team and includes innovative, easy-to-implement self-evaluation tools.
Focus is essential to effective teamwork. In this course, you learn how to diagnose and overcome common problems - such as poor communication and interpersonal conflict - that can impede team progress. You will also learn to take corrective measures to remove team problems and improve team performance.
This course provides a timesaving guide to planning and conducting meetings from start to finish. It covers preparation, keeping the meeting on track, and follow-up. The course also offers expert advice for dealing with problem behaviors exhibited by meeting participants.
This course provides the nuts and bolts of project management, including project planning, budgeting, team-building, execution, and risk analysis. The course covers useful tools and techniques such as GANTT and PERT charts, Work Breakdown Structure, and variance analysis.
This course provides sound advice on preparing and delivering presentations that command attention, persuade, and inspire. It includes rehearsal techniques as well as tips for creating and using more effective visuals. The course also addresses the importance of understanding your objectives and your audience to create a presentation with impact.
In this course, you will learn how to strengthen your coaching skills by using a four-step process to facilitate the professional growth of the employees you coach.
To do their job - accomplishing work through others - managers must develop and use persuasion skills rather than simply issue orders. Formal authority no longer gets managers as far as it used to. This course will help you master the art and science behind successful persuasion so you can begin changing others' attitudes, beliefs, or behavior to create win-win solutions.
Feedback is an essential component of the communication process. In this course, you will learn when and how to give effective positive or corrective feedback, how to offer feedback upward, and how to receive feedback.
This course provides a practical guide to becoming an effective negotiator. The course includes steps to guide you through the negotiation process assessing your interests as well as those of the other party, developing opportunities that create value, avoiding common barriers to agreement, and implementing strategies to make the negotiation process run smoothly.
How well do you work with your supervisor? This course will help you develop a mutually rewarding relationship with your supervisor. You will learn proven techniques for effectively communicating and negotiating with your supervisor, presenting problems or opportunities and accepting responsibility for your proposed actions.
In this course, you will learn how to manage diversity to extract maximum value from your employees' differences - including how to recruit diverse talent, resolve diversity-related conflicts, and communicate with employees and customers from other cultures.
This course will show you how to choose what to delegate, match employee and delegated assignment, and set the stage for success by both developing your employees and freeing up your time for critical managerial tasks.
This course will show you how to encourage your employees to learn and grow, while maximizing the return on the management time you invest in employee development.
In this course, you will learn how to prepare for, conduct, and follow up on performance evaluations in ways that link employee performance to your company's and group's goals.
This course will show you how to set realistic goals, prioritize tasks, and track milestones to improve performance and morale.
In this course, you will learn how to manage your career - including how to identify your business interests, professional values, and skills in order to target your most exciting career possibilities.
Change is constant and is often met with resistance. This course will show you how to manage change constructively and navigate the ups and downs that inevitably accompany a change effort.
This course will show you how to manage an intellectually diverse work group and their environment to produce more and better ideas that encourage innovation when developing products and work processes.
What will your institution look like in five years? Growth takes change and the commitment of the stakeholders in your organization. A five-year plan is essential for any owner or director of an educational institution, no matter how long they have been in the business. It includes various elements such as your enrollment goals for all programs, plans for new programs, new profit center potential, fees and all financial aid opportunities, enhancement of student services, faculty and staff planning, marketing and development strategies, and planning for physical space to support your expansion goals. Also, development plans are often needed to satisfy licensing and accreditation requirements. This course covers the essential components and techniques involved in developing a comprehensive five-year plan. We will show you an effective step-by-step planning process that involves the participation of representatives from your institution including staff, instructors, students, graduates, and the employers who hire your graduates. The process encourages participants to share their knowledge and ideas, and everyone who participates in the process ultimately becomes a stakeholder in making the plan work. The course includes planning worksheets that you can download and use to help you develop your institution’s five-year plan.
Educational institutions need to be aware of emerging employment opportunities in new and expanding fields if they are going to continue to attract students. Most licensing and accrediting agencies ask an institution for some form of feasibility study when submitting new program-add applications. The research involved in this step often requires proof of need for the program, number of anticipated job openings, and input from employers. This course outlines ways to collect data to make an effective decision and show regulatory agencies proof of employment opportunities. Step-by-step directions are included to assist institution staff in conducting effective research and preparation of curriculum to meet employer specifications.
Vital advisory and governing boards create additional opportunities to enhance operations within an educational institution. Well-prepared board members engaged in appropriate and timely activities can make a substantial contribution to operational, financial and management success. Creating, managing and maintaining effective advisory and governing boards can be a demanding yet rewarding process. Board members have to be identified, recruited, and trained to be effective and to understand their role as individual contributors and as members of a group of advisors. To gain maximum leverage from a board, members must also remain motivated and retain a concentrated focus on the institution's mission, purpose and goals. This course will provide a blueprint, with accompanying checklists, for establishing and maintaining effective advisory and governing boards in an educational institution.
This course shows you how to hire high-quality instructors and orient them to your institution. The skills also apply to hiring staff. It's easy to hire someone to do a job. But it can be difficult to hire the right person. You want instructors who are top notch. They represent your institution and interact with the most people at your campus and particularly your students. This course starts with how to determine exactly what type of people you need as your instructors. Then it shows you how to recruit and hire them. Once hired, you'll learn how to introduce them to the working environment at your institution. By the time you finish this course, you'll be recruiting, hiring, and orienting quality instructors. You'll see results in improved enrollments, student achievement, retention, and completion.
How many times have we said “if we’d only known” as a student walks out the door? No one starts classes planning to fail, but unfortunately problems do arise that present barriers to success. Students are good at identifying these problems blocking their path to success, but they frequently don’t have adequate problem solving and communication skills needed to overcome these problems. This course looks at the effect of stress on attrition, the use of tools to identify and help students at risk, and how to develop an institutional culture that shares responsibility for student success across the entire organization.
Building a program to ensure a smooth "hand off" from Admissions to Faculty is a critical component of student retention. Applicants often develop a strong bond with their admissions representative that ends (from the institution's standpoint) once they begin classes. This online course provides practical ideas on designing an orientation program, first-week-of-class and other retention activities that connect the student with faculty, the college and each other that will help you retain and graduate more students.
Owners and directors of educational institutions are always looking for the magical ingredients to improve student retention. There are at least six easy-to-implement retention strategies that can make a difference in whether a student graduates or drops out. These include efficient admissions procedures, great orientation programs, effective mentoring, student friendly classroom involvement, fabulous graduations, and successful placement. Upon completion of this course, participants will have specific easy-to-implement retention strategies to put in place for every area of their institution.
This course is a collection of ideas and best practices drawn from the implementation of enrollment growth strategies at over 300 educational institutions nationwide. The course is based on a highly successful in-service training program offered by Dr. Joe Pace, Managing Partner of The Pacific Institute and includes video delivery of Pace's presentations. Filled with practical tips and suggestions, the course also discusses the application of current research results on human behavior and organizational culture to enhance student enrollment and retention. This is a unique course that will dramatically change your perspective on institutional effectiveness.