The Organizational Change course could not have been more perfectly timed. As I mentally prepared to shift my role from the front lines to administration, I recognized how valuable the authentic learning opportunity provided through the ADL program was in preparing me to create the conditions for change. Embracing my learner’s mindset, I went off in search of LMD on the course’s content. Truly, this course is where I did the most in-depth exploration of my purpose and why. I absolutely took every lesson to heart and am applying every aspect to my learning journey. I believed the message that the head won’t go where the heart hasn’t been. I began to reflect on my writings to identify my why. As I became determined to become a catalyst for change through innovation, I recognized that I want to help people heal from their educational trauma too. I want to create a safe learning space.
One of the most constructivist parts of the ADL program for me was Creating Significant Learning Environments (CSLE). While exploring my voice and claiming ownership of my innovation ideas, I considered ways learners develop the skills needed for lifelong learning. While considering how to impact my learners, I found myself changed through so many new experiences.
This transformative course is packed full of informational content. Throughout the course, we lived a New Culture of Learning while considering the power of the collective and our ubiquitously connected learners. Our learning facilitator was an incredibly impactful component of the CSLE course. Dr. Grogan has perfected class discussion and engagement into an art form. After our first class call, I blogged about being inspired to start a Learning Revolution. She set the pace for the class call conversations by keeping class members on task with a class discussion timeline that would allow us to be successful. Dr. Grogan inspired me to be a skilled learning facilitator. Many evenings, class calls would continue with a small group of engaged members. Dr. Grogan made it safe to be vulnerable in our learning journey. She celebrated our victories with us and helped to collaborate on professional opportunities before us beyond just class content.
To revolutionize learning, one must be in touch with their Learning Philosophy. I found myself in a quandary while considering what I was while studying undergraduate psychology. I evaluated my role as an advisor and what am I to my advisees. Through research on each learning philosophy, I desperately searched to identify which learning theory would fit my evolving ideas. Here, I was looking for a way to define my beliefs about learning, and in turn, I was studying the history of beliefs about learning. Through personal reflection and consideration, I described Humanism and Constructivism as the closest to my learning philosophy alignment.
One of the most impactful parts of the challenge to CSLE was finding ways to shift learners from collecting the dots to connecting the dots. Cultivating learning through a CSLE could make advising information relevant to skills needed to navigate life. As my CSLE experience unfolded, I knew it was time to embrace change and propose new ways to reach learners.
I was learning about, creating, and evaluating something similar to lesson planning. Unlike many K-12 educators in my cohort, I was living COVA + CSLE by figuring out how to do things I had never done before. I knew nothing about Aligning Outcomes Assessments and Activities or making 3-Column Tables and UbD Templates. Never in my life had I considered how advising opportunities could promote learning.
I want to utilize the COVA approach to create a significant learning environment like the one Dr. Grogan created for us. I want to create a place that empowers my learners with choice, ownership, voice, and authentic learning opportunities while giving them safe guidance as they make meaning out of their learning experience, career goals, and personal interests. Thanks to the CSLE I experienced, I was able to
The power of the Collective, outlined in the The New Culture of Learning, is evident in my experience. The cohort members from this course are those with whom I share some of the strongest learning bonds. This course and our facilitator illuminated the opportunity we had before us. A powerful example of the impact of our learning community was during the California wildfires. Dr. Grogan lost internet connection, so our class just started a Zoom session and carried on with the hour-long class meeting. Talk about extreme ownership of the learning opportunity we were undergoing. All at once, we recognized and embraced that we were truly living in a significant learning environment. Through a CSLE, we were now applying our learning in real time with our innovative ideas. Through synchronous meetings, asynchronous chats, and various collaborations, we all shared our thoughts and ideas. The collective openly shared project work for feed-forward and commentary. We were living COVA + CSLE. The trusted relationships we formed in our learning community, and collective solidified my belief that an innovation to advising could extend and fortify the advisor-advisee relationship.
Incorporating aspects of community and peer relationships can also help learners create meaning while processing their college opportunities and experiences. My humanistic/constructivist idea about learning has only become stronger. The more I have learned about myself and the difference that advisors can make in the lives of our learners and each other, the more I am convinced that my innovation ideas can humanize relationships.
Thomas, D., & Brown, J. S. (2011). A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change (1st ed.). CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
The ePortfolio course in the ADL program truly empowered me to find my voice. Once I embraced that this ePortfolio and innovation project were mine, no one could ever take them away from me. But to really know what this resource needed to be, I needed to start using it in my professional life. To do this required a level of vulnerability and authenticity that was very uncomfortable. The growth mindset material was covered right as I evaluated so much of my experience with and my beliefs about learning. While unlearning to relearn, I further worked to free myself from old fixed mindset beliefs. To utilize this professional resource to change the world, I would have to open up and use my voice to share more about who I am and why this matters. “Make it real,” Dr. Harapnuik would say.
