Employee Education | Barton Community College

Welcome to the Employee Education page! In the following sections, you will find links to a variety of resources that supports staff and faculty in the pursuit of professional development. Explore below to find the right resource for you. Should you be interested in a specific topic but don't see any offering, please reach out to us. Centerstaff@bartonccc.edu.

Have you created an online courses recently? Maybe you completed OER Certification? The processes for creating/certifying such a course offers endless opportunities for professional development. Please take a few minutes to submit the Professional Development Reporting Form. You can lump multiple courses into one submission or submit individually.

The Center for Learning Excellence wants to hear from you! CLICK HERE, answer six questions, and help us provide the service and resources you need. The survey takes approximately four minutes to complete. Thank you!

November

From Access to Excellence: Developing Community College Students to Compete, Lead, and Thrive in Higher Education and the Workforce FREE | Thursday, November 5
Identify evidence-based instructional and developmental practices that strengthen student confidence, academic identity, and persistence among community college learners. Design learning experiences that intentionally prepare students for successful transfer, workforce advancement, graduate education, and leadership opportunities. Evaluate strategies that foster academic rigor while maintaining inclusive, student-centered learning environments that support diverse community college populations.

KSU Heartland AI Symposium $ On KSU Campus | Tuesday thru Thursday, November 10-12
The Heartland AI Symposium is a hybrid, three-day, regional, interdisciplinary event that brings together students, faculty, educators, industry professionals and community members to explore how artificial intelligence is shaping education, agriculture, business, creativity and everyday life. Through engaging keynote talks, hands-on workshops, live demonstrations and community town halls, participants learn how to use AI tools responsibly while examining their ethical, social and environmental impacts. The symposium welcomes beginners and experienced users alike, creating an open space for learning, discussion and collaboration across disciplines such as the humanities, computer science, agriculture and library sciences.

The AI-Fluent University: Innovation Without Losing Your Voice FREE | Tuesday, November 17
AI fluency is quickly becoming an essential skill for students entering the workforce, but as generative AI becomes embedded in learning, teaching and work, higher education faces a new challenge: how do we embrace its potential without sacrificing the individuality and authenticity that make students, educators and institutions distinctive? In this conversation, leaders from DeVry University and Hyland explore what responsible AI adoption looks like across the student experience, from rethinking traditional assessments and preparing graduates to stand out in an AI-enabled workforce to using AI thoughtfully to improve institutional efficiency and help keep education accessible. The discussion will examine how institutions can prepare students for an AI-first future while preserving human judgment, authentic voice and the context that gives higher education its value.

Conflict Management in the Workplace $ | Tuesday, November 10 & Tuesday, November 17, Live Zoom
This interactive workshop equips participants with practical tools to recognize, understand, and manage workplace conflict before it escalates. Through self-assessments, reflection activities, real-world scenarios, and discussion, participants will explore the different types and sources of workplace conflict, identify their personal conflict management style, and learn strategies for addressing disagreements constructively.

Beyond AI Detection: Rethinking Teaching, Learning, and Assessment FREE | Wednesday, November 18 at 4:00pm CT
Presenter: Dr. John Mack This session is part of the Instructional Excellence Series.
The growing presence of artificial intelligence in higher education challenges some of our longstanding assumptions about teaching, learning, and assessment. Rather than focusing primarily on detecting or preventing AI use, what happens when we begin by asking what our students actually need to learn and how we can best help them develop those skills? This session begins with a reflection on how teaching practices have evolved and why AI requires us to reconsider both our role as educators and the purpose of assessment. We will examine some familiar assumptions about assignments and academic integrity that may no longer serve us well, then turn to practical examples of how AI can be integrated as a learning partner rather than simply a shortcut to completing work. Participants will leave with concrete approaches to designing and assessing assignments that encourage critical thinking, independent judgment, and meaningful intellectual engagement—strategies they can adapt to their own disciplines and classrooms.

The Value Equation: Why We Choose What We Choose FREE | Wednesday, November 18, 2026
The term "value" is used everywhere and often, especially in a business setting. You may not use the term as much at home, but it still drives your choices - from what you purchase to whether you go to an event to which you've been invited. The evaluation of value is so tied into our thinking processes that we probably never take time to actually consider what drives that thinking. In this webinar, we will.

