League Services is Pleased to Announce Several New Topics
The League for Innovation provides community colleges with high-value, high-quality solutions to a variety of issues being dealt with by today's educational leaders

The League for Innovation has added several new topics to our ever expanding list of outstanding presentations and consulting opportunities. With the addition of these new topics, we continue to provide our members access to some of the best community college leaders in the nation. These new topics are especially relevant because they represent significant issues and opportunities being faced by 21^st century community college educators.

High Potential Employees: How to Identify, Train, and Retain Them
This session draws on the high potential and leadership development literature to help institutions identify, train, and retain these high potential employees. (More information)

Humor and Multimedia as Teaching Tools for the Net Generation
Whether you’re a newbie or veteran, you will find new ideas to apply to your content to connect with your students and bring what students’ perceive as dead and boring content to life. As the lyrics to the hit song from Aladdin tell us, we are entering “A Whole New World.” (More information)

Humor as an Instructional Defibrillator
Whether you’re a newbie or veteran of humor in the classroom, you will find new ideas to apply to your course. This presentation “boldly goes where no academician has gone before, maybe.” It will change your teaching life as you now know it.” (More information)

Top 14 Strategies for Evaluating Teaching
Sources are presented in the context of the 360° multisource assessment model used in management and industry for more than 40 years (a.k.a. “whirling dervish” approach to faculty evaluation) and most recently in medicine and healthcare. It can be used as a model for an accreditation self-study. (More information)

Designing Rating Scales to Evaluate Teaching Effectiveness
Workshop participants gain the scale construction skills necessary to spearhead peer observation, self-ratings, alumni ratings, and student interviews. There is also time devoted to technical issues, including reliability, validity, and scale score interpretation. (More information)

Paper-Based Versus Online Administration of Student Scales
This workshop critically compares the two modalities according to 15 key factors. Special attention is devoted to online issues, such as response rates, administration time, standardization, accessibility, convenience, turnaround time, anonymity and confidentiality, and cost. (More information)

Humor as a Coping Strategy for the Stressors of Academe
Several systematic humor strategies will be described that participants can use daily to cope with their stressors. Participants leave this session with concrete methods to “deal” with whatever or whoever is causing them stress! (More information)

The Top 15 Complaints by Students About Taking Tests and Some Solutions
This session scrutinizes student complaints with participant input and suggests strategies they can use to resolve them. (More information)

Top Ten Flaws in Constructing Multiple-Choice Items
Participants will not only be able to write better items for their own tests, but will also have the skills to write and review items for publishers of textbooks in their field and standardized tests. (More information)

Injecting Jest Into Your Course Tests to Reduce Test Anxiety
Participants generate humorous distractors and items for tests. Issues related to paper-based versus online administration are examined as they pertain to the various humor techniques. (More information)

Creating TV, Movie, and Broadway Parodies to Hook Students on New Topics
This session surveys participants’ experiences with these three sources, presents pertinent theories and research evidence for the technique, and describes a six-step process for creating a parody. (More information)

Determining Your Purpose in an Academic Career
How can you use all of your attributes in a teaching, research, and/or clinical position? Why did you pick an academic position? Scrutinize your motivation. (More information)

Music as a Teaching Tool: From Classical to Hip Hop Across the Curriculum
Numerous examples are provided with step-by-step procedures for planning and executing the various techniques. The finale presents a challenge to all instructors to seriously consider using music in their teaching. (More information)

Teaching With Video Clips: TV, Movies, YouTube, and mtvU in the Classroom
The use of video clips can also attain 16 specific learning outcomes. Toward that end, 12 generic techniques with examples to integrate video clips into teaching across the college curriculum are described. (More information)

Partnering for Progress: Aligning Technical Education With Technical Certification Sponsors
The information learned in this presentation comes from real-world experiences creating a connection with the world of IT certifications. (More information)

