Education Commons^™

Increasing Family And Caregiver Engagement In Benton Harbor Area Schools, Susan V. Piazza, Patricia A. Edwards

Academic Leadership Academy

Increasing Family and Caregiver Engagement in Benton Harbor Area Schools

Evaluation Competencies, Instruction, And Academic Leadership, Daniela C. Schroeter

Academic Leadership Academy

Background and Context

My primary research interests center on evaluation theory, methodology, practice, and capacity building. In particular, my current research focuses on evaluation competencies among public and nonprofit sector employees. In light of the 2018-2019 Academic Leadership Academy and Instructional Development grant, this poster revisits findings from a federal evaluator survey and examines: What evaluation and leadership competencies should be emphasized in the developments of public administrators?

Exploring The Potential For A Student-Based Software Development Team, Jon Collier

Academic Leadership Academy

In the 2017-2018 academic year, the Haenicke Institute worked with a team of Computer Science students to develop an application management system for the International Education Faculty Development Fund (IEFDF).

This system was developed as part of the students’ Senior Design Project. It was a mutually beneficial relationship in that the students gained experience working on developing actual production software and the Haenicke Institute received a modernized and time-saving system for IEFDF applications.

After the conclusion of the IEFDF project, one of the student developers was further contracted to build another system: the WMU Global Expertise Database. Using the framework …

Interdivisional Technology Collaboration, Peter Poggione

Academic Leadership Academy

Information technologies such as computers, mobile devices and telecommunications have become the principle change agents associated with the reshaping of higher education. As these technologies advance and evolve, end-user’s expectations continue to increase as they expect ubiquitous and reliable access to those technologies. At the same time many university technology support operations have struggled to keep pace with the needed infrastructure upgrades as well as maintaining the qualified support staff with expertise to meet these issues head on.

This challenge has been compounded over the years by the fracturing and decentralization of technology services and support along divisional and academic …

Enhancing Sampi Personnel Evaluation Procedures, Cody T. Williams

Academic Leadership Academy

Science and Mathematics Program Improvement (SAMPI) exclusively using WMU Human Resources “Performance Management Program Annual Review Form” for staff annual performance reviews.

Form provides annual opportunity for SAMPI staff and Director to meet and discuss past performance and future development plans.

Experiences with staff performance reviews and ALA convinced me of need for additional procedures to develop team trust and encourage staff buy-in

Creating Efficiencies Through Process Improvement, Stephanie Radant

Academic Leadership Academy

As a college, our primary mission is to serve students enrolled in our programs. To ensure our students are receiving a quality education complete with rewarding research opportunities, we need to hire exceptional faculty and provide those faculty members with the resources they need. Our college funds are allocated annually, these funds provide for: graduate assistantships, part-time instructors, research expenses as well as new faculty start-up packages. As the largest of the seven colleges which comprise Western Michigan University, the College of Arts and Sciences must make decisions strategically, with regard to the allocation of resources among our twenty-six departments …

Leaders Without Titles, Sarah Good

Academic Leadership Academy

According to Brene Brown, a leader is “anyone who takes responsibility for finding the potential in people and processes and who has the courage to develop that potential” (https://daretolead.brenebrown.com).

Brown recognizes that leadership is not solely based upon a title or position; instead, leadership is a demonstrable set of characteristics one possesses and can develop, as well as a set of behaviors that can be shaped to lead people, organizations, and institutions into the future. Leadership is something to be developed with self-reflection, vulnerability, and honesty. Leaders can be found in all places and spaces within an organization and need …

Global Expertise Database, Laura Large

Academic Leadership Academy

A service of the Haenicke Institute for Global Education, the Global Expertise Database connects faculty, staff, students and the community to the rich global knowledge of thousands of faculty members and professional staff at Western Michigan University.

Intentional Purchasing: Accessible Procurement In Higher Education, Gwen Bostic

Academic Leadership Academy

Intentional Purchasing is examining products with the intention of purchasing those that are accessible, work well with accessible technology or can be updated to become accessible.

Pay For Performance And Motivating Professional Development, David Longjohn

Academic Leadership Academy

Pay for performance, also referred to as merit pay, is a compensation system that rewards employees relative to their job performance. When meeting or exceeding goals, individuals receive greater compensation compared to if they fall short of targets.

Advocates of PFP believe that compensation is a motivator and that greater quality and quantity of work can be incentivized by rewarding employees accordingly. Employees whose work does not meet goals may be incentivized to seek relevant training to strengthen skills or pursue a different role that is a better fit. Proponents believe PFP can lead to fairer compensation, strengthen the organization …

Sanford Center For Financial Planning And Wellness, Onur Arugaslan

Academic Leadership Academy

In partnership with Arbor Financial Credit Union and The Michigan Credit Union Foundation, Sanford Center hosts a Financial Reality Fair to support, assist and educate local high school students in an effort to advance community members' financial well-being. The Financial Reality Fair is a fun, fast-paced, interactive session that makes a lasting impact on the financial understanding of participants.

