[Photo by Paul Gilmore on Unsplash]
The journey through this course and the program so far has been truly transforming for me. Amid the tremendous changes to my work schedule, new homeschooling routine, and adjusting to the new situation of social distancing, this course has equipped me with some very timely tools for managing my own projects, preparing for the change in my institution, and cultivating the leadership skills I want to foster in my personal and professional growth.
As I look back on my journey through this course and my initial dive into the leadership literature, I valued competency, dependability, and an ability to inspire others in leaders, as well as trust and collegial approach to leadership (Samokishyn, 2020). My position has not changed much, but it has definitely acquired new depth and a profound understanding of what it means to lead change in digital learning environments. I have realized through the group assignments and projects on this course that practicing collegiality and trust can be challenging since it requires all members of the team to share the same vision and being dependable in the quality as well as the integrity of their work. Therefore, I have learned about the underlying complexities of these issues, something that I might not have fully appreciated before.
Furthermore, one of the concepts that had a strong impact on me was the idea of “authentic leadership”. While often designated leaders do show the qualities that make them also authentic leaders, I find that competency and dependability often inspire the team members and thus bring out the “authentic” leadership qualities. Adaptive leadership is another concept that has influenced me strongly, as we are moving towards online learning environments (Khan, 2017). Adaptive leadership echoes closely Agile approach to project management and, in my opinion, can greatly benefit me in leading change in my organization.
As a librarian, I am able to offer most of my services online, however, the rapid change that forced this to happen prematurely (for an organization, not for a learner) before it was fully ready, requires me now to rethink the process and establish a clear infrastructure and support that would enable students to easily discover my services as well as help me to reach out to them when possible. The challenges and the limitations of the established practices once again demonstrated a need for proper planning and organizational readiness before implementing such changes, which, unfortunately, was not really possible in the current circumstances.
In the future, I hope to be able to have more leadership opportunities, especially with the implementation of the online Information Literacy training in my organization. This course has helped me to navigate change with confidence and to have more control over the projects I am working on by understanding different aspects of project management and my leadership role in it. I have become a more confident, but also a more humble leader, who can embrace change and navigate it with ease while learning from others and their experience. I am grateful for this journey and for the valuable lessons so far and am looking forward to putting them into practice, as I continue to navigate the challenges and thrills of online learning with my students.
Khan, N. (2017). Adaptive or transactional leadership in current Higher Education: A brief comparison. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning 18(3), 178-183. doi: 10.19173/irrodl.v18i3.3294.
Samokishyn, M. (2020, February 19). Leadership in a digital learning environment: Collegiality and trust. Retrieved from https://malat-webspace.royalroads.ca/rru0115/leadership-in-a-digital-learning-environment-collegiality-trust/