Heather Thompson-Bahm, DM, Assistant Professor of Management, co-director, MSUB Center for Teaching and Learning
Joy Crissey Honea, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology, co-director, MSUB Center for Teaching and Learning
Susan Balter-Reitz, Professor of Communication, Special Assistant to the Provost
“…Flexibility has been key for me, not personally because of COVID-19, but simply because of my busy life. Having the option to skip class some days (usually due to work scheduling) and participate remotely and still feel as though I have command of the material is excellent. COVID-19 aside I hope that some professors remain as flexible and forgiving as they have been. I truly commend the professors on their ability to remain flexible as possible during the pandemic.”
– MSUB student response in November 2020 to a question about what they hope their instructors will keep doing in future semesters.
Montana State University Billings (MSUB) is an open access, regional comprehensive campus that offers certificates through graduate degrees. Our Fall 2021 student headcount was 3.285, including 384 graduate students, 1,991 students in four-year University Campus, and 910 students enrolled in City College, our embedded two-year college. MSUB reflects the increasing diversity among college students; the average age of undergraduate students on the University campus is 25.3, the majority live off campus (88%) and almost all students are employed outside of campus. 41% of MSUB students are first generation, 56% of those seeking a degree or certificate are Pell eligible and 65% of students receive some sort of federal scholarship aid (2021-22 IPEDS Student Financial Aid). MSUB students often mix and match on campus and online courses to better balance work and family obligations; approximately 55% of students are registered for at least one online course.
MSUB’s geographical location and student characteristics prompted the university’s early adoption of distance delivery methods. MSUB began offering Internet enabled classes in 1996 and by 2000, the university grew its online offerings substantially. MSUB currently offers 30 fully online programs and more than 700 online course sections per year. Online programs and courses are primarily offered by full time, tenure track faculty, and most programs are available to students in both online and on-campus modalities.
Student demand for online course sections is significant, and academic departments continue to struggle with balancing staffing for online and on-campus offerings. Faced with staffing issues, departments must often cancel low enrolled on-campus classes to shift resources to better enrolled online sections. As a result, students found themselves forced into online classes when they preferred to be in a classroom, at least when it worked with their schedules. Faculty had similar concerns; while they were comfortable teaching online, they often missed the synchronous live environment.
Faced with the administrative challenges of balancing faculty workload with student demand and the need to allow students and faculty the opportunity to teach and learn in a modality that best suited their style, MSUB was exceptionally well positioned to adopt HyFlex courses. HyFlex, short for hybrid flexible, was first introduced at San Francisco State University (SFSU) in 2005. Brian Beatty, who has become the pied piper of HyFlex, has presented widely on SFSU’s experiences, including at a conference attended by two MSUB faculty in 2015. This chance encounter between Beatty and our faculty set MSUB’s HyFlex journey in motion.
In 2018, MSUB sent a team of four faculty and two administrators to SFSU to meet with Dr. Beatty and several of his faculty. That experience launched MSUB’s focus on developing a quality and sustainable HyFlex development program. We were convinced HyFlex would work well for our institution, especially since faculty were already skilled at delivering high quality online instruction, a prerequisite for the development of the HyFlex modality. We were also committed to launching HyFlex carefully, with an eye toward assessment of both student learning and faculty workload. We worked with the administration and the faculty unions to start a small pilot in the 2018-2019 academic year.
The specific needs of MUSB’s student population were the top priority when we began our HyFlex course design. Our faculty needed to ensure that, in course development, they clearly explained the HyFlex concept, effectively delivered content, and engaged students across the modality. The HyFlex pilot program launched with three HyFlex trained faculty, each teaching one HyFlex course as part of their regular teaching responsibilities. One of the most significant challenges with the launch rested with student understanding of HyFlex delivery. Students were not accustomed to the course material access and schedule freedom that accompanied HyFlex. However, a survey conducted of all students involved in the pilot indicated that, once they understood how HyFlex courses worked, they liked the design. Ninety-five percent of respondents stated that they would take another HyFlex course in the future.
Additional concerns that arose during the pilot included the added faculty workload for the development and delivery of HyFlex courses. It quickly became clear to the pilot faculty that the development of HyFlex courses required an increased workload on the front end of course development. The Faculty Administrative Collaborative Committee (FACC), which consists of members of the Faculty Association (who represent MSUB’s university campus faculty union) and administrators, agreed to prioritize HyFlex development and this group established the expectations for HyFlex. In 2020, the FACC voted to approve an implementation approach that would require faculty to be trained before they were eligible to teach HyFlex classes and would offer compensation to instructors for the development of at least the first HyFlex course they taught.