As I was working to create my innovation resource, I was also considering the ways to incorporate what I was learning into my interactions with students. I was evaluating how a growth mindset fits into an advising mindset. It was easy for me to focus on my organization since my innovation directly impacts my daily work. The authenticity of the project helped me embrace the COVA approach to learning. I am constantly digging for more information on how I can help my students make deeper connections with their educational interests to claim active roles in their learning.
Actively creating an advising resource made this journey real because advising is genuinely something I care deeply about. Having experienced the COVA approach to learning through this significant learning environment, I have realized that genuinely authentic learning is something I care deeply about. Helping others overcome fixed mindset labels emboldens me to take on the challenge of changing the world.
Ultimately, my goal is to change the world of higher education through advising interactions. By strengthening the relationship between advisors and advisees, students will equip themselves for academic learning. Through innovative improvements, the frequency and depth of student interaction will enhance the advising relationship. Fostering a symbiotic relationship of facilitated discovery and reflection allows advisors to connect with their personal “why” and professional purpose, which provides a sense of fulfillment.
Our very first project of the ADL program was to develop an innovation idea, write an innovation proposal, do a literature review of our innovation topic, and develop an implementation plan.
Talk about facing the reality that this learning experience would not be like every one before it. I would say, from the very beginning, that the significant learning environment the ADL program created (CSLE) made my choice, ownership, and voice in an authentic environment (COVA) apparent to me.
I started advising for the ADL program in July 2021, along with several other online graduate M. Ed. programs. When I decided to move from on-campus undergraduate programs to online graduate programs, I finally reached a point in my professional career where I knew I wanted to use my knowledge, relationships, skills, and abilities to improve things at our institution for our learners. I remember telling my new supervisor that I wanted to be her assistant director someday, so I was there to help her and would offer suggestions for improvements as I saw them. During my time advising, I helped implement degree audit templates that would outline course by course semester by semester to improve graduation projections. I added informational notes for program applications, exam and licensure requirements, and even graduation application reminders to help students plan their educational journey. Collaborating with the university registrar, I built and utilized block scheduling with mass registration opportunities to increase registration efficiency to provide additional advising time for students struggling, in need of modifications, or returning out of rotation. I incorporated proactive notification processes for drop cycles to help inform and limit drops due to missing documents or lack of payment arrangements. I learned everything I could about the different programs I advised and connected with the department contacts who could clarify student confusion and misinformation. I knew I wanted to use my innovation to help others and help myself. For my then ten years of experience, I had said too many times, “There must be a better way,” and now I had the opportunity to propose one.
How did COVA make you feel?
My journey began in January 2022, and by March 2022 (one week after the start of my second course), I was writing about feeling lost down so many rabbit trails. Igniting my learners’ mindset, I soaked up every resource thrown my way. I learned about primary sources and developed the habit of following source materials linked in citations. I also understood Dr. Harapnuik’s approach to learning and knew that I would learn so much more by following every link within and cited in his writings. This thirst for information could sometimes be overwhelming, and I often re-read the learning outcomes, module topics, sourced materials, and assignment instructions to better understand the learning opportunity Dr. Harapnuik had curated for us through the COVA approach.
I am old school in many of my learning techniques, so I still keep notebooks for every course. I quickly struggled to organize my materials because I would bounce from discussion sources to class call notes, module readings, related searches, and random Google Scholar search term journies to target and refine my innovation idea. I have tried organizing my 5 subject notebooks into categories like modules, class calls, and discussions, but inevitably, each time, one section would intermingle with another section, or I had copious amounts of notes that overflowed a designated section of my organizational system. I decided to believe Dr. Harapnuik, Dr. Thibodeaux, Seth Godin, Simon Sinek, Sir Ken Robbins, and many others and really get to the heart of how I could impact my organization.
I found myself thinking about my innovation idea all the time. I rather quickly realized that this program and my ePortfolio could work for me. I used my ePortfolio to record, reflect, and analyze this learning journey. I consistently contemplated ways that I could flip the relationship so that instead of providing repetitive answers, I could give a self-serve resource that some students would use intuitively and others would only use the sections linked to them, but in both cases, students had an opportunity to take ownership of their learning opportunity. I would go to bed at night thinking about it. I would wake up in the morning thinking about it. How was I going to change the world?
Throughout the ADL program, we have experienced an authentic learning opportunity that gives us a choice over our projects and full ownership of learning while challenging us to find the voice to share our purpose for change (COVA). We have thus been called to be the change we want to see in our world.
To me, COVA is empowerment. It is personal empowerment. It is professional empowerment. COVA has challenged me to explore everything that I have a curiosity about. When I find myself wondering about anything, thanks to COVA, I begin researching and exploring it through literature, video, and conversation.
