Wo Innovations in Learning Day
University of Hawai‘i Community Colleges
March 5, 2004

---

Click to view WILD movie (15.6 mb)
QuickTime Player needed

Formerly reserved for the Excellence in Education Conference, the first Friday in March was, in 2004, renamed Wo Innovations in Learning Day, in honor of the Wo Endowment, which partially funded the activities, and the Wo Learning Champions, who planned and coordinated the activities. What follows is a summary of the activities of that day. By all accounts, it truly was WILD. Note: Six of the seven campuses participated in WILD on March 5. Maui CC will be WILD in October.

Participants

Activities

Hawai‘i CC: Six sessions, focused on assessment and evaluation

Honolulu CC: A keynote address on dealing with change followed by a presentation on Assessment Across the Campus. In the afternoon, participants could choose a bus excursion of historical Nu‘uanu valley or focused follow up assessment workshops.

Kapi‘olani CC: Thirty sessions in the morning, with topics ranging from anger management, student learning, outcomes, sleeping disorders, office safety, identity theft, library services, handling conflicts, humor in the classroom, plagiarism, to hybrid courses, feng shui, writing grants, Student club advising, and personal and job fit. Ten tents were set up to display products, services, or information to all interested participants on topics such as Safe Zone, Exotic Fruits and Vegetables of Hawaii, Ancient Hawaiian Athletic Sports, Native Plant Tour, Best Practices from the League (of Innovations), and Feng Shui for the Classroom. After lunch, six more sessions and “Name That Tune.”

Kaua‘i CC: Two workshops were presented in the morning hours and a “wellness” institute entertained the group in the afternoon. Thanks to a partnership with the Title III group, lead speakers were recruited from the Hawaiian studies field for the workshop series. The wellness institute brought community partners onto the campus.

Leeward CC: Planned separately, the staff WILD event and the faculty WILD event were held on LCC campus and in the Hawai‘i Okinawa Center’s Legacy Ballroom, respectively. For staff, the program included sessions on safety awareness, basic exercise tips, body mechanics, and native nutrition and lifestyle. For faculty, the day included roundtable discussions focused on topics related to student success (“Helping Students Become Better Writer” and “Retraining & Engaging Students”) and professional development (“Evaluating Student Evals” and “Accreditation & Assessment”). Six workshops were presented on a similar range of topics: “Enhancing Student Participation,” “Did They Learn What I Taught?” and “Spiral Dynamics in the Classroom”. A reception was held in the afternoon.

Windward CC/ETC: The theme of the event was "Different Approaches in Different Areas.” An opening ceremony was followed by fourteen (14) break-out sessions in the morning, a buffet lunch and the Wellness Program in the afternoon. Session topics included “Quick Tips in Teaching: Grading,” “How to Enhance Class Participation”, “Coffee, Tea and WebCT”, “Student-centered Teaching”, “Copyright Issues”, There were topics on staff development: “Can you hear me Now”, “Leadership Development/Team Building” and “Practical Emergency Response”. Presentations dealing with campus issues, such as, “Sexual Harassment and Employment Discrimination”, “The Strategic Plan of WCC”, “Accreditation Issues”, and “AA Degree Core Requirements”.

Evaluation

All campuses, except HawCC, did formal evaluations of the WILD events. In all cases, the results reflected extremely positive responses to the sessions. To illustrate, at WinCC/ETC, the scores for the five major program areas ranged from 4.62 to 5.00 (on a five point scale). At KapCC, 98 percent of those who attended a session said they learned something important and 97.8 percent wanted to see a similar topic presented next year.

Budget

The Wo Endowment subsidized the day’s activities at each campus. The amount of subsidy for the whole system was $7,000, divided into two equal shares. From the first $3,500, each campus was given the same base amount: $500. From the second $3,500, each campus was given a proportional amount, based on relative size.

Campuses typically charged a nominal $5.00 fee for attendance, the proceeds of which went to supplement the Wo Endowment subsidy. In some cases, rather than charge a fee, some campuses chose to make contributions from their own professional development funds. A final accounting will be available soon.

Recommendations

Five of the campuses had a specific mechanism for feedback and all the planning committees provided excellent suggestions for future WILDs. In general, the committees’ recommendations focused on improving logistics. The participants, on the other hand, clearly wanted more sessions, and they wanted fewer concurrent sessions (they didn’t want to have to choose between so many). Where faculty and staff were integrated, the results were very encouraging, and the suggestion was made that for future events, campuses should shut down to allow for maximum participation.

In short, at each campus, the consensus was the same: let’s do this again, let’s do this even better.