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Student Voice, Basic Needs Resources, 2 Gen Convenings

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Student Voice, Basic Needs Resources, 2 Gen Convenings

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WTCS Meat Talent Grant Initiative & WI Ag Education and Dept. Workforce Development

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WTCS Meat Talent Grant Initiative & WI Ag Education and Dept. Workforce Development

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This year great value has been given to increasing transfer and early entry into the pathway using Dual Enrollment. Understanding Transfer is real, and those courses should be given full course credit etc.

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Teacher Apprenticeship (not for January Board :D)

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Teacher Apprenticeship (not for January Board :D)

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Provided spring webinar with Dr. John Spencer, discussing the use of AI and how to integrate it in the classroom. Dr. Spencer also presented at the 2024 Teaching & Learning Summit, supporting teaching & Learning staff and Deans/Assoc. Deans/Program chairs. Had seven sessions presented by faculty at the 2024 Faculty Summit.

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WEDC Grant for Immigrant and Refugee Navigators

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WEDC Grant for Immigrant and Refugee Navigators

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Created and deployed Military CPL online training and 

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Created and deployed Military CPL online training and 

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Communication between WTCS and DSPS, Pearson Vue, and our colleges on allowing Plumbing and Electrical JW exams to be offered at college testing sites. Electrical is now offered; hoping for Plumbing in the future.

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Future Planning (Corrections, Reentry, Office, Partnering)

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Future Planning (Corrections, Reentry, Office, Partnering)

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New Leadership Planning Group (Narrowing down training opportunities from the Office to those who are new to the field).

2026-2030 Strategic Direction Work Group (Review the direction of the System Office and alignment with the Board and the field)

Created Training Direction with JFF for Common Ground (Creating Programs with Reentry in Mind).

Updating the Justice-Involved Home Page (Working with Jeremy, Katy P., and Hilary to add updated data and student success stories).

Completed AEFLA recidivism data and Excel spreadsheet yearly reports (Grant-awarded partners report yearly recidivism rates after receiving education)

UW, WAICU, WTCS Work Group (Collaborative efforts in programming inside the DOC)

Working with the DOC Education and Employment Cross-Agency Team as they transition a New EECAT leadership.

AEFLA- Corrections Grant Reader Preparations for upcoming grant applications.

AE Leadership Monthly Meetings

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Helped implement or create the following:

Grant Summit - presented

TS10 Grant

Oral Health Grant

OER Grant

Multiple Leadership grants

Maintained and updated the grants in the Apply portal as necessary.

Continued technical support to grant manager, colleges and CBO's

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Immigrant and Refugee  Support Summit: Connecting learners to college and career

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Immigrant and Refugee  Support Summit: Connecting learners to college and career

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Developed Teaching Skills That Matter online course

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Developed Teaching Skills That Matter online course

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Ongoing support and professional development, SSLO workshop. interactive map of IET providers

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WTCS participation in national Skilled Immigrant Integration Program

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WTCS participation in national Skilled Immigrant Integration Program

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Delivering online professional development series for faculty and staff (OER Odyssey) and the State OER grant will save an estimated $7.32 million for WTCS students annually with the systemwide OER projects (wistechopen) and the college-level OER adoption programs

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The OER Odyssey: A Year-Long Journey of Open Education

Embark on "The OER Odyssey," a transformative year-long learning series through the realm of Open Educational Resources (OER). Each month for the 2024-25 academic year, we will dive into an OER topic with an online presentation or workshop. Please see the schedule below with links to sign up for sessions and view newsletters, as these become available.

Calendar Links: If you use google calendar, we recommend using the 'Google Cal' links. The links for sessions should download an .ics file for the MS Teams meeting. If this does not work, please email Hilary ( hilary.barker@wtcsystem.edu) and we'll forward on the meeting invite.
If you have any OER-related questions or are in need of technical assistance, please post this to our padlet.
Each newsletter has a faculty spotlight. To nominate a faculty OER champion for this, please use our Google Form .

Connect with us!
To view recordings from prior years, see our Past Symposia page.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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Embark on "The OER Odyssey," a transformative year-long learning series through the realm of Open Educational Resources (OER). Each month for the 2024-25 academic year, we will dive into an OER topic with an online presentation or workshop. Please see the schedule below with links to sign up for sessions and view newsletters, as these become available.