Leading Academic Integrity in Challenging Times: Donuts, Dollars & Degrees FREE | Wednesday, November 18, 2026
This panel of post-secondary leaders will provide insights on Academic Integrity from an institutional perspective. They will address how institutional expectations, values, and communications may or may not align with students’ view and knowledge about integrity as well as how policies and practices advance or hinder working with integrity

The AI-Resistant Pedagogy Studio: An Interactive Toolkit for Assignment Redesign FREE | Thursday, November 19
By the end of this webinar, participants will be able to evaluate existing course assignments using UDL and POUR principles to identify digital accessibility barriers and AI vulnerabilities. By the end of this webinar, participants will be able to apply a 4-step redesign framework to transform product-based prompts into process-oriented, multi-modal assessments that foster authentic learning. By the end of this webinar, participants will be able to construct an actionable plan and utilize faculty quick-guides to implement AI-resistant, accessible teaching strategies across their courses or departments.

Generational Collaboration $ | Thursday, November 19, Wichita, KS
Explore how different generations bring unique perspectives, strengths, and expectations to the workplace. This session helps leaders bridge generational gaps and foster inclusive, productive teams.

The Future Of Dual Enrollment: A Conversation With Community College Leadership FREE | On Demand
Dual enrollment has become a critical part of community college enrollment strategy, K-12 partnerships, and student success. As programs grow, how can colleges expand access while creating strong, equitable pathways to college and career success? Discuss emerging opportunities and challenges, balancing access and quality, strengthening K-12 partnerships, and creating more intentional pathways that support students from high school through college.

Leading With Confidence: How To Speak With Purpose, Presence & Impact FREE | On Demand
Strong communication skills are essential for professional success—but confidence doesn’t always come naturally. This engaging, hands-on session empowers participants to communicate with clarity, presence, and purpose in meetings, presentations, and day-to-day interactions. Through expert instruction, real-time practice, and personalized feedback, attendees will learn how to speak assertively and authentically while managing nervousness and overcoming common communication barriers. Whether you're leading teams, presenting ideas, or contributing in group settings, this program offers proven techniques to help you build confidence, increase credibility, and make a lasting impact.

Using AI Responsibly: Practical Strategies For Studying, Note-Taking & Staying Organized FREE | On Demand
This session is designed for college students but is also valuable for faculty, staff, advisors, counselors, and others who support student success. The content can be shared directly with students or used by professionals to better understand the growing impact of gambling and gambling-like activities on college campuses.

October Instructional Excellence Series FREE | On Demand
In our October session, we will explore resources available to faculty that support effective teaching, course development, and student success. Brandon Steinert, Instructor and Faculty Council Chair, will join us to chat about the resources Faculty Council put together for faculty. Claudia Mather, Dean of Strategic Enrollment Management, will discuss the resources the Center for Learning Excellence has for faculty and Barton’s Instructional Standards.

December

2027 Planning Sprint FREE | Tuesday, December 1
Answer the critical questions your leadership team needs before the new year. Separate real strategic priorities from a collection of projects and goals. Use the Drivers Model to move from strategic thinking to implementation.

Intro to Facilitating Groups: The Basics FREE | Thursday, December 10
Use the 6 Ps of Preparation to design meetings with a clear purpose and outcome. Apply the IEEI Model to engage participants from the first minute. Learn the real difference between leading a meeting and facilitating one.

What Are You Thinking? The Importance of Mindset in Technical Leadership FREE | December 10, 2026
This seminar explores how mindset influences decision-making, leadership effectiveness, stakeholder support, and organizational performance. Join Rick Cameron, PhD, PE, CPEM as he draws on research in cognitive bias, perceptual blindness, decision-making, and leadership to examine how leaders can recognize hidden assumptions, broaden their perspective, and make more intentional choices. Participants will leave with practical tools, including the PAUSE framework, to strengthen judgment, encourage constructive dialogue, and lead with greater confidence and effectiveness.

Lowering the Threat Without Lowering the Bar: Helping Students Meet High Expectations Through Intentional Course Design FREE | Monday, December 14
This highly interactive webinar explores how intentional course design can reduce unnecessary barriers to learning while preserving academic rigor. Drawing upon educational psychology, learning science, and evidence-based teaching practices, participants will examine how course design, instructor communication, assignment structure, and classroom climate influence student confidence, engagement, and persistence. Through authentic classroom examples, guided reflection, interactive polling, and practical application, faculty will identify strategies that improve clarity, reduce unnecessary cognitive overload, and foster greater student success without compromising academic expectations. This webinar demonstrates how thoughtful instructional design creates clearer pathways for students to meet challenging expectations.

The New TRIO Director’s Playbook: Leading Your Program With Confidence FREE | On Demand
Stepping into the role of a TRIO director is exciting, but there is a lot to learn. From supporting students and leading staff to managing budgets, meeting federal requirements, documenting services, and demonstrating program impact, new directors are often asked to master multiple responsibilities at once.

Running Hybrid Meetings that Actually Work FREE | On Demand
Discover how to create hybrid meetings that are engaging, inclusive and result-driven

AI without the Hype FREE | On Demand
Practical Ways Artificial Intelligence Can Make Everyday Life Easier

High Impact Communication FREE | On Demand
This session looks at communication tools for high performing project teams

January

Spring Cougar TALEs!
January 6th and 7th | More Information Coming Soon!