As a result of the successful pilot program in 2018 and 2019, and the agreement between the administration and faculty union regarding training and compensation, MSUB was uniquely positioned when the coronavirus pandemic arrived. We were able to pivot to remote delivery nimbly in the spring of 2020 and began the 2020-2021 academic year with a more robust and strategic flexible delivery approach than many other universities. We worked with our registrar to code HyFlex courses in our student information system (Banner) so that students could identify HyFlex sections and were able to add a short description of HyFlex into the Banner description field. Even in courses not coded as HyFlex, instructors could experiment with the design mode as a way to stagger attendance in small classrooms, switch seamlessly to remote delivery in the event of a class COVID-19 outbreak, and accommodate students who were isolating, quarantining or simply felt safer not being in the physical classroom.
To gauge the effectiveness of these flexible delivery modes, and to assess student experiences during the first full pandemic year, MSUB conducted a student survey toward the end of the first full semester back on campus (November 2020). Though the survey asked more generally about student experiences and wellbeing during the pandemic, it also included several questions specific to various course modalities, including fully online, fully in person, synchronous remote (Zoom/Webex) and HyFlex.
With a response rate of almost a quarter of the student body (n=712), the survey results indicated that nearly 20 percent of respondents had taken at least one course that met the definition of HyFlex that semester. When asked which modality students liked the best, HyFlex ranked the highest among the range of delivery modes implemented that year. Just over 19 percent of respondents said they liked HyFlex the best, compared to hybrid courses with required attendance (9.98 percent) and Zoom/Webex (5.7 percent.) Similarly, when asked which delivery mode they liked least, students ranked HyFlex the lowest, with only 4.4 percent saying it was their least favorite mode. The popularity of HyFlex was confirmed in an open-ended question asking students what they would like their instructors to keep doing during the following semester. The most common answer was “keep being flexible/understanding” (n=62), followed by “keep having options for different participation modes” (n=52).
The popularity of flexible course delivery modes among students was in the forefront of our minds when MSUB launched its Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) in the summer of 2021. The inaugural faculty co-directors were selected, in part, because of their involvement in the HyFlex pilot program and one of the primary goals of the CTL during its first year was to offer HyFlex pedagogy training to all members of the university faculty, including part time faculty. One of the tenants of our new CTL is developing faculty communities, and we made the choice to bring all of our faculty development programs in-house. As a result, we moved away from contracted faculty development in HyFlex and implemented an workshop program led by MSUB’s faculty experts.
The workshops are currently offered in three distinct modules using HyFlex design, so they include an asynchronous component, an in-person session and a remote synchronous option. Participants complete tasks on their own, prior to a face-to-face workshop. During the synchronous portion (also recorded for those who cannot attend) there are demonstrations of existing HyFlex courses, interactive brainstorming sessions and time for reflection and questions. Following the synchronous workshop, attendees are required to build several modules of a HyFlex course and submit them for review by the trainers. Upon successful completion of the training, MSUB faculty are awarded a $1,000 stipend and approved to offer classes with the HyFlex registration code. Upon delivery of the course, they may request final review using a rubric designed specially to ensure quality HyFlex delivery, modeled on MSUB’s Core Principles for Quality Online Teaching, and become eligible for a $2,000 HyFlex development stipend. The success of our CTL’s trainings led to a request from other colleges in Montana for our faculty to lead workshops for faculty at other campuses around the state. The first one was held in April 2022 and drew close to 40 participants from the Montana University System campuses.
As of the spring of 2022, MSUB had successfully trained 90 of its approximately 160 faculty in HyFlex delivery and increased the number of HyFlex courses offered in a semester to 60. In the summer of 2022, MSUB’s CTL began offering a “HyFlex 2.0” training, designed for those who had already taught at least one HyFlex course. This level-two course uses the same model as the first, but focuses on learning from prior experiences: identifying challenges, finding solutions, and improving on the model in future courses. Themes that emerged from faculty dialogue in the inaugural HyFlex 2.0 workshop included challenges with designing in-class activities when instructors don’t know how many students will attend, designing assessment of learning objectives across various modalities, ensuring an equitable learning experience, and implementing HyFlex in courses with lab/clinical/experiential components.
