EDLD 5363 Week One

WOW!  Who knew there was soo much to writing, directing, and producing a "movie"?!  I have a better appreciation for all aspects of movies, videos, and music.

This week's assignment was a bit challenging.  I have not used Windows Movie Maker or Audacity.  I had to do a lot of research before I started this project.  Both programs were very fascinating once I understood how to use them. 

Windows Movie Maker has great special effects to use with picture transitions.  I went through all of them several times before choosing the right transition effects.  Adding audio was a bit challenging at first.  I didn't realize I could record my story, save as an MP3 file, and add as a "music" file to the movie.  My daughter, the genius she is, figured it out.  The first recording I did was with the sound recorder on my laptop.  I didn't like the echo sounds it produced.  I decided to use Audacity for the audio portion of the video. 

I was so proud. I had photos transitioning and voice over telling my story.  Then.... I decided to add some music to the background. I was having problems since that program will only allow one audio file.  You can add multiple MP3 files, just not on top of each other.  So, to Google I went searching and I found it!  Here are the steps: you save your video with either the music or voice over as a movie.  Open Windows Movie Maker to create a new movie.  You will add the movie file you just created and then add your music.  It works the same as adding pictures and music or pictures and voice over.  It’s awesome.  Here is the link I found explaining it better:  http://youtu.be/X0XhF60KoR0

With my new found knowledge, I add music to my video of pictures and voice over.  Ut oh! Both the music and my voice are the same volume.  Google here I come again …. searching how to adjust volume for both in Windows Movie Maker.  Phew!  Well, I tired out from searching and trying.  While I was searching, I came across instructions working with Audacity.  Hmmmmm ….. I haven’t worked with this program before.  More research needed.

Audacity is a pretty cool program.  After lots of research, I was able to learn how to combine voice over and music.  I learned how to add several music tracks, trim the music, and fade the music in and out.  I was able to adjust the music volume very low while my voice was loud enough to hear.  I ended up with a small glitch at the beginning, but I am happy overall with my first attempt to write, direct, and produce a “movie”.  The last challenge I faced was clicking that darn “public” button when uploading to youtube.com.  I hovered for a few seconds over private, then public, back to private, then finally submitting public.  Throwing ourselves out there is very scary.  Don’t you just love that huge orange banner exclaiming this video is public! UGH! I’m proud of myself for submitting publicly.

Please take a moment to watch my video.  http://youtu.be/bBFkl3to8aU
Please feel free to critique.  I welcome all comments and suggestions.  Thank you. :)

5301 Week 4 ~ Meeting with Site Supervisor

After meeting with my site supervisor, I left with a tremendous feeling of satisfaction of a job well done.  My site supervisor is very motivating and really enjoys mentoring me.  His first suggestion to my action research plan was to think more in terms of employee and student satisfaction of customer service and not so much on retention.  He said to include retention but not focus on it.  In communicating about certain offices and departments around campus that are not providing good customer service, he suggested referring to that groups as “key” offices instead of “problem” offices. 

Our main focus of this meeting was gathering resources for literary review.  I was having moments of setbacks while researching the topic of customer service in relationship to higher education.  My site supervisor suggested I utilize Google Scholar instead of regular Google.  He showed me a few examples of searches to conduct.  He suggested looking at the results of the search and select articles that have high cited numbers.  Those articles will be key components to my research.  My site supervisor said most topics have four or five main points and most research will circle back to those points. My job as a researcher is to decipher what the main points are.  I am to include the business side of customer service as well as it's relation to higher education setting.  My aim is to connect the two worlds in order to fulfill my research action plan. 

Another suggestion my site supervisor made was to utilize our on campus Assessment office.  The employees in that department are the experts in assessment and evaluation.  They will be able to help design various assessment tools and ways to collect and review data.  I will definitely set up a meeting next week with the Director to get his suggestions and direction for assessment tools.

The utilization of the campus library was another suggestion my site supervisor made.  We have a resident researcher librarian that will be able to pinpoint journals and articles to help with my research and literary reviews.  I will contact her next week to schedule a meeting to discuss my topic and needs.

Notes on Action Research Project

Goal: Improve customer service on campus and, in turn, improve employee retention and student satisfaction.

   

1. SETTING THE FOUNDATION – My site supervisor and the VP of Academic Affairs proposed a customer service initiative and placed me as lead of the project.   The goal is to improve customer service on our campus. This will involve organizing a committee and implementing change in daily operations for some departments on campus.  There is a great push to evolve higher education institutions toward offering more customer service techniques since students are no longer considered products of higher education but rather “customers” in higher education.

