A small investment that can add big value to your training or workshop
People attend courses and workshops for a variety of reasons: some are there to learn, some are forced to attend, and others are curious-but-skeptical. Yet whatever the reason, how can we add value in the form of creating a compelling and memorable experience? An experience that effectively reaches beyond the workshop into the “real world” inhabited by our learners?
An obvious way to help bridge the learning-practice gap is to offer a package of professional, relevant and well-designed handouts. We trainers reassure ourselves that this invaluable resource will serve as an oft-consulted reference for learners post-session. Yet, how many of these things have you unearthed and pitched out in an office-purge years later? It’s a natural tendency to “file it and forget about it”. So…What else is needed?
I have attended two recent faculty development sessions where the speakers employed an ingenious and appealing strategy. So brilliant, so obvious, why have I never done this before? I am decided that I will now incorporate this into every single workshop:
Don’t tell them ahead of time. Do it near the end of your workshop or talk. Involve them in an activity demonstrating how they might use it.
In the Motivational Interviewing workshops that I facilitate, we talk about the skill of affirming as one of four foundation skills in this counselling approach. Last week at a session I gave for Queen’s University Health, Counselling and Disability Services clinicians, I handed out “saphires” (plastic, from a discount store) to each participant, and asked them to consider an affirmation that they could offer to a challenging student they are working with. Long after the workshop, that “jewel” on a practioner’s desk is a tangible reminder of mindful practice, and more evocative (and concise) than the 40 page handout I provided! (Or even the one page ” MI Tips ” for that matter).
Learners give their time, attention and wisdom to us when we co-construct learning communities. In the spirit of reciprocity, I have decided that going forward, a symbolic token to take away represents a significant value-add for learners and a reminder of what we have collectively shared.
These essentials combine great design with utility and don’t break the bank
September is the time for students to gather together their learning tools (aka school supplies) for the coming year. What about teachers and presenters? Obviously, a laptop computer is handy. What else? Here are my essential presenter survival tools, all of which conform to my criteria of great design + utility + affordability. Plus a few extras that should not be forgotten on your packing list.
Remote mouse / slide advancer
If you use slideware, there is no excuse for being stuck beside your computer throughout your talk. If you haven’t yet gotten around to getting one of these, buy one immediately and take it with you everywhere. I like Logitech’s version which comes with its own case. And don’t forget to retrieve the little USB key at the end of your talk!
USB Hub
So useful! Have you ever been one of five panel speakers all trying to copy their presentations to the conference’s laptop a few minutes before the symposium’s start time? Or you are presenting using someone else’s computer, and there is only one USB port available, and you need to plug in both your presentation and your slide advancer (see above)? I especially like Belkin’s version where each of the four USB ports has its own area (USB hubs with parallel ports can get a mite overcrowded). I am not sure if anyplace still carries this one, but can try here…
External laptop speakers
Even if the training venue has a sound system, it doesn’t always work. You want to play your demonstration videos or your intro music, and these Cyber Acoustics portable USB speakers are super-light and magnetically snap together for travel. They also cost under $20.00.
Back-up of your presentation and handouts
What if you drop your computer? What if it gets stolen? For sure someone can borrow a laptop for you. They can’t help with the presentation though, so bring a spare USB key just in case.
Extension cord
It amazes me how many training rooms I have been in that don’t have an electric outlet anywhere even remotely convenient to plug in a laptop or projector. And for lack of my own extension cord, I have wasted precious time waiting for someone to track one down – they are invariably rare especially when needed most.
Extra pens you don’t care if you get back
If you want people to write stuff down, acknowledge that some folks may not have anything to write with. It’s easy to pack a few cheap pens, just in case.
Bottled water
Do not assume there will be a water source. Some training venues are dryer than the Sahara desert.
Energy (preferably in the form of chocolate)
I don’t want to risk a melted mess all over my stuff, but I do want chocolate. My preferred energy sources are M&Ms and Luna Bars.
Rolling Briefcase
OK – now where to stash everything? I have searched years for the perfect “training suitcase”, and I think I finally found it: great quality, good looking, well-designed, compact and affordable. This Swiss Gear four-wheeler has a mini-office organizer in front and a spacious interior for overnight travel necessities. It’s also carry-on size for most airlines, and packs up all my stuff with room to spare.
Every audience comes with varying levels of motivation to learn: What can you do to engage them?
