Appendices

Appendix A

Conferences

CAEPA postponed Scheduling this year’s annual conference due to several reasons:

1. Program cuts - AEI defunded 1/2 of all adult ed programs on August 31, 2020.
   • AEFLA Funding: AEI initially released a timeline for the completion of the new AEFLA grant cycle and has not kept to it. The timeline has since been removed from the AEI Prospective Grantees page.
   • The current grant competition is still underway as of October 2020.
   • No determination of grantees has been announced.
   • No funds have been released.
2. AELA Funding: AELA Funding was uncertain as a revised AELA Bill was introduced into the State Legislature.
   • AEI announced a no-cost continuation of AELA Funding in July 2020.
   • This was after guidance for the programs to spend 100% of AELA Funds by July 31, 2020.
3. CAEPA Rendezvous Attendance: Annual conference attendance has been steadily declining for the last 3 years, potentially connected to a lack of State Leadership.
4. COVID-19 uncertainties: Planning for the annual conference would have started in November 2019 - but the above reasons pushed it to January 2020 - and then pandemic added new complexities to the decision making.

Appendix B

Corrective Action Plan

CO Nov 2019 Monitoring Report 05-12-20 (Google PDF)

Appendix C

Problems & Learning Gaps

Colorado adult educators have a mixed outlook, both positive and negative, of the national Student Ambassador model and are not aware of CAEPA’s vision for the new program.

1. Colorado adult educators are curious about the effectiveness of the national adult education Student Ambassador model in other states and if it impacts students’ engagement with programs.
2. Colorado adult educators are not equipped to integrate standards-based content instruction and contextualized learning strategies.
3. Colorado adult education programs and staff are not proficient with online or hybrid instruction and assessment strategies or techniques.
4. Colorado adult education programs and staff are unfamiliar with online or hybrid engagement techniques and are concerned about student performance in these learning models.
5. Colorado adult education programs are unstable due to lack of funding and resources; some also suffer from unsupportive work environments.

Appendix D

Learner Persona 1

Program Segment:
Community College System

Discovery

Kelly holds a Master’s degree in Adult Education and Training. She has been working in adult education for 13 years. Those 13 years of experience consist of work in contexts such as government, non-profit, and higher education settings. All of these contexts were in an administration role, not a teaching role. Following a move from Arizona to Colorado Kelly is currently working as the director of Grant Development and Compliance at the Community College of Denver. Her professional goal is to ensure adult education remains funded in Colorado, especially for at-risk and diverse populations. She is motivated by the belief that individuals deserve the opportunity to flourish into their best self and for all people to have equitable education opportunities. Kelly is currently working from home due to the Covid-19 Pandemic making personal connections more challenging.

Kelly has a general understanding of CAEPA as an organization that provides support to Adult Education in Colorado. She has a more comprehensive familiarity of the National Student Ambassador Programs from her previous work context in Arizona. Based on this previous experience, she is a supporter of Student Ambassador Programs because they help promote awareness of Adult Education within the community, provide powerful personal stories, and give students the opportunity to develop leadership and public speaking skills, especially when meeting with officials or other people in power. She also loves that Student Ambassador Programs give a personal face to the advocacy work that must be done frequently in adult education. Kelly is motivated to be proactive for the betterment of Colorado’s adult education programs.

Immersion

Kelly is someone who would organize, create, and facilitate a Student Ambassador group in her context at the Community College of Denver. In her previous role in Arizona, she received Student Ambassador training. This training included preparing Student Ambassador facilitators to organize student advocacy efforts for additional funding through the state legislature for adult education and to put students’ personal stories behind the need to fund this type of education. At a program level, she saw the advocacy efforts with the Student Ambassador Program result in added funding for adult education allowing for program expansion. With her experience working with Student Ambassadors, she saw participating students gain confidence, make connections, stay engaged in their program, and gain college and career readiness skills. She loves the Student Ambassador Program and is excited for them to become more prevalent in Colorado.

