Tag Archives: coordinating group

Coordinating Group Meeting 4/27/20

The Coordinating Group convened once again on Monday, April 27 (week five); 22 people were in attendance.

In the first hour (of our two hour meeting), we reviewed the elements of a model (below) and, as a group, debriefed the week 4 faculty meeting. For access to the group notes that were generated from that debrief, click here (it will take you to a shared Word document in OneDrive).

In the second hour, we reviewed data from Hanover Research, from Evergreen’s Institutional Research, and from the Blue Sky data from Fall and Winter quarters to discuss potential curricular clusters of note (see below post for presentation of data). We then broke into small groups for discussion around curricular areas.

The Coordinating Group will convene again on Wednesday, May 13th to continue the work of reviewing and incorporating feedback into the draft model we have. Stay tuned!

Hopes for upcoming faculty meetings where Big Bets are discussed:

- Week 6 – focus on curriculum
- Week 8 – provide a comprehensive updated model
- Week 9 – possible added faculty meeting on 5/27 for further deliberation on the model (if week 8 suggests this is wise)
- Week 10 – final deliberation on model + advisory vote

Elements of a Model

Evergreen State University
- Evergreen College + Canopy College + Graduate and Professional School of Applied Learning [Note: these names are placeholders and are not official; we have already received thoughtful suggestions and feedback about the names]
Hybrid Learning; Low res
C1: Concentration
C2: Certificate
C3: Capstone
Wraparound Support
New Transcript

042720-CG-Data Download

Coordinating Group Meeting 4/20/20

The “Big Bets” work continues! If anything, it has accelerated in this national/global time of a shifting and changing higher ed landscape. In some ways, we just got a jump start on our COVID-19 planning?

Our latest meeting convened on Monday, April 20. We had 26 people in attendance and were able to cover the following topics:

Welcome from Jen
Update on non-retained student data from Amadou Ba & Coral Garey, Institutional Research
Review of a model presented by a faculty subcommittee made up of Kevin Francis, Steven Hendricks, and Karen Gaul
Small group discussion on model
General discussion

Normally I would post pictures here, but I’m no longer in the habit of taking pictures in the virtual space! In lieu of pictures, I’ll give you more text to work with (sorry…).

Blue-Sky-University-v2

Coordinating-Group-Breakout-Notes-Recap Download

The same crew (Kevin, Steven, Karen, with support from the rest of the Planning Team) will present at today’s Faculty Meeting (Wed, 4/22), and the Coordinating Group will convene again on Monday, April 27th.

Other behind-the-scenes happenings: model presentation to and feedback from senior leadership, the Student and Academic Life Leadership Team, the Campus Leadership Group (during week five). We are also brainstorming other ways of engaging our community in meaningful (remote) discussion.

Stay tuned!

Coordinating Group Meeting 4/6/20

The Coordinating Group met on Monday, April 6th for our inaugural virtual meeting! We had 20 participants and our goal was to recommend one or two models for SALLT and senior leadership during week three. Models will brought back to the Coordinating Group with comments from SALLT & senior leadership, and then given to Feasibility Group.

Please note for all content below, this was pulled from notes taken in real time and reflects conversation, but not necessarily any final decisions made.

General Discussion about models

Take pandemic into account. The world just changed and will continue to change. Now everyone has the capacity for online learning. Massive economic depression, and people will be seeking different college degrees.

How can we do online education better? Evergreen-style, integrated learning, that makes it better and attracts students. Otherwise we will be doing what everyone else is doing.
Framing: broad themes important. Equity, resilience, sustainability… walking the talk, content rich curriculum – areas of concern for students who come to us from where they are at now. Excite students, how do we engage contemporary student issues now
Role of Coordinating Group? Are we setting ourselves up for failure if we bring a finished model to the faculty? Shape of CATs and Paths are also up for review – is this group the right one to review the strengths of the paths?
How do we roll out the certification process—can’t be generic.
How can the values be upfront? What do we do well (TRIO) and how can we expand into that?

How do we bring in new students – isn’t that the focus of the New Academic Directions modeling?
Structures don’t excite people very much, content excites people. Right now, there is a mismatch between focus on structural models and the content areas that would draw students
New directions? Reinvent ourselves to a certain extent, but how do we work with the strengths of the current faculty? How much hiring needs to be done for new content areas?

Workforce Development Pilot

A discussion about a potential regional workforce development pilot in response to the regional economic impact of COVID-19:

The planning team and feasibility group need to come together to review the data, models, ideas from the Blue Sky conversations… to narrow ideas, to focus on what is possible, determine areas of investments, develop funding plans. Proposal for next steps: smaller group take all that this group has done and determine structure, fill with content our data is telling us our students will come here AND keep core values at the center of what we do. Will have to come back with rationale. Opportunity now in times of mass unemployment – how do we serve our community right now? Focus on the near future – serving career switchers and place committed people, serving adult learners.