MSUB plans to continue to engage in regular assessment of both faculty and student experiences with HyFlex. With the CTL as a conduit, there is currently a research group of faculty members investigating a range of issues. One is surveying faculty about their experience teaching HyFlex, another is surveying student experiences and a third team aims to gather data on student outcomes according to course delivery mode. We hope to have preliminary results before the end of the 2022-2023 academic year.
Although our HyFlex journey has been positive overall, there are a few lessons learned from our experience. Perhaps the most important was that students were not always clear how to engage in HyFlex and some online students were hesitant to register for courses that were coded as HyFlex, due to confusion about how the modality works. Academic advisors and other staff members were not always communicating clearly the definition of HyFlex. A corollary to this lesson was that some faculty were also unclear about what constituted a HyFlex course and would require synchronous participation, violating a primary component of the flexibility of the course mode. In order to try to bring clarity for all members of our community. In the spring of 2021, a group of faculty with flexible course design experience worked together to develop definitions for four distinct course delivery modes, including HyFlex, and the faculty senate reviewed and approved them for institutional use. At MSUB, a HyFlex course “…allows fully flexible participation for students. Students may choose to participate fully online, fully in-person or a combination of both and may change their participation mode at any time. HyFlex courses must comply with the MSUB Core Principles of Quality for Online Courses. Synchronous participation is not required.” (https://catalog.msubillings.edu/undergraduate/course-modes/).
MSUB’s positive HyFlex experience has reaffirmed some early choices we made as an institution. First, working closely with faculty and creating a shared understanding of the increased preparation required for a HyFlex course helped balance faculty workload and assuage their concerns that this would be teaching two courses instead of one. Second, MSUB engaged multiple stakeholders as we built the infrastructure to grow HyFlex offerings including the Academic Senate, the Registrar’s office, and Advising. Third, our communities’ willingness to invest financially in faculty development has not only provided a strong pedagogical foundation for HyFlex teaching, but it has also enabled us to create continuous opportunities for faculty engagement.
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Taking the approaches used yesterday to budget reduction in today’s volatile environment no longer works. Institutions need new strategies that are dynamic, comprehensive, and practical. This session will introduce participants to The Budget Reduction Tool designed to help budget decision-makers take a student-centered approach to implementing a consistent and effective budget reduction strategy that considers streamlining processes in addition to allocating resources effectively. The Budget Reduction Tool helps budget decision-makers assess and make decisions to invest in initiatives and programs that align with strategic initiatives, have the greatest positive impact on student success and creates the least amount of disruption to realizing operational efficiencies.
Session Date/Time: Friday, November 10, 10:00 a.m. – 10:50 a.m. PST
Link to Budget Reduction Tool.
Institutional Speakers:
Dr. Ana Karaman is an accomplished higher education administrator with broad, deep, and diverse experience and expertise in institutional planning, finance, and operations at both public and private non-for-profit universities. Ana’s expertise and experience include developing multi-year financial plans to support implementation of strategic plans, overseeing annual operating budgets in access of $400M and endowments in access of $300M, working with various budgeting models including RCM, financing institutional needs via various vehicles including bond issuances, PPPs, and other financial facilities. Ana led successful legislative requests, developed and implemented master plans and oversaw delivering diverse major capital projects. In addition, Ana has overseen offices of human resources, public safety, procurement, enterprise risk management, facilities management, and others.
Ana serves as Vice President for Finance & Administration and CFO at Western Oregon University.
Tressa is passionate about helping institutions of higher education become more diverse, equitable, inclusive, and efficient deliverers of education. In addition to being a higher education strategist, Tressa is also a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) thought partner and influencer. Tressa helps organizations create long lasting systems and policies that identify and remove barriers that impede student success and institutional effectiveness. Tressa currently serves as a Project Director with Sova helping build capacity for large-scale change in higher education and workforce development.
Tressa has more than 20 years of middle and senior level leadership experience at various types of higher education, private industry, and non-profit institutions. Prior to joining Sova, Tressa served in various capacities including, Senior Consultant at Anderson Blake Consulting; Vice Provost at Strayer University; Vice President for Administration and Director of Institutional Research at Arkansas Baptist College; Campus College Chair for Graduate Business Programs at the University of Phoenix, Vice President of CFA International, and President of Detroit BAEO.
Tressa earned a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Political Theory & Constitutional Democracy and a Master of Arts (MA) in Higher Educational Administration from Michigan State University. She also earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA) and a Doctor of Management (DM) in Organizational Leadership from the University of Phoenix.
