Workshops
Workshop sessions involve extensive interaction between presenters and participants around an idea or hands-on experience of a practice. These sessions may also take the form of a crafted panel, staged conversation, dialogue, or debate – all involving substantial interaction with the audience. [45 min. each]
Research-based Interventions for Online Student Retention
Workshop Presentation Efiong Akwaowo, Kathleen Kelley, Debby Hailwood, Jennifer Robinson
Student retention in online courses continues to be less than that of a traditional brick and mortar campus. Researchers tend to point to the fact that there is no simple solution to help students toward their degree completion or fulfill of their educational goals. Factors that contribute to student retention in the online classroom are student self-discipline, instructor engagement and response time and student support services. Of these factors being cited as reasons for leaving the University, what can be done that classroom instructors/the professor might have some control over? During this workshop, participants will be given small documents that contain reasons students leave universities. Participants will sort the items into those that in are in the control of the professor and those that are not. Blank pieces of paper will allow other reasons to be added. After the sorting, a list of proposed solutions will be shared by partners and groups. Sorting and resorting will provide brainstorming of ideas that are in the control of the classroom instructors. Students who enter a university from a background that results in low academic capital will have gaps that can prevent them from persevering and completing a degree. These students often face a disadvantage and without academic experience through interventions for success, the opportunity to advance is undermined especially in an online environment. Participants should leave this workshop with shared retention-promoting ideas that can be implemented immediately in their classrooms, whether face to face, blended, or exclusively online.
Enriched Early Learning: Implementing the Abecedarian Approach in an Indigenous Inner-city Canadian Community
Workshop Presentation Shelley Jonasson, Joseph Sparling, Jamie Koshyk
This session will begin with an overview of the evidence-based Abecedarian Approach to enriched early learning, which has been extensively evaluated. The focus will be on the implementation of this approach in a largely Indigenous, inner-city social housing complex in Winnipeg, Canada. An overview of the key program components will be provided, including the inclusion of Indigenous culture. The very positive impact on the children's development will be covered, but importantly for the conference special focus, we will highlight the inter-generational impact the program has had on parents: their understanding and belief in their capacity to play a key role in their child's learning; their changing vision of the future; and their emerging ability to imagine and pursue their own educational and employment goals. Short video clips will illustrate Abecedarian principles and provide firsthand accounts from parents. The discussion will focus on the many ways in which enriched care-giving can instigate social change for young children, their families, and communities. Practice and policy implications will be discussed, as well as a quick overview of Abecedarian activities that have grown from this initial project. If time allows a quick overview of global Abecedarian activity will be provided.
