Winter Institute Learning Opportunities
The following ten features of the Winter Institute set the event apart from most professional conferences
Structure with Freedom
From the start, participants learn the Institute is the cooperative responsibility of everyone, and that as adult learners they have the right to come and go as they wish and to use their time and energy for the good of their professional careers and usefulness to their institutions. Although there is structure in the scheduling of Institute activities, the freedom also exists to adjust this structure when it appears to be in the best interests of participants or when participants decide modifications are in their best interests.
Collegiality/Networking/Ongoing Dialogue
Everyone at the Institute is a learner, including Institute staff, mentors, and presenters, and all participate in the week-long dialogue. For many participants, the Institute is the beginning of a collegial network that will continue and grow throughout their lives.
Collective Intelligence
The 60 to 70 participants, presenters, and mentors that make up each Winter Institute represent a cross-section of learning assistance directors, practitioners, and developmental education specialists from community colleges and universities. The synergy that evolves from the Institute's live-in interactions creates a dialogue that is very different from conversations that go on at most professional conferences.
In-depth Common Learning Experiences
The Institute schedules all presentations as general sessions, so all participants have a common experience. Time is allotted after each session for participants to reflect, ask questions, and dialogue with their colleagues.
Mentoring
Mentoring is a special component of the Winter Institutes. Mentors are chosen for their experience and expertise in learning assistance, as well as for their collegial enthusiasm and empathy for the concerns of Institute participants. The Institute ratio of participants to mentors is maintained at six or seven participants to one mentor. Mentor/participant activities include daily overviews at breakfast meetings, feedback sessions at the end of each day's presentations, and scheduled consultations with an individual or an institutional team.
Presentation Readiness through Proactive Listening
Each day, participants meet with a mentor at breakfast to preview the day's schedule and to consider presentations in view of each participant's institutional and professional needs. Based on session abstracts, participants are encouraged to make up questions that they would like the presenter to address -- either at the presentation or later in the week at a private consultation.
Presentation Learning through Feedback and Closure
After each presentation, participants have many opportunities to "talk back" to the presenter's ideas both publicly at the scheduled follow-up session and at the group feedback meeting at the end of each day.
Currency in Research, Methods, and Technology
Institute presentations focus on the latest information and practices in learning assistance programs and services. Bibliographic handouts complement each presentation.
"Next Steps" as Institute Follow-up
Another of the features that sets the Winter Institutes apart from almost all other conferences is the "Next Steps" session on the last day of the Institute. At this session, participants are first allotted time to look over their Institute notes, edit, and summarize them with special emphasis on listing specific actions that they will initiate when they return to their campuses. Next, in pairs, participants share their notes. Then in small groups, participants share these actions and prepare one or more large wall charts that list the combined "next steps" for each group. A spokesperson for each group then shares its results with the other groups. After all groups have shared their "next steps," everyone is encouraged to move around the room and read all the wall charts, adding any relevant "next steps" that they consider useful to their own list.
Unfinished Business, A Life-long Learning Process
The dialogue that evolves from presentations, consultations, and group discussions does not end with the Institute. In addition to conventional post-Institute interaction by telephone and mail, participants can also continue to dialogue with each other and with their mentors and presenters through individual email or on LRNASST-L email listserv.