In 2020, Washington State University’s general education program launched Core to Career, a faculty development program that helps faculty recognize how a focus on career readiness can increase student engagement and equips faculty with the language and facilitation strategies to deliver a classroom and curricular experience that students see as intentionally focused on their career and self-development. However, with its focus on faculty, the program has often been less-than-intentional about its relationship with student-facing career professionals. Audience members will learn about and discuss the challenges to and steps for growing career readiness campus-wide in intentional, equitable, sustainable, and meaningful ways.
Session Date/Time: Friday, November 10, 10:00 a.m. – 10:50 a.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
Thabiti Lewis is Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at WSU Vancouver and Professor of English whose books include Ballers of the New School: Race and Sports in America and Conversations with Toni Cade Bambara. Dr. Lewis earned his Ph.D. from Saint Louis University, in St. Louis, Missouri, where he is also from, and joined the faculty at WSU in 2007. At WSU Vancouver, Dr. Lewis leads campus-wide efforts to foster cultures of inclusion and equity for students, staff, and faculty alike. Dr. Lewis teaches courses in multi-cultural and Black American literature.
Amanda Morgan is Associate Director of the Academic Success and Career Center at Washington State University, where she leads the Career Services and Employer Relations team. Morgan is a first-generation college student who earned a master’s in education administration and has over fifteen years of student services experience.
Clif Stratton is Vice Chancellor for Academic Engagement at WSU Pullman and Associate Professor of History, whose books include Education for Empire: American Schools, Race, and the Paths of Good Citizenship and Power Politics: Carbon Energy in Historical Perspective. Dr. Stratton earned his Ph.D. from Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia, where he is also from, and joined the faculty at WSU in 2010. The former director of WSU’s University Common Requirements program, Dr. Stratton led efforts to design and implement Core to Career at WSU Pullman. Dr. Stratton teaches courses on modern American and global history with emphases on histories of race and empire.
Our project, the Course Learning Outcomes Worksheet tool, brings evidence together regarding student achievement of program and course learning outcomes. In addition, the worksheet asks the user to look at the student DFWI rates along with disaggregated class data all in the same class. The user looks for achievement gaps and is asked to make improvement decisions based on this data. Those improvement strategies are documented and implemented prior to the class being offered again.
Session Date/Time: Friday, November 10, 11:00 a.m. – 11:50 a.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
Dr. Afjeh’s research successes include increasing departmental external research funding to over $4 million annually; building an on-site research program with more than 20 researchers at the NASA Glenn Research Center; recruiting faculty and providing resources to enhance strength in advanced materials and biomedical engineering; and developing a master’s degree program in engineering with an energy engineering focus, with participation of faculty and industry partners; and developing professional master’s degree programs for industry, as well as a multi-disciplinary, collaborative energy engineering program in partnership with the colleges of Business and Law.
Dr. Afjeh’s research projects have been sponsored by industry as well as leading federal agencies such as NASA, Department of Energy and National Institutes of Health. His research focus areas include computational fluid dynamics in turbomachinery, propulsion systems, experimental investigation of bearings and rotating components, wind turbine design and analysis, and aerodynamics of phonation, a research project sponsored by the NIH.
Dr. Afjeh earned his Ph.D. and MS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Toledo; and his B.S in Mechanical Engineering from Arya Mehr University of Technology (now Sharif University of Technology) in Iran. He is also a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
Dr. Janette Isaacson is a graduate of Seattle University, where she earned a doctorate in educational leadership plus a Masters in Counseling (2001), a graduate of the University of Phoenix, where she earned a Master’s in Education teaching diverse learners (1986), and a graduate of the University of Washington where she earned a Masters in Health Informatics and Health Information Management (2023).
20+ years Medical Imaging / Health Sciences, Online Program Director, OIT Teacher Excellence Nominee (2021-2023), Past Institutional Assessment Chair, Accreditation Committee Member, DEI Data Scorecard Committee, NWCCU Mission Fulfillment Fellow, NWCCU Data Equity Fellow, NWCCU Accreditation Site Visitor, spearheaded the development of on-campus faculty data dashboards to present disaggregated underrepresented student data for all programs to aid in the identification of institutional equity gaps in student retention, graduation, DFWI, and post-graduation success.
