{"id":19579,"date":"2026-03-24T09:53:38","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T14:53:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/digital-fluency\/?p=19579"},"modified":"2026-03-24T09:58:55","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T14:58:55","slug":"january-2026-qep-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/digital-fluency\/january-2026-qep-update\/","title":{"rendered":"January 2026 QEP Update"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"19579\" class=\"elementor elementor-19579\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-2fbf8fe0 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"2fbf8fe0\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-30c801bc e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-child\" data-id=\"30c801bc\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-527678ce elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"527678ce\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">Monthly Summary<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-35818a86 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"35818a86\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The DFI program entered the new year with several significant team updates. In January, Karina Hernandez took on the role of Interim Dean for the DFI program after Linda Smazik\u2019s departure from the program. The core team saw an additional reduction in staff with the retirement of Ann Kennedy at the close of 2025. The DFI team relocated to new office spaces in building 3000 at the Highland Learning Center.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A key focus for the program is proactively aligning with various college systems and divisions to create a more integrated ecosystem that prioritizes student success and ease of use. All website copy, micro-credential content, and marketing materials were updated to standardize the hyphenation of &#8216;micro-credential&#8217; and &#8216;micro-certificate\u2019 to ensure full alignment with college protocols<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Registration for opt-in students transitioned from the previous DFI registration process to ACC\u2019s CE portal, providing a better student experience and integration with college processes. Other optimizations in the works include adding access to Suitable (badging system) directly from the college\u2019s CMS and integrating co-curricular registration with the associated credit courses. Finally, the team started combing through all website and micro-credential content and making necessary edits to meet the new federal accessibility requirements by April 24, 2026.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-32289251 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-child\" data-id=\"32289251\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-5c8938dc elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"5c8938dc\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">Highlights<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-795f191 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"795f191\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><b>Outreach<\/b><\/p><ul><li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">DFI website accessibility review started<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">All instances of the word \u201cmicro-credential\u201d and \u201cmicro-certificate\u201d were edited on the website to include the hyphen (review of 100+ pages and posts)<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Launched outreach strategy across Instagram and LinkedIn to support Spring micro-credential enrollment.<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Coordinated a series of meetings with the Military Families Center in preparation for the VetConnect event.<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Initiated social media outreach aligned with the Spring Session 1 start<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Participated in the Affinity Programs Spring Kick-Off tabling event to increase student engagement and visibility.<\/span><\/li><\/ul><p><b>Micro-credentials\u00a0<\/b><\/p><ul><li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Opt-in student registration through CE website was seamless and did not require DFI team involvement, however 19 sections of Co-curricular student registration had to be manually processed by the DFI team (approximately 600 students).<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">All aspects of micro-credentials must be accessible by April 24, 2026. Using Ally Course Checker in Blackboard, all content is being reviewed and remediated where necessary.<\/span><\/li><\/ul><p><b>Data<\/b><\/p><ul><li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">20 opt-in and 19 co-curricular sections created for Spring #1 session<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Data audit began to reconcile first three years data<\/span><\/li><\/ul>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-2c9ae16d e-con-full e-flex e-con e-child\" data-id=\"2c9ae16d\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-4fa088f elementor-post-navigation-borders-yes elementor-widget elementor-widget-post-navigation\" data-id=\"4fa088f\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"post-navigation.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-post-navigation\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-post-navigation__prev elementor-post-navigation__link\">\n\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/digital-fluency\/december-2025-qep-update\/\" rel=\"prev\"><span class=\"post-navigation__arrow-wrapper post-navigation__arrow-prev\"><i class=\"fa fa-angle-left\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><span class=\"elementor-screen-only\">Prev<\/span><\/span><span class=\"elementor-post-navigation__link__prev\"><span class=\"post-navigation__prev--title\">December 2025 QEP Update<\/span><\/span><\/a>\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-post-navigation__separator-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-post-navigation__separator\"><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-post-navigation__next elementor-post-navigation__link\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The DFI program entered the new year with several significant team updates. In January, Karina Hernandez took on the role of Interim Dean for the DFI program after Linda Smazik\u2019s departure from the program. The core team saw an additional reduction in staff with the retirement of Ann Kennedy at the close of 2025. The DFI team relocated to new office spaces in building 3000 at the Highland Learning Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3951,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-qep-monthly-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/digital-fluency\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/digital-fluency\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/digital-fluency\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/digital-fluency\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3951"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/digital-fluency\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/digital-fluency\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19579\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/digital-fluency\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/digital-fluency\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/digital-fluency\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}