Location: Room 103

Presenter: Lindsay Romasanta

Join our Keynote speaker Dr. Lindsay Romasanta for this in-depth, interactive workshop that will provide insights on how student success practitioners who support diverse first-generation college students can leverage their cultural intuition (CI) to navigate and thrive within educational and professional settings.  The session will introduce a new conceptual model – Scholar-Practitioner Cultural Intuition (SP-CI) – highlighting five key tenets that empower staff to advocate for their students.  Attendees will gain insights into the testimonial process, the development of SP-CI, and strategies for fostering equity and resilience in academic and professional environments.

Location: Room 104

Presenter: Reba Daniels

Open to any practitioner who wants to explore how the integration of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles can transform how students experience our campus and classrooms. Participants will share ideas to create accessible programming, enhance communication through varied formats, and foster a supportive environment that encourages student agency. Case studies and best practices will illustrate successful implementations and areas of redesign. Come by to learn how embracing even one UDL principle can proactively support students in ways that improve accessibility and foster engagement.

Location: Room 314A

Presenters: Heather Bode, Alexiss Underwood

The Office of Student Financial Aid (OSFA) would like to take this opportunity to provide a deeper look into the processes and functions of the office. During this session, you will hear about common student inquiry topics: study abroad, satisfactory academic progress (SAP), veteran benefits, and scholarship impacts. Our team will also discuss how financial aid is impacted by withdrawals and professional judgment reviews (dependency appeals and special circumstances) as well as an overview of the aid programs Illinois Commitment and Illinois Promise. We’ll leave time for questions and discussion at the end of the presentation.

Location: Room 314B

Presenters: Manuel Rodriguez, Chadly Stern, Praveen Chhikara, Colleen Lewis, Christian Ray, Mike Yao

General Education courses are pivotal in preparing students for success at Illinois. Now, more than ever, our General Education courses play an important role in helping students develop the necessary skills to succeed academically and socially. General Education courses often face unique challenges as they serve students from all backgrounds and interests, often in large classroom settings. How can we foster inclusivity within our courses to propel student learning and success? The Together We Thrive: Fostering Inclusion in General Education Courses session brings together faculty from various departments across campus to share their experiences and insights in creating inclusive General Education courses. Through an interactive panel discussion, faculty will share their journeys in inclusive General Education course design and provide strategies and resources to help instructors incorporate high-impact inclusive teaching strategies in their own courses.

Location: Room 210 or join session via Zoom

Presenter: Brian Woodward

Global learning experiences provide students with unique opportunities to engage with international peers, and emphasis on this high-impact practice has been expanding. The Grainger College of Engineering is increasing the number of global learning opportunities for students by offering Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL). The COIL pedagogy connects students and faculty from different countries to explore a subject, theme, or issue through a project-based learning experience. Grainger has expanded on COIL by offering full-semester courses that include a post-course short-term, faculty-led travel program, known as COIL+. To support students having these experiences, Grainger is actively engaging with faculty who are new to this topic and training them to facilitate these types of global programs. Student learning outcomes and faculty outcomes have been compared among participants in COIL+, COIL, and traditional short-term study abroad programs (No-COIL).  This panel presentation will unpack recent experiences (No-COIL, COIL and COIL+) from previous program participants (program leaders and students). When presented with first-hand narratives, the audience will better understand the value derived by participants, thereby inspiring other students, staff, and faculty who wish to internationalize their curriculums.

Location: South Lounge

Day1 Access Program SP&A

Presenters: Tod Petrie, Sara Didio

The Day1 Access Program at Illinois is a collaborative campus initiative designed to promote student success (student-centered) through first day access to lower-cost digital course materials. The program provides all enrolled students in the participating course access to the discounted course materials on day one.The pilot program began in Fall 2023 with three courses, enrolling a total of 1,532 students. By Spring 2024, the program expanded to ten courses, enrolling 2,980 students. By Fall 2024, the program expended significantly, offering thirty-two courses and engaging 9,643 students. This presentation will highlight the key benefits of the programs, with a particular emphasis on savings it offers to students. In addition, we will share insights from student feedback on their experience. Additionally, we will explore how participating in the program has positively impacted students’ learning experiences and financial well-being.