Operational Management Under Pressure: Lessons from Kansas City’s COVID‑19 Response FREE | January 2027
More Information Coming Soon!

Postplagiarism: A Conceptual Framework for Graduate Student Authorship and Assessment FREE | Wednesday, Jamuary 13
his presentation applies the postplagiarism framework (Eaton, 2023) as a creative pedagogy for graduate education, arguing that responsible AI use demands a distinct set of competencies that programs must actively develop. Drawing on three core tenets of the framework that hybrid human-AI writing is becoming the norm, that humans retain full responsibility for their work even when relinquishing control to AI tools, and that responsible hybrid writing requires explicit attribution and transparency, we identify four graduate competencies this approach develops: critical curation, AI ethics literacy, scholarly voice and identity, and metacognitive transparency. We propose three indicators for evaluating authorial development in this context: the quality of students’ disclosure of AI involvement, demonstrated retention of intellectual responsibility, and institutional cultures that support rather than merely police AI use.

AI Without Losing the Writer: Teaching Students to Make Better Decisions With AI FREE | Monday, January 25
Generative AI is already part of many students’ writing processes, but students do not always recognize when AI is supporting their work and when it has begun doing the intellectual work for them. This webinar moves beyond the question of whether students use AI and focuses instead on the decisions they make while using it. Participants will examine common ways students use generative AI, consider how students determine what they believe is acceptable use, and explore strategies for teaching purposeful AI decision-making. Practical examples will include instructor modeling, assignment-specific AI expectations, brief AI-use documentation and reflection, early-stage idea mapping and conferences, and process checkpoints that make student thinking more visible.

February

What Do We Mean by Academic Integrity? FREE | Monday, February 22
We propose to understand acting with academic integrity as standing before others and with others, firmly but non-dogmatically, to protect the integrity of academic practice and, therefore, its internal goods –which are not always readily specifiable but nevertheless related to growth, learning, and knowledge production and sharing. This view differs from others that take academic integrity as compliance with rules and procedures of academic institutions, or as a general virtue closely related to honesty, that simply happens to be applied in academic settings. Some implications of our view include the fact that not cheating or breaking rules of academic institutions is not enough for acting with academic integrity. There is a need to be aware of and collectively resist internal and external –including societal– pressures and threats, and of the demands on academic institutions and organisations to promote democratic climates that allow all their members to speak up, and to favour democratic-educative over causal-objective approaches –such as incentive-based and cheating-proof designs– to protect the integrity of academic practice.

March

Heads We Win, Tails You Lose: AI Detectors in Education FREE | Thursday, March 25
Many institutions still rely on AI detectors to identify unauthorised generative AI use in student work. This session argues that these tools are methodologically flawed, conceptually unsound, and procedurally unjust when used in academic integrity processes. Vendors test their detectors on student writing produced before generative AI was widely available, but offer no evidence that this writing is comparable to what students write today. They also release products without benchmark testing, independent evaluation or a published methodology. A worked example shows that a detector's false positive rate cannot tell a marker how likely it is that a flagged paper was AI-generated unless the base rate is already known, which is the very thing the marker is trying to find out. The session then looks at the methods staff use to back up a detector's result, such as running work through several detectors, generating a comparison text, asking a chatbot whether it wrote the work, searching for supposed linguistic markers, and hiding prompt traps in assessment instructions. None of these provides independent evidence. The session closes with the principles of procedural fairness that should govern any allegation, including where the burden of proof lies, advance notice of documentation requirements, and the right to silence. It also examines the difficulty of defining when an assessment begins, and the false assumption that a text is either wholly human-written or wholly AI-generated.

Cougar TALEs - Past Sessions

Fall 2026
Fall 2026 College Updates - Recording
Artificial Intelligence and Accessibility - Recording
Working Under Pressure: Keeping Your Cool When the Pressure is High - Recording
Have you met... Student Support Services - Recording
Turnitin Clarity Training - Recording
Meeting Makeover - Recording
Navigating Conflict and Difficult Conversations - Recording
Making Course Assessment Work for You - Recording
All-Faculty Meeting - Recording
Academic Coaching - Recording
Francis Financial Services - Recording
Aflac Supplemental Insurance - Recording
Advanced Therapy - Recording