The Coordinating Group will meet again on Monday, April 20, 2020.

Thank you, all, for your continued engagement, great thinking, valuable input, and commitment to the Evergreen community!

Coordinating Group Meeting + Models 2.0

For accurate and up-to-date information about COVID-19 and how it impacts Evergreen as a whole, please visit https://www.evergreen.edu/covid19

As we head into week one of spring quarter (beginning Thursday, April 2nd), we are still wrapping our heads around what the impact of COVID-19 might be on the “big bets” process. We know the timeline will shift and we are working to determine what that might look like on the ground. The legislative “ask” will change, certainly, and we are considering how we might bring “big bets”to bear on the increasing need for regional workforce retraining in light of COVID-19-related job loss in our area.

We will continue to offer updates as we have them, so please stay tuned.

In the meantime, the Coordinating Group had an initial remote meeting today. We had 26 people attend (awesome!) and we explored models put together by subcommittees over the last few weeks. Many thanks in particular to Coral Garey, Steven Hendricks, and Kevin Francis for their insight and effort.

Two-Colleges-Model Download

Model A

model2-CG Download

BigBets-Model-Paths-of-Study-KF Download

Model C graphic

Big-Bets-proposal-KF Download

Big Betty Meets COVID-19 (Coordinating Group Update)

For accurate and up-to-date information about COVID-19 and how it impacts Evergreen as a whole, please visit https://www.evergreen.edu/covid19

From my remote office (read: dining room table) to yours, greetings in the midst of a strange mid-March!

I’ll start by thanking each of you for your continued commitment to our students and campus community right now. I don’t think it can be said enough that we are all in this together. I have been moved by my colleagues’ thoughtful responses and impressed by our collective creativity in the face of emergent needs.

I’m sure the number one question on all of your minds right now is this: What’s happening with big bets?!?! (amiright?)

Here’s what’s new:

All members of the Coordinating Group have been invited to join the Big Bets Slack channel! If you have Slack questions (like what the heck is Slack?), please let me know. I’m no expert, but I am a millennial, so I’ll see what I can do. ❤
- Slack is a way for us to visit quickly and in real time, share documents in one place, and keep track of all conversations.
All upcoming Coordinating Group meetings will be held remotely for the foreseeable future. I created Zoom meetingsfor our upcoming meetings and sent out the Zoom instructions in the Outlook calendar invitations you should have already received. Questions about that? Let me know! ?
I’m working on a Canvas site for the Big Bets process. (God bless Canvas.) I’ll send information out about that once I have it landed, and I hope that will be a central space for us to all check in about this work.
NEXT STEPS: The meeting we had set for today (3/18/20) got cancelled. Instead, we have asked a small group of colleagues to work on aggregating models (which we mentioned in an email last week, before we all started trying to #flattenthecurve). Those models will be ready for presentation on Wed 3/25, at which time I’ll (hopefully!) post them to our Canvas site. I am working with a handful of folks to put together asynchronouswork that can be done between next Wednesday (3/25) and our next official meeting on Tues, 3/31 (remotely). At that Tuesday, 3/31, meeting, we’ll visit synchronously about where we’re at in the process, we’ll (hopefully!) make model recommendations for feasibility studies, and we’ll take stock of the situation.
Here’s a recap on our timeline:
- Wednesday, March 25: models aggregated and up on the (forthcoming) Canvas site
  - Request that Coordinating Group members engage in asynchronous work remotely via Canvas (and Slack and Zoom and and and…)
- Tuesday, March 31 is our next official Coordinating Group meeting (happening remotely via Zoom, instructions already in your email/calendar invitation)
- Into the future, and beyond! ? (ßit’s a rocket)
Lastly, while this is not expressly Big Bets related, I want to make sure all faculty are signed up for the remote teaching instruction sessions happening this week and next. I’m been working closely with the incredible team of computer and tech folks, as well as the WA Center, to support these trainings. THANK YOU for your willingness to meet the challenge of remote teaching head on!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Yours in handwashing and physical (but definitely not emotional!) distancing,

Emily

P.S. Allow me to proselytize about the importance of staying home?

Coordinating Group Meeting 2/26/20

The Coordinating Group held a joint meeting with members of the Standing Committee on Curriculum to work on rapid prototype modeling for the “big bets” process on Wed, Feb 26th; 25 people attended.

Participants worked in small groups and were given different categories to work with, including student populations (based on Selingo’s student population models), “growth narratives” (below), and curricular ideas that came from the week 6 Faculty Meeting presentation.

