Session Description: Author of The Flourishing Student, Ms. Vailes will discuss the elements required and the process by which we can create a flourishing environment in higher education for all community members--students, staff, faculty and administrators. This session will include time for audience reflection and discussion about flourishing at SMCM. We highly encourage everyone from the SMCM community to attend this talk. Lunch will be provided for on-site participants who register by August 8th. Registrants after August 8th are welcome to lunch as supplies allow.

Attendees are encouraged to complete an online assessment prior to the keynote session and to save their results to reflect upon and share if they wish: https://flourishingeducation.co.uk/homenew/online-assessment/.

In this session, Dr. Gurbisz describes her experiences using ungrading in various environmental studies classes, including both quantitative and writing/discussion-intensive courses.

In this session participants learned about what specifications grading is (and is not), including a discussion about when setting mastery level goals is appropriate. Multiple SMCM instructors discussed their experiences with specifications grading in their classes.

Session description: As we are poised to begin a new academic structure, now is a good time to discuss what we want to learn from this year's implementation. This session is offered as a critical beginning step in understanding the instructor experience during this academic year, and to help inform future evidence-gathering measures.

Our new Director of Accessibility Services, Dana Kieran, shares her work at Longwood University studying the effectiveness of a summer bridge program in promoting student sense of belonging and preparing for self-advocacy in their new academic environment. Application of these findings to future initiatives at SMCM will be discussed.

The new matrix might have some instructors considering a flipped classroom approach. This session will discuss ways to manage videos and response forms as outside-of-class tasks, which may be included in engaged learning activities.