Organizational Growth
I believe that in applying Wenger’s theories surrounding digital habitats and building relationships, I have been able to start changing the way communication is done in my office. Wenger believes and I agree that technology both changes face-to-face meetings and makes new kinds of meetings from a distance possible and productive. I believe that as students’ desires to have information readily available increases our ability to provide it should as well. I also believe that earning takes place socially and that if we continue to incorporate the use of social media and online advising in our services students will have a better chance at learning what it takes to transfer into STEM fields. Through my action research I was able to reach more students, discuss the transfer requirements and in many cases hold individual advising appointments with them. I can not say for sure that the increase in SIR’ed transfer numbers for fall 2012 is due to online advising but based on the evidence evaluated it suggests that it had positive effect. Due to the increase in student contact new laptops and webcams have been bought for the other Academic Advisors in my department to use.
This summer I will be assisting BCOE Student Affairs with creating there own face book page to begin meeting with current UCR students online. We will be drafting a special FERPA/ social media use page for students to electronically sign before advising sessions begin. (This is something that I learned I should have done this year.) My Dean and I have a meeting set up in July to discuss creating an increased telepresence at southern California community colleges. Through discussions about how technology can be better utilized in our department aside from my action research, I was able to assist in the creation of an online check in system for advisors, and also the transfer from paper student advising files to a digital database for the office. I am currently working with the registrar’s office IT department to create a new database that can house our digital files while complimenting the information we currently keep in the Student Information System or SIS+ database system.
More than this both the Student Affairs Manager, and our Dean are discussing how we can use Action Research to continue to help us look at all of the services we provide to our students. I am blessed to have open-minded supervisors that at least seem to be interested in what we as practitioners have to say. With the research to back up what we are observing we make the shift from just a practitioner to an expert. To me this has been the best change organizationally.
This summer I will be assisting BCOE Student Affairs with creating there own face book page to begin meeting with current UCR students online. We will be drafting a special FERPA/ social media use page for students to electronically sign before advising sessions begin. (This is something that I learned I should have done this year.) My Dean and I have a meeting set up in July to discuss creating an increased telepresence at southern California community colleges. Through discussions about how technology can be better utilized in our department aside from my action research, I was able to assist in the creation of an online check in system for advisors, and also the transfer from paper student advising files to a digital database for the office. I am currently working with the registrar’s office IT department to create a new database that can house our digital files while complimenting the information we currently keep in the Student Information System or SIS+ database system.
More than this both the Student Affairs Manager, and our Dean are discussing how we can use Action Research to continue to help us look at all of the services we provide to our students. I am blessed to have open-minded supervisors that at least seem to be interested in what we as practitioners have to say. With the research to back up what we are observing we make the shift from just a practitioner to an expert. To me this has been the best change organizationally.