Category: Professionalism

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Jack Of All Trades

There have been many good conversations lately related to the hiring of instructional designers. And one of the topics that has been brought up time and time again is that of folks positioning themselves as a “jack of all trades” vs “a master of their trade”. Depending on the needs of the hiring committee, this will ultimately determine who is selected to fill an open position. Recently several candidates have had questions related to this and have asked for advice when applying for positions and securing interviews. Should they position themselves as a “jack of all trades” or as “a master of their trade” (being an expert in a smaller range of skills rather than simply being aware of many skills).

After speaking with a number of colleagues it was clear that hiring committees were looking for an individual who might be considered “a master of their trade”. Basically this is someone who has a well-established skillset and not only understands the technology but also understands the psychology of working in the area of instructional design.

For those that want to establish themselves as an expert in the field, an honest assessment of their skills is required. This will position them to be in constant demand and be able to articulate their value. This is exactly what is needed to build a solid reputation. There are a number of ways to gain the expertise needed – such as attending conferences, workshops, webinars, following blogs and listening to podcasts.

How to become an expert? Here are a few things for individuals to consider to become an expert in instructional design.

  • Create a list of current expertise and interests
  • Gain an understanding of what’s trending
  • Interview others in the field (either in-person, via email or through social media)
  • Identify gaps and ask others where skills can be strengthened
  • Clearly define how are you work and prefer to communicate

In order to become an expert you should consider the questions that may be asked by those that have a hiring need. For example: 

  • What are the most common problems you are faced with?
  • What do people do to solve the problems in this area?
  • What mistakes are made time and time again?
  • What do the users need more of?
  • Is there something users are overlooking?
  • What’s growing? What’s fading?
  • What works well? What doesn’t work well? Why?

-RG

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Top 5 List: Making Better Decisions

Top 5 List

In higher education, good decision making is something faculty and staff strive for. Gathering the best and most up-to-date information, listening to others and seeking feedback all play a part in the decision making process. There are many things that can help individuals make smarter decisions that are related to health and wellness. Simply making sure that we are ready to make a decision. 

Here are a few things that can help all of us make the best decisions possible. In other words, answering the question…how do I make better decisions?

Sleep – individuals should sleep 7-8 hours each night. Neurologists have been advising the public of this for years. In fact, neurologists indicate that getting less than this amount of sleep each night will have a negative impact on decision making in a couple of different ways. First, the tired brain will make shortsighted decisions most often. Secondly, individuals that are sleep-deprived are more likely to engage their subconscious which reduces the number of A-ha moments in each day.

Locate evidence – locating evidence that disconfirms an existing belief is one of the biggest obstacles of sound decision making, according to experts. Once individuals come to a tentative conclusion, it is important to seek out information that suggests the opposite side is the better decision, in an effort to avoid confirmation bias. Overcoming confirmation bias will lead to better decision making.

Morning – experts suggest that individuals should make their more important decisions during the morning hours and leave the afternoon hours for more menial tasks and meetings. As we move through the day we become mentally and physically fatigued. When individuals are fatigued, impulsive and poor decisions are more likely to take place. For example, skipping a workout, going off-diet or sending an emotional email that should have waited until…the next morning.

Long-term – time is better spent on important long-term decision-making. Most decisions are either long-term decisions or short term decisions. In an effort to maximize productivity and sustain impact decisions, focusing on long-term choices is the way to go.  

Remove the unimportant – many CEOs, Government officials and creative people wear the same outfit or uniform every day in an effort to save the mental energy for more important decisions. Making better decisions works when smaller distractions have been removed. If the decision doesn’t have an immediate impact on your work relationships or perseverance consider removing it from consideration. Steve Jobs wore the same black turtleneck, blue jeans and new balance sneakers everyday. It quickly became his trademark look. When you think about the co-founder of the most valuable company in the world wearing the same outfit everyday it’s pretty clear that he understood he had a finite capacity to make excellent decisions.

