DREAM Studios are two-hour workshops where 
experts dive into effective practices to support your work and advance the field. Presentations focus attention on critical elements for advancing student success.
DREAM Studios will take place Tuesday, February 15, 11:00 A.M. - 1:00 P.M. ET. All registered DREAM 2022 attendees may sign up for an additional fee.
Registration Fee:
$75 per workshop for in-Network Colleges
$100 for out-of-Network attendees.
Tapping the Power of Open Pedagogy and Digital Tools to Create a Sense of Belonging and Increase Academic Success
Join this DREAM Studio for a hands-on exploration of how to use open pedagogy and digital tools to advance equity in student learning. Using ATD’s new Culturally Relevant Teaching with OER Faculty Resource Guide as a framework, session attendees will learn how the flexibility of openly licensed content, paired with culturally responsive and other equity-focused teaching practices, can be used to create a sense of belonging and deliver powerful, student-centered learning experiences, whether in the classroom or online.
The Culturally Relevant Teaching with OER Faculty Resource Guide showcases tools, classroom strategies, examples from the field, and curated resources that provide an alternative to the traditional white and Euro-centric learning content found in most academic textbooks. Using course content that can be freely revised and remixed to reflect the interests, ethnicities, and cultural backgrounds of all students can be a powerful way to deepen learners’ engagement with and connection to their learning. This session is ideal for faculty, faculty developers, instructional designers, library staff, and other college staff interested in learning how to design and deliver equitable and innovative instruction.
Driving Anti-racism, Equity, and Economic Mobility – and Measuring our Success
As institutions of learning, credentialing and economic mobility for a student population that is 50% ethnically and racially minoritized, community colleges play an essential role in catalyzing equitable and economically vibrant communities. However, for this to be achieved, institutions must commit to a thoughtful process of direct influence that starts with seeing and understanding local communities in new ways, improving educational access and affordability for historically marginalized populations, and tracking the right institutional and community metrics to ensure progress and success.
Learning from several large-scale community collaboratives and drawing from a new ATD data guide, participants will explore a) institutional measures of access, affordability, and student progression for tracking timely completion and upward mobility and b) vibrancy metrics that can help colleges and their partners measure impact in their community over time. Several resources for understanding the latest workforce trends and creating urgency for new partnerships among employers, colleges, and community leaders will be shared as well ATD’s new data guide.
Reimagining Access Strategies that Stabilize Enrollments and Provide a Pipeline Through Higher Education for Minoritized and Underserved Populations
Colleges that are serious about finding and serving the students who need us the most are thinking holistically and broadly about equitable access – as much more than just opening doors. As a first step they are examining their data and seeking new sources of information to better understand who is coming to college and who is not, as well as who is being well-served by the college and who is not. By embracing this new access agenda, they are building a new pipeline for the talent that is being lost in our communities while also paving the way to sustainability for colleges and the long-term recovery in the neighborhoods that need it the most. Drawing from examples in the field, participants will explore ways to identify, recruit, and serve overlooked and underserved students, reclaim others lost during Covid, and consider the restructuring of college policies and practices necessary to support their attainment of credentials.
Identifying and Dismantling Systemic Barriers to Success for Student Parents
Student parents are most often adult learners and minoritized. Investing in the postsecondary success of the one in four community college students who are parents is one of the most effective strategies for accelerating families’ economic and social mobility and addressing longstanding societal inequalities. Yet, our colleges are not typically designed to support the success of these students and the many intersecting identities they hold. Helping student parents navigate the college experience requires institutions to look closely at their structures, policies, and processes that impact this population of students.
In this session ATD will showcase a new process that can be used with institutions to realize strengths and areas of opportunity in their efforts to support student parent success. Participants will engage with colleagues from an exemplar institution that has designed supports for student parents, explore strategies that can be implemented to meet the needs of student parents. and leave with actionable steps that are tailored to their institution and student parent population.