Discovering Insights for Improvement with Journey Mapping the Student Experience
Summit Theme(s): Positive experience, Collaboration
Presenters:
- Melody Riley, Associate CIO for Applications & Middleware, Information Services
- Jim Bouse, Associate Registrar, Director of Enrollment Management Technology, Student Services and Enrollment Management
About the session:
Consider the cumulative, interactive impact of our functions, processes and technologies and their effect on our students’ experience. While students are trying to successfully navigate their journey at UO, they are tackling questions of affordability, academic success, operating within a new and varied technology, struggling to make informed, timely decisions related to their academic success, and navigating complex support systems within each college and with administrative offices. This session explores this topic by introducing customer journey mapping and persona development as tools to help us frame this complex ecosystem and establish connections for future opportunities to identify areas we can collaborate across the university to help improve the student experience.
New Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiatives in the Clark Honors College
Summit Theme(s): Well educated, Equity
Presenters:
- Elizabeth Raisanen, Assistant Dean of Advising and Strategic Partnerships, Clark Honors College
- Daphne Gallagher, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies, Clark Honors College
- Angela Rovak, First-Year Academic Advisor, Clark Honors College
- Paula Braswell, Director of Admissions, Clark Honors College
About the session:
The lack of diversity in university honors programs and colleges across the country is a perennial problem. This panel presentation will focus on the concrete steps that the Clark Honors College is currently taking to make the CHC a more diverse, inclusive, and supportive community. Presenters will discuss the ways in which the CHC’s revised curriculum prioritizes innovative and inclusive pedagogies and supports courses related to diversity, equity, and inclusion; special opportunities and signature programs available for honors college students, which include the CHC’s 3+3: Six Years to a Law Degree Program, scholarships, and new funding programs for experiential learning opportunities like research assistantships and internships; dedicated advising support and mentorship of CHC students by honors college faculty, staff, and students, as well as expanded support for first-year and transfer students; and information about the CHC’s new lateral admissions process, which for the first time ever this year will allow students to enter the honors college in spring term (previously, the CHC could only accept new students in fall and winter). These new curricular, extracurricular, advising, and admissions initiatives all forward the goal of making an honors education more accessible to students at the University of Oregon.
UO Financial Wellness - Fostering a Community of Financially Capable Ducks
Summit Theme(s): Graduation
Presenter:
- Gilbert Rogers, Assistant Director, Financial Wellness, Financial Aid
About the session:
In the 2020 Ohio State University Study of Collegiate Financial Wellness, researchers found that over 77% of UO students had never taken a personal finance/financial literacy related course prior to entering college. Moreover, 74% of UO students agreed that they had experienced a general level of stress related to their personal finances. Considering these statistics, it is our responsibility to address the lack of exposure as well as the stress students feel due to their financial situation. The mission of the financial wellness center is to financially empower students with the knowledge and skills needed to make sound financial decisions during and after college.
Unfortunately, learning about budgeting and credit building are not usually at the top of students’ list of priorities (we could probably say the same for many adults). Some students even expect that their student loan debt will magically disappear if they turn a blind eye to it. In an effort to best meet the needs of our students, we have deployed a peer to peer financial literacy education model. Our model is heavily reliant upon our ability to reach students where they are. As such, our relationships across campus are at the heart of our success.
In our session we will share our multi-faceted approach to providing financial literacy education to ALL UO students. As a part of our multi-faceted approach, we will also share how our program has been strategic in finding ways to tailor our efforts to meet the needs of various student populations. You will learn about our peer-to-peer model, a few early lessons with our "COVID" pivot, and our plan for the future in addressing the financial literacy educational needs of students.
How Building Healthier Relationships with Gen Z Enables You to Provide Better Feedback
Summit Theme(s): Positive experience
Presenters:
- Hannah White, Coordinator for Leadership and Community Engagement, Holden Center for Leadership and Community Engagement, Dean of Students
- Alex Matiash, Resident Services Manager, University Housing
About the session:
Providing feedback can be a difficult and anxiety producing part of our roles, yet not providing feedback to our students does not contribute to their growth and inevitably makes our jobs more difficult. What if there was a way to make giving feedback easier and more comfortable? Generation Z is a cohort that values feedback and growth. Learn about different strategies to improve your supervision through providing feedback and increase morale and relationships in your unit.
Predicting Student Success with New Machine Learning Strategies
Summit Theme(s): Graduation, Collaboration, Equity
Presenter:
- Sung-Woo Cho, Associate Vice Provost for Academic Data Analytics, Office of the Provost
About the session
This interactive session will discuss the emerging machine learning strategies and tools that are helping researchers and practitioners to predict individuals’ outcomes more accurately. The presentation will begin with the introduction of the new Academic Data Analytics (ADA) unit and its emphasis on using new and emerging methods for predictive and text-analysis purposes. The presentation will first provide an overview of the state of machine learning in the broader data science industry, with examples from other fields outside of higher education. The presentation will then focus the majority of the formal presenting time on predicting student-level outcomes such as persistence to the next term or graduation within four years. The presenter will detail the steps and considerations that were necessary to process the University of Oregon’s own data to get to a machine-learning-ready stage.
