Author: Clare Creighton

by Clare Creighton & Marjorie Coffey

Many of us are already looking ahead to when we’ll shift from fully remote operations to more in-person work. One of our values in the Academic Success Center & Writing Center has been approaching this work intentionally and with awareness of how the decisions we make impact our student staff, professional staff, students using services, and campus partners. As part of our planning process, we’ve engaged in few activities and thought exercises that we want to share in the event these might support your own planning.

Naming and Revisiting Values

Prior to fall 2020, we engaged in an exercise to plan for remote service delivery. As a group, we named our values as they related to supporting students and staff during times of remote work. As we anticipate a return to campus in the future, we now are returning to that document for reference. While many things are still up in the air and our process will be guided by university and public health guidance, we also are mindful of how our values can shape our individual, team, and programmatic decision-making process. Having those named values as reference points helps us ensure that when we do begin to transition from remote work, we are centering support for students and for each other in that process.

Reflecting & Designing Intentionally

March and April have provided a valuable liminal space where we lack the detailed information needed to start planning fall logistics, but we have experienced enough remote operations to begin to reflect on the year. We want to be intentional in our return to campus and move forward deliberately in our practice rather than defaulting to what we’ve done previously. We’ve dedicated time to unpacking experiences and learning from the past year and to looking at a return to campus from a few angles: What have we noticed this past year? What did we learn? What did we like and want to continue? We’ve asked these questions about our individual experiences as well was our program and service delivery. Creating space and time for these conversations and committing to action based on learning is helping us design a more intentional process.

Using Equity Framework Tools

We’re not the first to see an opportunity in the current moment—an opportunity not just to reflect on the past year and acknowledge lessons learned, but to critically examine our assumptions and our approach to work. Using Creative Reaction Lab’s “Equity Centered Community Design,” the Center for Racial Justice Innovation’s “Racial Equity Impact Assessmentv,” and ProInspire’s “Crisis as a Catalyst,” we have been working through a series of prompts as a team to think about the path forward. These tools help us shed light on barriers and inequities in how we do our work, which is particularly useful in higher ed where historical structures, systems, and assumptions are prevalent.

One important element of this process has been building awareness and humility in the limitation of our knowledge by asking questions like how might my own experience create gaps in my understanding of what others experienced/need? Getting in touch with our own experience and limitations then prompts us to think about who we can invite into the conversation to gain perspectives and insights. We’re asking questions like whose voices and perspectives are missing from our meaning-making? What do we still need to learn or answer about the past year and the path forward?

We’re still in the process of reflecting and gathering input from others, and our hope is that by the time we have completed that process, we will have greater clarity about the parameters that will guide our fall planning. Creating space now for this type of contemplation prepares us to braid together the reality of what is possible logistically with a renewed and intentional vision of what will best serve students.

by Clare Creighton

Over the past two weeks I’ve had the opportunity to work with Maureen Cochran (Director of Student Affairs Assessment) and Erin Mulvey (Transfer Transitions Coordinator) among others, as we researched, designed, and launched a survey to understand students’ current experiences with remote learning.

Survey Design & Response Rate

We sent the Remote Learning Experience survey invitation to Corvallis and Cascade campus undergraduates on April 23^rd. Having reviewed sample surveys (HEDS COVID-10 Institutional Response Student Survey and Educause DIY Survey kit), we developed a set of questions you can preview through this link. The survey was designed to be quick to encourage completion. We also wanted analysis to be manageable, as we have used responses to reach out to students who are struggling. By the survey’s close on April 29^th, 2892 students on the Corvallis campus had answered at least 75% of the survey–an overall completion rate of 16.29%. This low response rate should be taken into consideration when interpreting findings.

Academic Themes from the Survey

For brevity, I want to share just a few things from my experience working with the data. Given the lens from which I work, you’re going to read a particularly academic focus.

I coded open-ended responses to the question: “What would improve your learning experience in your spring term courses?” The responses reflect what many university students are likely experiencing given the reality of a sudden adjustment to remote delivery. I’d like to highlight two themes and takeaways that I’ve found applicable to my work in and out of the classroom.

Themes & Takeaways

Theme #1: Students are experiencing an increase in assignments, lectures, videos, and readings and are feeling overwhelmed by the workload compared to previous terms. Some students feel that perhaps instructors think they have more time now when, in reality, their workload has increased dramatically and many factors make it harder to complete work.

Take-away: It’s worth revisiting my expectations (of myself, staff, student staff, and students) keeping in mind the backdrop of the pandemic. These are challenging and stressful circumstances. It is hard to stay focused and work efficiently, and screen fatigue has a tangible physical impact. Students shouldn’t need to name why they are stressed or apologize for feeling overwhelmed. At the ASC, each of our team leads is checking in with student staff—do they want more hours? Do they need fewer? In my own work, I’m asking, how can I demonstrate empathy and understanding in the current situation?

Theme #2: Students expressed a desire for course consistency and organization that would help them plan and create routine. A predictable rhythm, clear expectations for assignments, increased access to instructors, and coursework posted earlier were among the “asks.”

