Today’s Guest blogger is Glen Baumgart, a longtime friend of mine in higher education. Glen has been working with higher education community engagement programs for over 12 years, and currently serves as the Director of the Volunteer and Service Learning Center at The University of Texas at Austin.
If you work in higher education, then you have heard this line before, “I learned more outside the classroom than in the classroom” as students reflect on what they have learned and how they have grown. There is a lot of truth to that statement. In the classroom, students wrap their minds around theories, concepts, lessons, and content. But it is outside the classroom in student organizations, internships, community service activities, leadership programs, and other experiences where students are challenged with putting this new knowledge into action. And its not just putting knowledge to action, but integrating this new knowledge into the fabric of their lives, their morals, values, goals, and social interactions.
Universities and colleges seem to be well aware of this. Look at any institution of higher learning, and you will see a number of professional positions aimed at outside the classroom learning and programming. And the learning is very intentional. Ask any leadership, housing, community service, career, or programming staff what students learn through their programs, and they are sure to rattle off a laundry list of learning outcomes. But ask how that learning is measured, and you would likely hear staff mention a lack of assessment, or mention reliance on evaluation surveys or on quick reflection discussions. The assessment or measure of learning seems much less rigorous than that of an academic course with its grades, assignments, measures, and evaluations.
But it is possible to beef up the rigor of co-curricular programs in a way that matches the rigor often seen in academic coursework. To do this, we start by looking at the abundant research on college classroom learning. We know what works, and can identify the most important elements in classroom instruction that lead to learning. So, lets apply what works to achieve learning outcomes in the classroom, and apply them to our co-curricular programs.
The following components are used most often by teaching effectiveness professionals in higher education and used in research on classroom learning to help faculty improve their course structures. Lets use these elements, but adjust them to fit or co-curricular programs. Think of it as creating a co-curricular syllabus:
1. Identify the learning outcomes
Sounds easy, but this is likely the hardest part. Most college courses only have three to five learning outcomes – understand this theory, know this lab skill, etc. Three to five, and that’s when the instructor has three hours of student attention per week. In co-curricular terms, its wise to start with just one specific learning outcome. What is the most important learning outcome your program teaches?
2. Evaluation or measurement system
How will the student know they have met the desired outcomes? Try to describe in measurable terms what the learning outcome would look like. Is there a certain behavior? Do students respond to a survey in a certain way? How would they demonstrate the desired outcome?
It is important to start with these two components. It is from here that one build the rest of the co-curricular syllabus.
3. Students MUST understand the learning goals
This is the most missed component in college courses, but one of the most important. If your goal is for students to learn a specific outcome, then tell them that at the start. Students who understand the goals from the start are more likely to cue into the instructional techniques. A good practice for this is to make sure the outcome is part of the recruitment / application process.
4. Estimate prior knowledge
What do the students know in regards to your learning outcome prior to joining the program? A simple survey or questions on an application can help you understand where your students are coming from. In course lingo, we call these “prerequisites”, and most co-curricular programs have them too, but are seldom stated. What experiences or knowledge should the students in the program bring with them? If a certain prior knowledge is important, then that should be part of your recruitment or advertising.
5. Estimate motivation and interest in the learning outcome
Any course should be designed to peak the student’s interest by not being too difficult, but not being too easy either. This is why the prior knowledge is so important. Students must have some motivation or interest in the topic, otherwise it unlikely they will learn. This will help in designing the logistics of the program to help determine what might be boring, or what might be overwhelming. How does your program maximize students’ interest? How will it keep them motivated to finish?
6. Now develop the actual instruction logistics
Huge mistake by instructors and program coordinators alike, we tend to jump into the program’s logistics before we think about learning outcomes, measures, prior knowledge, or motivation. We tend to start creating a program, then looking back to what is being learned. Try, and its hard to do, but try to answer the first five components first before any thoughts on how you’ll do it.
7. Identify the learning moments
Another often missed component in course construction as well as co-curricular. As you plan the instruction, think hard about when instruction is actually taking place. If it’s a course, then you know you have time in a classroom when the instructor teaches, and that assignments must be done for grades. So, it is during these times you know students are interacting with material. In co-curricular it is much harder to identify the time. Some groups meet only once a week. So, during that hour meeting, when is it and under what circumstances do you know students are paying attention to instruction? Is there a time for reflection? What about online chats? Tweets? If you can identify the most likely time the student learns, the more impactful the program will be.
