Agriculture Workforce Training for Collaborative Leadership (AWT4CL)

Help Your Students "Level Up" Learning: Take the Welcome Badge Tour -- Author: Jama S. Coartney     -- As educators, we’re constantly looking for ways to make learning stick—and to help learners recognize how their education connects to their futures. Digital learning badges may be able to help. This post introduces the Agriculture Workforce Training for Collaborative Leadership (AWT4CL) project Welcome Badge module . Designed with instructors and facilitators in mind, the Welcome Badge module offers a brief orientation to the AWT4CL project and digital badges. At the end of the module, there's an opportunity for you to go through the process of claiming a digital learning badge—just like your learners will need to do. How Can Digital Learning Badges Motivate Learners? Consider the success story from the Agricultural Sustainability Institute at UC Davis , where a badging system helped learners clearly connect their academic achievements with sustainable career practices. ...

Authors: Jama S. Coartney and Eric K. Kaufman     -- In today’s job market, technical know-how alone is no longer enough. Success in the workplace depends on an additional set of competencies—what employers call durable, soft, human, or employability skills. Some examples include communication, teamwork, professionalism, leadership, and decision-making. Research shows  these essential skills are often underemphasized in course design and delivery. So, how can educators close this gap and better prepare learners for success? This blog series introduces a new approach to bridging the gap between classroom learning and workforce readiness.  Digital learning badges developed by the Agriculture Workforce Training for Collaborative Leadership (AWT4CL) project can help learners build capacity. Grounded in research and aligned with employer needs, these badges target the core durable skills identified by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) a...

by Samson Adeoye -- What comes to mind when you think of affordable education, workforce training, flexible education paths, transfer opportunities, local community impact, and diversity? Community colleges are perhaps your foremost thoughts. They are carriers and deliverers of such possibilities in a single package ( American Association of Community Colleges, 2022 ; Kolesnikova, 2009 ; Warner 2022 ). Community colleges are two-year colleges, originally called junior colleges, and have their origin knit into the fabric of the US education system as far back as the Morrill Act of 1862 which established Land Grant Universities ( Dury, 2003 ). Investigating students’ motivations and outcomes, Strada Education Foundation conducted research on the value of community colleges to understand how these specialized groups of educational institutions can better serve their purpose to students. The researchers collected data across the US from alumni of community colleges who graduate...

By Jama S. Coartney and Eric K. Kaufman --  The Agriculture Workforce Training for Collaborative Leadership  cohort met January 13, 2023, to check in and discuss topics of mutual interest, including PDSA projects, opportunities to share key insights with a broader audience, and the potential of incorporating digital badges into the learning management system. During the summer of 2022, each member of the cohort drafted a PDSA proposal to focus on an aspect of their teaching they would like to improve and test.  The January 2023 meeting focused on updates on this work.   The cohort faculty used  IdeaBoardz  to share news on pilot projects, gain feedback and insight from others, and explore ideas for future improvements.This video summarizes a discussion around the challenges faculty face with balancing the amount of class time to both engage with students and cover content.  The project blog  contains some updates from va...

  By Jama S. Coartney and Eric K. Kaufman --  Many have identified the need for more durable skills as students transition from school to the workforce. But, what exactly are durable skills? And why are they so important? Durable, employability, and soft skills have pretty much the same meaning. For example, the Association of Public & Land-Grant Universities defines employability skills as the “nontechnical skills used every day in the workforce to ensure the smooth operation of projects and offices.” America Succeeds and Training Industry also provide lists of competencies related to durable, employability, and soft skills. Examples of these types of skills can range from empathy to decision-making to adaptability. While these studies highlight the importance of—and need for—teaching these skills to current and future generations of workers, they do not provide much clarity on how to go about doing so. Luckily, Dr. Theo Dawson and team have developed teaching and lea...

 by Megan Seibel & Curt Friedel --  As educators, it is thrilling to witness a student’s AHA! , the proverbial “light bulb” moment. We see it when ideas are generated, connected, developed, executed, and shared. Some are on point, some seem tangential, but all are valuable.   The way in which our course content is designed and delivered has a direct impact on our students’ engagement and learning.   In developing assignments, establishing expectations for success in those assignments, and creating opportunities for input, feedback and growth, it is important to consider how we engage in these activities. Many of us may not stop to think about our own preferences in how these are structured when we develop them, and whether or not that is in alignment with our students’ needs and preferences.   Adaption-Innovation Continuum of Creative Style  As human beings, we are each hardwired in the WAY in which we prefer to generate ideas, utilize structure to imp...

  By Donna Westfall-Rudd and Jama S. Coartney --    One option might be to take a more student-centered learning approach to your online courses. While teaching in-person has advantages when it comes to making connections, you can still create a classroom atmosphere with engagement and interaction, by focusing on the needs, interests, and inquiries of your students. In a recent publication, Teaching in the University , Rachel Mack offers guidance on exactly how to go about making these additions to the curriculum in the chapter entitled, “4. Teaching Practices for Student-Centered Learning Online.”  Recently published as an open textbook, this resource offers suggestions on how to engage students in an online environment.  It also offers tips and things to consider when working with students to increase the opportunity for them to build relationships with others in the course and feel engaged with the course content. For example, one action you can take is to t...