Choosing the right faculty advisor at DePaul University's school for new learning is a key decision that an incoming student needs to make early on in their academic career. Like many colleges, DePaul's administrative processes and procedures can be intimidating for the uninitiated. One of the best sources of support for me as I matriculated through my undergraduate degree program was my Faculty Advisor, Dr. Joan Murphey, PhD.
SNL's policy is to require each adult undergraduate to work with both a Faculty Advisor and a Professional Advisor during their academic career. In my opinion this is a very good idea because it provides both administrative support and professsional focus to the student. For example Dr. Murphey was extremely helpful on many occasions, not only in helping me decide things like which courses I should take to accomplish my goals, but also in helping to ensure that both I and the University met our respective committments. For me, as a distance education student, this extra effort on her part was invaluable in ensuring that things like transfer credits and course grades were correctly posted to my transcripts.
I personally also favor the idea of having had the benefit of choosing a Professional Advisor from my field of study as a part of my academic committee. It is critically important however, that the student recognizes the purpose of the committee and that the expectations and responsibilities of the PA have been clearly communicated. In my case this worked out really well. My PA provided helpful guidance from his many years of experience that was both helpful and relevant to my career aspirations.
Throughout my undergraduate program both of my advisors were engaged and helpful, and I felt that they both had my best interests in mind even though they were obviously very busy people.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Democracy and Conflict
One of the most interesting classes I took as an undergraduate was Democracy with Professor Hartwig Stein. In the class we learned about the true nature of the philosophy upon which our society is governed.
The following abstract represents one interesting feature of democracy that I find useful to remember during my social and professional interactions.
...Democracy by its very nature invites conflict. In a functioning democracy authority is derived from that conflict by engaging in communication and answering criticism to the satisfaction of the majority. Thereafter power is transferred to trusted representatives in proportion to higher levels of responsibility to adequately respond to new challenges or criticism from the group. Failure to actively engage critics, or to satisfy the majority can result in sudden loss of individual power, authority and reputation. From this, we can see that in order to thrive in democratic culture, we need to master new skills and develop new attitudes in order to effectively participate in these changes....
It's clear that the author believes advocacy is a critical skill in our era.
What other skills and attitudes do you think we need to master to be effective agents of change in our lives? What changes would you advocate?
The following abstract represents one interesting feature of democracy that I find useful to remember during my social and professional interactions.
...Democracy by its very nature invites conflict. In a functioning democracy authority is derived from that conflict by engaging in communication and answering criticism to the satisfaction of the majority. Thereafter power is transferred to trusted representatives in proportion to higher levels of responsibility to adequately respond to new challenges or criticism from the group. Failure to actively engage critics, or to satisfy the majority can result in sudden loss of individual power, authority and reputation. From this, we can see that in order to thrive in democratic culture, we need to master new skills and develop new attitudes in order to effectively participate in these changes....
It's clear that the author believes advocacy is a critical skill in our era.
What other skills and attitudes do you think we need to master to be effective agents of change in our lives? What changes would you advocate?
Friday, August 17, 2007
Hindsight is 20/20
One of the best decisions I made when looking to go back to school as an adult was to choose a University that clearly promoted the value of a Liberal Arts education. I must admit, that at first, I was much more concerned with simply completing my Bachelor's degree in the shortest time possible. Thankfully, my Faculty Advisor, and most of my Professors understood this need, but also were able to show me how to see beyond my immediate situation and helped me to stay on course, through what was to be for me a very challenging time professionally.
As a business major also committing to a full time work schedule, I was highly focused on my goals. Since many of my focus area electives were accepted as transfer credits the bulk of my coursework was in Liberal Arts classes which seemed to me to be largely irrelevent to making money.
How wrong I was! Without exception, I uncovered many blind-spots as I progressed through each of my courses and independent learning pursuits. Here is one example:
Course: Collaborative Learning:
Instructor: Paula Bartholome, MS Organizational Development
Far and away one of the most useful and best courses I have ever taken anywhere. It later occured to me that in only ten weeks, our class had been exposed to solutions for most of the answers to the thorniest business problems I've faced in nearly 15 years as a consultant. Through the course exercises I reflected on and came to closure with some past experiences and saw how in the future I could obtain more desirable results in under similar circumstances. In addition, not only were concepts and case studies analysed, but a simple framework for actualizing results was presented. When I practice what I've learned, my business relationships simply work better.
The required reading: "Process Consultation: Building Helping Relationships" By Edgar Schein is the cornerstone of the course. This book is jam packed with sound advice, written with the voice of experience.
