Noel Studio for Academic Creativity
Eastern Kentucky University
Developing Excellence in Consultant Knowledge (DECK)
Southeastern Writing Center Association Conference 2017
As a consultant, it is my role to help students realize their full potentials. Through metacognitive strategies and practices, I work to encourage students to take control of their own learning and their own work. Often, students just need the encouragement they have unfortunately not received from their instructors that they actually can write well.
However, it is also important to teach students rather than just correct them. By teaching them how to help themselves, or modeling how to correctly do something with a different topic, they can take those experiences and apply them again in the future. I try to take their own work out of my examples so they are not offended or get defensive that I am correcting them. Instead, I provide correct samples using something completely different.
My role as a consultant is not to be like a professor, but to be a peer. I am simply sharing knowledge I have in a way that will encourage them to try new things and grow as a writer and communicator.
Pedagogicon 2017
University Poster Showcase 2017
Computers and Writing Conference 2017
Writing Center professional development has largely been grounded in the traditional, print-based handbooks. Inspired by The University of Mississippi’s Writing Center’s professional development website, The Noel Studio for Academic Creativity’s Professional Development Student Coordinators changed and updated the training system to incorporate multimodality into the consultant experience. DECK (Developing Excellence in Consultant Knowledge) launched in Fall 2016 as the platform for the Noel Studio training modules and materials. DECK uses the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy to scale learning-based content.
DECK houses four tracks based on Bloom’s Taxonomy levels: Learner, Practitioner, Scholar, and Expert. Learners are first semester consultants. Learners review key materials on consulting topics using the processes of “Understanding” and “Applying.” Practitioners, second semester student employees, complete trainings framed under that emphasize applying knowledge gained and analyzing consulting practices. Third semester employees, or Scholars, dedicate their training to analyzing, evaluating, and to promoting Studio knowledge, practice, and pedagogy. Finally, upon the fourth semester of working in the Noel Studio, student employees are considered Experts; while there is very little formal training for the expert track, students are expected to take ownership of their own learning by creating new materials for the Noel Studio.
Additionally, DECK incorporates and promotes metacognitive learning strategies. Each online module, regardless of the track, beings with a Consultant Learning Outcome. Modules also include various types of readings, including print, websites, images, etc. Finally, each module asks students to reflect on their professional development in an attempt to promote metacognition.
The goal of this scaffolding is twofold: better individualize training based on experience and better integrate Bloom’s Taxonomy Levels throughout the staff experience. Our staff has grown exponentially in the last two years; a partially online training plan promotes accessibility, multimodality, and self-efficacy. Using Bloom’s Taxonomy and metacognition as a framework allows for writing center administration and student employees alike to customize and take control of learning.
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Home Page
Track Page
Sample Module
Consultant Page
Consultant Page
The Noel Studio’s Professional Development Student Coordinators updated the consultant training system to incorporate multimodality, metacognition, and interactivity in a scale-based training environment. Eastern Kentucky University recently fashioned a new faculty development platform, DEEP (Developing Excellence in Eastern’s Professors), that focuses on innovations in teaching and learning. The Noel Studio Professional Development Student Coordinators utilized the early stages of DEEP’s framework to revamp their own training system, DECK (Developing Excellence in Consultant Knowledge). DEEP and DECK share a similar foundational theory that incorporates level or scale-based training. Like DEEP, DECK uses the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy (RBT) to scale learning-based content in a metacognitive way. However, the Student Coordinators adapted DEEP’s initial plan to better fit the needs of the student consultants by providing an innovative learning platform that allows consultants to take control of their own training. DECK launched in Fall 2016 as the platform for the Noel Studio multimodal training modules and materials.
In this research poster, the authors explain the Noel Studio’s training program progression over the last two semesters. Researchers discuss the Studio’s past approach to training, the current training model, and the future evolution of training modules in order to better meet the needs of student consultants.