The Idaho State Board of Education recently adopted major amendments to its policy on academic freedom – the first substantive updates since the 1980s. The revised policy now defines the academic freedom and responsibility of students. Clear policy language provides a framework to institutional leaders for navigating the complex intersection of academic freedom and learning environments in politically fraught times. Students can boost their understanding of academic freedom to become successful in their endeavors, and to participate as engaged citizens in today’s world. How can we, as administrators, leaders, and instructors, facilitate student empowerment by increasing their literacy of academic freedom?
Session Date/Time: Thursday, November 9, 3:45 p.m. – 4:45 p.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
TJ Bliss is a higher education administrator and educational researcher. He is the Chief Academic Officer for the Idaho State Board of Education and a member of the alumni board for Brigham Young University. Bliss was formerly the Chief Advancement Officer at the Wiki Education Foundation, an Education Program Officer at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the Director of Assessment and Accountability at the Idaho State Department of Education. Bliss’ writing, research, and advocacy for Open Educational Resources has been reported on in various outlets, including the Washington Post, EdSurge, and Inside Higher Ed.
Torrey Lawrence is the Provost and Executive Vice President of the University of Idaho. In this role he serves as the university’s chief academic officer, directly responsible for the general direction of all academic programs, endeavors, and instructional services on the Moscow campus as well as the university’s statewide academic, outreach, and research initiatives. He has served in this role since 2020 but has been a faculty member at UI since 1998. He earned music degrees from Northwestern University and the University of Oregon.
Amy Vecchione is the Assistant Director of Research and Innovation at eCampus Center, Boise State University. As an educational leader, Amy works to improve student success through emering and high-impact practices. She recently co-authored the book From At-Risk to At-Promise: Academic Libraries Supporting Student Success.
Session Date/Time: Thursday, November 9, 3:45 p.m. – 4:45 p.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
Kate is an associate professor in the School of Biological Sciences. She received her PhD in Biochemistry from the University of South Carolina and completed postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Washington and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory before joining the faculty at WSU. Dr. McAteer attended the HERS Leadership Institute in 2019 and in 2021 completed the first AASCU Student Success Institute for Provosts, a program designed for provosts ‘to lead and implement the type of transformational change necessary to meet the evolving needs of today’s increasingly diverse student body.
Rilie supports rpk’s clients in fulfilling mission and student success under a sustainable financial model. Her work with clients focuses particularly on optimizing academic portfolios and developing best practice academic and administrative business processes, along with applying a deep understanding of change management and support for capacity building.
The Oregon Transfer Pathways to the Liberal Arts grant has been exploring innovative ways to facilitate transfer from community colleges to private liberal arts institutions. As we talk with students and review data, we have come to understand that many community college students believe a private college education is out of their reach. This is particularly true for culturally diverse students who often rely on trusted friends and family members for information. Reaching the right audience with the right message at the right time is challenging. Doing this well is a goal of our grant. We will share our progress.
Session Date/Time: Thursday, November 9, 10:55 a.m. – 11:55 a.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
Linda Samek is a former faculty member, dean, and provost at George Fox University. She is currently the project director for the Oregon Transfer Pathways to the Liberal Arts project. Samek has experience in PreK-12, community college, and public and private four-year post secondary education.
Gerardo Ochoa is vice president for enrollment management and student success at Linfield University. He has served Linfield in multiple capacities since 2004. Ochoa holds a formal appointment as an officer of the board and has served in various university-wide committees, including the President’s Diversity Advisory Committee (chair) and the university strategic planning and budget council.
In addition to being a college administrator, Ochoa is a co-author and independent consultant of Path to Scholarships®, a college readiness curriculum. Since 2006, he has worked with thousands of diverse students from urban and rural high schools, community colleges, private colleges and state universities on college access and affordability. He consults with higher education institutions on the inclusion of Latinx students, best practices to engage and serve undocumented students, and teaching strategies that draw on talents and address the needs of first-generation students. He believes in the power of personal stories to build empathy, create opportunities and influence change. As keynote speaker, his story of perseverance has reached audiences convened by organizations such as the Hispanic Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, the Northwest Public Employees Diversity Conference, the Ford Family Foundation, Portland State University, including a TEDx Talk.
Ochoa holds an Education Master from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Arts in sociology and minor in Latin American history from the University of Oregon. He is an American Leadership Forum Fellow and an alumnus of the Senior Leadership Academy sponsored by the Council of Independent Colleges and the American Academic Leadership Institute. He is a contributing author for Latinx/a/os in Higher Education and a guest education writer for the Somos Timbers Magazine.
