Excelsior College’s School of Business and Technology Speaker Series Presentation Critical Cybersecurity Awareness

Posted on by Excelsior Staff

Excelsior College’s School of Business and Technology

Speaker Series Presentation

Critical Cybersecurity Awareness

Faculty Program Director:  Dr. Andrew Hurd

Cybersecurity is a growing field. If we had the foresight and we integrated computer security the way it was supposed to be integrated 40 years ago there would not be a Cybersecurity field today. It would just be what we did as part of our daily routine. Since we did not have this hind sight; we are left to the realm of Cybersecurity and its many mysteries. As a Cybersecurity specialist you must be prepared for problems that does not exist and have the skills to address them. Problem solving skills and critical thinking is essential.  This webinar features Dr. Hurd speaking about cyber awareness and the issues with weak passwords.

The Power of Music

Posted on by Excelsior Staff

When you need that motivation to get you through anything in life, what do you turn to? As Student Success Coaches, we talk to students who use music to motivate, inspire and drive them to their goals. Quite frankly we love music as well!

On any given day at the Student Success Center you will hear anything from Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger” to Beyonce’s “Survivor”. These lyrics get us pumped up to conquer our goals that we have sought out to achieve. Sometimes it may not get accomplished so quickly due to random dancing….which we encourage….but it gets done none the less.

As Student Success Coaches we challenge you to pick that one song that SPEAKS TO YOU! It may be that driving force that pushes/nudges you that one step further. The odds may seem insurmountable, but it’s not impossible. Take small steps forward and you will get there.

p.s. Really….. go play YOUR SONG!

Your Coaches,

Raven Short Student Success Coach Student Success Center
Raven Short
Student Success Coach
Student Success Center  

Dawn Gerrain named Excelsior’s first Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer

Posted on by Excelsior Staff

Dawn Gerrain will serve as Excelsior College’s first Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer, the institution announced today. The position, which will be responsible for leading an aggressive restructuring and expansion of the College’s brand, marketing communications, and digital marketing strategy, will report directly to the College President, Jim Baldwin.

“Dawn is a skilled marketer and what I would consider a transformational business leader, steeped with experience leading organizations through major industry disruptions,” said Baldwin. “Her strengths lie in developing customer-centric strategies, fostering innovation, driving business development, and creating a collaborative and engaging culture. This experience and knowledge will prove critical as the College builds new marketing capabilities.”

The CMO’s primary focus will be to guide brand strategy, design elements related to the student experience, position and create messaging around academic products, enhance digital, mobile, social, research, and relationship marketing efforts, develop business and go-to-market strategies, and redesign the College’s website, among other priorities. The CMO is responsible for leading a group of directors, managers, and strategists to achieve success across the entirety of the marketing ecosystem.

Ms. Gerrain arrives at Excelsior from Cengage Learning, a $1.6 billion educational services company with operations in more than 40 countries around the world. Most recently, she served as a senior vice president/general manager, overseeing and providing strategic guidance for the Skills business, which develops learning solutions for the academic and continuing education markets. She also focused on developing strategic partnerships and managing product development, marketing, and sales organizations.

The decision to create a Chief Marketing Officer position reflects a broadening role for marketers industry-wide, as the internet and other forces change the way consumers research and make buying decisions. It also marks a strategic shift for the College, as Excelsior pursues a ‘student-centric’ organizational approach which strategically integrates brand building, marketing, research, business development, and customer (student) relations.

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There’s An App For That: Sleep Better

Posted on by Excelsior Staff

Hello! It’s Kelli and Hannah your Student Success Coaches again with another monthly app! Are you getting enough sleep?  With the Spring I term and your busy lives in full swing, we want to make sure you are taking care of yourselves.  The best way to start taking care of yourself is with a good night’s sleep.  We talk to students on a daily basis who inform us that their busy lives taksleepe away from a full night’s sleep.  We are here with a new app to squash that!  Read on to learn more about the Sleep Better App.

