EDLD 5301 ~ Week Three

Action Research Plan
Goal: Improve campus customer service while improving employee and student retention.
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Form a customer service initiative committee	Site Supervisor, Myself	Oct. 2012 – Nov 2012	Committee Members	Employees committed to improving customer service on campus
State what the campus’ customer service mission will be.	Site Supervisor, Customer Service Initiative Committee	Oct. 2012 – Nov 2012	Committee Brainstorming	Compare CSIC’s mission with our campus mission
Compare other campuses relating to customer service.	Customer Service Initiative Committee	Oct. 2012 – Dec 2012	Internet research and Interviews with other campus members	Data gathered explaining customer service initiatives from other campuses
Survey students, staff, and faculty to determine their interpretation of good customer service.	Customer Service Initiative Committee	Dec 2012 – Jan 2013	Survey created using Google documents.	Spreadsheet with answers received.
Examine student and employee attitudes before initiative is implemented.	Customer Service Initiative Committee	Dec 2012 – Jan 2013	Surveys and interviews of students and employees	Spreadsheet with answers received.
Examine employee job performance before initiative is implemented.	Customer Service Initiative Committee	Dec 2012 – Jan 2013	Surveys and interviews of students, employees, and supervisors	Spreadsheet with answers received.
Create a timeline of projects based on student and employee needs.	Customer Service Initiative Committee	Jan 2013 – Feb 2013	Spreadsheets and calendars	Committee recommendations
Create office procedures and customer service manuals for training workshops.	Customer Service Initiative Committee and various department personnel	Feb 2013 – April 2013	Internet resources for ideas for customer service training and a department liaison to develop training guidelines for their department	Training manuals and guides
Conduct workshops and seminar training for employees in the areas of job duties and customer service.	Customer Service Initiative Committee and employees	May 2013 – Oct 2013	Training manuals and other resources not yet defined	Attendance of employees to workshops and seminars
Evaluate employee job performance after attending workshops.	Customer Service Initiative Committee	Nov 2013 – Dec 2013	Surveys and interviews of students, employees, and supervisors	Spreadsheet with answers received
Develop and design online tools for current employees as a refresher training and for new hires as a reference.	Customer Service Initiative Committee	Jan 2013 – Mar 2013	Dedicated website page for each department or a dedicated webpage on our campus website for employee resources	Created webpage or website and traffic to the page
Survey students, staff, and faculty to measure their attitudes of good customer service after implementing the customer service initiative.	Customer Service Initiative Committee	Mar 2013 – Apr 2013	Survey created using Google documents.	Spreadsheet with answers received.
Continue designing and updating training materials.	Customer Service Initiative Committee	Apr 2013 –	Training manuals and other resources not yet defined	Improvement in student and employee retention

Format based on Tool 7.1 from Examining What We Do to Improve Our Schools

(Harris, Edmonson, and Combs, 2010)

EDLD 5301 ~ Week Two

(Previously published October 23, 2012 -- Accidentally deleted and retrieved)

This week I learned that action research is passion driven to solve issues on campus.  There are nine common topics that can be addressed on campus.  These common topics are staff and curriculum development, individual teachers and students, school culture, leadership and management, school performance, and social justice.  I learned this week that you have to identify a topic for an action research plan, collect data, and develop a plan for improvement in the area of the topic.  

After watching the videos assigned, I learned that better results for an action plan involves looking at an issue that is practical.  You should be interested in the topic and the outcomes.  You should research your topic to see if others have studied and implemented improvement successfully.  I especially enjoyed the quote from Dr. Chargois, “if you’re green, you’re growing, if you’re brown, you’re dying.”  Never stop learning.

I met with my site supervisor to discuss a topic for action research.  We talked about food service on campus needing improving.  This year will be the end of a ten year contract with the current campus food service provider.  My site supervisor would like me to survey students on campus for fast food choices they prefer offered.  He wants to know if students prefer brand fast food or maybe more quality cafeteria food.  My site supervisor wants to place me on the RFP committee that will be making the decisions on the upcoming food service contracts.

Another possible topic of interest is staff professional development.  Many of our new hires are not properly trained when hired.  A goal would be to design department training manuals for new hires and refreshers for current staff.  Design and develop training workshops and eventually design training materials and videos to offer online. 

The topic I am most interested in is developing a customer service initiative.  This topic can be overlapped with the staff professional development topic.  Many employees on campus are not trained properly, not only involving job duties but good customer service training.  Many employees are not skilled in dealing with anger management, telephone skills, body language, student diversity, or conflict resolution.  My site supervisor would like me to lead a committee that is charged with designing workshops and manuals to train and teach good customer service on our campus.  This is the topic we are leaning more toward as my action research project.  My site supervisor feels this is an important topic and a needed change on campus.  He feels training employees to better handle situations that arise, will in turn, produce better customer service for faculty, staff and most importantly, students.

EDLD 5301 ~ Week 1 Assignment

Action Research

According to the Dana text, administrative inquiry or action research is the process of a school leader engaging in systematic and intentional study of one’s own practice and taking action for change based on what is learned from the inquiry.  Leadership poses questions, collects and analyzes data, develops a new understanding for change, and shares their findings with others.  (Dana, 2009, p. 2) 

Traditional standard research requires someone to give instructions and steps to implement change based on others research.  That person is usually not the participant in the change.  Action research involves the practitioner in the process from start to implementation and beyond.  The practitioner states an issue, uses data collected, engages in reflection of their own actions, examines directions to take, implements action, and continues with improvement.  Action research empowers leaders to implement change based on their own wanderings and helps them invest in change and enables them to convince buy in of others.  

Action research provides the practitioner a unique perspective and insight to change.  They see firsthand what is needed, what is working, what needs improving, and positive or negative results.  This approach enables a leader to focus on important issues they feel need attention.  

Dana, N.F. (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge: The principal as action researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

My Wandering

On our campus, we are suffering from a huge problem with staff morale.  Employees are not trained properly when hired, they are not informed of procedures and policies of the university, and there is no incentive in place to reward excellence in job performance.  All of these factors contribute to staff retention, which in turn, contributes to student satisfaction and retention due to customer service.  My goal is to restructure departmental hiring practices, design and develop informational manuals about university procedures and policies for each department, and implement a reward system for staff.  I think once staff is trained and focused, they will have more confidence in dealing with students and issues.  This will give students quality service increasing retention due to customer service.

  How can educational leaders use blogs?

Blogging is a good way for leaders to journal, share, brainstorm, collaborate, and discover ideas and wanderings.  Online blogs and journals enable an opportunity for open communication for leaders and educators.  There is opportunity to share ideas, opinions, successes and failures.  As a leader, blogs can be used to document a timeline of thoughts and reflections and organize wanderings and insights.  Blogs allow communication among followers to brainstorm and collaborate new ideas for possible implementation.  Blogging can strengthen lines of communication for all participants.