Course Design for Student Wellness T&L

Presenter: Judith Pintar

Student well-being is often implicit within learning frameworks which promote inclusive course design, but there is a need to make the connection between instruction and wellness more explicit. This presentation is based on a study which used insights from game design to analyze course design, providing support for best practices in instructional design. In this workshops, attendees will be invited to view emotional wellness not just as a variable affecting learning, but as a course outcome worthy of separate consideration. Feedback, iteration and continual refining help to reframe instructional design as a student-centered design process, and produce well-designed rules of play.  The result is instructional designers who are more conscious of the effect of course design elements on the emotional well-being of students.

Incorporating LHtL Practices into an Introductory FSHN Course for Helping Students Develop Habits of Self-Directed Learners T&L

Presenters: Shelly Schmidt, Saad Shehab, Amy Leman

Helping students transition from learning in high school to learning in college is critical for students’ long-term academic success. Various approaches for helping students become better learners have been employed outside of content courses, such as workshops and first-year experiences. However, students often do not transfer these evidence-based learning practices to their content courses. Our action research focused on incorporating learning how to learn (LHtL) practices in a freshman food science and human nutrition content course for majors. The unique contributions of our study include: 1) developing an ecosystem approach involving all stakeholders (students, teacher, and TA), 2) using an LHtL eText designed as a communal resource for ecosystem members, 3) employing a habit-based intervention model (COM-B) to help students move from knowing to doing to habit formation, 4) utilizing frameworks and reflective practices (i.e., metacognition cycle, study cycle, exam wrappers) to guide students in developing self-directed learning habits, and 5) aligning course assessment with long-term retention and life-long learning goals, rather than traditional assessments focused on knowledge acquisition (i.e., exams). Workshop participants will receive access to the LHtL eText, adaptable teacher and student resources, and the main takeaways of our study for implementation in other contexts.

Location: Room 103

Presenter: Brian Siemann

DRES has provided Academic Coaching services for students registered in our office.Through one-on-one sessions and group workshops, students work with trained graduate student coaches to establish short- and long-term goals, build effective habits, and address academic challenges. Data from this program demonstrate significant benefits, including improved GPAs, retention rates, and graduation outcomes, with DRES achieving a 91% six-year graduation rate. By providing tailored support, the program helps students develop strategies to overcome barriers to academic success, fostering independence and resilience. The presentation outlines the evolution of the coaching program, its operational framework, and key outcomes  and the value of academic coaching in promoting equitable access to education. A framework for departments looking to implement a coaching program will be provided.

Location: Room 104

Presenter: Daniel Almanza

This presentation will showcase the revamped Navigating the Job Market course, an initiative to mentor College of Media students transitioning into the workforce post-graduation. The course allows students to explore the many opportunities of Media by connecting and identifying interests with different industries. Specifically, this course provides structured mentoring for first-generation and underrepresented students, who are encouraged to take this course. By incorporating this into the curriculum, these students benefit from a structured, classroom-based experience tailored to their needs. The class engages students with interactive in-class workshops, peer-to-peer education activities, and practical training, to assist in their transition. This presentation will focus on the development of this course, different projects and assignments, and student outcomes from participating in this class.

Location: Room 314A

Presenters: Alyssa Alfinito, Joe Manning

The Inclusion and Leadership program consists of student staff “mentors” that are expected to implement and facilitate educational discussions and awareness with residents around social justice and DEIB topics following a residential curriculum within University Housing. They continuously plan and execute various inclusion events, participate in tabling events for international holidays and days that spread awareness about various inclusion topics, take part in leadership opportunities, and collaborate with other housing personnel such as residence halls and the cultural/resource centers. Some duties allow mentors to help support the cultural houses with their own events, bring collaborative events to residence halls/buildings, and provide a relationship between various campus partners needed for success in supporting students. The program specifically focuses on residents that live on campus, though some event opportunities are open to off-campus residents as well. Overall, the I&L program allows the mentors to spread awareness on social justice topics, various student populations, and on-campus cultures that all residents should or will become familiar with throughout their years in college.

Location: Room 314B

Presenter: Linell Edwards, Susan Helmink

Having a hard time identifying evidence of student learning? This session will explore course-embedded assessment by focusing on mapping program-level student learning outcomes (PSLOs) onto courses to identify opportunities to collect evidence of student learning in the program. Program-level student learning outcomes assessment is a systematic approach to evaluating and enhancing student learning across various academic programs. The PSLOs define the essential competencies (i.e., knowledge, skills, and abilities) students are expected to demonstrate upon completion of their program. Curriculum mapping is a crucial step in the learning outcomes assessment process and involves aligning PSLOs with program courses to identify opportunities to collect evidence of student learning in the program. Examples of how course-embedded assessment is being used (and can be used) to evaluate student learning at the program-level will be provided and implications for student success will be discussed.

