Photo by Alex Wolfe on Unsplash
What an interesting week! The College’s first External Review Virtual Visit took place. After months in the planning and the initial on-site visit being derailed by the pandemic, our reviewers were finally able to meet students, faculty, and a wide-range of the college community to talk about the program under review. I confess I was feeling anxious beforehand, about whether storms or other technical glitches might strike, but we were lucky – and we planned well. Recognizing how much work had already been done before I came into the process, I see how putting so much work in ahead of time is completely worth it. We had a high level of engagement (only 2 people dropped out last minute) and it was clear that everyone was keen to ensure they fully participated in the process and were well prepared. Moving forward it would be good to have resources available for people taking part in the feedback process. There were several questions about what to expect and what they could do to prepare. Recognizing the differences across disciplines, individual preferences of review teams etc., having a one-page guidance page or a 3-minute video would be useful. We received some useful suggestions moving forward regarding the length of sessions and overall the external review team expressed that they felt fully supported in the process. I can see advantages to conducting these visits virtually (beyond maintaining social distancing). The ability to record sessions so the reviewers can go back and revisit discussions; the chance to get people together without having the cost in time and money of extensive travel; the accessibility of participation (e.g., for alumni). The downside (and not exactly a disadvantage) is losing the ‘downtime’ for the ad hoc conversations (e.g., during site tours) which gives more time for the reviewers to digest information and to connect with people beyond the allotted time given for each session.
I’ve written myself some notes on this part of the program review process. I’m looking forward now to starting at the beginning.
The next few days I spent ‘at’ the POD conference. It seems odd to think we would have been in Seattle right now. All things considered, I was glad of the opportunity to be able to attend from the relative safety of the Island. Overall I think the organizers did an amazing job of putting together a program with both synchronous and asynchronous sessions. I enjoyed the connection afforded in the synchronous sessions and the opportunity to chat with educators across the world in the breakout sessions. I liked the asynchronous sessions because I was able to pick and choose more easily topics that I thought would be useful and move on quickly if a recording was not what I was looking for. I appreciated the fact there were so many sessions around the theme of story telling and narratives. It struck me that I’ve been using stories in my teaching for a long time, without consciously reflecting on the fact I was doing so. And, also, asking my students to reflect on their own stories. I’ve been amazed about how much students are willing to share and the learning that comes to them in the process. I also see the value in using stories to build connection and create community in an online environment. Helping students feel a human connection and a sense of belonging is critical, not only in promoting learning, but also to support mental health.
The other advantage of attending online is that I got to ‘attend’ far more sessions that would have been possible at a face-to-face conference and I’ll also be referring back to several of the sessions and the resources provided. It’s a fabulous community of practice.
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