This is how the app works:

One of the cool features is that it monitors your breathing and motion at night to find the best time to wake you up so you don’t feel groggy in the morning. For example, Coach Kelly wakes up anytime between 7:00 am and 7:15 am.  The Sleep Better app recognizes when she is at her lightest sleep cycle and sets the alarm to go off then.  When you set the alarm you submit information about how your day looked.  Did you work?  Are you going to be sleeping in your own bed?  Did you have a stressful day?  Did you drink alcohol or caffeine?  Based on these submissions the app will be able to assess the quality of your sleep.

We understand you are busy students. Sleep is important to keep a balanced life.  Go ahead and download the Sleep Better app.

Kelli and Hannah

 

 

Are you taking breaks or are you breaking?

Posted on by Excelsior Staff

Did you know that the brain experiences fatigue after 60 minutes of uninterrupted study and taking a periodic 10-minute break from studying can improve your concentration and retention?

But what happens if you’re doing well and you don’t want to take a break? Then you’re going to break down! Keeping your focus on one thing for an extended period eats up more energy than you may think. Once your attention window has closed, you are creating more harm than good.  Retention of what you have been studying can suffer.

Here’s a helpful tip to keep you on track for much needed breaks. Set a timer on your phone or an old fashioned egg timer. Give yourself 60 minutes to study. Once the timer gBreak booksoes off, reset the timer for 10 minutes. Allow yourself time away from the material that you’re studying. Get up, move around. If you’ve been studying on the computer, read a book- anything to help change focus for those 10 minutes. After the 10 minutes have run out, back to studying and setting the timer for another 60 minutes.

Don’t limit yourself. If the 60/10 schedule isn’t working for you, then create a schedule that will. Possibly 90/15 will work better for you. Whatever you choose, make sure that you’re staying on track and are being successful at it.

As a Student Success Coach I am always interested in learning more about student’s study techniques. If you have techniques that have worked for you, please share!

Best of luck studying!

Increase Student Engagement with Video Assignments

Posted on by Excelsior Faculty

By Amy Erickson

Visible Learning
In the January edition of The Online Classroom, Robert Talbert offers several compelling reasons for using video assignments in the online classroom. Instead of submitting a sheet of paper with answers, Talbert’s students video themselves working through the math problems, demonstrating how they arrived at an answer. Showing the process in action allows a professor to pinpoint and address exact areas of confusion. In addition to ensuring original work, Talbert (2017) also noted that video assignments improved effort level, created a strong online community, and generated a repository of helpful videos for future learners.

Effort Level
Talbert (2017) requires that students show their face and their work at all times when creating video assignments. This not only ensures original work, but also encourages students to put more time and effort into their work. The video assignment demands organization and preparation; two things that may not go into an assignment if it is simply being submitted to the grade book. Talbert noted that “Students engage in significantly more detailed preparation for making a video than they would for writing up a homework set” (para. 8). He and his colleague using video assignments also found that students spent more time “monitoring and reflecting” on their work than previous students (Talbert, 2017, para. 8).  Talbert (2017) adds another element to the assignment requirements that appears to further encourage students to increase their effort level: the videos are made available to everyone in the classroom.  That ought to do it. Students don’t want to look foolish or ill-prepared in front of their peers, and professors don’t want to grade material where little to no effort has been demonstrated. Win-win.

Creating a Community
A colleague of mine was frustrated by students not making changes between rough drafts and final papers. She decided to give video feedback to her students for a term and see if it had an impact on the final drafts. She was amazed. She was uncertain of the exact reason for the change, but felt that inviting students into her home via a camera made the feedback more intimate and personal.  Talbert had a similar experience with his students. “As the course unfolded and the videos rolled in, we got to know each other through verbal styles, organizational tendencies, the decor of one person’s living room, or the shape of another person’s handwriting. The class began to be a learning community rather than a list of names” (Talbert, 2017, para. 5).

Repository of Learning Materials
Talbert (2017) created an unlisted You Tube site where students could upload their weekly assignment videos for the class to see.  (By making the site unlisted, instead of public, only students from the class were able to view the material.) This site wound up being a great place to revisit if students were confused or wanted to review material before an exam (Talbert, 2017, para. 6).  Knowing that course materials were continually accessible via a website may have also put students at ease and could have taken some of the guesswork out of exam preparation.