A recurring challenge in facilitating continuing professional education workshops is how to respond to participants who do not see a value in attending. This isn’t uncommon, given that training is often mandated by management and the topic or content of your session doesn’t necessarily align with their individual learning goals or perceived needs. It’s easy to get focused on (or distracted by) these less-than-enthusiastic folks, but people participate along a diverse spectrum. A strong facilitator reaches out to everyone in the room.
So, you might wonder, how is an individualized, motivational approach possible with more than just a handful of participants? In my experience over 15 years of leading professional courses and workshops, I have found that groups of all sizes generally coalesce into five sub-groups:
How can we best respond to and motivate these diverse groups, all at the same time, over a course that might range from an hour, or a day, through to multiple days? Let’s look at some quick tips for each:
The “Keeners” are on your side. You really need to mess up in order to alienate them. You will know who these individuals are right away because they are quick to raise their hands, offer insights and opinions, and generally smooth your path. Make sure to explicitly thank and encourage them.
Those who are “On the Fence” can (by definition) go either way. It’s important to prepare a strong start to the session by engaging the group in a conversation – or for a large audience, a demonstration – of the practical value of the topic/course. A quick “Turn to the person next to you and identify the most important take-away”, or a video demonstration, case example or personal story can accomplish this. The key is to spark peoples’ interest and invite them in.
The “Open-minded Skeptics” can be your best friend or your worst enemy. Adult education affirms that learners come with pre-existing knowledge and skills, and that is never truer than for this group. Because they are, themselves, experts, it’s essential to explicitly acknowledge and invite their and others’ contributions to the content you have prepared. These folks often ask specific, technical questions, and they will know if you try to fake it. Probably everyone else will know too. My own approach is to be up front with the group, respectfully affirm where others’ knowledge and skills exceeds mine, and encourage a collaborative learning environment where everyone – regardless of months, years or decades of experience – has something of value to contribute (check out this link for a nice way to establish this climate from the start: First, empty your cup). In addition, I make a point of naming and reinforcing participants who demonstrate their skills and effectiveness – they are a resource to the whole group.
Now let’s consider those who come across as somewhat difficult, or even openly antagonistic: “Convince Me”. I don’t see these individuals in every workshop, but it’s happened often enough to be worth coming prepared. This is where skills in group facilitation and knowledge of group dynamics are essential. I need a large chunk of the group to be “with” me, in order to help manage what can become a facilitation disaster (I am not exaggerating). If the majority of participants are engaged, enjoying themselves, and find value in the material, it is hard for one or two naysayers to sabotage. On the other hand, if the group as a whole are “On the Fence”, the “Convince Me” contingent can bring it all down. If you do run into problems, here is a tried-and true strategy for How to TAME difficult, skeptical, hostile or challenging participants.
Last but not least, “Multi-taskers” should not be ignored. Artful facilitation can help them shift to “Open-minded Skeptics” or even “Keeners”. The thing is, you may never know because they aren’t totally present (literally). But that doesn’t mean your workshop didn’t make an impression – these individuals are often opinion leaders and influencers with large professional networks (that’s why they’re so busy). Articulating everyone’s right to participate however they choose is a win-win. They will do it anyway, and affirming personal choice and control communicates respect and positive regard.
One caveat: The real world is messy and disorganized, and slotting people into categories is perilous at best. Individuals and groups are dynamic, organic and open to complex reciprocal influences from you, one another and the environment. Thus, my most important tip? Don’t stand in the middle of the stream; go with the flow.
Check out more learner engagement strategies:
“What I don’t know I don’t know” – That’s the most essential learning
In nearly every course or workshop I teach on Motivational Interviewing (MI), there are nearly always practitioners who express some variation of “I already do MI naturally”. In other words, why spend time “learning” about something that I already know how to do? A reasonable response, if accurate.
I say ‘if accurate’ because research on MI practice suggests a disconnect between what practitioners say they do versus the MI skills they can actually demonstrate. We’re talking video recordings of actual client sessions, coded by skilled clinicians trained in the use of a standardized instrument. So while there may be a small proportion of therapists who really are “MI naturals”, it’s likely that most practitioners, whether they know it or not, can not or do not demonstrate the skills of MI without training, coaching, practice, coaching, and practice.
