Workshops and Trainings

Build confidence turning data into insight.

Data-Informed Advising: Finding the Students Who Need You Most

Covers how to use existing institutional data to identify at-risk students proactively -- before a crisis -- including how to structure alerts, flags, and outreach lists without spending hours on manual review.

From Messy to Meaningful: Data Cleaning and Merging in Excel

Most advising data comes out of systems in a format that isn't ready to use. This session walks teams through combining data from multiple sources, fixing common formatting issues, and building a spreadsheet that actually answers questions.

Pivot Tables (For People Who've Always Been Scared of Pivot Tables)

No prior experience needed. Participants learn to summarize large data sets, spot patterns, and build the kind of quick breakdowns that used to require a data analyst -- in under an hour!

Your First Dashboard: Turning a Spreadsheet into a Story

Learn how to build a simple, readable dashboard using Excel or Power BI basics -- one your supervisor can actually understand and your team will actually use.

Make your day-to-day work more efficient with tech tools you already have.

Where Does It Break? Process Mapping and Automation for Advising Workflows

Most office inefficiencies aren't mysteries; they just haven't been drawn out yet. This workshop guides teams through visually mapping a real workflow they use every day, identifying where things slow down, get dropped, or require unnecessary manual effort, and then exploring which parts can be automated using tools they already have.

Stop Doing That Manually: Intro to Power Automate for Advising Offices

A practical walkthrough of how Power Automate can handle repetitive tasks like sending follow-up emails, updating trackers, and routing forms without anyone having to remember to do it.

Connected Tools: Getting Excel, Teams, and SharePoint to Work Together

Many teams use these tools in isolation when they could be sharing data automatically. This session shows how to link them so information flows where it needs to go without copy-paste.

Forms That Actually Work: Designing Intake and Tracking Systems

Walk through building smart intake forms and automated reports that collect the right information, route it to the right people, and reduce the back-and-forth that slows teams down.

Demystify AI and explore tools that make work easier -- not harder.

AI in the Advising Office: What It Can Do, What It Can't, and How to Start

A grounded, jargon-free introduction to AI tools: what they're actually useful for in higher ed advising contexts, where to be cautious, and how to build ethical, sustainable habits around using them.

Better Prompts, Better Results: Using Generative AI for Everyday Work Tasks

Hands-on practice writing prompts for real advising tasks like drafting outreach emails, summarizing notes, generating templates, and thinking through problems.

Building a Bot for Your Office: Intro to Custom AI Assistants

An accessible introduction to building a simple AI assistant trained on your office's own policies and resources. Designed for teams with no coding background who want to explore what's possible.

Learn practical ways to organize, collect, and share information.

The Microsoft 365 Ecosystem: How the Pieces Actually Fit Together

Excel, Forms, SharePoint, Lists, Power Automate -- most teams use these separately (if at all) when they're actually designed to connect. This session gives a practical overview of how the Microsoft 365 tools you already have can work together to reduce manual work and keep information flowing across your office.

Building a Shared Tracking System Your Whole Team Will Actually Use

Covers how to design a shared tracker in Excel or SharePoint that multiple people can update without breaking each other's work.

Reporting Without a Data Team: Pulling and Presenting Your Own Metrics

Designed for teams who need to show their impact but don't have a dedicated analyst. Covers how to pull key metrics from your own platforms, organize them, and present findings to leadership in a clear, compelling format.

Make your materials work harder for you and your students.

Designing Digital Resources Students Actually Use

A Canvas page or advising guide is only useful if students can find what they need in it. This workshop covers the basics of designing clear, navigable digital resources from Canvas course pages to supplemental advising guides. Making intentional choices about document design, structure, and language can reduce confusion and help students get the support they need.

Student-Friendly Web Design: Making Your Resources Actually Findable

Covers the basics of designing webpages and resource hubs with students in mind. Make a plan to move toward clear navigation, plain language, and layouts that answer questions before students have to email you to ask them.

From Chaos to Clarity: Building a Digital Training Manual That Doesn't Collect Dust

Learn how to structure and design a living, searchable digital manual that new staff can actually navigate without it becoming a 40-tab SharePoint nightmare that no one updates.

Designing an Advisor Onboarding Experience from Scratch

Walks through how to build an onboarding guide that's organized, visually clear, and gives new advisors what they need to feel confident -- whether that's a website, a document, or a structured folder system.