Monday, October 19, 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
Tanya's Tips to Success "Directing"
**Create goals that are clear and measurable
Staff need to see a direct relationship between what they are doing and the benefit to the unit. If they cannot see the connection, they will not be motivated. The connections needs to be immediate and measurable. If they cannot draw the connections, map the connections out for them. e.g., you do x each day, which impacts y, which leads to z -- very simple formula.
**Get staff buy-in for the goals
Give staff enough context and background to understand why the goals are important for themselves and for the unit.
**Create a link between unit goals and individual goals
Find out what makes employees satisfied and how those relate (or could relate) to the units goals. Draw those links for employees so they can see how achieving unit goals can reward them with their own satisfaction.
If they feel that there is a large difference between unit goals and individual goals, they will be unhappy.
**Make your staff feel like they are part of a team
By creating activities where they collaborate with each other towards goals they all feel are important, such as submitting a grant proposal or a conference proposal.
**Give meaningful priorities
You must highlight the 3 things that staff should be focusing on each week. Giving them 2 pages of priorities is only going to be overwhelming. Each week let them know what you think is important and why. The "why" should again link to the impact on the unit goals as a whole. Make sure there is a feedback loop, so they feel comfortable telling you they disagree.
**Create an open door or feedback loop
If you react poorly from criticism, so blowing it off (directly or indirectly) or showing hurt or anger, staff will never tell you what they really think.
For example, when staff tells you a problem and you say "ok, fine" or "no, that was not my intent" or "blanket apology for whatever I did" -- that is not the kind of response they were looking for. Although your words say one thing or another, silence or lack of words communicates something totally different.
When your staff share a criticism with you, show your appreciation -- "wow, I didn't realize. I really appreciate you sharing with me. I will have to think about that one and get back to you."
ALSO, do not send back an e-mail to them criticism them or acting like you are mentoring them and criticism them. They are trying to help the unit when they give you a criticism and if they are telling you this, they are probably not the only one thinking it and have heard from others having the same issue.
**Have emotional intelligence
Truly care about your staff, what they think, and how they feel. Don't just send out "friendly" emails because your walking through the steps...truly be empathetic to their plight. For example, talk to them 1-1 every so often after work or during a down time to discuss how things are going with them.
**Have strategic communication
Do not send your staff an email every 5 minutes (e.g., referred to as the firehose). Do not send materials for a meeting that is a week away because *you* wanted to prep for the meeting.
Althouh you may feel an urgency to get things off your plate, sending out quickly on e-mail makes things overwhelming. Send out one e-mail in the morning or evening that is today's announcements and highlights. Keep an open document throughout the day to send out at night or the next morning with these things. Don't send an e-mail everytime you have a thought.
Also, Communication needs to come with a directive -- how this impacts us? why it is important to us? we are doing x?
Things that are going to require a f2f discussion (or 20 e-mails if discussed over e-mail), should be shared at a f2f meeting. To start a stream of long winded e-mails to discuss a new plan that impacts the entire unit is counterproductive and again can make staff feel overwhelmed.
**Open dialogue
Do not send out an e-mail with your entire plan and then say..is this okay? That means you could care less about their input and are just looking for confirmation. Start collecting staff opinions during the brainstorming stage.
**Don't be afraid of conflict
Conflict is inevitable!! Pretending or avoiding it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It just means that it will fester up again and again because you didn't know how to manage it effectively.
Conflict is transformative (See Bush and Folger). Look at conflict as a time to gain some understanding of other's perspective. Also, it is an individual time for gorwth as well as an opporunity to gather a diversity of ideas for an ultimate outcome.
Position Description:
-->Lead with the implementation of technology-based pedagogical tools, including faculty development, evaluation of impact on student learning (quantitative and qualitative), development of best practices
-->Understanding the cycle of implementation, specifically controlling the change, stakeholder involvement, change agents, and the feedback loop for improvement of process
-->Success in supplying a vision and big picture thinking, understanding of how a small action can impact numerous variables (staff, faculty, students, future interactions, etc.)
-->Success in developing strategic communication with staff, stakeholders, and the campus in general -- understanding that you set the tone for your unit.