Erika Masaki is an instructor of political science at Lane Community College . Her teaching and research interests are political theory, international relations, and environmental politics.
Teamwork and collaboration are among employers’ highest-rated skills. However, the act of teaching and assessing these skills is often limited to courses explicitly addressing them. We envisioned creating a toolkit from a multifaceted team of faculty that can help ANY instructor understand some of the fundamentals of teaching and assessing student teamwork and collaboration in their courses. This toolkit has built-in ready-to-go components that can be deployed by any instructor that wants to more effectively teach and assess student teamwork and collaboration skills. Our group will share the toolkit we made as well as the process of creating it.
Session Date/Time: Friday, November 10, 11:00 a.m. – 11:50 a.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
Elaine is a full-time instructor in the Basic and Transitional Studies Department and Co-Chair of Ensure Learning, Seattle Central’s program review and assessment committee.
Who defines “success” for students at any institution? Shouldn’t it be the students? Following Board-approved guidelines and well-defined outcomes, this session will discuss what can happen when students are allowed and expected to take charge of their educational experience. Results and evidence will be presented describing the significant learning and transformation that took place in a General Education College Success Course. Participants will be engaged in imagining the “what ifs” at their own institutions when control shifts from faculty to learners. Could that be what success in college is really all about?
Session Date/Time: Thursday, November 9, 2:35 p.m. – 3:35 p.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
Alynda Kusch currently serves as the First Lady of Ensign College. At Ensign College since 2016, Alynda has led a variety of studies focused on improving the student experience. In addition she has taught courses in Culinary Arts, Religious Education, and Student Success. Alynda holds a bachelor’s degree from BYU-Idaho and served there as an adjunct faculty member in the Culinary Arts program.
Bruce C. Kusch, Ensign CollegeThis presentation discusses the challenges small, non-profit colleges and universities face in developing processes aimed at closing student achievement gaps and systematic inequities in learning outcomes. Overworked faculty, weak assessment data, lack of technological infrastructure, conflicting priorities, and strategic confusion all conspire to keep institutions entrenched and student achievement inequitable. Yet despite this landscape, Bastyr University devised and embarked on an ambitious one year plan to identify and begin closing equity gaps for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) students in recruitment, retention, completion and learning related to information literacy, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and professional behavior.
Session Date/Time: Friday, November 10, 11:00 a.m. – 11:50 a.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
Erika Del Villar, Bastyr University Dr. Erika Lorenzana Del Villar (she/her/siya) is the Associate Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Bastyr University. She is a DEI practitioner, educator, and sociologist specializing in human rights, international relations, social movements, and building inclusive climates in higher education. Erika earned her Ph.D. and M.A. in Sociology with a Certificate in Human Rights from the University of Connecticut, her M.A. in International Relations from New York University, and her B.A. in Political Science, minor in French Studies from the Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines. She is a proud Filipino-American, wife, and mother of two beautiful daughters.
Wendy Gordon is an associate professor and Chair of the Department of Midwifery at Bastyr University in Kenmore, WA. Dr. Gordon’s teaching and research interests include the provision of midwifery care in home and birth center settings; the role of racism in perinatal health disparities; and the ability to translate and evaluate research. Dr. Gordon holds a BS in Chemical Engineering, an MPH from Oregon Health & Sciences University with a focus in health disparities, and a Doctorate in Midwifery from Jefferson University in Philadelphia.
Based in Kenmore, WA, Ann Kenady is Senior Instructional Designer for Bastyr University. Ann holds a certificate in instructional design and a certificate in online teaching and is an active member of Quality Matters. Ann works collaboratively across divisions to establish metrics and mileposts for creating equitable, accessible, and inclusive online learning experiences, while assisting faculty with online and hybrid course design and instructional best practices.
Susan Seymour is the Director of Institutional Effectiveness at Bastyr University. Her entire career has been focused on learning assessment and she is particularly interested in measuring learning that is “difficult”. Her dissertation investigated learning related to social consciousness and her current interests are in ensuring diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives are tied to observable and measurable outcomes rather than performative activities and aspirational statements that lack accountability and impact. She earned her B.S. in Construction Management and M.S. in Technology Education from Colorado State University and her Ph.D. in Education – Curriculum and Instruction from Utah State University.
As a way to combat the college completion crisis, particularly among the most underserved student populations, BYU-Idaho and Ensign College have taken a certificate-first approach to help students stay on track and complete their degrees. Learn how placing the focus on skills first has yielded increased retention & persistence rates.