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Providing trainings and resources for AI use (copilot, notebookLM, perplexity) and developing custom copilots for our office

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Academies modified existing LEA curriculum in 2023 to be in compliance with DOJ requirements. WTCS Academies went live with new Department of Justice Law Enforcement Curriculum 7/1/2024.

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Three levels of EMS curricula went through revision and review through workgroups composed of WTCS and non-WTCS training centers. Curriculum was then presented to DHS, who took it through their formal process including board review, subcommittee review, and public feedback process. Curriculum is in the final stages of publishing with DHS.

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Several of the colleges that offer technical diploma programs have reviewed course offerings and have submitted program revisions to WTCS and DSPS based on their individual determinations of diploma requirements to meet the state 360 hours needed for licensing.

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Criminal Justice and Legal Studies/Paralegal are two program areas that have not had regular engagement with the Education Director or with each other. This year we implemented team meetings for both of those areas. Criminal Justice meets quarterly and Legal Studies/Paralegal monthly.

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Leadership Grant - Hybrid & Electric Vehicle Equip $20k/College

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Leadership Grant - Hybrid & Electric Vehicle Equip $20k/College

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Round one of funding launched December 2024, round 2 will start July 1, 2025. $300k+ to fund H/EV equipment, supplies, tools, PPE, etc.

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FY24 WAT grants served 380 different businesses in Wisconsin resulting in over 11,380 upskilled individuals in the Wisconsin workforce!

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Completion of the State Apprenticeship Expansion (SAE2020) grant

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Completion of the State Apprenticeship Expansion (SAE2020) grant

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2024 resulted in the conclusion of the highly successful collaboration of WTCS and BAS in growing Apprenticeship in WI. The 3 year, multi-million dollar grant saw funding for 23 DIS programs in 2024; including 291 Apprentices across 23 Programs (10 Colleges) in 2024 alone!

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Fire Service-ACADIS Online Testing/Paper Exams

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Fire Service-ACADIS Online Testing/Paper Exams

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ACADIS- Online testing platform implemented for all 16 colleges and Milwaukee Fire Training Academy.

-WTCS are the admin for this platform so a-lot of training and work into training college staff on creating classes, enrolling students, requesting exams, administering exams, requesting retesting, unlocking accounts, proctor, fire coordinator training and working directly with students on getting accounts in the system.

-We had a face-to-face meeting with the colleges and ACADIS to help implementation.

-We reviewed and edited exam bank questions with subject matter experts for certifications where data reflected poor performance.

-Created new certification templates with President Layla’s name and signature on them along with created new certifications in the system. Gather final documentation from the colleges and import into the ACADIS system to graduate and issue certifications for students.

-Paper Exams: Creating, Mailing out and Grading Paper exams for all retest that started as paper and Inspector certifications.

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Assistance to Firefighters: FEMA

Worked with Finance and Grants to close out older grants

FY22-Working on closing out

FY23-Awarded over $450,000 for 16 tech colleges for PPE and Equipment.

FY24-Working with colleges on submitting applications. Up to $500,000 can be awarded to the colleges.

State Fire Training Systems: FEMA

FY23: Over $13,000 used for National Fire Academy courses and WTCS Instructor courses at our colleges and Milwaukee Fire Academy.

FY24: Awarded $20,000 for our colleges and Milwaukee Fire Academy to use for National Fire Academy and WTCS Instructor courses.

Hazmat Emergency Preparedness: From Wisconsin Emergency Management.

FY24: Over $80.000 used by our colleges for Hazmat Ops and Technician courses.

FY25: Awarded $89,000 for our colleges to administer Hazmat Ops and Technician courses.

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Fire Service - Practical Exam/Conferences

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Fire Service - Practical Exam/Conferences

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-Coordinated all practical exams at the 16 technical colleges and Milwaukee Fire Academy. Completed Practical site visits at 13 of the 17 approved testing sites.

-Approved 1 new testing site for practical examinations.

- 6 conferences attended: WI Instructor Association, WI Firefighters Association, WI Fire Chiefs Education Association, North American Fire Training Directors, International Fire Service Accreditation.

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Continued work on TCS 10.07 (waitlist). In June, we had the college convening to begin the work of the colleges officially. Since then, the internal workgroup has met regularly to problem solve and host monthly community of practice events. I further work with my dean groups as they navigate the program admission changes.

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Megan and I worked with 14 colleges to get $19,842,523 approved by JCF for dental programs.

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Held a hybrid event for all WTCS nursing faculty (300+) at Northcentral Technical College.