This webinar helps you break the cycle of non-transformative reflection that educators often encounter. You’ll become familiar with (a) what learner reflection entails, (b) why learner reflection is critically important according to research, and (c) how to implement reflection in ways that help learners reap its benefits and become autonomous learners.

Active learning has been proven to help students analyze and apply course materials to develop a deeper understanding of the concepts being taught. Active-learning strategies include brainstorming, think-pair-share, case studies, discussions, in-class demonstrations, and many other deep-learning techniques. Kahoot, a free survey and quiz application, can be used to engage students in discussions about key events and survey them to assess their understanding of the course content. During this webinar, the facilitator discusses active-learning strategies and shares examples of engaging class discussions using Kahoot. By the end of this webinar, you will understand what is meant by the term active learning and are able to build a Kahoot survey and quiz and gather immediate results and feedback.

The root of the word ‘communication’ is ‘communis’, meaning to make common. Unfortunately, many of us in the education and grant-funded sectors struggle with identifying the main messages we need to make common to our key stakeholders. And for many of us in the ATE community, we could use help in creating simple, memorable ways to speak and write consistently about our project and center’s work. Clearly defined and consistently implemented mission statements and messaging platforms are key to ensuring that all points of contact with your project or center will reinforce the right messages.

In this live webinar, we will be joined by Farra Trompeter, Vice President of Big Duck – a communications firm that works exclusively with nonprofits based in Brooklyn NY, and Rachael Bower, Director/PI of ATE Central, who will review how these messaging elements can be created to more effectively engage students, partners, funders, and other key external audiences. For those who attended the ATE PI pre-conference workshop, we’ll also revisit the relationship between brand strategy (positioning and personality) and messaging. Farra will provide some examples of how other organizations define and use these tools with examples you can learn from, as Rachael helps connect lessons from the wider nonprofit world to the ATE community.

In this webinar, experienced STEM education evaluator Kirk Knestis will share strategies for effectively communicating with evaluation clients to avoid three common “evaluation fails.” (1) Project implementation delays; (2) evaluation scope creep (clients wanting something more or different from what was originally planned); and (3) substantial changes in the project over the course of the evaluation. These issues are typical causes for an evaluation to be derailed and fail to produce useful and valid results. Webinar participants will learn how clear documentation—specifically, an evaluation contract (legal commitment to the work), scope of work (detailed description of evaluation services and deliverables), and study protocol (technical details concerning data collection and analysis)—can make potentially difficult conversations go better for all involved, averting potential evaluation crises and failures. Getting these documents right and using them in project communications helps ensure a smoothly operating evaluation, happy client, and profitable project for the evaluator. For a sneak peek of some of what Kirk will address in this webinar, see his blog post, http://www.evalu-ate.org/blog/knestis-apr18/.

Presenter: Kirk Knestis
Moderator: Michael Lesiecki