I would characterize the instructor as no-nonsense. She knew the material and was effective at keeping the students on track and focused. This was no small task, since one objective of the course is to expose students to a somewhat unstructured and organic progessive elaboration of shared reality.
It should be noted that this course is required at DePaul's School for New Learning, in my opinion - with good reason!
As always, you are warmly invited to share your experiences and comments on this topic!
- David
As a business major also committing to a full time work schedule, I was highly focused on my goals. Since many of my focus area electives were accepted as transfer credits the bulk of my coursework was in Liberal Arts classes which seemed to me to be largely irrelevent to making money.
How wrong I was! Without exception, I uncovered many blind-spots as I progressed through each of my courses and independent learning pursuits. Here is one example:
Course: Collaborative Learning:
Instructor: Paula Bartholome, MS Organizational Development
Far and away one of the most useful and best courses I have ever taken anywhere. It later occured to me that in only ten weeks, our class had been exposed to solutions for most of the answers to the thorniest business problems I've faced in nearly 15 years as a consultant. Through the course exercises I reflected on and came to closure with some past experiences and saw how in the future I could obtain more desirable results in under similar circumstances. In addition, not only were concepts and case studies analysed, but a simple framework for actualizing results was presented. When I practice what I've learned, my business relationships simply work better.
The required reading: "Process Consultation: Building Helping Relationships" By Edgar Schein is the cornerstone of the course. This book is jam packed with sound advice, written with the voice of experience.
I would characterize the instructor as no-nonsense. She knew the material and was effective at keeping the students on track and focused. This was no small task, since one objective of the course is to expose students to a somewhat unstructured and organic progessive elaboration of shared reality.
It should be noted that this course is required at DePaul's School for New Learning, in my opinion - with good reason!
As always, you are warmly invited to share your experiences and comments on this topic!
- David
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Personal Growth as an SNL Graduate
At the Summit Seminar, a one day final requirement for graduation from DePaul University's school for New Learning, graduating students from Tampa to Vancouver met on campus in Chicago to share their experiences as adult learners, get a sense of closure, and obtain final undergraduate credits. During this time the students were segregated into three teams and each team produced a short presentation that reflected our experiences.
My team decided that each of us would address the rest of the graduating class, one by one, and communicate in a powerful way, how our collective and individual perspectives changed through the DePaul experience. Each of us addressed our fellow students and the faculty with three simple words which succinctly expressed our focus before, during, and after completing our undergraduate work at SNL. At the end of the day, I collected these thoughts in order to share them with you so that we can keep them in mind, and so that others can contribute:
Student Before SNL During SNL After SNL
Ruth M: Boredom Thriving Vision
Jaz M: Confused Growth Whole
Carsten G: Lost Fear Found
Kathleen K: Kids Desire Satisfaction
Nikki H: Tenative Experience Strength
Abas N: Fear Courage Excellence
Jean C: Tombstone Grandchildren Teaching
Michael K: Individual Analytical Wholeness
David F: Credentials Confidence Activism
Definitely Reply to this post if you'd like to share your DePaul experience in this way.
My team decided that each of us would address the rest of the graduating class, one by one, and communicate in a powerful way, how our collective and individual perspectives changed through the DePaul experience. Each of us addressed our fellow students and the faculty with three simple words which succinctly expressed our focus before, during, and after completing our undergraduate work at SNL. At the end of the day, I collected these thoughts in order to share them with you so that we can keep them in mind, and so that others can contribute:
Student Before SNL During SNL After SNL
Ruth M: Boredom Thriving Vision
Jaz M: Confused Growth Whole
Carsten G: Lost Fear Found
Kathleen K: Kids Desire Satisfaction
Nikki H: Tenative Experience Strength
Abas N: Fear Courage Excellence
Jean C: Tombstone Grandchildren Teaching
Michael K: Individual Analytical Wholeness
David F: Credentials Confidence Activism
Definitely Reply to this post if you'd like to share your DePaul experience in this way.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Personality Testing
The JASPER (TM) survey is a web based profiler on monster.com that assesses "Job Strengths and Assets". According to the Monster.com site where you can take the test and print out your results for free, the 15 minute interactive test advises how to use your strengths to your advantage, gain confidence in your job skills, and enhance your resume.
The test contained some novel survey techniques such as moving sliders along a graph to indicate relative strength of opinion and tagging words as they stream across a banner with the mouse. The test also uses conventional methods of aquiring data, like multiple choice selection and ranking. All in all, the process seemed very intuitive and a convienient on screen gauge displayed progress and percent complete.