Location: Room 210 or join session via Zoom

Presenter: Chadly Stern

The General Education program is a standardized set of courses that all students complete throughout their undergraduate career. Although General Education is a staple of undergraduate coursework throughout the United States, a clear purpose and mission of the program is less commonly communicated. This session will provide a framework for understanding the key benefits that students gain from the General Education program, unpacking how the program provides foundational knowledge and skills; opportunities to explore ideas, values, and cultures; and preparation to become responsible stewards of society. The session will also consider whether there is variability across students in how much they gain from the General Education program. This session is well-suited for students, staff, and faculty hoping to learn more about the broader goals and impact of the General Education program at Illinois.

Location: South Lounge

Building confidence & community at scale through the campus-wide Cozad New Venture Challenge SP&A

Presenters: Kellin Jahnke, Stephanie Faraci

The Cozad New Venture Challenge engages students from disciplines across campus at all grade levels each spring to accelerate their ideas to impact with mentoring, interactive learning experiences, and funding opportunities.  This co-curricular program strives to build student participants’ creative and entrepreneurial confidence and help facilitate their development of a professional and peer entrepreneurial network.  This session provides an overview of Cozad, including the journey of scaling from a pilot program to over 500 students in 200 teams in 2024, strategic approaches to providing a program that caters to both novice and advanced entrepreneurial students, and the development of crucial partnerships and community engagement mechanisms to ensure program success.  Both best practices and challenges will be shared with the overarching goal of developing a community of practice across the University of professionals working to engage students through co-curricular programming.

Career-Infused Learning: Strategies for Embedding Professional Development Across Student Experience SSS

Presenters: Arianna Holterman, Rosie Shen

As our students graduate, they are facing a world full of incredible challenges, disruptions, and transitions. Industries and occupations are shifting beneath their feet. It is imperative that they leave our campus not only with academic preparation, but also the competencies to adapt and reposition themselves for their future success. This requires an understanding of how to engage in career development across their lifespan. Since not all students will utilize a career services unit on campus, all of us have a shared responsibility to help students engage in career development during their time on campus. Come to this interactive session to learn about career readiness competencies and examine practical strategies to help students reflect on the skills they built within their courses or student life experiences. Ultimately, the goal of this workshop is to help you create a career readiness reflection tool to embed career-infused learning across campus.

Prison-to-Gown Pathway: Supporting Justice Impacted Student success at Illinois SSS

Presenter: Chrissy Ferree, Chris Miner

The Education Justice Project (EJP), a unit of UIUC’s College of Education, has offered a comprehensive college-in-prison program at Danville Correctional Center since 2008. We have observed our released students and other justice-impacted individuals (those who have been arrested, jailed, and or incarcerated) stymied in their efforts to pursue higher education because of the significant and systemic hurdles that exist from the application process through graduation. The Prison-to-Gown Pathway, a new EJP initiative, aims to address such challenges, support justice-impacted students, remove barriers on our campus, and build a scalable model.In the United States, nearly 100 million people are justice-impacted; and, communities of color are disproportionately affected. Supporting justice-impacted individuals in their pursuit of higher education can play a critical role in restoring educational equity for marginalized communities and supporting UIUC’s racial equity goals. Participants of this session will learn about restrictions that prevent full inclusion of justice-impacted people on college campuses, potential solutions to address such inequalities in higher education, and emerging best practices for supporting justice-impacted students. Through this discussion, we hope to increase awareness of why Illinois should and how Illinois can support the inclusion and success of these students.

Location: Room 103

Presenters: Manny Rodriguez. Lucas Anderson, Cheelan Bo-Linn, Mitch Fisher, Lisa Travis, Tina Huang

Are you interested in creating an inclusive classroom environment? Curious about how your colleagues are transforming their courses to better support their students? The Inclusive Course Redesign Initiative is a panel discussion where faculty members will share their experiences through the Inclusive Course Redesign Initiative and how their efforts have improved student engagement and success. Learn about innovative strategies for connecting with students, providing effective TA support, enhancing course readiness, and boosting engagement and participation. This session is designed to foster a collaborative environment where you can gain valuable insights and practical tips to enhance your teaching practices.