Before experiencing a significant learning environment (CSLE) like the constructivist one COVA facilitates, I never would have imagined that I could help influence change. I knew there were things that could be changed, but I never saw myself as the one to help make that change happen. I was good at my job, and I cared deeply about the people I worked with, but I did not see myself as “a catalyst for change” as the program calls us to be. COVA changed me. However, as I reflected upon my why, a growth mindset, and considered an innovation idea I could contribute to my organization – I was the one changing.
The combination of CSLE and COVA reignited a thirst for knowledge and information that I prioritized in my life. I began to consider how I could show the world how much I care and want to help people in my area of influence. I struggled to decide if my audience was administration, work colleagues, or the students. Honestly, this is still an area that I vacillate between seeing that at times change will come from each of these important targets. Learners/students are the ones with the most to gain from embracing a COVA approach to learning. Finally, learning isn’t just a “because I said you need to know and understand this” interaction. Through COVA, learners get to connect with their passion and purpose to engage with content that is meaningful and relevant to their lives, and allows the opportunity to truly learn instead of just retain information.
I am not saying that adjusting to COVA is easy. There is a lot of discomfort and confusion throughout the learning process. Nonetheless, just like learning to talk or to drive, mistakes, failure, and struggle are the experiences that we later do effortlessly without a second thought. Learning is not perfect or linear. It can be messy, overwhelming, and frustrating. How we equip ourselves and our learners to persevere through opportunities is really at the heart of the COVA approach to learning.
For example, the skills and information I have learned through a COVA approach to learning in the various content areas covered throughout the ADL program are now strategies that I take with me into personal and professional conversations and situations. I now know that I am capable of researching, collaborating, and leading change initiatives, all things I never would have dreamed of pursuing before the ADL program. Through personal reflection and empowerment, I have transitioned into a leadership role and now have the honor of helping others find their way, share their passion, and ignite their learners’ mindsets.
Pay it forward… we have been asked to share some tidbits that we wished we’d known and embraced from the start of the ADL program. I feel like I really spent so much time watching Learners Mindset discussions and reading Dr. Harapnuik’s website that I absorbed a lot of good advice from those who paved the way before us. Thankfully, Dr. Harapnuik does a great job of sharing examples of the work that other graduates have created to give us a sense of some ideas or general concepts for different assignments and projects. Due to the open-ended nature of the program, each of us creates an entirely unique and authentic innovation project based on our arena and interests. Thanks to the COVA Approach to learning, there is a considerable adjustment period for many of us who are more accustomed to “just tell me what you want so that I can give it to you” (which we now recognize as just regurgitating information instead of authentic learning).
Here are some of the helpful nuggets I picked up when I was evaluating and deciding to join the program.
Tag your blogs with courses so that when you get to the capstone course, you will more easily be able to remember/review the work you did as you developed throughout the program.
Blog. Keep up with the blogging aspect of the program to really give yourself something to go back and reflect upon later.
Trust the process was something I consistently heard those ahead of us saying. I quickly realized that cutting corners or simply fulfilling assignment requirements would only shortchange myself of the tremendous opportunity this program presented for growth and personal evolution.
Since I am still very much at the starting line of this capstone course, I cannot say with certainty yet whether or not the first tip will help me, but I will undoubtedly echo and share my tidbits now and hopefully again at the end of this course.
Be vulnerable: I mean, to really embrace the learning opportunity that is this program, you must be willing to put yourself out there and be vulnerable with yourself and others. I spent the first few classes giving support freely but being reserved about how much I put myself out there for the same support. My best piece of advice is to lean into vulnerability and allow yourself to discover things about yourself you never imagined.
Be a collector: I have been bookmarking links to current and past ADL ePortfolios and use them frequently when attempting to wrap my head around a project or assignment. This habit of collecting ePs has been invaluable to me. I even started a shared Google doc so that our cohort of learners could leave breadcrumbs for those who come behind us. I love the spirit of giving back to others that is born out of this program.
Sadly, I don’t see one of my favorite early inspirations posted online anymore, but there is an outdated X account. The most heartbreaking part of this process is how infrequently posters continue developing their ePortfolio.
Reflect frequently: This is where blogging has really helped me along the way. By rambling about the things I learned throughout in blogs, I have the opportunity to look back on where my innovation began, how my thoughts evolved over time, and how much I have changed through a COVA approach to learning. In the same way that the content modules are overlapping and ongoing, the ADL program is overlapping and ongoing. The more frequently you reflect back upon topics you previously engaged with, the more often you challenge yourself to dig deeper into your innovation.
Don’t compare yourselves to others, but instead, respect that you are growing and evolving as a lifelong learner.
Trust the process. Everything eventually falls into place.
The Advisor That Cares 