During the hands-on experience, students identify a career choice and are provided a budget sheet showing their monthly salary and expenses for basics such as housing, utilities, transportation, clothing and food. With the many temptations for additional spending, students must learn …

Shared Gold: Mapping Of Community Engagement, Brian Gogan, Jennifer Harrison

Academic Leadership Academy

Engaged universities and communities are a key focus for meaningful social transformation and addressing complex educational issues including access, research ethics, and business development (Cherrington et al., 2018).

Universities throughout the nation are called not only to serve their academic community, but also the communities in which they are situated. In fact, ongoing revisions to the Higher Learning Commission’s accreditation criteria suggest that community engagement will serve as a primary means by which institutions of higher education will demonstrate their publicly oriented missions and fulfill accreditation criterion number one (Higher Learning Commission, 2018).

Community engagement can be defined as “the …

Online Evaluation Training Program, Lori Wingate

Academic Leadership Academy

The Western Michigan University (WMU) Evaluation Center and Extended University Programs are developing an online professional development program in evaluation. The learner-centered program will include a mix of live and self-paced instruction, including webinars, videos, text, assessments, and practice exercises. The following qualities set this program apart from existing academic and ad hoc evaluation training programs:

Equity-informed: As a critical aspect of high-quality evaluation practice, the curriculum is infused with guidance on how to address equity throughout the evaluation process.

Practical: Instruction is connected to practical application so learners can use what they learn right away.

Accessible: Barriers to learning …

Wmu Food For All, Wayne Lee Bond Ii

Academic Leadership Academy

While the numbers are unclear, the amount of food waste on campus is quite noticeable. For anyone that has used our facilities and catering services, there are little options for the remaining food at the end of an event. Due to legal reasons, food is not able to be taken from the buildings. While this provides a hindrance on how to manage food waste, there are other alternatives.

At Ferris State University, a program called “There’s Food Here” has been implemented. This is a simple program where those that hold events on campus are invited to join a Facebook group. …

Engaging Student Patrons With Traditional And Experimental Technology, Scott Russell, Joshua Enos, James Lane, Roy Zimmer

Academic Leadership Academy

No abstract provided.

Implementing A Strategic Parent And Family Fundraising Program, Julia Kuntz

Academic Leadership Academy

It is no secret that state and government funding for higher education has decreased significantly over the last 10 years. Colleges and universities are challenged with finding new financial sources. Funding through privates gifts and philanthropy has become a new way of sustainability for not-for-profit colleges and universities.

Alumni, faculty/staff, and friends are constituents that provide financial support to the university. However, there is a subgroup of these people who are worth a closer look and require more engagement: parents and families of currently enrolled students.

There are many benefits to having a strategic engagement plan with parents and families …

Leadership Through Self Transformation, David Paul

Academic Leadership Academy

In the Spring of 2006 I taught PHIL 3150: Race and Gender Issues for the first time. In my preparation for the course I was overwhelmed by my own lack of education. I was humbled by the experience and motivated to inform all of my teaching by what I came to understand through teaching the course.

Years later, in the Spring of 2013, I was again asked to teach the course and felt more prepared. Though I introduced substantial changes to the course, I was again overwhelmed by my own ignorance as I pushed deeper into studies of exploitation, oppression …

The Development Of A Wmu Faculty Learning Community Focused On Exploring Pedagogical Strategies In Graduate Education, Ramona Lewis

Academic Leadership Academy

The purpose of this Academy Leadership Academy (ALA) poster is to summarize the development of a WMU Faculty Learning Community (FLC) that will focus on pedagogical strategies in graduate education. This purpose of this FLC is to provide faculty from all disciplines the opportunity to discuss developmentally and disciplinarily appropriate pedagogies for graduate students.

Ensuring Successful International Teaching Assisstants (Itas), Dyanne Foskey

Academic Leadership Academy

To ensure the success of both the international teaching assistants and their students, various types of training and support are needed.

Wag Shares The Dope: Tools For Effective Writing Of Course Assignments International Writing Across The Curriculum Conference, Sue Caulfield

Academic Leadership Academy

Each of us received an Instructional Development Travel Grant to support our attendance at the 2018 International Writing Across the Curriculum Conference at Auburn University.We facilitated a three-hour workshop the afternoon of June 6, 2018.This workshop was an extension of work we have been doing in the College of Health and Human Services for the last 2 ½ years. This work was originally supported by an Assessment Fellows Grant and focused on addressing assessment at the college level. To do that, we needed to focus on an area of competence that was relevant to all programs in the college. After …

Supporting International Students In Your University Class, Terri Bieszka

Academic Leadership Academy

Suggestions for supporting international students in classes.

