People attend conferences for many different reasons – to grow their skills, network with those in prominent positions or experience ways other programs are conducting business. But those reasons can often be summed up in one simple word: improvement.
Each year, the Association of Colleges for Tutoring and Learning Assistance (ACTLA) conference is held with one collective goal in mind: “Improving tutorial programs and related services.” Recently, my eStudent Services colleague, Karen Boyd, and I had the opportunity to experience this conference, with the goal of helping others improve themselves and their programs. The results were much more than I had anticipated.
Looking back, I was impressed by the sheer volume of knowledge and research the presenters were working with and sharing. Leaders presented programs and ideas ranging from Predictive Analytics to Breaking Habits. Here are a few of the highlights I enjoyed:
- Achieving SUCCE$$ with Online Tutoring: NetTutor, with Lenoir Community College, has created RTR: Refer-Tutor-Report, an online portal where instructors can quickly and easily REFER students, students can access personalized online TUTORing at any time from any location, and administrators and instructors can retrieve REPORTs that include student success data, possible funding documentation and archived student tutoring sessions. The California Community Colleges Online Education Initiative has many great new initiatives, and this session unlocked the potential to partner with them and learn from each other.
- Breaking the Habit Loop: Researchers report that nearly 60 percent of daily activities are conducted habitually. When applied to learning, this suggests students may be locked in a pattern of memory-based learning that prevents them from engaging in critical thinking. I personally took away some great information from this session, delivered by Leonard Geddes. I hope to apply the habit-breaking tips within a learning environment to bad habits in my own life. Afterward, Karen and I had a great conversation with Geddes and might even use his talents for professional development within eTutoring.
- Lights, Camera, Action!: In this session, Emmy award-winning videographer Chris Brown showed us easy-to-implement tips for creating a quality video. I have found myself creating or editing webinars and video training materials during my time with eStudent Services. His tips and tricks will be invaluable as these projects continue to present themselves.
- Become a Digital Creator: This session really helped tell effective digital stories about the work done in our tutoring centers, along with how to create online resources for clients and make beautiful graphics for your websites or social media. I have a secret excitement for creating content and storytelling. It mainly stays at home with my family, but this opportunity gave me some great ideas I can take home to my daughters.
The conference started with a bang as Dr. Howard Masuda conducted a preconference workshop about the College Reading and Learning Association (CRLA) tutor training certification. His focus was on the pinnacle of tutoring certification – CRLA certification for your tutor-training program. This has been a longtime goal of our Ohio eTutoring Collaborative, and this session was the perfect opportunity to bring it to the forefront. While Dr. Masuda was unable to answer many of my questions, he became a valuable connection I can use as a resource in our future endeavors.
From my viewpoint, a presentation is truly successful when it turns into a conversation, sparking thought and sharing ideas. During the presentation Karen and I delivered, the conversation quickly turned to the history of our program and how we conduct it. We were barraged by questions from everyone and interest grew, preventing us from completing the presentation in the allotted time. As the pieces started falling into place for the audience, the excitement grew, not only for us, but also for those who saw the true potential of a program like ours. People learned about our small collaborative and became interested in learning more about it. We even caught the ear of ACTLA’s President-elect, Ray Sanchez. He approached us to share his thoughts and gauge our interest in collaborating with him and his organization in the future. Our program quickly became a topic of conversation throughout the conference.
I hope the individuals with whom we spoke found some value in what we shared over the three days. The interest and reactions from conference participants were astounding. I learned so much from this group and hope to apply some of their ideas to the work we are doing in eStudent Services.
