Beyond the Classroom

The Mixer for Masters program is designed to encourage and foster relationships between faculty and students. The Mixer for Masters event allows faculty and student to share information, get to know others, and build professional connections in quick dialog, small group, and short duration format before moving on to another small group. The one-hour social event is well received by students and faculty alike. This meet-and-greet social event is conducted once per semester through a virtual in-person format.

The Open Door series is designed to support and enhance students’ graduate school experience by presenting topics relevant to successful distant learning. Open Door strives to foster inclusiveness and connectedness between Endicott faculty and graduate students by providing a time for dialog on graduate-level coursework. The series is presented six times per semester through a group-formatted distance-learning platform for the purpose of ongoing Master's student support and student retention. Several examples of topics for this series include information on specific course assignments, library instruction for gathering books and journals, skills needed for distance learning (e.g., self-video), requirements accruing behavior analyst trainee fieldwork hours, and information on career planning.

The DEIB Task Force in the Department of Applied Behavior Analysis presents the journal club called Bagels and Belonging: Diversity Dialogues. The journal club meetings are held once every quarter and will review articles focused on DEIB. Each meeting aims to cover two articles, provided to all prior to the meeting. Each article is summarized by a member of the DEIB Task Force with open opportunities for discussion. Students and faculty are encouraged and warmly welcomed to attend this meeting and contribute to the spirit of belonging within the program. This event will be open for earning BACB continuing education credits.

Peer tutoring is available for all masters students with field experts. The service is available for free for our students through Endicott’s Center for Teaching and Learning. Each year the Institute hires some of our doctoral students who serve as tutors for our masters students on an as needed basis to assist with material and topics covered within our courses.

International students sometimes face challenges that are specific to differences in cultural variables based on location. Some challenges may include administrative issues, getting textbooks, challenges with synchronous classes, writing assistance, and others. Therefore, the purpose of creating this support channel is to really help international students to overcome these challenges by providing a place to easily access increased information, tips, and strategies for navigating education in a different country and timezone. The site also provides a safe space for students to connect with students and professionals all over the world.

Learning is a life-long tenet of any clinical or organizational behavior analyst. Current and graduated students of our program are invited to share academic experiences, training experiences, or work-site scenarios where learned behavioral concepts were applied. The goal is to share our experience, learn from each other, encourage each other, and acquire new perspectives to help with creating our own ideas and plans. These sessions allow for the communication of our love of behavior analysis. This program is presented once per semester through a group-formatted distance-learning platform.

The Open Door Adjunct Faculty Spotlight highlights one of the Institute for Behavioral Science adjunct faculty. Adjunct faculty are invited and asked to present their training, and career path along with their passion for behavior analysis to Masters students. Dialoging on practical aspects of career development and success is encouraged between adjunct faculty and students. This program is presented once per semester through a group-formatted distance-learning platform.

The Open-Door Weekly Drop-in series is designed to provide graduate students the opportunity for questions and answers for academic support, address questions and receive clarification about our program, have problems solved in a face-to-face format, and/or make suggestions to better the distance-learning graduate school experience. They are typically held mid-semester with drop-in opportunities that run for four consecutive weeks. Master students have an added opportunity to professionally connect with other graduate students within the Master’s program in the Institute for Applied Behavioral Science. Master students enter and exit as needed.

BCBA professionals and students of behavior analysis are invited to a free annual conference that provides information about increasing diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging across behavior analytic practice, supervision, training, and education. This conference is open to all within the Endicott community and the general public and offers free BACB continuing education credits to those who attend.

Endicott hosts a one-day conference in collaboration with the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies that features leaders in the fields of Psychology, Business, Autism, and Applied Behavior Analysis. The conference is of benefit to behavior analysts, psychologists, speech-language pathologists, teachers, special education providers, school administrators, students, and caregivers. A discount code is offered for all Endicott students and faculty.

The Institute invites experts in the discipline of Organizational Behavior Management to present annually to students, faculty, and the greater public on the application of our science to improve service delivery across a variety of settings and enhance employee performance to increase the results of the business. This free conference is open to all within the Endicott community and the general public and offers free BACB continuing education credits to those who attend.

Families of individuals diagnosed with autism, as well as BCBA professionals are invited to a free conference and workshop that provides current and very practical information about living with autism. BACB continuing education credits are offered to those who attend.

Mission:

• The mission of the Endicott College ABA program’s DEI task force is to evaluate the current climate and enact actionable items toward meeting our values of a fully diverse, inclusive, and equitable higher education program. We strive to create a brave space that facilitates respectful dialogue regarding complex and difficult issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion in our department and our larger community. In pursuit of these goals, we will engage in ongoing data collection and analysis to identify needs, measure progress toward goals, and promote equity for all students, faculty, and staff.

Vision:

• Continuously model, promote, and shape practices to advance equity and diversity, creating a climate of cultural responsiveness and social justice within the fields of behavior analysis and higher education.
• Some projects from the task force include continuous monitoring of progress through student and faculty surveys on DEIB, publication of initiatives in Behavior and Social Issues, quarterly journal club meetings, increase in cultural diversity topics and representation across courses, and increased awareness of methods to report and discuss any discomfort within student or staff experiences.
• Added this fall: Land acknowledgement statement in every course

• The goal of the Quality Assurance Task Force within the Department of ABA at Endicott College is to improve the quality of instruction students receive in the department by continuously evaluating current pedagogical practices and modifying instructional practices as areas of improvement are identified.
• Some projects from the task force include updated student and faculty handbooks, student and faculty support sites, increased consistency of grading rubrics across core courses, increased synchronous course offerings, and completion of course rubrics to ensure updated information is implemented throughout courses.