-RG

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Strategies For Engaging Students

For faculty, encouraging student engagement is important in the online environment as the drop-out rates are significantly higher than the traditional face-to-face courses. Engagement like many other things in online education may have a different meaning based on perspective. Here are a few strategies for engaging online students in your online courses, from the faculty perspective:

Feedback – timely feedback on assignments will allow your online students to incorporate the feedback and make improvements for future assignments. This may seem nearly impossible for larger courses. A good strategy that many online faculty use is that of providing examples, templates or models of well-written assignments, this will allow the student to focus on the goals of the assignment. Having a well-written rubric available for online students to review before they begin their work will help them focus on the desired expectations. Online faculty should consider reusing feedback from the previous semester. Based on experience from previous semesters, faculty can proactively address items where students typically run into obstacles and provide clarifying directions as needed.

Interaction – online faculty must be present in their courses in order to engage the students. Faculty can be present in their online courses by participating in discussion forums and asking students probing questions and encouraging the students to ask probing questions of each other.  Faculty can also be present by emailing individual students, groups of students and providing announcements, as needed to keep the discussions moving along.  Group collaboration tools are also becoming more popular and online faculty are finding success in messaging students directly, outside of the LMS. [Slack is a great example of this technology.]

Application – many online students are also working adults and ensuring the content of the course is relevant and can be applied to their real-life/real-world experience is a key item in the effort to keep them engaged. Those students that consider themselves to be working adults are more likely to voice their concerns about an assignment being “busy-work” if they feel that it doesn’t apply to their work life. Online faculty should invest the time at the beginning of the course to get to know the students and the type of work they might be involved in as well as their expectations for the course. Engaging assignments will involve some type of research, developing an original idea and using their critical thinking skills to solve some problem they might be faced with in the workplace.

Interesting – online courses that include some type of hands-on learning activity will generally be more interesting and more engaging.  By asking students to communicate what they have learned about a new technology and how they can apply its use to their current profession/future profession will make their coursework more interesting. As an online instructor, look for opportunities to replace traditional text-based assignments.  Try to incorporate more audio and video  by using online tools such as Flipgrid, VoiceThread or Jing. Using a few different options as a way to present their ideas will keep students motivated and interested in the course. Students all learn differently and providing a variety of options will only enhance the interest in the course and engage the student.

-RG

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Avoid Burnout

Many folks that I interact with outside of Higher Education are interested in hearing about my work in online education, specifically my work as an online instructor. I often hear that they wish they had this dream job and could work from home on their own schedule. What they don’t realize is that working as an online instructor is much more time-consuming than expected and can be related directly to professional burn-out.

There are a lot of reasons why online instructors may experience burn-out. For example, taking on a large number of courses, the lack of face-to-face conversations and the volume of feedback and grading that is required. And for those individuals that work as online instructors in addition to their “other job” it is difficult to provide high quality responses to discussions and emails at the end of a normal work day.

Here are a few items that may help avoid feeling burned-out:

Management – develop strong classroom management skills. For example, often students have the same questions as in previous terms. Proactively address these questions at the start of the course or lesson. Are you providing similar feedback over and over….find a way to automate this. Establish set office hours at varying times throughout the week.

Time – have a set time of day that you log into your classes. When you finish teaching for the day, do not go back to it. And take breaks to avoid sitting for an extended period of time. Don’t do all of the grading in one session.

Talk – ask students for phone meetings as needed, rather than relying on email. Call a fellow online instructor to discuss strategies. Talk to a friend or neighbor who works in an unrelated field.

Read – read academic journals and blogs to gain new teaching techniques and strategies that you could adopt in your classes. [and of course, read for pleasure].

Health – eat nutritiously, exercise and sleep well to be fit for the job. Have some soft music playing in the background while teaching. Don’t eat in your office/workspace. Get out and go for a quick walk.

Connect – create a social media outlet where students can follow you. Set up an Instagram or Twitter account where you can invite students to view your content and help you feel more connected.

Overall, take your time, find balance and have fun!

-RG

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Top 5 List: Effective Group Projects In Online Courses

Top 5 List

Participating in group projects will offer students the chance to develop interpersonal communication skills, build relationships with each other and increase the level of competencies as each member brings something different to the group. In online courses, however, where work is done asynchronously students are resistant to working in groups with others.