2. ANALYZING DATA – We will be collecting and analyzing data concerning employee turnovers over a span of time, yet to be determined, number of professional development trainings employees attend, employee attitudes (love of job, absences, confidence with duties, etc.), student satisfaction with customer service provided, employee satisfaction with colleague’s customer service, and employee and student retention rates.

3. DEVELOPING DEEPER UNDERSTANDING – We will be collecting and analyzing data concerning employee turnovers over a span of time, yet to be determined, number of professional development trainings employees attend, employee attitudes (love of job, absences, confidence with duties, etc.), student satisfaction with customer service provided, employee satisfaction with colleague’s customer service, and employee and student retention rates. To grasp a deeper understanding, the committee will collect all the data, and begin reflecting on the results.  We will be looking at ‘x’ number of time span and comparing employee turnover in key offices and departments.  The committee will research what professional development options are offered at this time on campus and do employees utilize the opportunities given to them.  We will survey and collect data regarding employee attitudes including their love of their job, how many absences they incur each month, how confident they feel they are within their positions, what is their satisfaction of customer service among their colleagues, and other criteria to be determined.  A survey will provided to students asking for their satisfaction of customer service provided on campus.  We will study employee and student retention rates for a period of time.  Once we implement the action plan, we will run the same data collections and compare the before and after data.

4. ENGAGE IN SELF-REFLECTION – Who am I? I am a strong, motivated leader.  What biases do I have toward my action plan? I work beside some of the employees we are targeting and have a biased opinion of them.  What am I doing to understand my bias?  I will work toward treating all employees involved in the customer service initiative program the same.  I will put my past dealings aside and focus on training and empowering each employee to excel in providing great customer service. I will need to dig deeper in my beliefs and focus on what my personal mission is while focusing on our committee mission.  I will conduct extensive research regarding customer service in a higher education setting.  With that knowledge, I will continue, along with the committee members, to review, adapt, and revise the action plan. 

5. EXPLORING PROGRAMMATIC PATTERNS – One problem we foresee is employees not changing their attitudes or ways of customer service. Some will continue to perform as usual.  How will we deal with those employees?  Another issue will be the buy in of supervisors to support the needed changes our committee will implement.  Who will address this issue if it arises?  Will we receive enough data when conducting surveys?  Surveys will be our main source of data collection tools.  We will be dependent on the data received.  How can we ensure enough surveys and data will be collected?  If we offered an incentive, would that create a biased response?  Another issue is time.  All committee members, as well as employees, have full-time job responsibilities.  Who will implement mandatory training attendance? What will happen if attendance becomes an issue?  As a committee, we will explore other patterns as we collect data.

6. DETERMINING DIRECTION –The goal of this action research plan is to raise the level of customer service we provide on campus for students and employees.  There is a hope that providing great customer service will impact positively to employee retention and student satisfaction on our campus and in turn, impact positively on student retention as well.  I will need to reflect and determine if I have the needed skills and resources to fulfill this action plan.  I will need to work with the committee and form a communication component to ensure sharing of all data and implementation with the campus.  The committee will need to reflect and evaluate all feedback to determine if changes need to be made based on feedback received.  Is the timeline set up realistically? If there is a bump in the road along the way, will we still be able to stay on track?  Would a deviation from the timeline hamper our goal?   We will discuss and brainstorm this area as a committee.  As a committee, we will need to setup a monitoring system to collect, receive, and analyze data.  What will determine our success, happier employees and happier students?  Will we determine a lesser turnover in key departments will measure our success?  Modifications to the original action plan will be evaluated as we move forward.  The committee will look at each suggestion or recommendation, determining its worth, and implementing if needed.  Much will be determined as the committee meets and collaborates.

7. TAKING ACTION FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT –I have developed a plan of action that will be utilized during the research and implementation of this research action project. As a committee, we will update and make revisions to the action plan as needed.  We will develop committee reports and data analysis reports to present to my site supervisor and the campus community of our findings and recommendations for improvement initiatives regarding customer service provided to students and colleagues.  The committee will determine one focus group to work with at the beginning of implementation.  We will later move forward and include other focus groups and eventually make this action mandatory for all new hires campus wide.

8. SUSTAIN IMPROVEMENT –Once implementation of the customer service initiative is underway, the committee will monitor and evaluate progress.  The committee will discuss concerns and recommendations and make future recommendations for continuing the customer service initiative.  We will make every effort to keep the campus well informed of all steps, evaluations, and progress.  I will continue to collaborate with my site supervisor and committee. I will create blogs and journal entries documenting the whole process and progression.