-->Success in facilitating motivation in staff, clear and measurable goals, staff buy-in of goals, create a link between unit goals and individual goals, give meaningful priorities, facilitating an open door or feedback loop, having emotional intelligence
-->Success in promoting a working environment that encourages creativity, efficiency, and receptivity to change
-->Value staff within the unit as much as opinions external to the unit
-->Be a collectivist thinker, what is best for the unit and the campus?
-->Be open to dialogue and transformative management of conflict for a better outcome. Avoid situations of groupthink.
-->Be able to balance quality of services and products, demand of workload, and satisfaction of staff
-->Success in facilitating employee satisfaction through different mechanissm
Potential Interview Questions
Regarding leadership, I would make sure to ask things like:
What is the difference between managing and leading?
What methods do you use to motivate staff?
How important is staff satisfaction to you?
How do you foster creativity within the unit?
What approaches do you use for managing conflict?
What methods do you use to develop strategic plans for the unit? campus use of instructional tech?
How do you solicit staff input on strategic planning and unit decisions?
How do you balance staff individual goals with unit goals?
What values do you feel the unit should have? Is family first (or work)?
How do you balance supplying big picture and unit vision while supporting day-to-day tasks?
How do you foresee that we could secure additional funding through outside sources?
What are your priorities in planning the annual budget (innovative hardware, staff travel, additional staff/salary, etc.)?
How important is staff professional development?
Here are some key task related questions:
Instructional design question: Integrating technology (such as rich media, podcasting, etc) into course design
Describe a specific experience in which you integrated a learning technology (e.g., podcasting, clickers, wikis, CMS) in a particularly innovative way into your course design. How did you integrate the specific technology into your teaching in such a way as to promote active learning? If the class in which this experience took place was not blended or online, how would you translate this experience into one of these environments?
Faculty support question
Describe a specific experience when you consulted or assisted a faculty member on integrating technology into their teaching. What pedagogical considerations did you share with them when assisting them in this integration?
Project Management question
If you were asked to design a faculty development program for implementing a new learning technology, such as clickers, podcasting, or wikis, tell us how you would proceed. What would be the essential elements of the program? Explain in detail the cycle of implementation and milestones of a successful pilot or implementation.
Future Research question
What are some of the major trends you see in higher education with respect to the use of technology for teaching and learning? How would you promote or support the use of these emerging technologies for ‘mainstream’ faculty use?
Other questions you may want to ask:
Describe a particular problem that you encountered with your web-enhanced, hybrid, or online teaching. What technologically and/or pedagogically innovative means did you employ to resolve the problem? Would you recommend this to other faculty? Why or why not?
How do you see your role and activities at the LTC contributing, in the next few years, to the advancement of the unit as a whole?
Have you used, or had experience with, “rich media”? Please describe your experience. Would you recommend its use to others?
Give an example when something went terribly wrong in your professional setting, and tell how you reacted, because it was your responsibility to fix it.
Have you had any experience working as a member of a team to help roll out a new learning technology for a campus unit or program? If so, what were the key components of your plan for implementing the new learning technology?
Have you ever been asked to assess the impact of a specific learning technology on student learning at an institutional level? If so, how did you proceed?
What are the most important things to you in a work environment?
What experiences have you had developing and writing grant proposals?
General stuff --
Why are you interested in this position? What attracted you to this position? How does this position fit into your career path? Why are you considering a change at this time?
Given the position description, what relevant strengths -- experiences, skills, and talents -- do you bring to this position?
Given the position description, what aspects of this position do you feel the least comfortable with? What would you like to bring yourself up to speed on in the first six months you were here?
Tell me about your experience helping other faculty with their efforts to incorporate technology in their teaching. What advice would you give to someone who wanted to effectively support and work with faculty interested in incorporating technology into teaching and learning?
New technologies come along all the time, but the LTC has limited resources. How would you decide whether to support a particular new technology that had been brought to your attention?
Is there a particular technology or application of technology that you feel is important for teaching and learning and is being overlooked and that you would like to champion?
Where do you see yourself five to six years from now? Where are you heading with your career?
When could you start?
