Application to Practice

Relationship Between Coursework and Practice

I have applied the principles of andragogy, universal design learning (UDL), and small online learning learned throughout the program to the improve the curriculum for an online course that was under review within my academic program.  

• • Online Course Lesson Plan

I was able to collaborate with another scholar during the program to establish a position on funding the education of a nation and to confidently discuss and apply knowledge to my position as a leader in higher education. 

• • Positionality Paper: Funding the Education of a Nation: Subsidizing Higher Education in the post-WWII era 

Improving Complex Problems of the Profession

As a leader, I am working towards improving complex problems of the profession by applying the practitioner-scholar framework.  An example I am quite passionate about is ensuring our students are starting their academics and their careers with digital literacy skills.  Many institutions do not measure or offer courses to students to ensure they are digital literate to meet the expectations of professors or the industry.  I created a program evaluation proposal for the creation and evaluation of a new digital literacy course as an essential life skills course. 

• • Program Evaluation: Digital Literacy Course

Understanding assessment principles, I was able to create a proposal to utilize a nationally standardized assessment tool, Academic Advisement Inventory (AAI) to assess the academic advisement program and process within an academic unit at my institution with the goal of proposing this as the tool to utilize to assess academic advisement across the institution in all academic programs. 

• • Initial Topic Proposal: Assessing Students' Perceptions and Experiences with Academic Advisement

Another topic I am passionate about is how we can retain students and support their success throughout their academic journey.  Through the introduction to applied research course, I was able to start my journey in utilizing academic advisement to support student retention and success by assessing students' needs in higher education academic advisement through qualitative research. 

• Qualitative Research: Student Needs in Higher Education Academic Advisement

I was able to directly impact a strategic decision through the creation of a strategic plan about what department and college the academic program I currently teach in would reside, as the current department was being dissolved.  Through the creation of the strategic plan, key decisions were able to made quickly, as the plan was documented and approved by the committee members.

• Strategic Plan Development: ICT/DMT Academic Programs 

The knowledge, skills, and hands-on scholarly-practitioner application this program provided has been instrumental for me to dive deeper into problems and opportunities that face higher education, my institution, the faculty and staff, and the students.  Without this program's rigorous coursework, I would not feel the sense of belonging I do in higher education.