Take-away: Previously, I considered myself very organized (although don’t look at my desk). And yet, I am challenged by the shift to navigate all communication, information, and interactions through a single device. I can use what I know helps me stay organized to help students. For example, I can send updates once a week in the form of a digest. I can be generous with deadlines and offer structure and reminders to support their process. I can adapt communication to help students understand the focus of the message (what is different and important) and any actions needed (what they should do).

Conclusion

As we begin planning for summer and fall, we have a chance to plan service delivery with a bit more leisure and intentionality. Even a return to in-person delivery for fall will be different than in the past. This creates another new learning environment and transition for students. I hope to honor the voices and perspectives captured in this survey as we address future delivery of our services and coursework.

Knowing the findings from the survey can help the OSU community better support students, we have disseminated survey information through a few avenues. Survey information is for internal use only. A PDF on Box provides a high level summary of responses as well as coded themes from open-ended questions. Please contact Maureen Cochran for access.

by Clare Creighton

Like all of OSU, the Academic Success Center (ASC) has spent the last few weeks getting programs and services up and running remotely. We’re happy to report that all ASC services are available. You can visit our website to learn how to access each one.  So, what have we learned in the process? Besides the fact that we love seeing pets in meetings, of course.

Creating Meaningful Interactions

While it seemed easy from a technical standpoint to conceive of delivering services through Zoom, we wrestled with replicating elements we valued from in-person interactions. Abbey identified a challenge for Academic Coaching “to maintain the quality of conversation and relationship building that students have come to know and appreciate.” The coaching team asked, “How can we convey care, listening, and support through video/phone conversations that feel more distanced?” Before facilitating webinars, Sarah and Julia grappled with how to validate responses and engagement with a large group online. Preparing for Supplemental Instruction (SI), Chris and Angela have asked, “How can we cultivate the same sense of community in a remote environment that students experience at in-person study tables?” We’ve tried many strategies for meaningful interactions in services and are using weekly meetings and debriefs to learn more from experiences this term.

Supporting Staff

One of the biggest “lifts” in preparing for remote services was making sure student staff were prepared. While we’d previously dabbled in remote formats, there has been a lot to learn around technology. Our biggest asset in the learning process has been our student staff. Over spring break, a team of coaches helped to experiment, troubleshoot, and explore the set-up before coaching went live. Clare says they were “creative, responsive, dynamic and energized” during the process. Strategists launched the Zoom room to replace walk-in consultations. Anika noted that “a huge part of the strategist role [has always been] adapting their approach, so it makes sense that they’ve taken to this so well.”

The ASC’s training and professional development for student staff is grounded in skills like independently evaluating situations, responding to student needs, and debriefing experiences to learn from them. We’ve been able to capitalize on these foundational skills; and coaches, strategists, and SI leaders have done an amazing job thinking through service delivery in the remote environment.

We’re also acutely aware of the need to personally support student employees. Anika stresses how important is to remember that “we are all human and are experiencing this change in different ways.” This also means thinking differently about availability. Abbey has arranged “regular drop-in hours where coaches can chat about whatever is on their mind, debrief appointments, or ask questions.” We’ve noticed an important part of our job these days is the support we provide to student staff, each other, and campus partners as we navigate remote work.

Adapting to New Environments

Our professional staff’s work environments have changed as well. Marjorie now has a window, and ready access to Selena albums, leading to spikes in productivity mid-afternoon. It’s not all fresh air and Entre A Mi Mundo in terms of change though. Anika has noticed that working remotely, “you miss out on some of those spontaneous conversations that can spark new ideas.” Clare has found that “being pulled in multiple directions from work to childcare is going to require a new organizational system,” and notes that, “[she has] a lot of appreciation for student parents right now.”

These changes have not been easy on any of us, and our team is mindful of the challenges facing the OSU community as we engage remotely. At the ASC, we’re doing our best to make navigating this term a little smoother and hopefully a little less isolating. To that end, we’ve found value in communicating frequently, being flexible, showing up as human beings, and, above all, demonstrating compassion for ourselves and others.

We generated the name and concept for our new publication long before the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic changed the way we approach spring term. In many ways, I think it applies now more than ever. From snacking to stress-baking, am I the only one spending more time in the kitchen?

Cooking and baking are, for me, an act in experimentation, sometimes planned and sometimes reactive and improvised. I’m not alone here either. The media group America’s Test Kitchen is known for the work they do testing recipes, cooking equipment, ingredients, and highlighting not just their results, but the process and learning along the way.

The title of this publication, The Success Kitchen, draws inspiration from that design. We at the Academic Success Center want to share with you some of the things we’ve explored, learned , read about, developed, and implemented. We want to share successes and pass along the learning when things didn’t work out as planned. And we want to spark conversations, highlight the work of others, and share collaborations that took us somewhere exciting—all around the theme of student success at OSU.

So, this is our inaugural issue of The Success Kitchen. We hope you’ll enjoy what’s to come, and we invite you to be a part of the process. If an article sparks an interest, please reach out and join the conversation. Consider partnering with us on a feature. Not to belabor the metaphor, but we’re eager to share what we’ve been up to in our “kitchen” and we want to know what you’re cooking up too.

~Clare Creighton

Director, Academic Success Center