Project Evaluation

I don't know if I can truly say that the project has been implemented enough, so I'm going to address this blog as if it was a 50% implemented and 50% not implemented and answer all the questions outlined in the rubrics and by instructor's note.

If I were to evaluate the project's success, it would be based on purely the commitment and collaboration from all involved but would also be based on personal conversations held with faculty and students.  I already have a positive response from the faculty that I've met with and our administrative team but we won't have a true PLC implemented until we get our students back in session and we get our community involved together.  Once the students are back, by having our bi-weekly meetings we will be able to provide a better feel for what faculty are seeing in their students and feedback from our advisors who deal directly with students and their course issues.  I'm hopeful that the feedback will be positive from students and that there is a more open door policy between students and faculty and we have very open discussions in our discussion boards and blogs.

The only change I think that would have made a bigger impact was the time frame when the initial project idea and implementation started.  Due to the summer session and when I could take our course, I would have preferred to have started something of this nature in the middle of Spring semester when students and alumni would have been around to provide crucial feedback and suggestions.  As it stands, a summer course means no students around and limited faculty available to meet and discuss such a project of this magnitude.  A middle of a semester would have given us 8 weeks of working with faculty and students to get the ball rolling and then given us a summer to revise and evaluate what worked and what hasn't and alter our direction to make sure things are moving in the right direction.   Starting it over the summer just means that not only will faculty need to set aside more time for our meetings to discuss the PLC but that time will take away from them getting their own courses ready, which isn't a good situation either.

Not sure if I learned any lessons that others might benefit from but one thing that really stands out in the whole process is having SUPPORT for the project.  I just don't mean a co-worker or another teacher thinking it's a wonderful idea, but in order to do it and do it successfully it needs to be from the very top down.  In my case, I have support from the college's Dean, Assistant Dean, and Associate Deans to plan and implement the PLC within the college.  They are aware of the benefits and success that come from such communities and anything that involved education, especially the concern of students learning the materials, it becomes a top priority from everyone.  So, the lesson would be, make sure you have the support from top down first and things will move along more smoothly than just trying to do it by yourself.

If I was to approach another project of this type, I would do one thing differently.  I understand that there are tons of resources out on the Internet as my previous blog postings show, but to get a real life example and get a hands-on opinion of how it really worked or failed, I would look internally.  By this I mean, I have lots of colleagues across campus that are faculty, administrators, staff, etc. and at least one of them have implemented something of this nature before.  I would want to have the time to meet with them, sit down and possibly sit in on a meeting or at least be able to read their electronic records on their implementation.  Being able to meet and discuss with someone who has been involved in such a project provides insights, details and a "candid assessment" of the project that aren't always provided in the resources found on the Internet.  With MSU being such a large university, I'm sure I would be able to find someone will to meet and discuss their implementation.  This I believe would be very beneficial to our implementation.  I may consider doing this anyhow as ours is just beginning to form and we haven't finalized any decisions yet.