Category: ADL Journey

ADL Journey, ADL Program, Capstone, Collective, Contributions, Evolution, Goals, Growth, Growth Mindset, It's all about the learning, Learner's Mindset, Learning, Learning Community, Online Learning, Personal, Professional, Professional Learning, Reflecting, Relationship, Teamwork, Why

Contributions, 5320

The Advisor That Cares

Capstone Course

  • Fall 2023
  • Course Number: EDLD 5320
  • Course Title: Synthesis Digital Learn/Lead

Contributions to Learning and my Learning Community

The back of a yellow van is pictured travelling down a dessert roadway.

Crediting Core Group Members: Kelly Skillingberg, Shannon Bowles, and Rachel Hull.

I am giving myself a score of 99 out of 100

Wow, what a transformation from the first course in the program.

please reconsider and evaluate your work and grade with the same fairness as another student.”

March 11, 2022 paraphrased email from EDLD 5305 instructor

Here I am, emboldenly claiming 99 out of 100 for my contributions to my learning and the learning of my learning community. Who is this person I have become?

I know now what I didn’t know then. I know that my “assessment of/for/as learning” is mine to claim ownership over, too (Harapnuik, 2021). The ADL Program equipped me to take control of my learning journey, and I embraced it!

When I began the program, I didn’t understand how having a group would help me. I had always been a little better off on my own or a type A person who would prefer to do all the work to know it got completed.

This independence was also true of my professional life, now that I think about it. While I enjoyed collaborating with others at work, I would typically take the lead to ensure that none of us “got in trouble” for failing to meet expectations.

However, this program and the soul-searching reflection done throughout leave me knowing that I have given 100 percent effort toward my entire learning experience. I also have given 100 percent effort toward connecting with my learning cohort. I am not giving myself a perfect score because there is always room for improvement and more to learn.

The fantastic people in my collaboration group have shown me how much better my ideas and our experience can be if we work together.

My learning communities overlap so many periods and classes that I cannot limit my experience to a single learning community (though this one was top-notch because we have all evolved so much in our learning journey that we now “get it”) but instead try to approach each semester as my opportunity to support and guide my fellow learners in the learning journey.

I love connecting with new people, and weekly meetings are my jam! But I had to learn that they are not that for everyone. I had to adapt and learn to meet others when and where they were available. We have had so many chats and a few synchronous meetings. Still, the asynchronous ability to connect has significantly impacted my future innovation ideas.

Adding peer support is a transformative component of innovation in advising. I never imagined how learners could support one another in co-navigating a new experience. However, thanks to my experience with choice, ownership, and voice in this authentically significant learning environment (COVA + CSLE), I know firsthand that peer support and a shared experience can revolutionize a learning experience.

Key Contributions

  1. My learning community’s core group members have all done a fantastic job staying in touch throughout the semester. One evening, we were the only members of the course who attended the class call. What worked this semester was our continued commitment to learning as much as possible, improving our innovation ideas as much as possible, and getting as much as possible out of this last course in the ADL program.
  2.  Fortunately, Shannon, Kelly, and I have been in learning communities and have maintained ongoing chats over the last several semesters. Before this session began, we had an EDLD 5320 Capstone Community GroupMe started. We all did a great job sharing links to our works in progress for feedforward and periodically just checked in to see how we felt about our coursework and innovation ideas.
  3.  I completed an overwhelming number of revisions on my ePortfolio as a whole. I continually revised current coursework and previous courses/projects coursework as a part of the entire program synthesis process. It was amazing to see how much we have learned and evolved in such a short time.
  4.  I completed ALL of the course readings, videos, and supporting resources provided and actively sought additional resources to deepen my learning and improve my innovation.
  5.  I met the various course activity deadlines indicated in the calendar.

Supporting Contributions

  1. While our group maintained a well-balanced interaction, I took a leadership role by requesting and creating recurring Zoom meetings to chat about projects and our reflections throughout the course. I contributed to my classmates in class calls and discussions by answering questions and pointing to resources when applicable.
  2.  I contribute to my learning and the learning of my colleagues by participating in ALL activities.
  3.  I actively contributed to discussion posts with engaging and well-thought-out reflections.

Reference

Harapnuik, D. (2021, August 16). Assessment OF/FOR/AS learning. It’s About Learning. https://www.harapnuik.org/?page_id=8900

https://www.harapnuik.org/?page_id=8900

ADL Journey, ADL Program, Advising, ePortfolios, Evolution, Focus on the learning, Goals, Growth, Growth Mindset, Influencer, Innovation Plan, Instructional Design, It's all about the learning, Leadership, Learner's Mindset, Learning Manifesto, Online Learning, Personal, Reflecting, Relationship, Teamwork, Why

Professional Pitch

The Advisor That Cares

Soft pitch, day two.

Once again, I’m letting parts of my heart slip and show with my colleagues, and no one is running away screaming in fear. It seems like everyone is really excited about some of my ideas.