Location: Room 104

Presenter: Kristina Wright

How can we transform learning environments into launchpads for career success? This session explores how Gies College of Business reimagines the student experience by embedding career readiness into both required curriculum and student employment programs. Through the Gies Professional Pathway, ten employer-driven competencies empower students to develop essential skills for post-graduation success. By integrating these competencies across academic and co-curricular settings, this framework levels access to professional development, ensuring all students are prepared to thrive as life-long learners in an evolving job market.This dynamic session will feature faculty, staff, and student perspectives, offering a holistic view of the collaborative efforts behind this initiative. Participants will learn how faculty integrate competencies into coursework, how student TAs are trained to grow professionally, and how career services support competency development through student employment.   Attendees will gain actionable strategies to incorporate career competencies into classroom teaching, campus roles, and support services.  By uniting faculty innovation, staff support, and student growth, this model demonstrates how competency-based approaches create high-impact practices that bridge the gap between learning and earning.

Location: Room 314A

Presenter: Kim Nguyen-Jahiel, Vanessa Burgett, William Sullivan

A large institution like Illinois can be overwhelming for students, potentially impacting their academic achievement, sense of belonging, and overall well-being. With over 40,000 student users, the Illinois app aims to address this challenge through collaborative partnerships and the integration of essential information and interactions, connecting more students to the right people, resources, and services at the right time.In this dynamic, hands-on session, participants will:* Engage in a demonstration of the app’s features, such as real-time access to course schedules and locations, views of Canvas assignments and deadlines, community-building via Groups, access to mental health resources, and McKinley Health Center appointment reminders.* Step into students’ shoes through short, interactive case studies.* Collaboratively brainstorm future innovations, forming small groups to ideate how the app can further support student success.Whether you are a faculty member or student support professional, you will leave with actionable insights into leveraging the Illinois app for your own student success initiatives. Be part of shaping the Illinois app’s evolution and exploring its potential for transformative impact.

Location: Room 314B

Presenter: Andrew Allen

College students travel two parallel paths—the “curricular” path of academics and the “everything else” path of career preparation, networking, leadership, and experiential learning. For many, access to these transformative opportunities can be uneven. At Gies College of Business, an innovative four-year course sequence ensures that 100% of students receive equitable access to professional development, real-world learning, and personal growth opportunities. This required program empowers every student to navigate both paths successfully by embedding holistic, scalable, and impactful experiences into the core curriculum. Join this engaging faculty panel to explore how Gies redefined student success, measured outcomes beyond the classroom, and scaled experiential learning for an entire undergraduate cohort. Leave with actionable strategies to integrate equitable, real-world opportunities into your own curriculum, ensuring all students thrive—academically and beyond.

Location: South Lounge

Presenters: Norma Garcia, Jennifer Mendez

The Illinois Scholars Program, a summer bridge experience, and The First-Generation Initiatives have developed programs and strategies to support first-generation, low-income, and historically underserved students navigating their college experience. These programs play a crucial role in revealing the hidden curriculum and empowering first-generation students to take control of their academic and personal resources. For the purpose of this presentation, the hidden curriculum is defined as unwritten rules and unspoken and unofficial expectations. By unveiling the hidden curriculum and providing the necessary tools, these initiatives instill confidence and build students’ skills. Additionally, they facilitate the development of social capital by connecting students with a supportive network of faculty, staff, and peers dedicated to assisting them throughout their academic journey. This session will focus on the strategies used in these programs to help first-generation students successfully navigate their undergraduate experience.

Location: Room 210 or join session via Zoom

Presenter: Linell Edwards, Jennifer Jones Barbour

How are you currently evaluating student success in your program? This session will highlight the Chancellor’s Senior Survey (CSS) and demonstrate how CSS data can be used to evaluate student learning at the program-level. The CSS captures graduating seniors’ perceived gains on competencies associated with the Illinois campus-wide student learning outcomes (ISLOs). Program-level student learning outcomes (PSLOs) assessment is a systematic approach to evaluating and enhancing student learning across various academic programs. Programs that have one or more PSLOs aligned with the ISLOs can use CSS data as indirect evidence of student learning. By leveraging CSS data, programs can focus their efforts on other aspects of their learning outcomes assessment process. Examples of how CSS data are being used (and can be used) to evaluate student learning at the program-level will be provided and implications for student success will be discussed.