Nicola Casserly

One of the most important lessons for me in this section is "Effective questioning recognizes that barriers are often connected." It helps me see the student as a whole person and respond in a way that opens the conversation to exploring not just their ambitions and goals, but also their motivations and concerns. 

Another important point is the idea that people communicate differently. I am learning to look for cues that indicate what type of communicator a person is, so I can tailor my questions to their natural communication style.

Watching the video about the "flow" of a conversation made me think about how important it is to prepare for admissions conversations. I create a document for each candidate with basic info on their previous academic experience, what their academic and personal references said, their essay scores, and a link to the essay so I can review it and have it fresh in my mind. The doc also contains the core questions I usually ask. By reviewing this info before the interview starts, I can have a picture of the candidate in mind and think in advance about what additional… >>>

This first module showed me why I was feeling some tension during admissions interviews. Our questions are good ones, but not all the applicants are comfortable with them. Those who are comfortable do really well, while others flounder, and I'm now realizing this is not necessarily because they are not a good fit for the program. 

It makes perfect sense that we need to find more questions that will help students open up and express themselves. I plan to keep most of the questions we are using, but not to be as strict about using the same ones in the… >>>

What's HABE?

I hope to try at least one more DEAC course this summer. Have you done any others? Would you recommend anything?

Niki

Great question!

If I don't receive a response to an email, I usually reach out by text. Sometimes that works, but not always.

A project I started shortly before learning about this course was to develop an alumni mentorship program. I think this will help. I also created an online "check-in" form that I plan to use at strategic points throughout the semester. We had just instituted a mid-semester check-in, but this online tool will be available to the students at any time. I will make sure faculty and other staff know about it and share it whenever they see… >>>

I'd be interested to hear from other participants in this forum who have launched successful alumni mentorship programs. I am working on a plan for a pilot program to start this Fall.

Comment on Saraliz Jimenez's post: I agree. Does anyone have experience with getting students to engage specifically with audio and video apps in online forum spaces? Our LMS does have that capability, and it is super easy to use, but so far, very, very few students have used it.

Comment on Farah Cyprian's post: I love that approach! Constantly improving teaching strategies. Very student-oriented.

Comment on Brittany Barbee's post: Absolutely. This module showed me that students can't be expected to remember what they're told at Orientation. They have busy lives, and constant gentle reminders seem to be the way to go. 

Comment on Elizabeth Roberts's post: Yes, that struck me as well. When we started our program, we used to have an Admissions Survey. It was kind of long and didn't help either the students or the administrators, so we just removed it.