8. Evaluate and adjust
Look at your measurement instruments, your surveys, and make adjustments for next time. Try to be creative in your evaluation. Lets say your learning outcome was the understanding of a certain leadership concept. Then send the students an online survey during the following semester. See if they still have that understanding. If so, success! Now you can really say that they learned that concept.
These steps are often used to help increase the effectiveness in college courses. Shifting them a little, one can use them to help ensure a rigorous learning experience in the co-curricular program.
Also See our interview with Glen when we were on the UT campus this past summer.
OrgSync would like to announce our Implementation Webinar Series in June. We will focus on two campuses, one large and one small, who have already established the implementation process on their campus. They will share their best practices, successes, challenges, and suggestions for making the transition to OrgSync.
Our large campus implementation model will be on Thursday, June 11 at 1:00 EST and will feature Deborah Felder of the Student Organization Resource Center at North Carolina State University. NCSU began working with OrgSync last summer and developed a marketing plan to increase awareness of OrgSync to their 500+ student organizations and 31,000 students. Deborah has been an instrumental partner in helping define best practices for implementation and providing helpful feedback and suggestions for our new developments. Sign up for the large campus webinar.
We will feature our small campus implementation webinar on Wednesday, June 24 at 1:00 EST. Our feature presenter will be Rebecca Delo, Assistant Dean of Students for Student Life and Leadership Development at Muskingum College. Muskingum also joined the OrgSync family last summer, and Rebecca was very proactive in establishing the student organization registration process through OrgSync, as well as successfully attaining a high level of student adoption on her campus across their 100 organizations and 1500 students. Sign up for the small campus webinar.
We hope that our new clients and anyone who could benefit from these free webinars will attend! Please contact us with any questions.
I just wanted to post a quick THANK YOU to my friends Jason Mellen, Denny Bubrig, and Kelly Jo Larsen, at Bowling Green State University in Ohio for hosting me for on-site training a couple of weeks ago! It is always a pleasure to visit their campus (especially when it isn’t negative seven degrees outside!). Not only was I able to speak to nearly 200 student leaders about how they can use OrgSync to manage their student organizations, I also met the entire staff from the Office of Campus Activities and, with the help of Denny, demonstrated how OrgSync can streamline office processes and eliminate paper forms.
In addition to all of that training, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to visit with Michael Dunk, a recent graduate of the M.A. in College Student Personnel program at BGSU, who will be joining OrgSync this week! I am pleased to welcome him to the OrgSync team and to Texas!
After the quick trip it was off to Las Vegas and Utah for yet more OrgSync training fun….tune in tomorrow for more on that!
Eric Fortenberry and I (Nicole Andreas) recently returned from a campus visit at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa! We were warmly welcomed by Dr. Stacy Jones and her team in the Student Involvement and Leadership office.
Nicole and Eric with the Leadership and Involvement Staff
The Division of Student Affairs at the University of Alabama is actively pursuing opportunities to maximize each UA student’s learning experience. “After searching for a solution to manage students’ co-curricular involvement on the student side, campus side and staff side for about three years, we brought OrgSync to our campus as the “Source” to manage our student involvement. After conducting focus groups composed of faculty and students, we quickly learned OrgSync was the only choice that fully met our management needs and excited students,” said Dr. Stacy Jones.
UA is creating an entire program and team dedicated to providing their students with the services and tools they need to manage their student organizations and involvement needs. They are branding the program as the “Source”, as in: the source to go to for all student involvement and student organization management.
To kick off the launch of the Source powered by OrgSync, Stacy Jones and Kristen DuBose planned an exciting Launch Party on the Plaza with games, prizes, food and fun to intrigue students about the new Source program. Everyone signed up on OrgSync through their “My Bama” accounts(a single-sign-on solution that UA chose to implement to simplify user registration through their current campus sign-on information), and the Launch Party was a brilliant success.
