Facebook Feedback: Ball State University (BSU): Educational Studies

Working with adults is a very important aspect of any educational field or career path. No matter where you go, you should be able to work in small or large groups and understand what drives people. The Department of Educational Studies can help prepare both traditional and non-traditional students with course offerings ranging from introductory to advanced research classes focusing on topics that will prepare students in these skills. Their Facebook page can be a good way to get a very cursory introductory look at the department and some of their offerings. There you will find information about faculty members and research they are doing as well as reviews from current and past students on course offerings. Any prospective student to the School of Education should review this page as a part of their review, but should not solely rely on this page for all of their information.

There is much being shared about events and opportunities that would be of interest to adult, community and higher education students.  Our instructor, Dr. Sheron, was congratulated on being selected as a recipient of the Provost Immersive Learning Grant for fall 2016 and as being invited to be a member of the editorial board of Educational Studies, the official journal of the American Educational Studies Association.  It is a fairly active page for faculty it appears.  Social media presence is important but the level of which it is needed for adult or non-traditional students may be less than that of traditional college students.  It’s great the Facebook site wants to prepare students for future opportunities, but it is also important to connect to current and students that have graduated seeking new career opportunities. Keeping the site updated can keep individuals engaged with the site postings.  

One issue with the course offerings is that the Adult, Community, Higher Education degree program is listed as distance education.  In order to apply for the ACHE doctoral program you must select distance.  This would seemingly work great for out of town students but in planning future semesters driving to Muncie for a class is scheduled potentially for numerous semesters.  This doesn’t fit the definition of a distance education program and should not be presented that it can be completed solely online or from outside of Muncie.

High Impact Practices: An Annotated Bibliography

EDAC 631 Annotated Bibliography

Nick Capozzoli

Claire Maxson

LaKrisha Perry

High Impact Practices: An Annotated Bibliography

Bonet, G., & Walters, B. R. (2016, June 1). High Impact Practices: Student Engagement and

Retention. College Student Journal, 224-235.

This article discusses a specific program started in 1996 at Kingsborough Community College that they called “learning communities”. The intent was to take small cohorts of students at one to two semester periods and test their retention of knowledge in courses such as basic English, introductory Physchology and Sociology and a one hour student development seminar. They have provdied data as well as a stufdent survey to detail the successfulness of these programs over the past 20 years. They also list their research goals and breakdown the 5 key hypothesis that were developed from their studies. Using these examples would be useful in forming new hypthosis or even ones specific to a department or institution.

Building on the Tennessee Promise. (Aug 18 2016) Community College Daily. American Association of Community Colleges ProQuest. Retrieved Sept. 8 2016 from, http://search.proquest.com.allstate.libproxy.ivytech.edu/pqrl/docview/1812335177/fulltext/E92725A83F064A1BPQ/1?accountid=40920

The Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC) has awarded $800,000 in grants to five community colleges across the country to build high impact practices on their campuses.  One of these practices is intrusive advising while another is first-year seminar courses. The following point connects with future research, “For example, Cleveland State Community College, which received Tennessee Promise Forward funding in the first year, retained Tennessee Promise students at a rate that was 9 percentage points higher than the overall population through its case management approach to student advising.” The college's work with first-year seminars incoming students yielded an increase from 31 percent to 60 percent of students completing college level writing, according to THEC. This could be used in connection to building a case to keep first-year seminar courses and infusing the first semester specifically with intrusive advising.

Gagliardi, J. S., Martin, R. R., Wise, K., & Blaich, C. (2015). The System Effect: Scaling High-Impact Practices Across Campuses. New Directions For Higher Education, 2015(169), 15-26. doi:10.1002/he.20119

This article focuses on strengthening bonds between post-secondary facilities and consortia to work with the Council on Undergraduate Research. The desire is to increase the effectiveness of the educational facilities and consortia to generate student engagement. Thus, consortia and educational facilities are focusing on high-impact practices with the output of undergraduate research. Student engagement is vital when looking at retention and growth opportunities for students; the article provides insight to an option to engage and retain students. 

Hill, L. Maier-Katkin., & Kinsley, K. (2015). Everything Old is New Again: The Criminology/Criminal Justine Freshman Research Seminar. Journal of Criminal Justice Education, 26(4), 493-506. doi:10.1080/10511253.2015.1052002 

A first-year seminar with traditional objectives of study skills, research basics, critical thinking has been infused with contextualized curriculum of criminal justice. While this is not one of the areas Ivy Tech Community College has a select course, criminal justice is under the broader public service course, this would be great to use going forward in tracking the success of this type of major specific coursework.  The study did find that this approach had a positive impact on the students, their skills and comfort level in the topics at hand moving forward in their studies.  The course encourages critical thinking and has a positive influence on the students.  The problem with this in terms of a study is that these are all basic student success objectives.  There is nothing to say that criminal justice being incorporated into the course has had an impact on success or retention.  So this could be used as base research for continuing or implementing contextualized curriculum.

