OAE Awarded UPCEA Program of Excellence
by Teresa Crane | Tuesday, Dec 06, 2022
Florida Atlantic University (FAU) Office of Appreciative Education’s (OAE) Live! Virtual Appreciative Advising Institute (AAI) was awarded the 2022 UPCEA Program of Excellence: Noncredit Award, which recognizes a program that makes an impact on professional, continuing and online education in a unique manner. The program was nominated by FAU Center for Online and Continuing Education and accepted by Ashley Brannan, OAE Coordinator, on behalf of OAE.
UPCEA is the leading association for online and professional continuing education. The association supports its members at leading public and private colleges and universities in North America with innovative conferences and specialty seminars, research and benchmarking information, professional networking opportunities and timely publications.
Since moving to a virtual platform in Summer 2020, the AAI program has experienced a significant increase in attendees, which ultimately benefits college students and others served at participating institutions. The move to a virtual online delivery mode enabled a 33% cut in the registration fee, which has made AAI more affordable, equitable and accessible for participants around the world. In particular, the number of participants from programs, such as TRIO and community colleges whose mission is to serve underrepresented and underserved populations, has dramatically increased. Virtual AAIs also make it financially possible for institutions to enroll entire advising teams, which allows institutions to provide consistent, high-quality advising to all of their students. The enrollment growth reflects the scope of position types represented by participants attending an AAI, as well as diversification in both institutional type (i.e., 2-year, 4-year, international) and geographic location. The addition of a virtual AAI allows OAE to celebrate trained participants utilizing the Appreciative Advising framework at over 700 institutions across 6 continents, including all 50 U.S. states, six provinces in Canada and 25 other countries around the world.
“The Office of Appreciative Education team celebrates this honor with our many facilitators and volunteers who make the Live! Virtual Appreciative Advising Institute possible. We are most proud of the ability to make this training available to many more participants who desire to adopt a strengths-based, Appreciative approach to their important work at institutions across the globe,” Amanda Propst Cuevas, Ph.D., Director. Office of Appreciative Education.
The 2023 Virtual AAIs are scheduled for May 15-18, June 12-15, & July 17-20. For details, visit http://syzx.outodo.com/education/centersandprograms/oae/aai/
Appreciative Education is an organizational and individual framework for creating a culture with high standards that embraces ongoing learning, change and improvement. It provides an intentional and generative approach to bettering educational enterprises by focusing on the strengths and potential of individuals and organizations to accomplish their co-created goals. Beneath the Appreciative Education umbrella are a host of theory-to-practice frameworks designed to optimize organizational and individual performances, including Appreciative Advising, Appreciative College Instruction, Appreciative Administration, and more.