Motivational interviewing is essentially a way of being with a client (Dr. William Miller, the originator of MI, calls this “MI Spirit”), comprised of partnership, acceptance, compassion and evocation. It seems intuitive, but the “Righting Reflex” is hard to resist. Additionally the processes of MI – engaging, focusing, evoking and planning – are accompanied by a range of skills and strategies. Integrating both spirit and skills demands artful practice, and integrating MI with other approaches (for example Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, CBT) involves even greater therapeutic sophistication.
No practitioner ever reaches the apex of clinical perfection – it doesn’t exist! Just like the clients we serve, practitioners are engaged in an ongoing process of development. And it’s the basics (reflective listening is a good example) that can be the most challenging.
People come to a learning environment with four general categories capturing both pre-exisiting knowledge and knowledge deficits:
Data is not information
Information is not knowledge
Knowledge is not understanding
Understanding is not wisdom.
Patient safety includes patients’ subjective feelings of safety
I have participated in and taught about interprofessional collaboration (IPC) for many years, but last week I experienced it firsthand from a new perspective… as a patient.
Here’s a quick replay:
It is 6:15 AM. No coffee. Emerging from the changing room in a hospital gown and disposable slippers I re-enter the Admitting waiting area with others similarly attired, accompanied by our respective escorts. The only exuberance is among a group of three teenage girls, whose noisy laughter and nonchalance exudes the indestructibility of youth.
From Admitting, on to the Pre-Op waiting area. One by one patients are called, and then it’s my turn. Past the swinging double doors, down a wide corridor, more people in surgical scrubs, into the Operating Room. It’s kind of freaky being the one with the IV: “Just hop up here onto the operating table.” A narrow bed in the centre of that big room, with really bright lights just like on TV. Ummm…sure. Too late to back out now.
Have you noticed how right away you can feel a room’s atmosphere (positive or negative)? Well in that moment of total vulnerability, I sensed the camaraderie of a super-high-functioning team. I felt respect, cooperation, kindness and compassion. Not just toward me but to each other. More than anything anyone actually said or did, the underlying atmosphere was like a warm blanket of reassurance and comfort.
Health and counselling practitioners universally affirm the importance of positive regard, mutual respect, trust and acceptance in relation to our patients or clients. Last week was a good lesson about how profoundly our interprofessional relationships – those same elements of positive regard, mutual respect, trust and acceptance – are visible, impactful and meaningful. Just like kids know when their parents are fighting (even in the absence of verbal cues), patients know when there is discord in the team.
As I discovered firsthand, IPC is not just about patient safety, it’s also about patients’ subjective feelings of safety. A skillful surgeon is key. An outstanding team takes it to the next level.
P.S. The biopsy was negative.
It’s all about creativity, reflexivity and connectivity
Teaching as informing is a short-term solution to a long-term problem. Today, providing information is secondary to engaging peoples’ interest and motivation so much that they will want to seek out more and more, beyond the boundaries of the boardroom, lecture hall or online discussion forum. It’s about meta-teaching…teaching others to become their own teachers.
Daniel Pink, in A Whole New Mind, describes how the information age has undergone a seismic shift to the conceptual age. Meaning that the left brain skills of information management/analysis have been surpassed by the right brain skills of creativity, reflexivity and connectivity.
In the conceptual age, educators and presenters need to go way beyond informing because:
a. The information that the presenter deems essential may not align with the relevance and priorities of the audience; so that means little incentive for long-term retention.
b. People generally don’t remember much of what they hear. Or if they do, the half-life of information is pretty short, so there isn’t much impact to be realized if our focus is on the content of a presentation.
c. Even if the information is relevant and memorable, our knowledge landscape is a moving target – information changes so rapidly that what is current today quickly becomes out of date.
And that is where transformative learning comes in…
Introduced by Jack Mezirow in 1997, transformative learning is about engaging peoples’ underlying assumptions and facilitating change in frames of reference. Think of it as that “aha!” moment, when a whole new concept seems to snap into place and suddenly we see things from a new and broader perspective. Signal moments in learning are accompanied by affect – delight, surprise, disappointment, satisfaction, excitement – extending beyond solely cognitive-based insight or understanding.
How can we as educators make this magic happen in our day-to-day work? Well, transformative learning presupposes transformative teaching (if teaching is the right word in this context) (a.k.a. transformative faculty development?). And in turn, transformative teaching implies…teaching about teaching. Meta teaching.
Both the words and the music. Play that funky music.