At the end of the test the subject is presented with separate options to view, print or share the results. The print option produces a sixteen page report that classifies the test-taker as one of eight distinct personality types derived from rankings across four personality dimensions in three areas, values, tasks, and environment. In addition to providing an assessment of the subject's work style, the report also includes a brief description of each of the other seven styles.
One of the things I noticed about the report was that it was couched in very positive terms. This made me think that it might be unwise to permit sharing of the data and suspect that the data may be scored differently for display to prospective employers. For example, the following was reported on my report:
"...you are more rousing than agreeable when it comes to how you interact with others at work. This means that you challenge the status quo, not only in coming up with new ideas, but also in challenging your colleagues to think outside the box. Although you are known to push the envelope, you do so in a manner that is thought provoking and beneficial to the company..."
Ummm... can you see how that might be framed a bit differently to emphasize undesireable work behaviors?
Since Monster.com charges employers for access to the site, it wouldn't be much of a stretch to imagine that employer's HR departments might be as interested in exposing risks at least as much as the positive aspects of each candidate.
All in all, I thought my test results were fairly accurate and seemed to complement some of the other personality profile tests in the recent past such as the learning styles inventory we took in the Foundations courses at SNL.
Has anyone else had experiences with any other on-line personality tests? Do you feel that these tests are revealing? How do you feel about the ethics of a job site like monster administering these types of tests?
- David
The test contained some novel survey techniques such as moving sliders along a graph to indicate relative strength of opinion and tagging words as they stream across a banner with the mouse. The test also uses conventional methods of aquiring data, like multiple choice selection and ranking. All in all, the process seemed very intuitive and a convienient on screen gauge displayed progress and percent complete.
At the end of the test the subject is presented with separate options to view, print or share the results. The print option produces a sixteen page report that classifies the test-taker as one of eight distinct personality types derived from rankings across four personality dimensions in three areas, values, tasks, and environment. In addition to providing an assessment of the subject's work style, the report also includes a brief description of each of the other seven styles.
One of the things I noticed about the report was that it was couched in very positive terms. This made me think that it might be unwise to permit sharing of the data and suspect that the data may be scored differently for display to prospective employers. For example, the following was reported on my report:
"...you are more rousing than agreeable when it comes to how you interact with others at work. This means that you challenge the status quo, not only in coming up with new ideas, but also in challenging your colleagues to think outside the box. Although you are known to push the envelope, you do so in a manner that is thought provoking and beneficial to the company..."
Ummm... can you see how that might be framed a bit differently to emphasize undesireable work behaviors?
Since Monster.com charges employers for access to the site, it wouldn't be much of a stretch to imagine that employer's HR departments might be as interested in exposing risks at least as much as the positive aspects of each candidate.
All in all, I thought my test results were fairly accurate and seemed to complement some of the other personality profile tests in the recent past such as the learning styles inventory we took in the Foundations courses at SNL.
Has anyone else had experiences with any other on-line personality tests? Do you feel that these tests are revealing? How do you feel about the ethics of a job site like monster administering these types of tests?
- David
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Official Graduation Date
Today I confirmed with the SNL administration that August 24th is the "official" date that degrees will be conferred for the Summer '07 quarter. This date is the date that will be printed on the degree. However; grades for the summer quarter won't be posted for up to two weeks after the quarter ends. That means we might not find out if there is a problem with any final grades until September 6th. My understanding is that the Diplomas will be mailed out 30 days after the quarter end date, or by September 24th.
So the schedule looks like:
August 24th : Official graduation date
September 6th: Final grades posted
September 24th: Diplomas Mailed
Please definitely post if you are aware of any corrections, updates, or changes.
David.
So the schedule looks like:
August 24th : Official graduation date
September 6th: Final grades posted
September 24th: Diplomas Mailed
Please definitely post if you are aware of any corrections, updates, or changes.
David.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Narrative Transcripts
Hey All,
I just heard from SNL, they wanted me to add/change several things on my Narrative Transcript, such as:
- The name of the class paper or project are required in all fields
- For all transfer coursework a college or university name is required
- All grades are required
-"R" grades must be change before the end of the quarter
hopefully this is the last form I need to do before they send my diploma.
I'm curious if any of you are going on to do a Masters degree?
cheers from Canada,
Fabrizio
I just heard from SNL, they wanted me to add/change several things on my Narrative Transcript, such as:
- The name of the class paper or project are required in all fields
- For all transfer coursework a college or university name is required
- All grades are required
-"R" grades must be change before the end of the quarter
hopefully this is the last form I need to do before they send my diploma.
I'm curious if any of you are going on to do a Masters degree?
cheers from Canada,
Fabrizio
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