Staff need to see a direct relationship between what they are doing and the benefit to the unit. If they cannot see the connection, they will not be motivated. The connections needs to be immediate and measurable. If they cannot draw the connections, map the connections out for them. e.g., you do x each day, which impacts y, which leads to z -- very simple formula.
**Get staff buy-in for the goals
Give staff enough context and background to understand why the goals are important for themselves and for the unit.
**Create a link between unit goals and individual goals
Find out what makes employees satisfied and how those relate (or could relate) to the units goals. Draw those links for employees so they can see how achieving unit goals can reward them with their own satisfaction.
If they feel that there is a large difference between unit goals and individual goals, they will be unhappy.
**Make your staff feel like they are part of a team
By creating activities where they collaborate with each other towards goals they all feel are important, such as submitting a grant proposal or a conference proposal.
**Give meaningful priorities
You must highlight the 3 things that staff should be focusing on each week. Giving them 2 pages of priorities is only going to be overwhelming. Each week let them know what you think is important and why. The "why" should again link to the impact on the unit goals as a whole. Make sure there is a feedback loop, so they feel comfortable telling you they disagree.
**Create an open door or feedback loop
If you react poorly from criticism, so blowing it off (directly or indirectly) or showing hurt or anger, staff will never tell you what they really think.
For example, when staff tells you a problem and you say "ok, fine" or "no, that was not my intent" or "blanket apology for whatever I did" -- that is not the kind of response they were looking for. Although your words say one thing or another, silence or lack of words communicates something totally different.
When your staff share a criticism with you, show your appreciation -- "wow, I didn't realize. I really appreciate you sharing with me. I will have to think about that one and get back to you."
ALSO, do not send back an e-mail to them criticism them or acting like you are mentoring them and criticism them. They are trying to help the unit when they give you a criticism and if they are telling you this, they are probably not the only one thinking it and have heard from others having the same issue.
**Have emotional intelligence
Truly care about your staff, what they think, and how they feel. Don't just send out "friendly" emails because your walking through the steps...truly be empathetic to their plight. For example, talk to them 1-1 every so often after work or during a down time to discuss how things are going with them.
**Have strategic communication
Do not send your staff an email every 5 minutes (e.g., referred to as the firehose). Do not send materials for a meeting that is a week away because *you* wanted to prep for the meeting.
Althouh you may feel an urgency to get things off your plate, sending out quickly on e-mail makes things overwhelming. Send out one e-mail in the morning or evening that is today's announcements and highlights. Keep an open document throughout the day to send out at night or the next morning with these things. Don't send an e-mail everytime you have a thought.
Also, Communication needs to come with a directive -- how this impacts us? why it is important to us? we are doing x?
Things that are going to require a f2f discussion (or 20 e-mails if discussed over e-mail), should be shared at a f2f meeting. To start a stream of long winded e-mails to discuss a new plan that impacts the entire unit is counterproductive and again can make staff feel overwhelmed.
**Open dialogue
Do not send out an e-mail with your entire plan and then say..is this okay? That means you could care less about their input and are just looking for confirmation. Start collecting staff opinions during the brainstorming stage.
**Don't be afraid of conflict
Conflict is inevitable!! Pretending or avoiding it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It just means that it will fester up again and again because you didn't know how to manage it effectively.
Conflict is transformative (See Bush and Folger). Look at conflict as a time to gain some understanding of other's perspective. Also, it is an individual time for gorwth as well as an opporunity to gather a diversity of ideas for an ultimate outcome.
Position Description:
-->Lead with the implementation of technology-based pedagogical tools, including faculty development, evaluation of impact on student learning (quantitative and qualitative), development of best practices
-->Understanding the cycle of implementation, specifically controlling the change, stakeholder involvement, change agents, and the feedback loop for improvement of process
-->Success in supplying a vision and big picture thinking, understanding of how a small action can impact numerous variables (staff, faculty, students, future interactions, etc.)
-->Success in developing strategic communication with staff, stakeholders, and the campus in general -- understanding that you set the tone for your unit.