Our visit also included meetings with several campus departments including Bama faculty, advisors and administrators. Each department was excited about bringing OrgSync to campus for different reasons. Vice-President of Student Affairs, Dr. Mark Nelson, immediately saw value in getting every campus department at UA on board. He even asked, “Does OrgSync print money too? What can’t this [OrgSync] platform do!?”
Signatures for the Children's Miracle Network
In between scheduled meetings, Eric and I were shown around Alabama’s extraordinary campus by Daniel Ware, a student leader from UA’s Residence Hall Association. It was fascinating to learn the history behind the Tuscaloosa campus, and it was great to meet so many friendly students during our tour. While traveling through campus, Zeta Beta Theta and Phi Mu were campaigning on the Quad to gain signatures on a giant blow-up ball. For each signature, a donation would be made to the Children’s Miracle Network. Of course, Eric and I had to sign the ball. We are all about giving back to those in need.
Daniel was a great tour guide! He brought us to see the football stadium and to see the famous “Walk of Champions.” The Walk of Champions honors Bama football coaches who have lead the school to victory, and it displays the SEC titles and awards the football team has been recognized for.
After our tour, we met in the Student Recreational Center on campus to get all of the club sports team signed up. We had a great turnout and we met with many different teams who were excited to start using OrgSync in the Fall. The women’s soccer team was especially excited to be able to manage different user groups and target their specific information to manage and engage their team more efficiently. Primarily, the players were particularly excited to learn that they could juggle their hectic sports schedules AND their involvement with other campus activities from just one place.
Before we left, Eric and I were asked to share our story with two entrepreneurial classes in the business school. We really enjoyed talking to the students, and we felt inspired as these future entrepreneurs sat in the same seat I was in not too long ago. I think a lot of them were inspired too, just to know it really was the same seat, and many of them told us about their dreams of starting their own company some day. Several students even came up to us after the class to learn how they could get involved, and help spread the word about OrgSync.
Overall, our visit was extremely successful, and I can’t wait to go back to the University of Alabama. Roll Tide!
The OrgSync team is dedicated to educating the higher education community about experiential learning, co-curricular management, leadership development and other important issues challenging higher education professionals and student leaders. Our series of educational webinars is developed for both higher education professionals and student leaders to learn, teach and collaborate with one another to better the higher education community as a whole.
During the month of February, OrgSync started working with many new campuses from coast to coast. We are extremely excited to welcome the University of Alabama – Birmingham, Arizona State University, Florida International University, Pace University @ Pleasantville-Briarcliff, University of the Incarnate Word, Adelphi University, Denison University, California State University @ Dominguez Hills, The City College of New York, Saint John’s University, and the University of Colorado @ Denver. Together these schools account for approximately 150,000 students in over 1,900 organizations.
At Arizona State University, OrgSync will become the primary management tool for over 700 student organizations. “As one of the largest universities in the country, we have an extensive network of clubs and organizations that will benefit greatly from the organizational tools OrgSync offers” states ASU Assistant Director for Student Development, Jennifer Stultz; “OrgSync will not only help our individual clubs and organizations grow, but will also help them better integrate with one another and into the larger ASU community.”
To emphasize the importance of getting members involved on campus, OrgSync offers an unlimited number of online training webinars to students and faculty members. OrgSync also includes an onsite training session with every initial purchase of the OrgSync platform. The onsite trainings are very effective at helping organizations transition to a newer, more efficient method of communication. So far this spring, we’ve conducted onsite trainings with hundreds of leaders from The University of Alabama, St. John’s University, Bowling Green University, and Sacramento State University in conjunction with their respective spring leadership conferences.
As members of the OrgSync community, users from these schools will have the opportunity to provide feedback about the platform and drive future developments. We look forward to working closely with each of these schools to provide them with a cost-saving, state-of-the-art management platform they can be proud of.
Integration Enables OrgSync to Release a Premier Treasury Solution for Higher Education
OrgSync is excited to announce that it has integrated PayPal into its co-curricular management platform. With PayPal, student leaders and campus administrators can electronically issue invoices and collect payments online. The integration brings convenience and security to collegiate treasury management while decreasing administrative burdens and saving campuses time and money!