Connection

Kelly is currently not an active facilitator of a Student Ambassador Program due to the lack of their prevalence in Colorado. Although Kelly is passionate about the advocacy results of the Student Ambassador Program, she does not have the knowledge required to initiate a program. She does not know how to develop a curriculum that fosters the students’ advocacy skills. To close this gap, Kelly needs a designed curriculum to implement or training on high-impact practices that will empower students. She also does not have the knowledge of other adult educators in Colorado desiring to implement a Student Ambassador program. Kelly needs an in-person or on-line forum to connect and collaborate with other facilitators as a professional learning community.

Detachment

When considering Kelly’s desire to have increased advocacy for adult education, a need for a Colorado advocacy program. A pathway to this is explicit training on how to start and how to facilitate a Student Ambassador Program. Due to the nature of CAEPA providing aid for sites all around Colorado, this training will be best achieved through an online, module-based training. Module learning would include what the Student Ambassador Program is and its outcomes (supported by research), an example of an active and effective Student Ambassador Program, and a “starting-up” protocol. Open communication between the program facilitators and the CAEPA Student Ambassador Leaders will be required. Advantages of this solution include the remote availability of training, the ability to have actionable steps presented, and combination of personal-connection and technology-based training. A main disadvantage of this solution is the lack of student-student interaction available within the learning experience. A consequence of this solution could be that some resulting Student Ambassador Programs may be started, but not upkept and maintained.

Appendix E

Learner Persona 2

Program Segment:
Corrections

Discovery

Nadine was working as a case manager and job coach for formerly incarcerated men and women while earning their bachelors and master’s degrees. They also obtained a Teacher License for Elementary Education (Grades: K-6); but soon after they felt a calling to return back to Adult Education. Nadine stated, “After all, there is a generational problem; if the parents aren’t doing well, the children aren’t doing well.”

Nadine taught Adult Education classes at two non-profit agencies before transitioning into a corrections setting to teach Adult Education classes. They have experience teaching Adult Education classes for the Colorado Department of Corrections (CDOC) and a College Preparatory curriculum for the Denver Women’s Correctional Facility (DWCF).

When Nadine was asked “what is unique about your specific reality”, they responded by stating, “My students are incarcerated…” Nadine continued to explain why their learners are incarcerated and the benefits that their instruction provides. Nadine identified a loss of conventional and effective learning opportunities in the learners’ past as a common cause leading to the learners incarceration. It is their belief that through Adult Education classes their students not only obtain basic educational skills but also acquire self-esteem and confidence when they experience success in the classroom. Nadine see’s these outcomes leading incarcerated learners to develop workplace skills and into career training which ultimately leads to meaningful employment and a decrease in the probability of returning to prison.

Immersion

Nadine has many roles within their organizational setting, and as such values their personal time. They expressed sheer joy at their new work schedules which now include 4 10-hour days. Nadine maintains a network of community agencies that provide services to help aid people reentering society, in addition to their direct instruction responsibilities. Currently, their classrooms are transitioning back to small in-person sessions on an alternating block schedule.

To fully immerse into the CDOC, Nadine points to the organization’s mission, which in part states, “holding offenders accountable and engaging them in opportunities to make positive behavioral changes and become law-abiding, productive citizens.” Again, Nadine expresses joy in the fact that the CDOC is moving from punitive practices to teaching, counseling, and guiding practices. Conversely, Nadine feels that the CDOC has an ingrained militaristic nature and a chain of command which adds frustration when new ideas are not heard or are outright ignored.

Connection

Nadine is a dedicated professional with a working knowledge of classroom technology that does not depend on the internet, which inmates are not allowed to access. This is a point of frustration which prevents Nadine from building new skills related to technology and inhibits their learner’s from practicing and developing essential workplace skills. But like most educators, Nadine can be very innovative and makes the most of the equipment and supplies they do have.

Nadine has a personal desire to learn to use modern web applications and to improve their instructional abilities through improved lesson design. As the CDOC is placing more emphasis on standards based instruction, as well as career and technical education, these changes also become a learning opportunity for Nadine. They expressed this transition has added pressure and they receive little support internally.

Training needs extend beyond growth in skills and knowledge for Nadine and move into environmental problems. They encounter daily frustrations, internal conflicts, and work-place politics. All these can be daunting, demoralizing, and can affect their disposition in the classroom. It would be helpful to have training in areas of coping and self-care. Having worked in similar stressful environments, internal team building may also help improve this working environment.

