Theme & Strands
Trust Your Process: Making Community and Finding Support in a Changing World
During times of transition nothing is more important than trust - finding the people you trust, building community grounded in trust, and trusting your process, your decisions, and yourself.
We invite you to join ACTLA this year to share your expertise, your process, and build community and trust with our membership.
Here comes the sun, learn how we rebuild trust, find energy, and center ourselves in our purpose during a changing world
Motivation
During times of change we find leadership in the ability to motivate others while also motivating ourselves. As new technologies arise (think GenAI) and as higher education evolves, we are interested in exploring how staff and faculty motivate their teams or themselves and how tutors and peer educators motivate their students in learning spaces.
Guiding questions:
How do you motivate & stay motivated?
What tutoring/peer learning strategies motivate student learning? What are you doing to empower and be empowered in sessions?
Program Design
As the world evolves, so does the student we serve with our programs. We are interested in hearing stories and strategies about offices adapting their programs to better meet the needs of students now. We are interested in how peer educators are being developed as leaders in college so that they are ready to lead when they graduate. We are interested in learning how tutors and peer educators design their tutoring sessions to provide their students skills to become independent learners.
Guiding Questions:
As program leads, how are you reimagining services during time of change? How do you gather data, brainstorm change, and implement it? How do you know if the changes are working?
How are peer educators leaders in your center?
Tutors/Peer Educators, how do you develop sessions that help the learning stick?
When there is so much change, we are often tempted to retreat and isolate. We are interested in hearing stories and strategies how programs, staff, faculty, and students combat silos and build trust and community. We are interested to learn how staff and faculty work collaboratively with campus partners to develop programs to better support students outcomes. We are interested in learning how tutors and peer educators build and maintain trust and community in their tutoring sessions.
Guiding Questions:
How do you build trust with faculty, staff, students, and tutors?
How do you find your champions? How do you become a champion?
How do tutors/peer educators help students be vulnerable in sessions to create opportunities to learn?
Community and Collaboration
Evaluation and Advocacy Through Data
“If you don’t tell your story, someone else will!” Working in spaces that value data, we are interested in hearing stories from programs about how they use data to support their program’s focus or advocacy efforts. We are curious to hear stories how feedback (either formal or informal) is integrated into program design. We are interested in learning how tutors and peer educators gather feedback and implement it in their sessions.
Guiding Questions:
How does data support your program’s focus or advocacy efforts? How does it support campus wide efforts or initiatives?
How does informal feedback play a role in your story and how you design programs?
Tutors and Peer Educators, how do you use feedback to plan future sessions?
Developing Professionals in 2026
Conference Strands
“Hi, are you new here!?” Welcome to the wonderful, curious, innovative world of Academic Support Services! These strands are JUST for you to ask questions, generate ideas, and learn best practices from folks in the field who established a legacy or are just starting off. We are interested in hearing stories from staff on the best practices, tips, tricks, and resources staff used to help them be successful. We are also interested in learning from tutors and peer educators what they have learned in their first term tutoring and sharing that knowledge with staff and new tutors and peer educators.
Guiding Questions:
What best practices, tips or tricks have you learned that help you feel successful in your role?
How do you balance supervising students while also helping them develop as peer educators?
What is your training program like for new staff, new tutors or new peer educators?
Tutors and Peer Educators, what have you learned in your first term supporting students that you want to share with others?
Conference Session Formats
Interactive Workshops
Workshops should center around collaborative audience activities and application of a tool or approach related to a conference strand. Total 60 mins.
Lightning Round
15-20 min “burst” of learning/information/presentation, with remaining time for application, metacognitive activity, or audience discussion. Total 30 mins.
Roundtable
A main speaker serves as a field expert to answer/participate in dialogue around prepared questions around a conference strand. This should be an interactive discussion rather than a lecture style presentation. Total 60 mins.
We are looking to have more roundtable workshops at this conference!