“We are pleased that OrgSync has chosen PayPal to provide student organizations and campus administrations with a safer and more convenient way to send and receive money online,“ said Glenn P. Lim, General Manager of Alliances and Vertical Markets at PayPal. “We look forward to working with OrgSync to make the security and convenience of PayPal available to college campuses everywhere.”
OrgSync continues to evolve, offering campuses a partnership to build the ultimate campus management solution together! “PayPal’s payment service is a great match for the needs of OrgSync’s technology platform,” said Eric Fortenberry, CEO of OrgSync. “OrgSync has developed an unparalleled company culture, forming unique relationships with each one of our campuses. We share a vision with our clients to build a solution that will benefit the Higher Education community as a whole and accelerate student involvement and success. OrgSync has found the same zeal and values in PayPal and is excited to provide additional treasury benefits to its clients.”
YouTube, the social media phenomenon that allows you to “broadcast yourself” has mainstreamed video sharing across the world! Currently we take video sharing for granted, but prior to YouTube streaming video was expensive, timely, and difficult to do. Now there are multiple platforms available to broadcast videos and create personal channels including YouTube, Viddler and Vimeo, to name a few. For purposes of this post I will stick with YouTube.
It was not until recently I realized the power behind the YouTube Phenomenon. For example, Soulja Boy was discovered in March 2007 from a rap video called “Crank That” which he made in his home studio and uploaded to YouTube . You can find 100′s of videos of people emulating the Souljah Boy dance including one of MIT professors and another of Prisoners in the Philippines. By May 2007 he had a record deal with his song reaching #4 on the Billboard charts and a Grammy Nomination. Another recent discovery on YouTube was Arnel Pineda, who had posted videos on YouTube oh himself singing Journey cover songs. Journeys talent agent came across Pinedas videos and quickly asked him to join the band as the new lead singer!
So what does this mean for Higher Education? Dr. Mike Wesch teaches a class at Kansas State University that requires students to interact with YouTube. His presentation at the Library of Congress is a must watch, and of course is broadcasted on YouTube. It is an Anthropological look at YouTube that explores the connectedness, culture, and power of this medium. If you have spent limited time on YouTube you will quickly discover how everyone can have a voice and be heard by the world.
Many departments across campus could benefit from video technology such as YouTube. Admissions Offices can actively attract prospective students and provide a better snapshot of their campus experience by posting videos of student life, campus tours and student testimonials. Campus administrators can also use YouTube to broadcast weekly or monthly addresses to the campus. How many campuses feel there are communication problems from administration to staff, or staff to students? This is an easy (and free) method of increasing communication on campus.
Create a video year book and document sporting event, guest speakers, concerts, and other memories you want to capture and share for the year. Kudos to the Universities that have created their own YouTube Channel and started putting content on there, but this is just the beginning.
What are additional ways YouTube can be used in the classroom or on campus? How do you Use it now?
Last week, Eric and I (Jami Darden) traveled to the great state of New York to visit one of our newest clients, St. John’s University in Jamaica, Queens. St. John’s boasts an undergraduate population of nearly 15,000 students from 42 states, Puerto Rico, District of Columbia, U.S. Virgin Islands and 91 foreign countries. Among its notable alumni are leaders in virtually every industry, including business, medicine, politics, education, professional athletics, journalism, and entertainment. Needless to say, we are delighted to welcome this distinguished institution to the OrgSync family!
Jami training student leaders
Many thanks go out to everyone on campus who not only worked tirelessly over the last several months to make OrgSync a reality for St. John’s student organizations, but also for their efforts arranging the on-site training sessions. We want to especially thank Dana Lezama, president of Student Government, Inc., who spear-headed this effort and was an exceptional host! Also, Frank Jerome, Business Analyst for the Office of Student Affairs, who is working with OrgSync support to create a single sign on solution which will make it convenient for St. John’s students to access OrgSync and their student organizations via “St. John’s Central”.