-->Success in facilitating motivation in staff, clear and measurable goals, staff buy-in of goals, create a link between unit goals and individual goals, give meaningful priorities, facilitating an open door or feedback loop, having emotional intelligence
-->Success in promoting a working environment that encourages creativity, efficiency, and receptivity to change
-->Value staff within the unit as much as opinions external to the unit
-->Be a collectivist thinker, what is best for the unit and the campus?
-->Be open to dialogue and transformative management of conflict for a better outcome. Avoid situations of groupthink.
-->Be able to balance quality of services and products, demand of workload, and satisfaction of staff
-->Success in facilitating employee satisfaction through different mechanissm
Potential Interview Questions
Regarding leadership, I would make sure to ask things like:
What is the difference between managing and leading?
What methods do you use to motivate staff?
How important is staff satisfaction to you?
How do you foster creativity within the unit?
What approaches do you use for managing conflict?
What methods do you use to develop strategic plans for the unit? campus use of instructional tech?
How do you solicit staff input on strategic planning and unit decisions?
How do you balance staff individual goals with unit goals?
What values do you feel the unit should have? Is family first (or work)?
How do you balance supplying big picture and unit vision while supporting day-to-day tasks?
How do you foresee that we could secure additional funding through outside sources?
What are your priorities in planning the annual budget (innovative hardware, staff travel, additional staff/salary, etc.)?
How important is staff professional development?
Here are some key task related questions:
Instructional design question: Integrating technology (such as rich media, podcasting, etc) into course design
Describe a specific experience in which you integrated a learning technology (e.g., podcasting, clickers, wikis, CMS) in a particularly innovative way into your course design. How did you integrate the specific technology into your teaching in such a way as to promote active learning? If the class in which this experience took place was not blended or online, how would you translate this experience into one of these environments?
Faculty support question
Describe a specific experience when you consulted or assisted a faculty member on integrating technology into their teaching. What pedagogical considerations did you share with them when assisting them in this integration?
Project Management question
If you were asked to design a faculty development program for implementing a new learning technology, such as clickers, podcasting, or wikis, tell us how you would proceed. What would be the essential elements of the program? Explain in detail the cycle of implementation and milestones of a successful pilot or implementation.
Future Research question
What are some of the major trends you see in higher education with respect to the use of technology for teaching and learning? How would you promote or support the use of these emerging technologies for ‘mainstream’ faculty use?
Other questions you may want to ask:
Describe a particular problem that you encountered with your web-enhanced, hybrid, or online teaching. What technologically and/or pedagogically innovative means did you employ to resolve the problem? Would you recommend this to other faculty? Why or why not?
How do you see your role and activities at the LTC contributing, in the next few years, to the advancement of the unit as a whole?
Have you used, or had experience with, “rich media”? Please describe your experience. Would you recommend its use to others?
Give an example when something went terribly wrong in your professional setting, and tell how you reacted, because it was your responsibility to fix it.
Have you had any experience working as a member of a team to help roll out a new learning technology for a campus unit or program? If so, what were the key components of your plan for implementing the new learning technology?
Have you ever been asked to assess the impact of a specific learning technology on student learning at an institutional level? If so, how did you proceed?
What are the most important things to you in a work environment?
What experiences have you had developing and writing grant proposals?
General stuff --
Why are you interested in this position? What attracted you to this position? How does this position fit into your career path? Why are you considering a change at this time?
Given the position description, what relevant strengths -- experiences, skills, and talents -- do you bring to this position?
Given the position description, what aspects of this position do you feel the least comfortable with? What would you like to bring yourself up to speed on in the first six months you were here?
Tell me about your experience helping other faculty with their efforts to incorporate technology in their teaching. What advice would you give to someone who wanted to effectively support and work with faculty interested in incorporating technology into teaching and learning?
New technologies come along all the time, but the LTC has limited resources. How would you decide whether to support a particular new technology that had been brought to your attention?
Is there a particular technology or application of technology that you feel is important for teaching and learning and is being overlooked and that you would like to champion?
Where do you see yourself five to six years from now? Where are you heading with your career?
When could you start?
Tips for Online Course Development
*Do not include due dates in the assignment documents you post on the CMS. If you do, you will have to recreate every document each semester.
*Include them in the name of the link to the document instead
*
*Include them in the name of the link to the document instead
*
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