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The ADL Program challenged me to propose an innovation idea that provides the opportunity to be a catalyst for change within my organization. Little did I know that I would be the one who changed through the innovation I proposed.
I began my journey looking for solutions to the issues I faced in my advising role. I am leaving the program with a plan that will help me revolutionize advising at my institution. My focus shifted from how I can make my job a little easier and more effective to how I can help humanize advising relationships. Through thoughtful design and collaborative planning, there is a genuine opportunity to leverage technology and the onboarding process experienced by learners into a life-changing foundation for learning.
My two-year experience living in a constructivist learning experience where I built everything you see on this ePortfolio clearly demonstrates the benefits of blended learning. This program gave me full ownership of the decisions I made. I selected the platform, the function, and the design of every infographic, navigation choice, and any number of media projects. Mind you, these are all skills and abilities I did not have before beginning the program. Instead, fueled by a desire to learn the new skills I needed to create what I wanted to build, I watched hours of YouTube videos and performed hundreds of searches online to figure out how to do it. I taught myself how to conduct research, write a literature review, and add a blog to my website. The carefully crafted authentic learning environment I have experienced caused me to seek information for myself. Thanks to this authentic learning experience, my experience with choice, ownership, and voice demonstrates exactly how I can help advisees embrace ownership of their learning experience.
I cannot even begin to count how often I lament with colleagues about how unmotivated students can seem. As higher education institutions, we drown learners in information and then get frustrated that they make no effort to consume it. I realize now that the current dependency model of education creates learners who expect others to be responsible for their learning. Through years of conditioning, we have all become codependent on others to tell us what to know. Therefore, to truly prepare learners for college life, I have to utilize the advising relationship to change the culture of learners. With careful planning and manipulation, beginning an academic pursuit becomes a transformative opportunity to empower learners.
My Learning Journey
I do not think that this innovation idea will ever be complete. Instead, I hope to see an ongoing implementation that continues to evolve as learners’ needs do. However, I am looking forward to the next phase of implementation. This includes bringing the advising unit’s leadership team into the innovation planning. As additional minds join in collaboration, I anticipate additional points of view and potential for additional topics.
As we continue to implement the innovation through the multiple levels within the unit, this opportunity for collaboration will continue to grow. We will continue the action research process as advisors utilize technology in their interactions. Utilizing observation and data collection, we will gather feedback from our pilot targets so that advisors’ and learners’ feedforward drives the mission of equipping learners with a significant learning environment.
I intend to promote the innovation to advising throughout summer recruitment events. With personally curated ePortfolio resources, advisors can connect with their learners regardless of admission status or account access. A simple QR code can connect learners and parents with access to advisors’ knowledge and information through the ePortfolio resources. Once new cohorts of learners join the institution, further intentional use of blended advising through a first-semester course like Advising 101 can provide support and scaffold learning throughout the onboarding process. As additional advisors begin to provide input and ideas for reaching our target audience, we will expand the promotion of our resources to include currently enrolled learners and widen the potential impact of our learning-focused approach.
I made multiple considerations as I evaluated my innovation idea through many ADL projects. This thoughtful planning of the innovation’s implementation provided an authentic learning experience that transformed my learning approach. My learning evolved from the typical regurgitation of information for exams and assessments into a truly transformative learning opportunity that equipped me with skills, strategies, and learning approaches to face any number of unknown future endeavors. Applying what I have learned to the innovation will require a continual focus on learning. I will continue to evaluate and refine learning outcomes to ensure that each aspect of the evolving innovation fulfills its intended purpose. A willingness to reflect and self-assess can facilitate moving away from things that are not working and toward even more impactful innovation ideas.
What worked?
I trusted the process. I saw the vision behind the careful crafting of the ADL program and embraced it. I learned from the modeled behavior of our facilitators and actively pursued additional research and study to fully apply myself to the goals of each learning activity.
Self-assessments of my contributions to my learning and the learning of others helped in the accountability to self and others area. Continual revision and refinement of the focus and purpose of an advising revolution are sharpened by keeping a reflective log of my learning journey and innovation.
I sought like-minded individuals who also authentically embraced the learning journey we were on. There have been so many amazing collaborations during my two-year/non-accelerated journey through the ADL program. Truly opening myself up within trusted relationships allowed me to accept feed-forward, which was a huge turning point in my learning journey.
What could be better?
I spent the first couple of courses giving more than I was receiving. When I finally started being among the first to share my work for comment, my openness to critique and the shared experience of doing something new and unfamiliar (even frustrating) together with other learners really influenced my learning.
If I would have remained in my advising role, I would have shared my innovation ideas earlier. I included two former teammates in my action research usability testing since they were most familiar with the issues my innovation sought to help solve. However, considering the circumstances, I still believe investing in culture and establishing a team were more important places to begin.
Lessons Learned?
I never would have considered including the reflective and collaborative components of this innovation journey until I lived this learning journey. This impacts my innovation ideas while working through professional learning and instructional design, where I include peer support and community collaboration as critical components in innovating advising.
I have learned that collaboration allows an idea to grow and become even greater than initially imagined. I look forward to sharing my ideas with my team in the new year.
I have changed.
I never dreamed I would evolve into a leader. I did not know that I was so passionate about this until I prioritized one very important thing (my innovation idea) despite the whirlwind. Despite personal challenges and professional opportunities. As life continued around me, I found a deep desire to make the world a better place for learners and advisors. I desperately want to be the voice that continues to ask what we can do better. I am an advisor who cares about ensuring every learner has the same learning opportunity. I believe in equipping learners with an understanding of the responsibilities they need to take ownership of to strategically plan the right path to their goals. Exploring the college experience is our chance to equip our learners with choice, ownership, and voice as we help facilitate learning and model how finding purpose (why) drives everything we do. Equally, I want advisors to know they can be a part of some of the most impactful moments in their learners’ lives. Most of which they will never recognize in the moment.
References
Bates, A.W. (2019). Teaching in a Digital Age: Guidelines for designing teaching and learning. https://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/
Fink, L. D. (2003). A self-directed guide to designing courses for significant learning.
Grenny, J., Patterson, K., Maxfield, D., McMillan, R., & Switzler, A. (2013). Influencer: The new science of leading change. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Gulamhussein, A. (2013). Teaching the teachers: Effective professional development in the era of high stakes accountability.
Harapnuik, D., Thibodeaux, T., & Cummings, C. (2018). Choice, Ownership, and Voice through Authentic Learning. Creative Common License.
Horn, M. B., & Staker, H. (2017). Blended: Using disruptive innovation to improve schools. John Wiley & Sons.
McChesney, C., Covey, S., & Huling, J. (2012). The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals (1st ed.). Free Press.
Mertler, C. A. (2019). Action research: Improving schools and empowering educators (6th ed.). SAGE Publications, Incorporated.
Patterson, K., Grenny, J., McMillan, R., & Switzler, A. (2012). Crucial conversations: Tools for talking when stakes are high (2nd ed.). McGraw Hill.
Steele, G. E. (2016). Creating a flipped advising approach. NACADA Clearinghouse of Academic Advising Resources. Retrieved from https://nacada.ksu.edu/Resources/Clearinghouse/View-Articles/Creating-a-Flipped-Advising-Approach.aspx
The Advisor That Cares 