Kilgo, C., Ezell Sheets, J., & Pascarella, E. (2015). The link between high-impact practices and student learning: some longitudinal evidence. Higher Education, 69(4), 509-525. doi:10.1007/s10734-014-9788-z

This article reviews different high-impact practices used in post-secondary education. The article identifies certain high-impact practices that provide high ranking liberal arts educational outcomes which result in positive student experiences. Determining which high-impact practices make a difference in the early stages of the undergraduate experience serves as an important aspect of long-term student success. This article could prove useful in designing first and second year experiences as well as learning communities.

Kuh, G. D. (2008, September 22). Why Integration and Engagement are Essential to Effective Educational Practice in the Twenty-first Century. Peer review: emerging trends and key debates in undergraduate education, 10(4), 27-28.

Kuh discusses six processes of high impact practices that engage first year students. First is the devotion of time to a purposeful task, second is the demand to interact with faculty and other students about substantial matters. Third is the experience of diversity through interacting with people who appear different than themselves. Fourth is the opportunity for frequent feedback in their opportunities, fifth is the opportunity to see how learning works on and off campus and finally sixth is the deep learning they participate in that helps them put their learning into context of a broader perspective. High impact practices are found throughout a educational journey but the more entrenched they become in a college’s culture the more engaging and effective they become.

Malika Tukibateva, R. M. (2014). High Impact Practices and the First-Year Student. New Directions for Institutional Research, 2013(160), 19-35.

This article discusses three different types of service learning; Service Learning, Learning Communities and Undergraduate Research. It shares different examples of each type and studies their impacts on first year students. Ultimately it found that Service Learning takes place among smaller institutions, Learning Communities occur at large institutions and Undergraduate Research is the least utilized option by first year students. Data and regression analysis are used to support their findings.

O’Neill, N. (2010). Internships as a High Impact Practice: Some Reflections on Quality. Peer review : emerging trends and key debates in undergraduate education, 12(4), 4-8.

This article builds on the George Kuh’s six principles and delves deeper into internships and their effectiveness as high impact learning. O’Neill discusses what constitutes an internship, how universities can create them and how it takes everyone involved, from the student to the faculty, the advisor and the employer to make the experience worthwhile. This leads to potentially incorporating more career oriented styles of learning into these classes with internships being one of them. O’Neill states for those students already on a career path, internships “are learning in ‘real world’ settings, gain more substantial professional experience, and begin to develop a network of people in fields that interest them.” This seems self-explanatory but having to put in the effort to participate in an internship or career related activity takes commitment.  Investing time and energy into an activity is what makes it high impact by definition. 

Permzadian, V. & Crede, M. (2015) Do First Year Seminars Improve College Grades and Retention? A Quantitative Review of Their Overall Effectiveness and an Examination of Moderators of Effectiveness. Review of Education Research, 86 (1) 277-316. doi:3102/0034654315584955

According to the article, first-year seminars are currently being offered at almost 90% of institutions in the country. Narrative reviews show these courses are effective while the data in regards to sustained performance and retention are mixed.  As a statewide institution Ivy Tech community College sees both of these results vary by region.  This study discusses entry stress, adjustment to college, college knowledge and motivation as well as first-year experience characteristics, course length, grading, target population and moderator effectiveness among other criteria.  According to Permzadian & Crede, first-year seminars are meant to provide new students with the knowledge, skills and abilities that are necessary to overcome the different challenges of the first year of college.  This would also be a useful tool in keeping these types of courses on the catalog of courses.

Zilvinskis, John (2015). Using Authentic Assessment to Reinforce Student Learning in High-Impact Practices (pp. 7-12) Assessment Update. Nov/Dec. 2015, Vol. 27 Issue 6

This article discusses the assessment of High Impact Practice programs (HIPs) and how effective review of the programs can help impact student learning. It further details what an authentic assessment is and the theories behind why and how it is successful. Finally, the article provides examples from past conferences and organizations that have used authentic assessment of their HIPs and the results that have been found.  Authentic assessment is a very hot topic and this article would be beneficial when discussing grade norming.