Students say that they do not like group projects because they are expected to contribute more than others or they will have difficulty scheduling times to meet with each other. Students also report being uncomfortable with the idea of being assigned an individual grade based on the work of others.

Having taught fully online courses for over 15 years I’ve discovered a few best practices that can be used for group projects in online courses:

Small groups – use smaller groups wherever possible. As groups become larger, the more challenging meetings and communication can be. Having an odd number of group members also eliminates the potential for groups being split when a decision is needed. Encourage groups to come to a unanimous decision knowing that this may not always be possible. Having an odd number guarantees there were always be a majority in the event of a team vote. Depending on the overall size of your course you’ll have to define exactly what a small group means. Does this mean a group of seven or nine… or can this be a group of three or five?

Expectations – all assignments should have general directions with a rubric explaining exactly how assignments will be assessed. For group projects, it is important to go beyond this and define exactly what the individual contributions and expectations for each member are. A good strategy to follow here is to divide the project into equal parts for each member of the group that they all know exactly what they’re expected to do. All expectations should be laid out within a framework that will help facilitate the overall process.

Shared space – all learning management systems (LMS) have tools that facilitate communication for group work. Create a shared private space for each individual group where they can connect with each other and share ideas away from the other students who are not part of the smaller group. At a minimum there should be a place to have discussions, share files and allow for real-time chat. Instructors should provide directions for the use and make suggestions that will help students be successful. It is key that all students understand how to access the shared space. Ask groups to conduct all of their discussions in the LMS rather than rely on tools that you as the instructor can not access. This is helpful should you be called upon to act as judge or jury during times of conflict.

Monitor – a best practice to consider in an online courses is to monitor the shared group space and make it known to all students that an instructor will be present. By consistently offering advice and feedback as work progresses instructors will be modeling the expected use of the shared space. Instructors should find a balance between providing feedback and being too involved. The goal here is to simply guide the process and help make adjustments as needed. By monitoring the shared space faculty will also build presence within the course and create another opportunity to engage the students.

Individual and group grades – it is important to assign both individual and group grades for any group work assigned. Students need to be assessed on their individual contributions as well as how they participated with the other members of the group. The individual grades requires clear expectations and assigning individual grades increases individual accountability that will lead to a positive collaborative experience.

Overall online instructors should not eliminate effective pedagogical techniques that are present in traditional courses such as group work. Online instructors must take advantage of the technologies and best practices to create equal learning opportunities for students in the online space.

-RG

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Top 5 List: Ideas For Training Faculty

Top 5 List

Training faculty often falls within the scope of work of those that practice instructional design and/or educational technology. This training can be challenging when it comes to the use of new digital technologies and tools. While some of my colleagues over the years have expressed how challenging this can be, I find that to be just the opposite of my experience. The training should focus on several strategies and this will lead to an effective and efficient outcome for all of those that are involved. Here are couple things to consider:

Relationship building – this strategy will offer the opportunity to apply newly acquired knowledge directly into daily practice. Building a professional relationship allows the person doing the training to better understand the baseline knowledge and comfort level of the individual receiving the training. This allows open communication that can lead to possible opportunities for collaboration in the future.

Staying informed – research is a very important part of training. To research the latest trends in higher education, instructional design and learning in general can serve as a starting point for training development. Many times faculty are not able to articulate what they need because they don’t know what the options are.

Walk the walk – the person conducting the training should have an inside scoop on what is involved in teaching courses prior to conducting any training. A key ingredient will be that the trainers have first hand knowledge of the entire process of building a course: designing, developing, implementing, assessing and revising.

Build bridges – instructional designers have the opportunity to view a variety of courses across different disciplines. This offers a unique perspective and can often serve as a bridge between faculty members. Many times faculty would like to collaborate across disciplines but they’re just not aware of what others are doing. Sharing information across disciplines will benefit all involved in the process.