How Can I Use Video Assignments?
It is easy to see how a math professor would find value in video assignments, but I believe every professor wants to create community, encourage student effort, and provide helpful resources. With that in mind, I’ve listed a few ideas here for using video assignments to augment the classroom.

Video introductions may be a fun way to create a strong sense of community at the start of a class.  Students in my literature courses have uploaded videos of themselves reciting original poetry or explaining a Wordle they created to accompany a poem, play or short story.  Perhaps psychology students could create an infographic to map out weekly concepts. Nursing students could develop and discuss a checklist to use before a procedure. History students could create a virtual timeline where specific events could be highlighted and examined. Screener, Screncast-o-matic, and Jing are just a few of the resources one can use to create videos. Next week, I will explore and discuss a few more.

If you have used innovative video assignments or know of helpful video resources, please consider reaching out to me so I can share your successes in an upcoming article.   amylynetteerickson@yahoo.com

 
References
Talbert, R. (2017, January). Making learning visible with video assessment. Online Classroom. Retrieved January 5, 2017 from http://www.magnapubs.com/newsletter/online-classroom/155/Making-Learning-Visible-with-Video-Assessment-14346-1.html

Late on an assignment? Talk to your instructor!

Posted on by Excelsior Staff

Dilanthi Graham, Student Success Coach, on communicating with your instructor:

Kevin’s story is a perfect example of the importance of communicating with your instructor. Kevin Gillie is a flight medic in the Unites States Army. When he’s not climbing helicopters, he’s also a husband, father, and student. As is the case for many students, Kevin ran into trouble with one assignment. He accidentally did not submit an assignment. He notified the instructor and was told he could submit it late. The professor was very impressed by his work.  Total win!

I’ve heard quite a few students say that they own their mistakes and will just take a zero or poor grade because they deserve it. They don’t want to make excuses. However, it’s not an excuse if it’s the truth and effort matters! If you know you can do better, why not use the same logic? Own the mistake by putting in more effort and trying again. It worked for Kevin, why can’t it work for you?

There’s An App For That: Budgeting

Posted on by Excelsior Staff

Happy Holidays! It’s Kelli and Hannah your Student Success Coaches again with another monthly app! With the holidays quickly approaching we thought this would be a great time to introduce a budgeting app.  We know you have shopping to do!  How does your wallet look?  We searched high and low and found the most integrated budgeting app.  This month we will be featuring Mint!  As Student Success Coaches we talk to students on a daily basis about their finances.  We are not financial experts but we like to remove that stressor that sometimes can be attached to budgeting.  Everyone has their own way of budgeting.  See if the Mint app works for you!

Why download the Mint App?

The Mint app simplifies the headache that comes along with leafbudgeting. The Mint app requests for you to connect all of your monthly bills and bank accounts to the app.  Don’t worry – there are several security measures that ensure your information is safe!  Once everything is connected you are ready to budget your money.  Some of the features include notifications when a bill is due or when you are over budget, money saving tips, recognizing spending trends, and suggestions on how to save.

Download Mint and see if this is something that would work for you. Take control of your finances today with Mint!

https://www.mint.com/

https://www.mint.com/how-mint-works

Perspectives: Cesar Munguia, MPA Graduate

Posted on by Excelsior Staff

Cesar Munguia is one of Excelsior College’s School of Public Service first Master of Public Administration graduates. The Master of Public Administration (MPA) program launched early 2015. The MPA program offers individuals from a variety of educational backgrounds the opportunity to enhance their knowledge and skills in the government and non-government sector.

Munguia is no stranger to Excelsior College’s degree programs. He enrolled with Excelsior in 2012, and completed his Bachelor of Arts (BA) in 2013 and his Master of Arts in Liberal Studies (MALS) in 2015. He was introduced to the College while he was Active Duty in the U.S. Army. “I was teaching the Battle Staff Course at the US Army Sergeants Major Academy (USASMA). Our director had a professional development policy that encouraged faculty members to enroll in classes and make progress towards a degree,” explained Munguia. “Because of the close relationship between USASMA and Excelsior [there is a remote College counselor on the USASMA staff], it seemed like a natural fit.”

