Omni William Penn Hotel Pittsburgh, PA
The symposium is in-person experience focused on gaining new knowledge that you can apply to your work immediately. Participants will join plenaries, concurrent sessions and have the option to select one of six deeper learning tracks, led by experts from the Gardner Institute.
Academic advising is a comprehensive and intentional approach to guiding and teaching students about their curricular and co-curricular choices and what it takes to succeed in college. As such, advising goes far beyond simple course selection. The advising experience purposefully addresses the holistic development of learners, helping students navigate the complexities of the college experience, make informed academic and life decisions, and ultimately thrive. Drawing on Gardner Institute scholarship and work, including the Conditions of Excellence in Academic Advising co-created with NACADA, this session will help participants create plans for action associated with improving advising in the first- and second-years of college.
Download the track agenda: Transforming the Academic Advising Experience- Draft Agenda
Far too often, the curriculum is unintentionally designed in ways that prevent many students – often first-generation and low-income students – from ever progressing in their discipline and even college. During this 6-hour workshop, participants will engage with colleagues to examine systems, curricular complexity, policies, and practices related to programs of study and design a plan for improved outcomes based on evidence. Particular emphasis will be placed on course and curricular structures that students experience during the first two years (60 semester credits) of college.
Download the Agenda: Transforming Curricular Structures- Draft Agenda
This track is designed to support faculty and staff who teach or will be teaching gateway courses, which comprise a significant portion of the foundational postsecondary experience for students. Gateway courses, once termed barrier courses, are, by definition, often foundational (lower-division or developmental courses that serve as a pathway to credit-bearing courses); high risk (courses that yield higher rates of D, F, W, or Incomplete grades); and have high enrollments within, as well as across, sections (as defined by the institution) (Koch, 2017). Participants will be guided to apply what they learn in the track, as well as in the related concurrent sessions, to create a personal plan for course (re)design.
Download the track agenda: Transforming the Gateway Course Experience- Draft Agenda
The second year of college is often overlooked as a pivotal period in the college success and completion journey. Many educators erroneously believe that once students succeed in the first-year, they have it “all figured out.” Gardner Institute research shows that this is far from the truth. Drawing on scholarship such as Helping Sophomores Succeed (Jossey-Bass 2010), this track will provide information on assessment strategies, policies, and practices that institutions can intentionally connect the second-year experience with their first-year efforts so students can maintain momentum and thrive during the second year of college and, ultimately, beyond.
Download the track agenda: Transforming the Second College Year: Designing for Student Success- Draft Agenda
This workshop will ask you to examine critically the experiences you are currently offering first-year students. How well is your first year working, for which students, and why? That is the foundation of your current institutional story. Facilitators will invite you to grapple with key questions and assist you in developing concrete ideas to improve the various components of your institution’s first year.
You will be asked to do some advance preparation in writing before this workshop by examining certain questions the facilitators will pose. This will enable you to take maximum advantage of what will transpire in the workshop. You will be provided information and inspiration from the facilitators and other participants. Pedagogies used will be both didactic and discussion-based.
This workshop is designed to be meaningful for different types of educators—faculty, administrators, student affairs, and student success practitioners—who come from all levels of prior experience.
Download the track agenda: Transforming the First College Year: Designing a First Year for the Students You Serve- Draft Agenda
Drawing on scholarship from the Gardner Institute’s recently published book, The Transfer Experience A Handbook for Creating a More Equitable and Successful Postsecondary System and other national sources, track participants will deepen their understanding of ways to create and sustain transfer-sending or transfer-receptive cultures at their own institutions. Positive transfer cultures at institutions are essential to persistence and completion of transfer students. The participants will be guided to apply what they learn during the track to create a set of plans for one or more innovative transfer transformation actions that they will pursue at their own institutions following the event.
Download the track agenda: Transforming the Transfer Experience
This half-day workshop for current and newly appointed deans and department chairs will focus on the latest research; best practices, and practical strategies for identifying and implementing lasting student success initiatives.
Workshop Facilitators:
Participants will leave this workshop with strategies for incorporating student-centered practices to meet today’s teaching challenges. Specifically, this workshop addresses how teaching in ways that foreground the diverse experiences and needs of our contemporary students can help to humanize our response to the challenge of incorporating artificial intelligence and AI literacy into our teaching. Faculty will explore how to craft student-centered policies and guidance around the use of AI as well as how to design assignments that intentionally use generative AI as part of the learning process.
Workshop Facilitators:
Transformation Institutions Community of Practice
Participants will be invited to engage in pre-reading, investigation of methodology, and work collaboratively to enhance their Transformation plans. This opportunity is designed to prime new and existing schools to treat any transformation work as an opportunity to improve systems and conduct rapid tests of their respective theories of change. Institutions will also share lessons learned and have time to engage in generative innovation focusing on their most immediate needs related to advancing transformation plans.
This session is for Transforming the Foundational Postsecondary Experience™ Institutions Only:
Workshop Facilitators:
The Pre-Conference workshops are on October 9 from 1 – 5 pm.
The conference sessions are October 10 and 11. Sessions will be held 8:30 am to 4:30 pm on the 10th, and 8:30 am to 4 pm on the 11th.
Participants are invited to attend a 25th Anniversary Celebration reception on October 10 at 5:15 pm.
Conference Fee- $775
Registration closes on September 25, 2024.
Late registration (if space is available)- $825
Undergraduate and Full-time Graduate Students– $485
Registration includes: A reception on the 10th, Breakfast and Lunch on both days
Pre- Conference-
Student-Centered Teaching Approaches Workshop- $190 per person
Deans and Department Chairs Workshop- $190 per person
Transformation Workshop- $120
Hotel Room Rates – $229 a night – Click here to reserve your room. Please reserve by September 24th.
Refund Policy: There will be no refunds given after August 15, 2024. All refunds will be subject to a 5% processing fee. Registration can be transferred to another participant before September 31st, no transfers will be allowed after that. Participants can switch tracks before August 15th pending availability, requests must be made in writing to events@jngi.org.
For more information contact events@jngi.org
The Gardner Institute invites you to participate in the 2024 Symposium on Transforming the Postsecondary Experience at the Omni William Penn in Pittsburgh, PA. This event offers many opportunities for exhibitors and sponsors to connect with faculty and senior administrators while demonstrating support for higher education’s efforts to improve student success.
Exhibitor
Exhibitors receive the following: an exhibit table with two registrations; company/organization name, logo, contact information listed in the digital program, and one electronic attendee list without email addresses. Representatives will have full access to the breakfasts, luncheons, reception, breaks, and all concurrent sessions. Exhibits will be open from 8 am – 5 pm on October 10 and 8 am – 2 pm on October 11.
Exhibitor Rates
Exhibit Booth – $2,000 ($1,200 non-profit) Each Additional Representative – $500 per person.
Exhibitors may also add an ad in the conference app, or may sponsor a break or meal.
Concurrent Session
Highlight your organization by presenting a Sponsor Session
An additional $1,500 ($800 non-profit)
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