Partnering for Progress: Aligning Technical Education With Business and Industry
Two-year colleges have a long tradition of working with business and industry. Challenges associated with information technology training, however, present new opportunities for partnerships. (More information)

Ethics and IT Professionals
Participants discuss data security, federal privacy and security compliance regulations, corporate culture, and the attitudes that the workers of tomorrow (students) have on ethics. (More information)

Academic Careers at Two-Year Colleges
This presentation is ideal for graduate students preparing to enter the academic job market for the first time and also for new two-year college faculty members. (More information)

A House Divided: Bringing Together Academics and Student Services
All too often, community college faculty and staff revert to the jargon of divisiveness, referring to the “academic side of the house” and the “student services side of the house.” (More information)

Customer Service or Professional Service?
In recent years, the so-called “business model” has gained a great deal of traction in American higher education, especially at the two-year college level. One consequence of this new approach that has proved particularly alarming to many faculty members is the increased emphasis on customer service. (More information)

Toward a Rational Approach to Technology
The question colleges must ask whenever they bring new educational technology onto campus is, “Why are we doing this?” If the answer is, “To help faculty members teach and students learn,” then that latest innovation is probably a good thing. (More information)

Championing Academic Integrity on Your Campus
This workshop guides participants toward championing academic integrity on their campus by providing the basics regarding how often academic dishonesty occurs and why, as well as by offering strategies others have initiated that have made a positive impact on their campuses. (More information)

Writing Effective Business Correspondence
If the very substance of our messages – the actual thoughts, ideas, and meanings we’re sending – isn’t clear and free of clutter, all the wireless internet access in the world won’t help. (More information)

How to Write Targeted Workplace Emails
From newsletters to order confirmations, email is an increasingly important aspect of the customer experience. (More information)

Integrated Marketing Communications
Participants learn the best way to make their product’s image stick in a customer’s mind through repetition of strategic message, look, feel, colors, and design. (More information)

Managing Diversity and Cultural Issues in the Workplace
Whether you’re an accountant, operations manager, or seller of computer software, the opportunity to interact with other customs opens amazing doors of opportunity. (More information)

Critical Ethical Issues in Today’s Workplace
Every business organization, no matter the size, industry, or scope, benefits from having a set of guiding principles that govern its conduct - in other words, an ethical code. (More information)

Improve Website Stickiness Through Content
Workshop participants learn how to use written and visual content to turn visitors into shoppers . . . and shoppers into repeat buyers! (More information)

Defeating Writer’s Block
This workshop teaches you how to break through the roadblocks and get those first thoughts or ideas on paper. (More information)

Public Speaking and Presentation
Learn the fundamental tools to speak clearly and persuasively in order to impresses your audience and help you reach your target goal. (More information)

Business Etiquette
This interactive workshop explores office protocol and professional conduct in the workplace, including cubicle and office etiquette, proper behavior in meetings, telephone courtesy, handling introductions, and appropriate small talk. (More information)

Fundamentals of Public Relations
It’s critical to any organization’s success to maintain community goodwill and public awareness. (More information)

Mass Media in Today’s Workplace
This workshop presents strategies for managing the mass media to best achieve your organization’s goals. (More information)

A Big Laugh: Effectively Using Humor in the Classroom or the Boardroom
Demonstrated are how to use humor in a comfortable style, use humor to defuse tension, tie humor to content and goals, and use humor to neutralize “know-it-alls.” (More information)

Request a Guest Speaker or Consultant

In addition, we are particularly proud of the newly-launched online Request a Guest Speaker or Consultant form. With the addition of this new page, it’s now even easier to request a Guest Speaker or Consultant. In the coming months, we plan to unveil dozens of new topics of interest to community college educators. We hope that you will continue to consider League Services for your fall and spring convocations, faculty and staff development, and consulting needs.

For more information about League Services, including how to submit materials if you would like to be a Guest Speaker or Consultant, contact Ed Leach at (480) 705-8200, x233.