“A recent survey stated that the average person’s greatest fear is having to give a speech in public. This ranked even higher than death, which was third on the list. So, you’re telling me that at a funeral, most people would rather be the guy in the coffin than the guy giving the eulogy?” –Jerry Seinfeld
We all get stage fright. Even the most seasoned presenters experience performance anxiety to some degree, although this lessens over time and with experience. From a behaviour modification perspective, the most effective long-term antidote to an acute and severe case of nerves is repeated exposure to the triggering stimuli. In other words, the more you force yourself on that stage, the more confident you will become.
“Of course”, you might be thinking, “That’s all well and good, but what can I do to deal with stage fright in the meantime?” Read on….
Here are my favorite five tried-and-true strategies for combating presentation jitters:
1. Sip juice instead of water
People often don’t eat much (if at all) before a talk because anxiety diminishes appetite. You probably don’t want a five-course meal before going onstage, but you need something! That shaky, sick feeling just might be low blood sugar, so pack a small bottle of orange juice in your brief case.
2. Talk to people in the audience ahead of time
It’s good to get a feel for who is attending and what brought them there. This shifts the focus away from yourself (and how you’re feeling) to the group (and how they’re feeling). This is right and good. You are there for them. Bonus points for learning and remembering peoples’ names and incorporating an important insight or contribution that an individual has shared into your onstage remarks.
3. Challenge cognitive distortions
What are your beliefs about the talk you are going to deliver? “I must succeed, and it will be catastrophic if I fail” is a message designed to evoke fear in anyone. Challenging these beliefs and replacing them with a more reasonable and realistic appraisal will lessen negative emotions (because emotions follow from how we interpret things). “It would be nice if I did well, and I really want to do well, but my life won’t end if I mess this up.”
4. Breathe…and smile
When anxious, our breathing tends to be shallow. Take a couple of deep, calming breaths as you’re being introduced. And smile too. Even fake smiling makes you feel better. Plus, people are looking over at you during your introduction, so best to look happy to be there even if – in that moment – you are anything but.
5. Slow down
Nerves make us talk fast, and fast talking doesn’t create the most compelling/positive first impression. When you get to the podium…pause. Collect your thoughts. Look right at the audience and make eye contact.
And one “don’t”: Please oh please don’t start things off with “I’m nervous”. We already know that most people are nervous about public speaking. Plus, once you get started you’ll be fine, so why handicap yourself? It’s so much better to start graciously and gracefully with a “thank you and pleased to be here”.
Follow these links for more presentation tips:
Tips for Engaging Large Audiences: What to do when it’s just you and several hundred people
That’s just how we roll: Presenting in less-than-optimal surroundings
The foremost decision is the decision to provide treatment
Last week I met a colleague who leads a community college program on auto maintenance and repair. This arena of study and practice has always seemed fairly straightforward to me: learn the mechanics of engines and other things that make cars work, and learn how to fix them. I confess it was surprising to me when he shared that the most important skills his students need to learn are critical judgment, reflection and decision-making. That’s partly because car design has changed so dramatically over the last two decades that cars have become complex electronic as well as mechanical systems. Just like in health care, for a good mechanic the foremost decision is whether to provide treatment.
Who knew that our most important teaching goals and teaching challenges – his in auto repair and mine in counselling and health behaviour change – were so aligned?
This reminded me of another conversation I had with a surgeon a couple of years ago. We were talking about laparoscopic surgery, and I wondered whether today’s medical students had a learning advantage due to their years of experience playing videogames. The doctor stated that it doesn’t take long to teach anyone to how to perform laparoscopies (although video game players might learn a little faster). He said that what takes years to teach and learn is when not to do the surgery.
When and how to intervene may be the most challenging things for anyone to learn because the skills are so complex. Education for diverse fields of practice – from car repair to medicine and lots in between – demands that students master three essential foundation skills:
1. Critical reflection: Meaning-making and interrogating the limits of one’s knowledge and skills; considering costs, benefits and outcomes of different possibilities
2. Attention: Including listening, observation and data-gathering, from a stance of care and concern
3. Decision-making: This includes decisions regarding a specific course of action, as well as decisions about what additional information might be needed; acting with integrity and ethics.
A nice article on how diagnosis is more art than science features wisdom from “master diagnosticians”, and underlines the importance of the above three skills, along with humility and a commitment to continuous learning:
Five big lessons learned along the way
1. How do you feel when you walk out the door?
I’ve always valued the axiom that people don’t remember what you do or say – they remember how you made them feel. Think about your favorite teacher – what do you remember most from that class? The course content? Or is it the passion, inspiration, affirmation, compassion, kindness and care that he or she offered? For the most part, process is way more important than content in teaching and learning.
