Reflecting on Themes & Growth

As I reflect on my experiences as a HALE MA student, I'm moved by how much I needed to pursue this program. When I began this program it was clear I needed to continue my education as my career had changed course into an exciting new direction. Sometimes it isn't clear how much you need to do something until you venture the courage to try. Now that I'm hitting my stride as an administrator, leader, and change agent for my institution I can fully recognize and appreciate the interplay between my work and my studies. I started with three focus areas, each of which took on greater meaning and evolved as I moved through the program and related these interests to my professional needs and growth.

Administration & Governance of Higher Education Organizations
Working through the HALE curriculum focused my scholarship and professional growth and provided a medium to expand my understanding of governance, leadership, and non-profit organizations. I've been able to use my deeper understanding of ways to balance entrepreneurial activities with traditional education at the university which provides a vital perspective. In managing my unit I must balance a competing set of priorities reflected with finite resources in the face of insatiable demand. My scholarship in this area gives me a perspective that makes me more effective at protecting the general fund allocation and directing it towards university initiatives while also producing revenue with the portion of my unit that provides outreach education and operates like an auxiliary unit. This enables me to work effectively with a wide variety of stakeholders and interest groups within the institution and provide a valuable integrating presence that enables new initiatives. Learning organizations expanded my understanding of how to foster the experiential learning that professionals accumulate collectively in organizations. My understanding of this whole learning theme has evolved to center more on my perception and enactment of my personal leadership role, leadership style, and my repertoire of leadership behaviors. I've learned much about what makes me tick, how others perceive my behavior, and what I can do to be more effective. The combination of understanding how the institution works, my role in the institution, and how to effectively carry out my role will prove invaluable in my new role as a unit director.

Distance Education - Instructional Technology - Teaching and Learning
Working to support instructional technology with faculty in online distance education has provided me a living laboratory to relate to my study of literature. The HALE program provided a framework that gave me a greater appreciation for many of the best practices I've seen emerge from MSU's online courses over the past ten years. I can now relate my knowledge readily with the body of knowledge in the discipline. Adult learning theories have provided a solid basis for understanding the nature of learning and the likely preferences that will apply to continuous lifelong learners. The concept of a learning society really sets the context for why our work is important and what society will need from higher education as the knowledge economy advances and continues to shape the coming century. The research methods course equipped me with a solid set of fundamental tools to design and conduct a formal process of inquiry and compose findings. These inquiry skills will provide a basis for my professional growth and ability to create new knowledge in the course of my practice. The program planning course provides a number of conceptual frameworks I can use to help new online programs make their objectives explicit and align effort to creation of a cohesive set of learning experiences. Finally the course on teaching in postsecondary education gave me a wonderful opportunity to focus on myself as an educator. I feel well prepared to select instructional strategies based on solid principles of teaching and learning with insight into my beliefs about what I can do well and the roles of the instructor, student, and content in learning.

Writing and Scholarship
I wanted to focus on writing, but I realized in the course of the program that really I was focusing on scholarship in general. My scholarly skills are better developed, I can organize and pursue a line of inquiry and compose a rational discourse while supporting my findings with literature and evidence. My writing has improved somewhat, but primarily in how well I frame a topic, organize the composition, and write efficiently. What has really expanded is my ability to explore established bodies of knowledge and select evidence from established theory to support my ideas. I also have a much greater understanding of where my scholarly interests lie and what I might pursue if I continue with a doctoral program.

What comes next?
I may take a six months or a year off and pursue some non-credit education that builds on my HALE program and will help me complete the transition into the my new role as a Acting Director of Virtual University Design and Technology. I'm considering pursuing a certification as a Program Management Professional, a certification from the Project Management Institute that will provide a set of professional competencies to aid my oversight of dozens of e-learning development projects each year. Ultimately if I pursue a PhD program it will likely be in HALE, although I will also spend some time in the immediate future exploring other areas that might provide a grounding in a traditional discipline that would benefit my pursuit of knowledge within the profession of Higher Education Administration.