Completion College. Such colleges help “some college, no degree” students finish a degree by integrating credits earned at other institutions, assessing and providing credits for prior learning through experience, and providing extensive support services. Completion colleges typically have over 50% of their students age 25 and older and are often reliant on online instruction
Career Connected Learning. In this model, educators and employers work together to combine classroom instruction with relevant real-world experience. At the four-year college level, this model includes extensive use of experiential learning opportunities such as co-ops and internships.
Increase Graduate Studies. The college currently has three graduate programs. There are a variety of other master’s degree programs that residents in the South Sound region, especially state government employees, would find compelling.
Low Residency Paths of Study. Available data suggest that the current generation of transfer students find online BA programs compelling, due to their flexibility
Alternative Credentials. Many colleges and universities are beginning to emphasize offering alternatives to the BA and BS, such as micro-credentials and certificates. Studies have shown that these alternative credentials have surprising impacts on student success.
Reputation Change. It is likely that our relatively poor local reputation (in local high schools, in particular) is an important factor behind our long-term enrollment decline.

*Apologies for the images being sideways! I’m working out what to do about this, but wanted to at least get the models to you all for now. Thanks for your patience! 🙂

Coordinating Group Meeting 2/3/2020

The Coordinating Group met Monday, February 3rd; 23 people attended. Below are photos from the meeting.

We talked about how, because this initiative is coming from the Provost’s office, the process is overseeing Student and Academic Life–that’s our sphere of influence. We have partners in all areas of campus, and many representatives from other divisions are members of the Coordinating Group, and our focus for the work resides in Student and Academic Life (SAL).

The Evergreen State College organizational chart (high level)

One of the exercises we did was around model generation within constraints. The constraints given were to build curricular frameworks for these different potential student populations (below).

Model generation exercise with constraints around potential student populations

“Thumbs,” a voting exercise (that we actually didn’t use this time, but can be helpful for checking in with a group)

Index card prompts at the end of the meeting.

One of the models generated over the last few Coordinating Group meetings.

Examples from model generation exercise

Kathleen Eamon, Karen Gaul, Laurie Meeker – 2.3.20 meeting

Thought experiment on how to serve specific students:

Wouldn’t it be great if adult learners mentors mentoring the career starters
Engaging adult learners, strong mentorship programs FOR the adult learners, community and professionals, linking with external partners
TRIAD? Support intergenerational relationships
Heavy, integrated advising (advisors who work as team, or capacities to do financial aid and registration)

Hybrid online and low residency, high intensity… options for adult learners

Especially exciting for Interdisciplinary MFA, but also possible for humanities
Commuter Lounge on main campus – the people that need, lockers, facilities, kitchen
Smart housing choices

Supposed to be creating new poem, but…

Catalyst HUB – already happening, job description director/fellow/faculty posted soon
Especially good for 1-24 Career Starters

Transfers – are they Career starters? – on track, know where they want to go

When students run things – speakers series, film series, student run, conference, college supported… reframing student activities around academics; study – is this energy building or non-sustainable? Building capacity important.

Minoritized students – culturally relevant pedagogy and curriculum – across the curriculum;

What if the college committed to being an anti-racist institution? Julia Metzger asked this in a summer institute? What would that look like? How would that commitment shape the curriculum and the student experience.
Serving the students who are already here = 58% LGBTQ and attracting more
Intentionally building community and culture beyond a LGBTQ center, academically… a curriculum… central commitment of the college? Faculty hiring? Or building faculty capacity?

Homework

Explore: Uncharted Territory: A Guide to Reimagining Higher Education from the d.school at Stanford

Coordinating Group Meeting 1/27/2020

The Coordinating Group met Monday, January 27th; 24 people were in attendance. The agenda (pictured below) included

talking about timeline changes–we realize we’ll need to slow the process down to make sure we include everyone;
discussing the shift from the original call for ideas to the idea of model construction;
a data presentation by Coral Garey of Institutional Research (file attached below);
a discussion of the data;
an exploration of our current model (attachment below and here);
and continued model exploration in small groups.

As models are created, we’ll post them here along with all the models generated by the community on January 13th and 15th, here.

*Sorry for the glare! Agenda for the meeting

IR-Data-Presentation-on-1.27.20 Download

Coordinating Group Meeting 1/22/2020

The Coordinating Group met Wednesday, 1/22, for discussion and model generation; 24 people attended. The group revisited data from various sources, including Institutional Research at Evergreen and data provided in previous meetings, all available here on the Resources page. Wednesday’s meeting was intended to lay the groundwork for work to be further explored in the upcoming Monday, 1/27, meeting.

Coordinating Group Meeting 1/6/2020

The Coordinating Group met for the first time this quarter on, well, the first day of the quarter! There were 20 people in attendance and the meeting was facilitated by a new facilitator from the Dispute Resolution Center, Kitty Parker (a long-time staff member of Evergreen who retired in the early 2000s).

Co-chair Larry Geri put together relevant enrollment and demographics data into four stations which the group explored and reflected on.