2. Transformational learning is about inspiring change, not transmitting information (no matter how “essential”).
Another axiom: “To teach well we need not say all we know, only what is useful for the pupil to hear”. In other words, no course or continuing professional education workshop is ever long enough for all of the didactic content that we regard as essential. Here’s my most important learning objective, no matter what the content:
At the end of this course the learner will…
Be so energized and inspired by the importance and relevance of this topic that he or she will continue to access knowledge and skills development long after the session has ended.
3. It’s not my decision.
Learning is 100% volitional. So is change. No matter how urgently I believe that I know what is best, that’s not really the point. Each individual is the expert on his or her life, including the learning goals and activities that may guide growth and development.
4. Change is a process, not an event – and so is learning.
Teaching and learning are really about change. By definition, seeing things from a new perspective involves a fundamental shift in standpoint or beliefs. Sometimes a (brief) interaction and connection doesn’t yield any appreciable indication that I have successfully “taught” anything. Then ten years later I randomly see a former student at the airport and am privileged to hear an inspiring story of transformation – initiated by something that I said or did. We plant seeds and only rarely witness the harvest.
5. We’re all protagonists (and want to be treated as such).
No matter how ubiquitous the student concerns, complaints, issues, grade appeals, special requests – each of us is at the centre of our own lives. Individual experience is at once singular and universal: all people are “like all others, some others, and no others” (to paraphrase Murray and Kluckhohn, 1953). It’s about listening (on our part) and – more important – feeling heard (on the other person’s part). Which brings us right back to Point #1.
So…although these are my top five, as Joni Mitchell famously said:
“People will tell you where they’ve gone, they’ll tell you where to go, but till you get there yourself you never really know.”
Teaching as effortless action
Course evaluations can provide helpful feedback about what we’ve done well and where we can improve. The confusing part is when we see polarities in evaluation data (too much group discussion, not enough group discussion; too much time, not enough time; etc.). But the solution isn’t necessarily working harder at the front of the classroom.
The Eastern notion of “effortless action” implies action aligned with our authentic selves. The harder we try to exert influence and control, the further we get from the fundamental essence of what it is to teach and to learn.
The Tao of teaching is the unity between:
Thinking and doing
Speaking and listening
Working and playing
Teaching and learning.
Consider: Each of these contains elements of the other. Thought is itself a form of action, and action embodies elements of thought. As we speak we are responding (to), and we listen to ourselves. As we listen our mind is speaking. Work and play are not distinct from one another. As we teach we learn, and we learn as we teach.
Effortless action in a Western frame might be conceptualized as the psychology of flow.
Whatever name we give to something essentially un-nameable, for me the Tao of Teaching means finding that place inside and then reaching out and connecting with what is true and authentic in others. That’s when magic happens.
Disruptive innovations aren’t easy for established institutions
Online learning has been around for over two decades now. Yet institutions – secondary and post-secondary – continue to struggle with its integration and applications. I am still hearing lots of questioning and debate about the suitability and effectiveness of online delivery. What does the research say?
Learning outcomes have been shown to be modestly better for online versus classroom-based courses (Means et al. 2010)
Learning activities can be equally effective across online and face-to-face conditions (Neuhauser, 2002)
Online courses across a variety of theoretical and practical topic areas have been offered successfully (Tallent-Runnels et al. 2006).
Course development (whether face-to-face, mixed mode or online) is resource-intensive. Here is a radical rethink of higher education from a systems perspective, from a provocative 2003 article by Carol Twigg (decribed as a Rock Star in higher education technology and innovation) for Educause:
Full disclosure: I have taught a graduate clinical course focused on addiction treatment for over 10 years. Don’t get me wrong, I love classroom teaching. But feedback I get from students has consistently reinforced three things:
1. There are as many ways of teaching online as there are face-to-face. Just like there can be good and bad classroom courses (and instructors), same goes for online.
2. Online courses can be experienced as equally or more rigorous than their in-class counterparts, in that online students report having to critique, reflect and formulate their ideas more deeply in order to contribute to class discussion and dialogue.
