Professional Development: Flex Day Sessions

Guided Pathways

Guided Pathways FLEX Day Sessions

Fall 2023 FLEX Day

Academic & Career Pathways (Block of Sessions)

Jared Howard, Shawn Taylor, Titian Lish, Katie Eagan, Melissa Korber, Christina Lee, Jill Carbone, Carrie Frates, Jason Maxwell, and Kristy Woods

Who are Students in the Business, Economics, Entrepreneurship, & Information Technology Pathway? (PDF) (PDF) (Handout)
Who are Students in the Health, Wellness, & Public Safety and Advanced Manufacturing & Transportation Pathways? (PDF) (PDF) (Handout)
Who are Students in the Language, Literature, & Communication Studies Pathway? (PDF) (PDF) (Handout)
Who are Students in the Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, & Environment Pathway? (PDF) (PDF) (Handout)
Who are Students in the Society, Culture, & Human Development and Undecided Pathways? (PDF) (PDF) (Handout)
Who are Students in the Visual Arts, Performing Arts & Design Pathway? (PDF) (PDF) (Handout)

Description: Who are students in the ____ Pathway? We will continue our discussion from College Day with an opportunity to look at student demographic sheets specific to this pathway. This interactive session will offer participants a chance to discuss what patterns emerge from the student data and have discussions about what can we do this year to improve the experience for our students within our sphere of influence, with emphasis on increasing student retention and success, especially for our disproportionately impacted students.

College Day 2023

Supporting Students in their Academic & Career Pathways

Breakout Session 1B: Interactive Pathway Session on Supporting Students in our Pathways as a Caring Campus

Description: Caring Campus is particularly important for students from historically underserved populations, students less familiar with college, non-majority students, students from low-income households, and first-generation students to feel welcome and that they belong in college. In this session you we will discuss understanding how Caring Campus recommendations already align with existing efforts to increase student belonging and persistence, articulate what current work and future goals exist to support students in our Pathway, and participate in courageous conversations about enhancing our student experience along their pathway.

Breakout Session 2B: Interactive Session on Supporting Students via Program Maps with Important Legislative Updates

Description: A well-designed Program Map can reduce equity gaps and increase retention by providing students with an ideal course sequence to complete within a reasonable amount of time. AB 1705/928 requires us to not only place students on a pathway based on their chosen major and education goal, but to also recommend a Math course and an English course along their pathway.

Directions for each applicable program:

Identify the Mathematics course(s) you recommend students should take.
Recommend the semester students should take the math course(s).
Decide if Math Support Recommendation box should be included in map.
Update your pdf program map, with the above information.
Submit updated program map to Danielle Bañuelos.

Spring 2023 FLEX Day

Career Coach Phase 2

Kristy Woods, Joel Gagnon, and Danielle Bañuelos

Description: Career Coach is the global leader in labor market analytics, and we are thrilled to provide this service to our Las Positas College students and community. A free resource, Career Coach provides students the opportunity to take a career assessment, browse our LPC programs, and explore career information inclusive of wages, employment projections and training required. The included resume builder helps users take their previous volunteer and job experience and turn it into a professional resume, including supports specifically for Veteran students to find civilian careers related to their military occupation. Sounds beneficial, right? It is, but it could be EVEN better! Please join the Guided Pathways team for an engaging and interactive workshop to explore the current occupational mappings between our LPC programs and careers and discuss ways to enhance these connections. Disciplines can explore what careers are currently linked to their programs, what careers their professional organizations and labor markets recommend, and recommend additional careers to be associated to their programs. This session will include time dedicated to collaborating on how to include awareness of careers and soft skills into interactions with students.

More Welcoming Syllabi, a Tool for Student Retention

Jim Ott and Jeff Judd

Description: During this flex session we will start by reviewing the Persistence Project and its engagement strategies for current and potential new members. We will then be working on helping faculty in creating a more welcoming syllabus which is critical for improvement of student retention. We will start with a short introductory section outlining the use of welcoming and growth mindset language and present some recent data on how students use the syllabus. We will next break into smaller groups allowing the attendees to work on their own syllabi. We will ask attendees to bring their syllabi with them so they can brainstorm and update the language, tone and structure of their syllabi to make them more welcoming and inclusive. If time allows, we will also begin the conversation around a companion syllabus and what should be migrated there.

Fall 2022 FLEX Day

Creating a Welcoming Directory Message to Community (PDF) (PPT)

Kristy Woods, Jean O'Neil-Opipari, and Shawn Taylor

Description: "Decades of research supports that students who feel connected to their college are more likely to complete and succeed in their courses, persist from semester to semester, and achieve their educational goals." - Caring Campus

How to Update Your Directory Profile

Tim Druley

Description: I am offering two flex day sessions on how to update directory profiles in modern campus (formally omniupdate). Pre-registration will be required for people who would like to follow along and update their own profiles during the session.

Spring 2022 FLEX Day

Using Data to Guide Student Success Teams (PDF) (PPT)

Kristy Woods, Angella VenJohn, Jared Howard, and Jill Carbone

Description: The Guided Pathways team will share select student data sets with participants for discussion and analysis. The data sets may help us identify students' barriers to completion and which students are struggling with. In breakout groups we will brainstorm what we would like in-reach to these students to look like and in what modality. Together we will envision how Student Success Teams can provide a framework for such communications.