I pitched having brief Monday morning (WIG meetings – though I didn’t call it that) to set our goals and intentions for the week. I suggested Friday afternoon review of the week’s collaborations where teams “check each others work” to help cross each other T’s and dot each other’s “i’s” so to speak.

I pitched the concept of new year, new us. Beginning with the day after the last day to register, we are going to come up with a departmental New Years Resolution (WIG – didn’t call it that) but it really is happening.

A wonderful addition of review plus board games, team-building at the rec, adult coloring pages, board games, or whatever sounds fun to the team. I am so excited for the new year.

ADL Journey, Capstone

Synth

The Advisor That Cares
A digital arm is reaching out of a laptop computer to shake someone's hand. The laptop is sitting on a wooden top with a small note pad and pen next to the left side of the laptop and a cell phone directly above the note pad.

A true synthesis of my learning experience likely still remains on the cutting room floor, or in this case, the drafts folder or thoughts to explore later. The best I can do to articulate my purpose is to say that I am trying to humanize advising relationships.

I discovered this connection while reflecting on what to write for the publishing course. Due to article length limits and time constraints within the course session, I saved many clips for future citation and additional exploration, but the resounding commonality I found was humanity. All work is meaningless without the driving why behind it. Advisors need to know why they matter so much in a learners life and experience the freedom to decide how best to reach them. Learners need to know why any of the time, effort, and sacrifice they put into their learning journey matters. We all have the common human condition of living life for the first time (roughly quoted by my adult daughter which seems to have original origins in a quote from someone named Hoshi on TikTok).

I believe in my heart of hearts that if we can help each other figure it (why) out together, we are more likely to see happy employees and successful learners.

ADL Journey, Capstone, ePortfolios, Tips

eP Tip

The Advisor That Cares

Dr. Harapnuik never ceases to amaze me with his natural ability to mentor and influence. In our final class call last night, he covered something so helpful to me that I want to blog about it here, hoping to leave breadcrumbs for you (and my future self, too).

My first assignment had Canva/embedded issues when Dr. Harapnuik viewed my WordPress page in Firefox. I tested the embedding with incognito mode and two browsers without issue, but the screencast feed-forward did not lie. I turned that Canva presentation into a painfully silent and awkward YouTube video just to correct the issue. I will need to re-visit that for a solution that fits my creative intentions a little better or at least add some background music.

For my second assignment, I took this into consideration. While embedding the Canva I created (feeling oh so proud of it, too), I included a prominent title link to the Canva creation itself. While viewing my feed-forward video, I was devastated to see that the Canva image did not show at all, and while Dr. H was following links to linked projects, I noticed the same glaring issue on my Advising 101 course page.

But here’s where the ah-ha moment kicked in for me. Dr. Harapnuik explained that while media tools like these are lovely, as portfolio curators, we should be mindful of our users’ experience. People are busy.

For example, Dr. Harapnuik explained he typically has 20-30 tabs open in his browser window. If our portfolio takes the user to Canva and then the links from Canva each spawn a new browser tab, the user will likely get frustrated and navigate to a different site.

Now, this is something I can relate to!! I typically do this across 5-6 browser windows, too (my poor computer might be looking forward to my graduation more than anything). Don’t even get my husband started on how many I have open at any given time on my cell phone, too. We all have our systems, and I’m considering what Dr. H has mentioned several times (EverNote).

I was finally able to see Dr. H’s point, and with a few tweaks and changes, I now have a presentation that allows the dynamic image I created to be viewed while the links I embedded in it open in the same browser window.

Before/After

Swipe right and left for the before/after.

  • Please note that the Canva instance has multiple tabs, which is not even all of the available linked content.
  • The alternative has one browser without breaking the users’ ability to use the back button.
    • There is no forced Canva, no opening of multiple tabs, and no frustrated viewer moving on and missing your message. I like to add these as linked options in case someone prefers the alternative viewing option.

New skills I’ve picked up in this final course thus far:

  • I’ve learned how to insert spacers in my pages/posts.

Modifications I’ve made to my portfolio in this final course thus far:

  • I’ve changed themes so that I can modify text size/font
    • I am still experiencing some limitations in background color options/contrast, but this is a good step in the right direction.
    • The editing lift is heavy. Adjusting header sizes, color contrasts, and converting all of my embedded Canva content into PDF or alternative formats is turning my synthesis into a perfectionist’s nightmare.
ADL Journey, Capstone

Update as of 11/27/2023

The Advisor That Cares

In the final class call of the ADL Program, Dr. Harapnuik acknowledged the challenge we all have in our final synthesis assignment. He recognizes that by now, we have several posts and pages, with many of us having hundreds of each.

This got me curious, so I went to check my WordPress, and here are the stats:

  • Posts = 197 (well, 198 with this one)
  • Draft posts = 17drafts
  • Pages = 108
  • Draft pages = 8

Update to the update on 11/28/2023

After last night’s amazement seeing the number of posts and pages I’ve created thus far, while downloading a previously created project to potentially incorporate into my final page I received this silly little notification:

View on Canva

I’m just playing around with these numbers, but looking back on all the work we have put into our learning journey is awe-inspiring.