Online Survival Memo

The biggest challenges found in this course were:

1.       Getting used to the online format of the class

2.       Managing my time effectively each week to complete assignments

3.       Length of time it takes to communicate

Nick:  Having never taken a course entirely online, I had no idea what to expect going into this semester. At first I was overwhelmed after reading the syllabus and seeing all the assignments due, thinking there was no way I was going to be able to get everything done. That combined with never meeting anyone from the class or the professor, I started to feel out of my depth. Secondly, in the beginning the class moved extremely fast and I wasn’t prepared for how many assignments would be due so quickly. Every week was a new topic that required new research and sources and I wasn’t even familiar with the library or campus yet! Also, in traditional college courses you can see your colleagues or the professor at least a few times each week face to face so you can get instant feedback from questions. However, in this course it is typically all through email or blackboard, so the feedback takes a lot longer. This is something I was not used to.

Claire: The syllabus was very thorough though the assignment directions or areas for submission were not always clear.  Looking in advance at the directions is important but also double checking where and how the assignments are to be submitted is beneficial.  The start of the course is heavy with a lot of reading and discussion boards, a student can get into a rhythm with the work but this takes a little time.  There are a lot of content areas/buttons in the Blackboard course shell so start navigating through the site to gain an understanding of where things are found.  The small group I worked with in the class helped me to feel grounded in the coursework.  I leaned on my group members for input, guidance and answers.  Even though we were not meeting in class face to face together we did communicate over email frequently and there was a feeling of connection in the small group discussion boards.

LaKrisha:  It can be difficult recalling information for your Final Learning Journal.  Make sure you regularly complete your Critical Incident Posts.   It’s important to go back and look at your thoughts during certain times in the semester.  It helps you to understand your struggles and desires.  In addition, they will provide you with a foundation for your paper.

Utilize the WebEx meetings as frequently as possible.  Because the class is online you can easily become disconnected.  I found the WebEx meetings to be extremely helpful.  I was able to get to know the instructor face-to-face, I could articulate my questions easier regarding information I was not understanding and I always came away with answers to questions I’d not thought of before the call. 

 

Our advice for combating and overcoming these issues is:

1.       Attend the Adult Education graduate school seminar in August

2.       Decide before the semester starts of when you will study and when you will get assignments done.

3.       Get phone numbers of your classmates and use the teleconference to talk to the professor.

Nick:  After I attended the graduate school seminar I felt much better about starting both my graduate program and the semester. I could network with both new students and veteran students in my program and put faces to names so I didn’t feel alone. It was immensely helpful and I cannot recommend it enough.

Second, budget your time, this cannot be overstated enough. With the assignments being due by Wednesday of each week and the comments due by Sunday, you cannot fall behind or you will always be playing catch up. Plan with yourself and your loved ones so they know when you will be studying and writing papers. Don’t just assume you will have time each day or try to squeeze it or else you could be up all night trying to get assignments done and your work will suffer. Remember, no one will be standing over you telling to get something done so you must have self-discipline or else you will wind up on deadline day staring at a blank page.

If I could do one thing different, I would better utilize the online library portal to take full advantage of what they can offer. It may be because I am brand new to Ball State, but I had no idea until very late in the semester how robust the online portal of the library is. I would have used some time in the summer to get better acquainted with it so I was better prepared. Now that I am I feel much more confident about my ability to research and write papers.

Claire: I agree with Nick’s suggestions wholeheartedly.  Any communication and connections that can be made beyond e-mail is useful.  Even though I didn’t often reach out using other modes of communication it was nice to know that I could.  Using time wisely is the key to success in any course but an online course especially.  While there are set deadlines each week, part of your meeting these is responding to classmates or implementing their input into a group assignment.  If everyone has their work done on time or ahead for the first deadline it is much easier to meet the due dates later in the week and semester.  Letting group mates know it is a busy week and you will be running a day or so later than usual with your submission is helpful.  If you know when you will be posting the questions for your group mates it is nice to let them know this.  Checking your Ball State email on a regular basis and reviewing feedback in the gradebook in a timely manner helps maintain a link to the course and the instructor as well.

LaKrisha:  Always refer to the syllabus for instructions on completing assignments.  The syllabus contains a wealth of information.  However, it is very lengthy so you may get overwhelmed with its contents.  Utilize the search function in Word/Adobe when looking for the assignment you are working on.  Larger projects have guidance regarding what is required.  Choose an adult educator from the list provided on the syllabus.  I found it to be very difficult to find substantial information on the adult educator I initially selected that was not on the list.  The list provides you with adult educators that have already been approved to use in your project.  The individuals are also well known in AE; therefore, you will find substantial research information.   Start your research on the individual early to ensure you find a variety of information.  Lastly, be sure to answer each question listed in the syllabus for this project.  This will ensure you accumulate the points available.