Detachment

Moving forward with Student Ambassadors, Nadine would face an uphill battle. A new program not conforming to practice implemented by the chain of command may be a challenge. However, Nadine has a desire to learn new instructional strategies, is dedicated to serving their learners, and CDOC goals are shifting to better prepare student learners for reentry. This combination of alignments to Student Ambassadors may allow aspects of it to develop. We would need to ensure the learning objectives, included in our design, are clearly aligned to and support College and Career Readiness Standards in order to be successful in the CDOC.

Additionally, we may consider incorporating Career Conversations, published by the American School Counselor Association, into the list of topics supported through the Student Ambassador program. This may help CDOC buy into the program through more explicit development of workplace related skills, in turn supporting Nadine.

Nadine may best benefit from live training, allowing them to network in person with like minds, and may bring a breath of fresh air in comparison to their organizational environment. The downside to a live training is it may reduce access for other programs to participate, as this is a state-wide program. However, Nadine also has a desire to improve their personal digital literacy skills which could be supported through an online platform. Through virtual training, our design should contain an element of synchronous learning in order to best support Nadine. In designing for Nadine, I would see either learning solution benefiting them.

When stepping back and considering learning objectives for the Student Ambassadors program, the learning solution needs to include instructional strategies and practices in order to support Nadine. We would also need to ensure those objectives help meet the overall Student Ambassador program goals. This would allow the Student Ambassador program to be flexible enough to support both programs and student learners, having the maximum impact and advocacy outreach.

Appendix F

Adult Educator Survey

Source: Adult Educator Survey (Google Form)

Campaign benchmarking, of 747 recipients

	This campaign	Campaign average	Industry average
Open Rate	158 (22.7%)	29.0%	37.7%
Click rate	37 (5.3%)	7.2%	6.2%

52 messages bounced
20 responded

Appendix G

Journey Map

Program Segment:
Corrections

Instructional Experience:

Nadine holds an Elementary education teaching license (K-6), and currently is employed with the Colorado Department of Corrections where she has spent 5 years instructing adult education classes. Nadine’s prior experience includes 3 years of teaching adult education for non-profit organizations and has 2 years of experience in elementary education.

Goals/Motivation:

Nadine has a personal desire to learn to use modern web applications and to improve their instructional abilities through improved lesson design. As the CDOC is placing more emphasis on standards based instruction, as well as career and technical education, these changes also become a learning opportunity for Nadine. She expressed this transition has added pressure and receives little support internally.

Full Journy Map (Google PDF)

Appendix H

High-Impact Practices

1. First-Year Seminars and Experiences
2. Common Intellectual Experiences
3. Learning Communities
4. Writing-Intensive Courses
5. Collaborative Assignments and Projects
6. Undergraduate Research
7. Diversity/Global Learning
8. ePortfolios
9. Service Learning, Community-Based Learning
10. Internships
11. Capstone Courses and Projects

Source: (Association of American Colleges & Universities, 2008)

Appendix I

Potential Marketing

Ambassador Leaders
Lead in the Classroom

As an adult educator, your experience in Ambassador Leaders will support your professional growth and provide a professional community to collaborate and find support in. With access to adult education vendors, microlearning courses, and a supportive professional community, educators will be inspired to advocate and transform the landscape of Colorado’s Adult Education — while building new strategies to support adult learners’ achievement.

Supporting Student Ambassadors

• Nominate: Recognize your student leaders...
• Develop: Work with student leaders…
• Connect: Advocate at the National, State, and Local level...

Supporting Adult Education

• Ambassadors: Let your voices be heard!
• Professional learning: Opportunities to build your knowledge and skills...
• Networking and community: Supporting professional relationships...

Resources:

• Ambassador Leaders, For Teachers
• COABE, Adult Educator Ambassadors
• COABE, Student Ambassadors
• COABE, Ambassador Training
• Teacher powered, Teacher Ambassadors
• U.S. Department of Education, School Ambassadors

Appendix J

Storyboard