Much of the emphasis of the presentation will be on the advancement of machine learning over the past five years, including open-source packages and cloud-based machine learning. The presentation will end with early results and a demonstration of predictive analytics using Microsoft’s machine learning platform, Azure ML. The presenter will show how the platform can run hundreds of models at once, rank the models by performance metric, create an ensemble model, and produce not only the predicted outcomes but the most important variables that contributed to those predictions, as well.
The informal part of the presentation will include a discussion on the variables that are needed for accurate predictions, which accuracy measures are most important to appropriately identify students who are at risk, and equity and fairness considerations with machine learning outcomes. The presentation will welcome all questions from the attendees on this predictive analytics work, as well as ideas for new work in text analytics.
Case Management for Students Facing Barriers to Academic Success
Summit Theme(s): Graduation, Collaboration
Presenters:
- Tyan Taubner, Advising Case Manager, Office of Academic Advising
- Joseph DeWitz, Advising Case Manager, Office of Academic Advising
- Laura Schulte, Case Manager Senior Staff Therapist, University Counseling Services
- Jessica Haymaker-Parsons, Director, Crisis Intervention and Sexual Violence Support Services, Dean of Students
About the session:
Panel will present on programs, services and resources from Office of Academic Advising, Dean of Students and University Counseling Services for students facing barriers to academic success, with information on when and how to refer students.
The Mis-Replication of HBCU's: Black Cultural Centers at PWI
Summit Theme(s): Positive experience, Equity
Presenters:
- Aris Hall, Coordinator, Lyllye Reynolds-Parker Black Cultural Center, Dean of Students
- Stella-Marie Akindayomi, Academic Counselor and Black Retention Specialist, Center for Multicultural Academic Excellence, Division of Equity and Inclusion and Division of Undergraduate Education and Student Success
About the session
It is often said that HBCUs are "often imitated but never duplicated," we want to encourage participants in this workshop to understand the differences between the two institutional types. Furthermore, the presenters--two Historically Black College and University alumna--who now work at a PWI in spaces for Black students, will discuss the argument that many Black students make between HBCU vs. PWI and the argument of "better". Culminating with learning strategies to encourage staff and students to admire HBCU culture while building their own legacy and traditions within Black Cultural Centers and other spaces for Black students at their respective Black Cultural Centers on their historically and predominantly White campuses.
Building a Sense of Purpose: Aligning the College Experience to Each Student’s Goals
Presenters:
- Nikolas Huot, Strategy Director, Complete College America
Prior to joining Complete College America, Nikolas worked as the Associate Director for First-Year and Transition Programs with the Office of Student Success at Georgia State University. In this role, he coordinated, assessed, and scaled all success and retention initiatives for incoming first-year students at the bachelor’s and associate’s degrees, including learning communities, structured schedules, summer bridge, peer mentors, first-year seminar, and first-generation students. In addition to his work in student success, Nikolas spent over five years as a college scheduler where he maintained the academic schedules and master curriculum of a number of departments. To this day, he remains closely involved with all aspects of student registration and course scheduling at the university level. At CCA, Nikolas works on planning and implementing 15 to Finish, Purpose First, MSI Initiative, Momentum Year, Academic Maps, Proactive Advising, and Adult Learners in an effort to closing achievement gaps.
- Brandon Protas, Strategy Director, Complete College America
Brandon Protas serves as a Strategy Director with Complete College America. He has spent his career working in public education with particular focus on developing educational opportunities for students historically underserved in higher education. Prior to joining Complete College America, Brandon worked for nine years as the Director of College Pathways at Community College of Denver (CCD). There he oversaw a dedicated staff that more than doubled the size of the concurrent enrollment program helping to address gaps in the academic pipeline that exist for students of color and first-generation college students. During his time at the college, Brandon led multiple college-wide initiatives, including leading CCD to become the first college or university in the state to be accredited through the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships (NACEP). He also served on both the NACEP and Colorado concurrent enrollment advisory boards. Earlier in his career, Brandon worked for more than a decade in the Sunnyside Unified School District (SUSD) in Tucson, Arizona. His experience in K-12 education includes social work and counseling services, community building, and college readiness programming. For his doctoral dissertation, he conducted a program analysis of the SUSD AVID program which is designed to prepare students for college success. Brandon earned a Bachelor of Arts in American Studies from Brown University, a Master of Social Work from Arizona State University, and a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from Northern Arizona University.
About the session
Instead of leaving students to their own devices, colleges must help students choose a program of study that fits their aptitudes and career goals. Helping students develop this sense of “purpose” is one of the pillars of success championed by Complete College America (CCA). During this session, representatives from CCA will discuss strategies that have been used by campuses across the country to help students develop purpose and will encourage the University of Oregon community to consider how those strategies might benefit our Ducks.