Leadership – successful instructional designers that do training proactively support faculty and allow faculty to share experiences with each other. One of the ways to do this is to establish an online faculty learning community within the institution. In this space ideas can be shared in an effective manner. Once established,  some of the things it can be shared include job aids, quick tips, best practices and other digital tools to increase efficiency and improve student outcomes.

-RG

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Team Motivation

Recently, I came across a problem statement from the early 1960’s and it tied nicely with the topic Mission and Vision statements.

Many years ago I was lucky enough to work with a gentleman who had made a career of providing consulting and corporate training services. While I am not sure this would classify as a Mentor-Mentee relationship, he did leave a lasting impression. 

During our time together I attended several workshops that he facilitated on the topic of Mission Statements. Many of his workshops were focused on small teams that existed inside of much larger organizations. 

The workshops were always great and he was a great facilitator…no matter the size of the audience. Very personable and connected with all in attendance. During his workshops he would educate attendees on the purpose of a vision statement and a mission statement for their larger organization as well as their smaller working group/team. 

As workshops moved along and small teams started to zero-in on their missions statements he would ask the teams how motivated they were feeling. It was no surprise that hands did NOT shoot into the air by attendees who felt especially motivated. 

These mission statements were not motivating. The problem he explained was that they are simply vague statements. Samples usually included:

  • To empower creation
  • To change the world
  • To become the number 1…
  • To give everyone power
  • Etc.

He would push the teams further to develop a vision… a future state of their smaller working team. This helped with motivation, but only slightly. 

The real change came about when he introduced the idea of the Mission Essential Task List. [I believe this was a requirement of the military during wartime missions]. This was a to-do list of the tasks that members of the team would do regularly to achieve their desired future state [Vision] that would be directly aligned with their Mission and that of the larger organization.

Today, I am wondering if an exercise in Problem Statement creation might be beneficial to smaller groups that have been created inside of larger organizations.

Problem statements are very similar to Mission Statements but are tied directly to a reality of something that needs to be fixed or changed. Fixing or changing some product, service or process is what motivates people. Problem statements don’t have to describe a problem, just something that can be solved. It is possible to arrive at the correct answer.

Finding the correct answer is especially motivating to those individuals that work in technology.  Here are a few things that will make a problem statement more motivating:

  • Learning – individuals that work in technology would love to learn new things and master them
  • Value – individuals that work in technology would love to work on something that makes a difference
  • Competition – individuals that work in technology would love to compete and prove their intelligence and hold bragging rights
  • Difficulty – individuals that work in technology would love to solve a problem that initially seems to be unsolvable

The problem statement mentioned at the beginning of this post was:
“First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish. “ – John F. Kennedy in May 1961.

-RG

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Time Management – Creating An Extra Hour In Your Day

One thing that we would agree on is that we could all use more time. No matter what we do it seems as if there just is not enough time to deal with work, family and individual tasks to keep our lives rolling along. If you could create an extra hour in your day what would you do with it? From what I have seen and read lately here are a few things that productive individuals do to squeeze more time out of already full days.

  • Get it done – whether you run your own small business or work for a large corporation most things you do don’t have to be perfect. Unless you’re a surgeon and are dealing with Life and death situations…just get over it already and get it out there – get it done.
  • End of day list – the one thing that efficient individuals due at the end of each day is to organize the tasks that need to be completed the next day and write them down. Make a list of the day so that you may begin first thing the next morning.
  • Block the Internet – many of us now work in environments where we have easy access to the Internet via a workstation or some handheld device that has easy access to the Internet. It’s all too easy to slide over To Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or a variety of other news sources. Each time you slide over to one of these websites you can almost count-on a loss of 30 minutes. Personally I have discovered the Chrome browser –  the StayFocused extension. While not a perfect solution it does remind me to be aware of my time.
  • Automation – take a hard look at the processes you do over and over again each day. Are you still doing these things by hand or with some outdated software? You might be able to do them faster and better with some cloud-based option. Google Drive comes to mind as an example of a cloud-based tool that helps me create efficiencies on a daily basis.
  • Delegation – of course we can do things ourselves and can probably do these things better and faster. However, that may not be the best use of our time. If we are in a management position or running our own business we might better use our time on time-saving activities or income-producing activities. The bottom line is just delegate.
  • The answer is no – the simple way to keep something off your to do list is not to put it there to begin with. Before you take on a difficult or time-consuming activity just simply ask yourself “what impact will this have on my time?”
  • No multitasking – set aside time to focus on just one thing and see it through to completion. Many individuals might be great multitaskers but actually doing too many things can be counterproductive…and this only lengthens your to do list.