Session Date/Time: Thursday, November 9, 10:55 a.m. – 11:55 a.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
Boyd Baggett serves as the Accreditation Liason Officer. He came to BYU-Idaho in 2008 to teach Religious Education and received the Exemplary Faculty Award in 2017. Boyd earned a Bachelor of Science from Brigham Young University and a Juris Doctorate degree from the J. Reuben Clark Law School, graduating Cum Laude.
Previous to Brigham Young University-Idaho, Boyd practiced law in Idaho and Utah. He also taught seminary for the Church Education System.
Jon Nichols serves as the Assistant to the President for Strategy, Planning, & Assessment at Ensign College. He received his bachelor’s in Marketing and his Executive MBA from the University of Utah.
Jon spent over ten years at the University of Utah overseeing their Professional, Online, and Executive MBA programs. He led the design, development, and launch of the Online MBA program, the first fully online program at the University of Utah. He would go on to become a senior product manager for WGU Labs, where he worked closely with early-stage ed-tech companies and community colleges around the country.
Drs. Aman and Barber will explore the critical role of both futuring and strategic planning in improving institutional effectiveness. Attendees will be presented with insights into the differences between futuring and strategic planning approaches and how they complement each other. Futuring allows colleges and universities to anticipate potential changes and disruptions, fostering creativity and adaptability. Strategic planning provides a structured framework for implementing specific goals and ensuring efficient allocation of resources toward mission fulfillment. The presentation will emphasize the importance of prioritizing futuring before strategic planning in higher education institutions to develop comprehensive and achievable strategies toward fulfill of Standards 1.B.3 and 1.B.4.
Session Date/Time: Thursday, November 9, 2:35 p.m. – 3:35 p.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
Lori Barber is Vice President of Academic & Student Affairs at College of Eastern Idaho (CEI). Prior to this position, she served in various leadership roles at the College. She led the creation of the General Education transfer degrees at CEI, first as Dean of General Education. She holds a doctorate in Educational Leadership and Innovation from Arizona State University. Lori completed her Master’s Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies where she researched the history and anthropology of food. She serves on numerous state level education committees in Idaho, including the Idaho Workforce Development Council and Council on Academic Affairs and Programs (CAAP).
In 2017, a delegation of community members from Cottage Grove, Oregon came to see the president at Lane Community College to explore how the college could help southern Lane County create a FQHC to address a lack of affordable, accessible healthcare. Data showed there was a decline in students coming from that area as well as a shortage of healthcare workers. The college brought together stakeholders to discuss the idea and by 2022, plans were established to create a FQHC/Allied Health Training Facility. This presentation will demonstrate how the power of collaboration can help colleges solve even the most insurmountable problems.
Session Date/Time: Thursday, November 9, 2:35 p.m. – 4:35 p.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
Dr. Margaret Hamilton retired from Lane Community College in Oregon in 2022 as President Emeritus after a 40 year career in higher education. While at Lane, Dr. Hamilton led the college through a new Strategic Plan, a seven-year Self-Study leading to full accreditation, and a successful $121.5M bond campaign-all during a pandemic. Dr. Hamilton holds a Ph.D from Widener University, a MSN from University of Delaware, and a BSN from SUNY, Plattsburgh. Her collaborative work with the community led to the development of a Federally Qualified Health Center in southern Lane County. Dr. Hamilton now serves as an independent consultant.
Metrics of institutional success have been based on student completions, and completions are based on finishing prescribed degree programs. What if there were a category for helping students complete exactly what they needed in the first place? Shouldn’t that be a “success”? This session describes a new way of thinking about 1.C and redefining success for the future of higher education.
Session Date/Time: Thursday, November 9, 10:55 a.m. – 11:55 a.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
As VP of Compliance & Accreditation at Western Governors University (or “WGU”—America’s leading competency-based, online, non-profit university with 140,000+ students and 305,000+ graduates in each of the USA’s states and territories), Lucas Kavlie’s team of compliance professionals maintains trust through engagement between the university and external agencies (i.e., accrediting bodies, state authorization bodies, professional licensing/certification agencies, and other quality frameworks) in all American jurisdictions (states, commonwealths, territories, and the District of Columbia). In his career, Lucas has overseen the submission of hundreds of compliance or regulatory affairs applications—without rejection. He is a member of CHEA’s Committee on Recognition.