Fall 2021 FLEX Day

Fun with Program Mapper (PDF) (PPT)

Jill Carbone and Joel Gagnon

Description: An introduction to Academic & Career Pathways (Program Mapper), plus a look at updates in-progress and potential customizations. Participants will also help shape the vision for the future of program maps and their uses at LPC.

Milestones on the Student Journey

Angella VenJohn, Kristy Woods, Jared Howard, and Nan Ho

Description: Interactive session on developing key milestones that a student experiences along their educational journey and the desired supports. We will also review the "Through the Gate " research, which looks at addressing our transfer challenges. This research was done for LPC & Chabot in Winter '20 by the RP Group. Recognizing that transfer is a journey that a diverse and varied group of students undertake. This research reveals that students are on a "transfer continuum" at different points on a transfer path. And as we better understand the student experience, we will identify points of intervention that can help propel them further along the transfer continuum journey and through to university.

Spring 2021 FLEX Day

Redesigning Orientation & Onboarding Activities: How Students Enter Their Path. Guided Pathways Pillar 2 (PDF)

Angella VenJohn and Miguel Alvarez

Description: In this one-hour presentation, we will explore research and best practices for new student onboarding activities to help students enter college and identify their career earlier. We will discuss how we streamline and clarify the onboarding process from application to registration. Ensuring that students receive clear and accurate information regarding college requirements. And we will engage in discussions on how we can create intentional experiences for our new students that build community and connection with Las Positas College. Come join us and share your ideas and be a part of this project.

Persistence Project Debrief and Updates (PDF)

Jim Ott, Jeff Judd, and Jared Howard

Description: The Persistence Project began implementation in the Spring 2021 semester with over 40 instructional faculty members participating in the program. This flex day activity will be used to highlight intervention strategies, discuss best practices/current challenges/next steps, and to consider engagement for the Fall 2021 semester.

What Are Success Teams? (PDF)

Kristy Woods and Angella VenJohn

Description: What are Success Teams? Many colleges across the state and country are focusing on developing success teams to address the many diverse and equity needs of their students as part of their Guided Pathways and Equity work. Come and learn about what success teams can be and what they could look like at LPC. We welcome all members of the campus to come to this interactive session. The LPC California Demonstration Team will also be there.

Fall 2020 FLEX Day

Academic and Career Communities (PDF) (PPT)

Kristy Woods, Angella VenJohn, LaVaughn Hart, and Nan Ho

Description: Imagine if students who applied to LPC could choose an area of study based on their interest. Students could explore related fields, careers, pathways, programs, courses. Folks from that area could find out about the students, reach out to them with information. Faculty, counselors, and outreach specialists could work together to support students in their areas, provide intentional interventions along the way as they come to academic and career preparedness milestones. If we want this to happen, we need to continue our work on defining what Academic and Career communities we want to have at LPC! Join us as we continue our conversation last year on developing areas of interest to improve the student experience at LPC.

Career Exploration Platforms (PDF) (PPT)

Jill Carbone and Joel Gagnon

Description: Join us as we explore different technologies to assist undecided students in Career Exploration. We will be looking at several career assessment tools and platforms with the intention of providing feedback to the Guided Pathways team. We will also discuss how such tools can support the Guided Pathways goal of helping students “Enter the Path” early and thoughtfully. We hope to elicit the perspectives from folks with and without a technology background.

Persistence Project (No Materials – Oakton College guest speaker)

Jim Ott, Jeff Judd, and Jared Howard

Description: A community college our size with similar demographics started a faculty-driven, inexpensive initiative that had a huge impact on student retention rates which jumped on average 24% and increased satisfaction for participating faculty. This Flex session includes a live Zoom talk by a faculty member from Oakton College who will offer an overview of best practices and answer questions to assist us as we build our program. Join us if you are interested in taking action this Spring 2021 as we start our own persistence project to have a substantial, positive impact on our students and in our community!

Spring 2020 FLEX Day

Guided Pathways - A Persistence Project (PDF) (Handouts)

Kristy Woods, Jeff Judd, Carrie Frates, and Shawn Taylor

Description: A community college our size, with similar demographics, started a faculty driven, inexpensive initiative that had a huge impact! This persistence project saw retention rates jump on average 24% and faculty satisfaction increase with participation. Join us as we discuss what Oakton Community College achieved and we plan to take action on our own initiative project to have a substantial, positive impact on our students and in our community!

Staying on the Pathway: Before and on Day 1 (PDF) (Group A) (Group B)

Kristy Woods, Jeff Judd, Carrie Frates, and Shawn Taylor

Description: Guided Pathways affords us an opportunity to think deeply about equity in the classroom. "How can I support every student succeed?" "What are acceptable, reasonable, realistic, sustainable things that can be incorporated into the classroom to keep students on their academic pathway… without lowering the standard?" Join the Connections' Workgroup in a highly collaborative conversation around growth mindset syllabi, grading practices, and language that can provide equitable opportunities for us to get to know our students as learners and support their individual needs without reducing the rigor of the classroom.