Munguia currently lives in Copperas Cove, Texas—a small town about five miles west of Ft. Hood—with his wife, Esther, and two sons, Cortez (11) and Elias (2). When asked why he decided to pursue his second master’s degree and how his experience in the program has impacted his life today, Munguia reflected on his experience with Excelsior College.

I didn’t want to stop learning, and was looking for a challenge. Additionally, I recognized a need in my company for a good understanding and appreciation of how government agencies operate. As a private-sector employee working for a defense contracting company, I thought the Master of Science in Public Administration (MPA) program would help me leverage this knowledge towards providing better products and services for our customers and stakeholders.

Throughout my experience in the MPA program, I was fortunate enough to work with professors who were subject matter experts in their fields. They were able to not only teach, but to facilitate critical thinking and cooperation with every one of my peers as we navigated through the curriculum. Without their mentorship, and the lively interaction with my fellow students, I don’t think I would have learned as much as I did in the year I took to complete the program. In the two months since completing the MPA program, I have hit the ground running. I have used the lessons learned in Public Budgeting and Financial Management, Statistical Analysis for Decision Making, and Leveraging Technology in the Public Sector in order to help the Tennessee National Guard upgrade three of their military simulations training facilities. While competency in a field helps keep one competitive, it’s the commitment and expertise that the MPA demonstrates that truly sets a graduate apart from everyone else. While distance/online learning may not be for everyone, for me it offered the flexibility to pursue a fast-paced career in the defense industry while tackling an educational challenge.

 

Remembering to Breathe

Posted on by Excelsior Staff

Have you ever caught yourself holding your breath or not breathing at all? I know this has happened to me before taking an exam or public speaking.  I’ll admit it – it usually happens when I am very nervous… Lately I have been hearing from my students that they utilize free apps that help them relax before an exam in the realm of breathing exercises.  On top of this trend my favorite radio station I listen to every morning encourages its listeners to take one deep breath to start the day off right.  Ask yourself – when was the last time I really inhaled and exhaled?  I am talking about a big bear deep breath.  STOP and take a deep breath in and out right now…INHALE…EXHALE.  Phew…much better right?  You may surprise yourself with how much more relaxed you feel.  Next time you are feeling nervous or notice that you need a break STOP and take a deep breath.

just-breathe

Visual Reminders!

Posted on by Excelsior Staff

I don’t know about you, but I can’t remember anything unless I WRITE IT DOWN! Every morning I write down what I would like to accomplish today, essentially my “to-do lists”. From taking a deep breath, remembering to pay a bill, and reading a couple pages out of a book that is taking longer than I would like, I write it down as a reminder.

As a student success coach, talking with students, I tend to ask them “what will remind you to achieve your goal”? One of the main responses that has come up is, “I just do it”. I love Nike trust me, but I can bet even Mark Parker, the CEO of Nike, has someone to remind him of things. So I challenge you…..YES YOU…..to take the time, just to write it down, whether it is a post it or a scrap piece of paper, anything that you want to get accomplished or reflect on.

Post below your visual reminders that have helped you!

p.s. take a peek at an array of my reminders at my workspace.

There’s An App For That: Wunderlist

Posted on by Excelsior Staff

Hello! It’s Kelli and Hannah your Student Success Coaches again with another monthly app! We went ahead and scoured the worldwide web to find the most helpful apps for your needs.  This month we are going to be featuring an app that helps with organization.  As Success Coaches we talk to students daily that are balancing many commitments at once.  Why not try an app that can assist with this?

Why download the Wunderlist App?

At its core the Wunderlist app is a place to keep all your commitments in one place. We want to highlight the most helpful feature of the app for our students.  We found this app beneficial for balancing many commitments, specifically when it comes to managing your school work.  This is done by creating to do lists with sub tasks (making your tasks feel more manageable!).

This is how the app works:

Keep all your school assignments in one place by creating a list of tasks specifically for school. Once the list is created you can go in and add “to-dos”.  Furthermore, you can break those “to-dos” into sub tasks and check them off as you complete them.  What a feel good moment as you a see a big assignment broken up into manageable tasks.  We also found that you can share the list you have made with other people – which is perfect for group assignments!  There are many other great features in this app.  Go ahead and download and see what Wunderlist can do for you.

https://www.wunderlist.com/home