3. Online learning is accessible to students in a way that classroom teaching can’t accomplish.
In any case, the debate may well be moot: Instructional videos on YouTube – for everything from how to change a tire or rig a sailboat, to advanced chemistry – constitute what might well be the world’s biggest and most vibrant online apprenticeship training. Khan Academy (“our mission: to provide a world-class education for anyone, anywhere”) materials are used by teachers worldwide in their classrooms. (Because the online version teaches it better?) Students today have grown up in a world where the Internet has always existed. Digital communication, networking and collaboration are like talking (or breathing).
So why, twenty years on, aren’t there more online offerings in colleges and universities (especially among those in the top tier)? I think the hesitation comes from a deep place in our collective psyche as educators. We want to believe that our physical presence at the front of the class is a key contributor to meaning-making and learning for our students. From an instructivist theoretical frame, this makes sense. Thing is, the education field has widely adopted constructivist models of teaching and learning, at odds with a “sage on the stage” approach.
Online learning in higher education represents a paradigm shift and a disruptive innovation. Big time.
Is blogging the digital equivalent of tree-planting?
In his famous series of large-scale photographs capturing the impacts of industry Edward Burtynsky highlights massive reconstructions of our natural world. I watched the award-winning 2006 documentary Manufactured Landscapes on a long-haul flight a few years ago, juxtaposing mountains of discarded computer monitors (on the screen in front of me), with pristine polar ice (out the airplane window).
Burtynsky shows us debris fields in real environments. What are some of the by-products and reconfigured terrains of the knowledge construction industry? Here are three manifestations:
1. Degree inflation: Just like 50 is the new 40, Masters are the new Bachelors. Is this because today’s world is infinitely more complex and new hires need additional time and preparation for job readiness? Or are we seeing the equivalent of monetary inflation? I once served on a selection committee for a prestigious lectureship, where the candidate we chose had the credentials PhD, PhD. Let’s leave it at that.
2. Manufactured authenticity: Knowledge workers tend to spend a lot of time indoors. We all crave the experience of real-world adventure but fear of the attendant risks can be a deterrent. That’s what simulations are for: in teaching, learning and recreation. Google Glass represents the first wave of integrated mobile computing. Will this be the next television?
3. Digital nostalgia: The internet is a social construction and was once (in the words of Howard Rheingold) an electronic frontier. Consider the contrast between the WELL and Facebook with respect to discourse and advertising presence. Burtynsky catalogued the manufactured landscapes of the industrial world – what will 2020’s documentary on the manufactured landscapes of the information economy look like?
The post-industrial wastelands of the digisphere weren’t always there. Maybe blogging is the digital equivalent of tree-planting?
The world is opening up, and that’s a good thing. (Don Tapscott)
In their 2010 book Wikibrands, Sean Moffett and Mike Dover argue that with the advent of the social web, it’s no longer the purview of a company to articulate and define its brand – it’s what people say about the company that defines the brand. The implications for all organizations and sectors, including education, are huge.
Institutions of higher learning expend considerable resources on branding, but for the most part this follows traditional marketing channels. And where social media is integrated into organizational branding, it tends to be used as more a corporate communication tool than a meaningful way to engage with students or prospective students. Reputation management is a big consideration. How do you control your brand if you open up a “comments” or “review” page on your website?
A recent investigative reporting piece focusing on healthcare invited Canadians to rate hospitals, and while popular among the public (see story), was sharply criticized – by hospital administrators (though not by patients, see story).
Whether we like it or not, there are multiple outlets for review and commentary, and these are more likely to be adopted when the “official” website is perceived as promoting versus informing. When I choose a hotel do I trust a corporate website or visit TripAdvisor for candid ratings and reviews? Why should it be any different in selecting a college or university? The stakes are a lot higher, and information = power, or at least the illusion of such.
The drive towards inside-out organizations is premised on the notion that we – organizations – get more from sharing than we do from secrecy. This is a big culture change for education. It’s radical. Although high-level data about high school and post-secondary outcomes are publicly available, specifics (e.g. course evaluations, students’ comments and reviews) are not.
Here’s the thing: In a very short time frame complete institutional transparency is going to be expected. As a matter of course. If we don’t provide it someone else will be happy to step in and do it for us. And they get to keep the ad revenue from the high click-through rate: RateMyProfessors is only the beginning.
As Don Tapscott puts it: “Institutions are becoming naked, and if you’re going to be naked … fitness is no longer optional. If you’re going to be naked, you better get buff.”
educateria 