Harnessing The Power Of Gold, Christopher Hunt

Academic Leadership Academy

Consistent branding at WMU has been the topic of many on-campus discussions in 2017. The Strategic Management Executive Council (SMEC) identified brand and communication consistency and continuity as a risk priority. As part of that risk assessment, a Collaborative Risk/Opportunity Management (CRŌM) team has been assigned to evaluate the following issues: •Many units are still not aligning with established brand messages and design guidelines, diffusing marketing efforts. •Lacking clear voice for the University. •Internal communication occurs in silos, so people do not get the full picture; especially a problem with part-time staff and faculty, impacting overall staff morale. •Under-empowered University …

Structural Factors Affecting Marketing At Wmu, Joe Vanderbos

Academic Leadership Academy

This capstone project started with a goal of answering two questions: 1) What structural barriers do WMU staff perceive to prevent the university from creating a more unified, responsive approach to marketing? 2) What organizational structure would lead to a more unified, responsive approach to marketing at WMU?

Student Perceptions Of Micro-Credentialing Through Digital Badges, Melissa Holman

Academic Leadership Academy

This project looks at students perceptions of digital badges as a form of micro-credentialing for students in teacher education programs at Western Michigan University. As a means to connect the concepts to already-existing rigorous requirements for teacher education, the project uses the standards from the Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (InTASC) Modeling Teaching Standards to create badges that students would earn along the way in pursuit of their degrees.

Strategic Planning: Maintaining The Leadership Of The Joint Committee On Standards For Educational Evaluation, Brad Watts

Academic Leadership Academy

The Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation (JCSEE) was founded in 1975 as a collaborative effort between professional organizations in the U.S. and Canada that are concerned with the quality of evaluations being produced. The Evaluation Center at WMU was also involved in the creation of the JCSEE and housed the organization for many years. Over the past four decades, the JCSEE has published sets of standards through three major publications: •The Program Evaluation Standards •The Personnel Evaluation Standards •The Student Evaluation Standards.

The purpose of this project is to: •Help lead the JCSEE in the development of a …

Tadoku: Extensive Reading In Japanese, Rika Saito

Academic Leadership Academy

My Instructional Development project is Tadoku 多読 that translates as Extensive Reading (ER) for Japanese language education. Tadoku or ER refers to “many readings” “reading a lot,” the idea of which in foreign/second language teaching has been practiced and theorized since 1950 in the US and Europe. In Japan, ER classes and promotional events, such as workshops and presentations for instructors, are sponsored by a Non-profit organization “Tagengo Tadoku” or “Tadoku Supporters.” This organization was established in 2002 by Japanese educators who originally explored effective reading methods in English language education. Tadoku Supporters later developed ER methods in Japanese.

I …

Considerations For 360 Degree Assessment - A Proposed Tool For Leadership And Professional Development At Western Michigan University, Marianne Di Pierro

Academic Leadership Academy

360 Degree Assessment is also known as multi-rater feedback or multi-source assessment, a process utilized by organizations to solicit information from a variety of workplace perspectives (subordinate, lateral, supervisory, customers) on an employee’s work-related performance. It can be used for developmental purposes and also for evaluation purposes.

Cultural Connections In Senegal: Outcomes Of Study Abroad Course, Yvette Hyter, Sarah Summy

Academic Leadership Academy

The purpose of this study was to examine the intercultural competence, critical thinking, and global engagement of students participating in the Cultural Connections in Senegal Study Abroad Course, offered during summer I.

2017 Seminar For Teaching Inclusivity, Staci Perryman-Clark

Academic Leadership Academy

This two-day seminar will provide instructors with explicit strategies for teaching and promoting inclusivity in classrooms and academic departments. Topics will cover addressing microaggresions; fostering allyship; and building alliances with faculty, instructors, and students from underrepresented minority and historically oppressed groups.

Day One, Creating Safe Spaces for Diverse Learners in the Classroom, will focus on pedagogical strategies that support students from various backgrounds. Workshops will be offered for faculty teaching in a variety of fields fields across the liberal arts (e.g. STEM, humanities, social sciences, arts, etc.).

Day Two, Safe Spaces and Support for Faculty and Instructors, will focus on …

Embracing “Other” Forms Of Sponsored Activity: Leadership Perspectives On Building Research Capacity At Wmu, Kathy Purnell

Academic Leadership Academy

Rationale: This Academic Leadership Academy Project had the following goals:

• To explore leadership perspectives on “research”
• To help raise awareness of Carnegie Classification metrics regarding “research activity”
• To identify key investments academic leadership deemed essential to advance WMU’s standing as a research institution.
• To raise awareness of regulatory definitions of sponsored activity
• To explore initiatives that deans, directors and chairs would be willing to lead, on behalf of their units, in order to advance WMU’s standing as a research institution.

Method: 10 face-to-face conversations of about 60-90 minutes in duration. Participants: All 10 participants were current or former deans, directors …