ACE Presentation PPT

Learn by Doing: Incorporating Residential Curriculum into Student Training

Monday, July 11, 2016

Presenters

Jill [email protected]

Hunter [email protected]

Amanda [email protected]

Session Overview and Learning Outcomes• Participants will be able to describe the purpose of Residential

Curriculum.

• Participants will connect how student staff training was designed and executed through a Residential Curriculum lens.

• Participants will be able to implement curricular-based learning into their training programs.

Institutional Profile• Highly-Selective (Mean 3.92 GPA)• ~21,000 primarily undergraduate students

– ~90% from California– “Destination Campus”

• Comprehensive Polytechnic University• Agriculture and STEM focused• “Learn By Doing” is the cornerstone of the Cal Poly

education

University Housing Profile• All students are part of Learning Communities• Rapid expansion

– 2000, ~2,700 beds– 2016, ~7,300 beds– 2018, ~8,800 beds

• First Year Residency Requirement• 13 RD-level staff and 111 RAs• Historically - highly structured programmatic efforts• 2014-15 - development of Residential Curriculum• New Leadership: Executive Director & VPSA• Data-driven culture in Student Affairs

What is a Residential Curriculum?Residential Curriculum is a framework developed to create intentional learning within residence halls in a structured and sequenced manner.

The main question addressed by the residential curriculum is, “What do we want students to learn as a result of living on campus at Cal Poly - San Luis Obispo?”

10 Essential Elements of a Residential Curriculum:

1.      Directly connected to your institution's mission (archaeological dig)2.      Learning outcomes are derived from a defined educational priority.

3.      Based on research and developmental theory – not just our intuition.4.      Learning outcomes drive development of educational strategies (mapping).5.      Programs may be one type of strategy – but are not the only one.6.      Student staff play key roles but are not the educational experts.7.      Represents sequenced learning (by-month and by-year).8.      Stakeholders are identified and involved.9.      Plan is developed through review process that includes feedback, critique, and transparency.10.   Assessment is essential for measuring the achievement of the learning outcomes and can be used to test the effectiveness and efficiency of strategies for program review and accountability.

* As published by ACPA

Residential Curriculum Overview• Based off of Baxter Magolda’s Theory of Self Authorship,

as well as Cal Poly’s “Learn by Doing” motto.• 4 Themes emerged from the initiatives and missions of

campus, division, and department. • Within themes, each has five outcomes with different

stages that the students can be in• Overarching Goals and Specific Learning Outcomes

– Character– Awareness– Academics– Life Skills

Residential Curriculum Strategies at Cal Poly, SLO

• “The Blueprint” as a guiding document– Includes structured conversations, active and passive initiatives,

social media approaches, etc.• Foundational Interactions and Prompted talking points

and questions as a strategy, community agreements, follow up, etc.

• Sketches/Lesson Plans as a way to guide the active and passive strategies that the Resident Advisors use most often.

• Resident Advisors asked “How does this relate to my job and how do I do it with Residential Curriculum?” and we answered!

Historical Student Staff Training Programs• Two weeks with an off campus overnight retreat.• Strong focus on team-building and tight-knit community

for RA Staff• As the staff expanded, the overnight transitioned to on-

campus camp• Mostly one track, lecture-style, Behind Closed Doors

capstone• High level of surface-level returning staff involvement

Fall 2014 Training Student Staff at Cal Poly, SLO

• Shorter Duration• More Returning Staff Members• First attempts at online “pretraining”• Packed schedule, loss of intentionality• Harsh student and professional staff feedback

– Clear that we needed to rethink our training efforts.

Training Reconsidered• ACUHO-I’s “Developing and Refining a Resident Assistant

Training Program”• Gathering Feedback

– Review evaluation survey data– Ask for specific solutions at focus groups

• Reconsiderations– Sequenced Learning – Consistency in Messaging – Workload for professional and student staff – Create Returner Investment in Training– Incorporate “Learn By Doing” through Residential Curriculum

• The Blueprint • “Camp Residence Hall”

Our Process Overview1. Professional Staff Feedback

– Guiding Questions

2. Collecting Student Staff Feedback– Review Survey Data– Focus Groups

3. Creation of Initial Schedule– Begin scheduling from least to most flexible, generally external

presenters to internal presenters.

4. Final Schedule Review– Get fresh eyes and go through training session-by-session as

your staff will experience it to identify duplication or blindspots.

Sample Guiding Questions• What are the top 3-5 functions of a RA on your campus?• What is the breakdown of your staff’s time? Is there

alignment between what RAs do and your schedule? • Identify the 3-5 most frequent challenges your staff has.• What is the ideal training solution to each?

Camp Residence Hall• Student Staff "RA" Camp• Overnight Curriculum experience

– “Programming” lesson plans– Structured Intentional Interactions

• Role modeling – Building Check In– Community Meeting and Expectations– Programs– Intentional professional staff presence

Camp Assessment and Outcomes

Overall Training Outcomes• Learning and Satisfaction • Participation• Curriculum Pilot Year• Revisions for the 2016-2017 Year

Future Considerations• Even Shorter Training• Managing Departmental Change & Expansion• Online Learning• ACA and FLSA

Applications Across Institutions and Functional Areas

• Assessing current training programs• Best practices for implementing changes in a training

program

What We Learned• Build support from your supervisory team for a new vision.• Share your vision widely with external presenters. Explain how

this training is different and why you’re taking a curricular approach. Be involved in developing the content for these sessions.

• Redeveloping training is an enormous undertaking; staff accordingly. Your staff will be keenly aware of the sessions that were not modified from previous years.

• Develop your assessment questions to answer the questions you wanted to know during this process.

• Communicate the importance of following the lesson plans to all presenters. This works best when everyone at all levels is onboard.

Resources• Show what we have

THANK YOU!Questions?

Contact Information

Jill [email protected]

Hunter [email protected]

Amanda [email protected]