During our two-day visit, Eric and I conducted 12, 90 minute training sessions where we were able to meet with approximately 140 student leaders. We were also thrilled to share the news of our new strategic partnership with PayPal and are looking forward to providing a comprehensive budgeting and e-commerce solution to all of our clients. Eric was even able to meet with Barbara Duffy who manages all of the budget requests and fund allocations for student organizations at St. John’s, and she has provided us with lots of insight that will help guide the development of our new, more robust treasury module.
We were also very pleased to learn that all student organizations at St. John’s are required to complete a certain number of community service hours in order to be recognized on campus and receive funding from the university. It was quite rewarding to see students’ reactions as we showed them how OrgSync can be used to track their involvement in service events and programs. Their reporting process will now be streamlined and simplified! I definitely saw a sparkle in their eye as they realized that they finally have a way to quantify how their organizations are contributing to the culture of their campus and the surrounding community. We at OrgSync, of course, share their commitment to community service and service learning and will continue to work with our clients to showcase these types of efforts. Stay tuned to future blog posts and check back on our website to learn more about the “GIVE Act” recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives.
Coming from a higher education background, I truly enjoyed interacting with all of the students and staff members at St. John’s. Their energy and commitment to a vibrant campus life is very refreshing and has reminded me of why I got into the business of working with student leaders. I can’t wait for our next on-site training. After a snowy Friday morning in New York, however, I was pleased to return to sunny skies and mid-eighty temperatures in Texas!
So far, we’ve covered the benefits to a company, where to begin, who should be involved, knowing the rules on campus and the company cycle. Now you’re ready to cover writing a great proposal.
Writing a proposal
1. Proposals should be short. One page is best or AT LEAST have an executive summary page at the beginning. Company people, alumni, whomever – let’s just say busy people, don’t have time to read the whole glossy document. You want to wow them with a few marketing lines and put the price-tag so they can skim down to it. Then they can read the entire document if they want.
2. If you don’t think the reader is familiar with your school you can give a short description.
3. State the purpose. Is it unique (do some research)? What is the value? Who is the audience? Are the price points in line with the benefits and level of fund you’re seeking? If the amount is broken down per person, does it seem reasonable?
4. Provide statistics or hard data if you can. How many people have benefited from the program, participated, succeeded etc.
5. Give testimonials (either as an added page or as pulled out quotes on the sides or bottom).
6. Think of benefit levels if it is appropriate (i.e. Platinum, Gold, Silver levels). If you can support more than one donor, company etc. and you have enough benefits to spread around, make funding levels. The top level should have everything that you can think of for involvement (opportunity to speak, logos on banners or websites, attend and participate, judging, booth at event, provide remarks at an opening or closing session, lunch or dinner with set of “special” participants, resume books or cd’s). If it is a year-long program, list out opportunities. Pull out as many specific parts of the program as you can (like the lunch is sponsored by one company, dinner has someone else) and then divide them appropriately. Look critically at the levels so you don’t have multiple donors/companies expecting to attend or speak at the same thing.
7. If you have an itinerary, list it.
8. Contact information, website etc.
9. Sponsorship deadline.
I hope that I have given you some good information. I am always open to discussing more ideas, this would be a great forum to do so!
During the month of February, OrgSync started working with many new campuses from coast to coast. We are extremely excited to welcome the University of Alabama – Birmingham, Arizona State University, Florida International University, Pace University @ Pleasantville-Briarcliff, University of the Incarnate Word, Adelphi University, Denison University, California State University @ Dominguez Hills, The City College of New York, Saint John’s University, and the University of Colorado @ Denver. Together these schools account for approximately 150,000 students in over 1,900 organizations.
“We are pleased that OrgSync has chosen PayPal to provide student organizations and campus administrations with a safer and more convenient way to send and receive money online,“ said Glenn P. Lim, General Manager of Alliances and Vertical Markets at PayPal. “We look forward to working with OrgSync to make the security and convenience of PayPal available to college campuses everywhere.”
YouTube, the social media phenomenon that allows you to “broadcast yourself” has mainstreamed video sharing across the world! Currently we take video sharing for granted, but prior to YouTube streaming video was expensive, timely, and difficult to do. Now there are multiple platforms available to broadcast videos and create personal channels including YouTube, Viddler and Vimeo, to name a few. For purposes of this post I will stick with YouTube.
Writing a proposal