Have fun – stay focused.

-RG

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Getting Things Done

Getting things done – for many individuals the hardest part of getting organized is simply deciding what’s the most important or what’s the highest priority. Individuals are often paralyzed by the fact that they simply don’t know where to start on a project. Here’s a short list of things to help you get organized and get things done:

  • If something takes less than five minutes, just do it now. Your to-do list won’t become cluttered with small items that can add up to big chunks of time or provide an excuse to do it later.
  • When you take the time to make a note to make that phone call later be sure to add the number or other information that you’ll need. This will make it easier to make calls when you find that you have a few minutes during the day, now the information will be right at your fingertips.
  • Group smaller items like phone calls and purchases you need to make. You’ll be able to prioritize them easily and then decide which you can accomplish with the time that you have right now.
  • Always capture the to-dos as they occur to you. Use your device to record a quick message or ask the device to set a reminder for you.

-RG

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Wanted: A Professional With These 6 Skills

All workplace teams will eventually be faced with turnover and the opportunity to replace a team member that is moving on for one reason or another. For the candidates that are looking to be considered for such openings this is the time to showcase the soft skills they possess such as communication, time management and interpersonal skills. Here is a short list of the things employers will be looking for:

  1. Confident – Being a confident team member is a key ingredient when it comes to winning over employers and co-workers. Displaying confidence in person rather than on a resume can be a difficult soft skill to manage. I recently spoke with a hiring committee chairperson and she shared with me that she is often let down when meeting a candidate in person, after discovering that their personality doesn’t live up to the same confidence that they displayed on their resume. She shared that many recent college graduates have difficulty making eye contact,  don’t carry themselves well and don’t speak with authority.
  2. Time Manager – Being a good time manager and having good time management skills are important for newly hired team members because they’re often juggling roles and responsibilities. One of the ways candidates can help potential employers understand how well they manage their time, candidates should be prepared to explain the way they prioritize daily tasks and why they prioritize that way.
  3. Positive Attitude – There aren’t too many people who want to work with a grumpy coworker. To avoid being labeled as a negative team member, don’t criticize and don’t complain. Instead of always pointing out others’ mistakes, look for opportunities to acknowledge things that others are doing well and praise their improvements.
  4. Flexible – One of the keys to success and an enjoyable work experience is that of flexibility. Don’t just say you’re a team player, show it by being flexible with your schedule and responsibilities. Others will see this can-do attitude as an essential part of the workplace and can easily make individuals stand out when it comes to promotions, raises and other opportunities. During an interview candidates might bring attention to the soft skill by describing instances when they’ve been flexible and that flexibility has benefited others and the employer.
  5. Team Player – Being able to contribute to and work with small teams will display an individual’s ability to get along with others and complete tasks. Having the ability to cooperate and compromise with others is a trait that is becoming more sought after by employers and hiring committees. Candidates who would like to be seen as team players should be prepared to mention times when they worked effectively with others on their resume and be willing to describe those scenarios in detail.
  6. Communicator – Technology has advanced to the point where in many cases it has robbed young people of their ability to communicate effectively by allowing them to use abbreviated e-mails and text messages. In a recent interview on FOX Business two hiring managers discuss the importance of being able to communicate without technology by engaging coworkers and others in face-to-face conversations. This is an area that all working professionals, of all ages can continue to improve in.

Overall it would be worthwhile to practice effective verbal communication, being purposefully positive and learning to work in teams. Time invested into fine tuning any of these soft skills is a good investment for candidates.

-RG