Timothy Blog 1

The need in this case is to provide useful information in the form of guides and checklists  to help students intending to transfer as they navigate the process of transitioning from a junior college to a 4-year university. 

The feedback for this activity was provided by former students of mine who have transferred on to a four year university.  The former students are Shawn W and Jenn C.  I reached out to them on March 27th with the product I had created based on suggestions from an interview with them. As of earlier today (March 31) I had not received anything back from them, but they contacted me earlier this evening with their feedback. 

This activity has been one that was eye-opening for me. One of the things that I pride myself on even being from an older generation than the students I work with, is that I can still find ways to connect with them, and understand how to help them connect with the material I am teaching. This activity, and my initial approach to it, reminded me that it was a good idea to involve current students to get their feedback and understanding of this problem. it was my suggestion to create a paper checklist or possibly a video tutorial or both to help guide them through the transfer process. One of the first things that the students I interviewed told me was that it would be much better as an app or some kind of website or both. This has forced me to be more creative not only in my approach to this problem and solutions to it, but also in the execution of those.

The first assumption that I made was thinking that their transfer process was completely negative negative and filled with difficulty. In fact, many aspects of the transport process worked well for them, or at least were not a challenge. The second assumption, as I mentioned above, was what kind of materials might be useful for them to navigate those challenges. As I have corrected my own course in this activity, I have discovered new ways that I may be of assistance to future students as they navigate the transfer process. The one thing that this has really done for me Has been to reaffirm my belief that all students should have access to the education they desire to achieve their goals.

As I continue to work through the activity and the product I am creating, I am always referring back to the knowledge and wisdom I found looking through literature related to this subject. One of the things that I ask myself while working on this project is, how do I do this effectively without reinventing the wheel? This is where the literature review that I did has been invaluable. What has also been helpful is advice from our own academic advisors here on campus. They have helped me to fill in gaps in my knowledge related to this process. I find that although I feel sometimes I have a good grasp of things, there are often parts of this process that I have not been exposed to and so, getting advice from someone who sees this on everyday basis has been invaluable as well. All in all this has been an enlightening and interesting experience for me. It is also been fun to get to step out of my music, teacher role and into the role of an advisor.

Moving forward, I will work to create a more refined version of the help guides I am working on. I will keep referring back to the guidance from the experts I have talked to and the literature I have read and hopefully create a better, more helpful product that I can utilize with students in the future.