Fall 2025
College Updates
All-Faculty Meeting
Serving the High School Student - Karly Little, Director of Early College Opportunities
Navigating Academic Integrity | Handout - Dr. Stephanie Joiner, Dean of Academics, Nolan Esfeld, Director of Student Academic Development, Lee Miller, Director of Innovation and Compliance
Course Assessment Open Lab - Kurt Konda, Instructor, OAC and Outcomes Assessment Committee Member
Canvas+Lab - Curt Rose, Educational Technologist and Megan Scheiffelbein, Director of Learning Design
Institutional Advancement - Lindsey Bogner, Executive Director of Institutional Advancement
Emotional Intelligence | Handout - Dr. Rachel Dolecheck, Assistant Professor of Business Communications at FHSU
Francis Financial Services - Leslie Klug, Financial Advisor
Essential Skills - Dr. Kathy Kottas, Dean of Workforce Training and Community Education and guests
Have you met… - Advisement, Testing Services, Veteran Services, Career Services

Fall 2024
Recording - Handout 1 - Handout 2 | Artificial Intelligence - Integrity Council Sub-Team
Recording | Let's Talk YuJu - Diana Hernandez, YuJu Representative
Recording | College Updates
Recording - Handout | Generations in the Workplace - Dr. Rachel Dolecheck, DBA
Recording - Handout | TALEs from the Data Side: How to Make Course Assessment Data Work for You - Kurt Konda
Recording | OER Sharing a New Perspective - Lee Miller
Recording | All Faculty Meeting
Recording | H5P Smart Import
Recording | Have you met... Linn Hogg - VIA & RSVP Director, Ray Kruse – Project Director of EOC, Melissa Feist – Coordinator of Adult Education

January 2024
Student Authenticity: Best Practices– Claudia Mather and Curtis Rose
Essential Skills: The Why, What and Where – Janet Balk, Deanna Heier, Nolan Esfeld

August 2023
Long Live CATS | Handout – Kurt Konda
Managing Stress and Burnout | Handout – Dr. Rose Helens-Hart
First Impressions Matter | Handout – Dr. Stacey Smith
College Updates
Balancing Work and Life – Lindsey Bogner, Elaine Simmons
Artificial Intelligence – Academic Integrity Council
Francis Financial Services – Leslie Francis Klug, John Francis
All Faculty Meeting
Have you met... – Terri Mebane, Erika Jenkins-Moss, Janet Balk, Abby Kujath, Megan Chambers, Kurt Teal

January 2023
What even IS a Foundation and what can you do with it? – Lindsey Bogner
Cyber Hygiene – Jose Palacios
Practical Strategies for Course Building – Blair Stamper
Visit the Library – Darren Ivey
Power BI and Data – Jose Palacios
Concourse with Lab | Power Point | PP as PDF – Brian Howe and Ange Davied
Have you met…
Baudilio Hernandez - Hispanic Engagement & Recruitment Office Director
Rita Thurber - Student Support Services Project Director
Jacquelyn Maser - Counselor
Nolan Esfeld - Director of Student Academic Development
Patrick Busch - CKUB Project Director
Eric Smith - CKUB Academic Coordinator
Kelsey Hall - BCUB Project Director
Rebecca Kratzer - BCUB Academic Coordinator

August 2022
College Updates
All Faculty Meeting (Entire Group)
Student Success Alliance - Stephanie Joiner and the Student Success Alliance
So You're Coming to the Curriculum Committee...– Brian Howe
Meet the Coaches – Trevor Rolfs and Staff
Workplace Collaboration and Relationships

August 2021
Essential Skills with Deanna Heier, Lindsay Holmes, Stephanie Joiner - Recording
Conducting and Documenting Course Assessment with Kurt Konda Recording
Brandin’ with Brandon with Brandon Steinert - Recording
Cougar Recruiting 101 with Maggie Harris - Recording
Course Binder Project with Jo Harrington - Recording
Canvas Tutorial-Course Outcomes with Jo Harrington - Recording
Academic Integrity Panel with Janet Balk, Karly Little, Kathy Boeger, Deanna Heier Recording

2020
Write so Students Understand You with Karly Little - Recording | Presentation
Get (the right) Stuff Done! with Brandon Steinert - Recording
Self-Awareness and Empathy on Campus with Christian Dashiell | Recording
Communication is Key with Dani Kultgen - Recording
Open Pedagogy with Lee Miller - Recording
Leading Barton through a Crisis with Claudia Mather - Recording
The Golden Rule - Recording
Team Building through Communication with Claudia Mather - Recording
Psychological First Aid: Recovering From Crisis with Jakki Maser - Recording | Handout | Handout
Course Level Assessment with Kurt Konda - Recording | Handout
OER: Low Cost or No Cost with Lee Miller - Recording | Handout | Handout | Handout | Handout
Academic Integrity with Stephanie Joiner - Recording | Handout | Handout
Reflective Leadership with Claudia Mather - Recording | Handout
Concourse with Ange Davied - Recording
LICC Submission Process with Brian Howe - Recording