Alina Alvarado

Something that I had felt but never thought of " as a thing" is that you can demonstrate leadership in specific situations while still struggling to take a leadership roles in other  circumstances or areas of life. For example, I tend to lead more at work during normal activities, but in sports or competitive environments, I naturally stop using those skills. I liked tha assignment that allows the students to think of ways they demonstrate leadership in one situation and how that can be used in others to start expanding that skill.

I've realized that due to the enviroment of my previous institution, I have experienced a lot of coercive leadership that went extreme and lead to all the risks listed. However, I have more of an Authortative style which did help lead my team, but it also explains why I didn't feel as effective with working with other leaders.

Also, after watching The Principal Story, I really did not like the approach or attitude of the more seasoned principle, though I would love to emulate that of the newer principal. One would see a problem or misbehavior and simply approach it… >>>

According to the assessment, I am a leader, I but feel like I have incorporated both in my previous roles. With me team, I was a manager in supporting and evaluating curre t processes to help ensure good moral and efficiency. However, when I with other mangers or even higher leaders I would take on more leadership responsibilities, not to lead them but liaisoning with them to represent my team and department and advocate for needed changes (which I would then manage once in affect). 

I've also seen first hand what having bad leadership but good management does to the… >>>

It was interesting to learn more of of intermediate and advanced writing practices. Most of them that require more personal interactions are out of my element as those weren't considered "professional" ways to communicate. I would be more interested in incorporating the ARCs model.

I learned about different resources used for educational technology trends and what each provide. These will help stay current with trends that may be applied to my institution (or at least see what other competing schools may be providing).

I liked the way the information was broken down in these sections. It outlined the common compentencies that could and do help classify common online classroom issues. However, knowing these does more than just explain what the problem can be. If instructors/designers know these are common (especially if they recognize  these issues occurring in their real classes), the competencies can be used to ask "what can I provide to help meet these competencies?"

Regardless if learners fit the typical demographic, there can still be additional resources provided to help meet the competencies needed as long as students are at the… >>>

It was interesting to learn the difference between customer service and helping students when it comes to developing a working alliance. In the past, I had been told that to be in academic advisement, we needed strong customer service skills which does help, but as long as the endgoal of helping vs satisfying and serving is kept in mind. This will help in training future team members in interacting with learners.

This course really enforced the affect and meaning of instructor and staff engagement. At my previous institution, the technology including our LMS, was severely limited and outdated, and because it offered only asynchronous courses, the president had structured it so that there was 0 contact from instructors. Students would only have content with admissions advisors, academic mentors, and alumni advisors. Receiving feedback from instructors as the content experts is a key component to social engagement though. And having systems that allow for versatile, effective and efficient communication and incorporate useful technology would increase motivational engagement while decreasing procrastination and the… >>>

I learned about the 4 Rs of androgogy, and while I am not instructing courses currently, they can also be applied in tutoring to really help students fully learn and grasp the concepts taught in the classroom.

The biggest complaint of online learning is "Where's my professor?" I have heard this before quite frequently at a previous learning institution that only had asynchronous programs. Students were not given access to subject matter experts and were expected to use only what was available in the courses to "figure it out". Moving forward, if programs are primarily asynchronous in their start/end times, material and assignments, having a synchronous element to connect directly with instructors (and students if possible) may help incorporate more active learning.