{"id":359,"date":"2021-02-21T13:37:14","date_gmt":"2021-02-21T21:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0162\/?p=359"},"modified":"2021-02-21T14:39:56","modified_gmt":"2021-02-21T22:39:56","slug":"online-learning-change-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0162\/online-learning-change-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"Online Learning: Change Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" title=\"Online Change Leadership\" frameborder='0' width='640' height='620' src='https:\/\/view.genially.com\/603276844b21660d8a6dfea3#?secret=Afi6j8VDX2' data-secret='Afi6j8VDX2' scrolling='yes'><\/iframe><\/p>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-359-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0162\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/178\/2021\/02\/Online-Change-Leadership-Multitrack.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0162\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/178\/2021\/02\/Online-Change-Leadership-Multitrack.mp3\">https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0162\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/178\/2021\/02\/Online-Change-Leadership-Multitrack.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>Throughout the last couple of weeks, I&#8217;ve been reading about change leadership.\u00a0 In addition, I interviewed two of my co-workers, identified herein as Colleague 1 (C1) and Colleague 2 (C2), to discuss their experiences with change in a higher-learning institution.\u00a0 I used the knowledge gathered from my readings, conversations, and own experiences to develop this model on how to initiate and implement change in an online learning environment.<\/p>\n<h3>1. Understand<\/h3>\n<p>In an institution of higher-learning, the power to implement instructional changes is held primarily by the faculty.\u00a0 It was with that idea in mind that Fredericksen (2017) argued that &#8220;the online leader must demonstrate a more collaborative approach.&#8221;\u00a0 A leader would need to work with faculty to make any significant changes to instructional methods.\u00a0 This idea was reinforced when, in discussion regarding Fanshawe College&#8217;s successful transition to online learning amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, C1 stated that &#8220;the actual change has been because of the informal leaders in our team.&#8221;\u00a0 \u00a0In order to facilitate an effective collaboration, a leader should begin by developing a general understanding of the existing practices.\u00a0 In that way, Kouzes and Posner (2011) argued that while leaders aren&#8217;t expected to know as much as the people doing the work, they should at least take the time to learn about the practices and people involved before initiating changes.\u00a0 Personally, I&#8217;ve had experiences with supervisors who have tried to initiate change immediately following their hiring and this has always resulted in resentment and failure.<\/p>\n<h3>2. Identify<\/h3>\n<p>Once a leader has a strong understanding of the current practices, it&#8217;s time to look forward.\u00a0 Where in the existing practice are there opportunities for innovation?\u00a0 Kouzes and Posner (2011)\u00a0 observed that &#8220;leaders must know where they are going.\u00a0 They must have a destination in mind&#8221; (p. 6).\u00a0 This idea was articulated well by C2 when they described the setting of a goal.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px\">There&#8217;s got to be a conversation with&#8230; the end user, where you&#8217;re like, &#8220;Okay, how do you want this to look at the end of it&#8221;, to give you an idea of design&#8230; You have to have an end point in order to, you know, work backwards, so that you&#8217;ve got a roadmap.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s reckless to initiate a change without a defined end goal in mind.\u00a0 How will you communicate your vision to your team if you can&#8217;t define it yourself?\u00a0 You&#8217;ll also be much more likely to be successful if you&#8217;ve identified a clear objective to work towards.<\/p>\n<h3>3. Inspire<\/h3>\n<p>Following the identification of the objective, a leader should look to build a sense of value for that change in the minds of their constituents.\u00a0 If constituents place value on the objective, they&#8217;ll be more inclined to put in the work necessary to bring it about.\u00a0 Weiner (2009) identified a variety of reasons why constituents might value a change, including perceived benefits to the institution, their students, or themselves, alignment with their values, or a solution to an existing organizational problem.\u00a0 For online learning in particular, this is an important step.\u00a0 Glenn Jones and Davenport (2018) recognized that &#8220;many faculty have been wary of online education, in general, and reluctant to move their courses online, specifically&#8221; (p. 68).\u00a0 They went on to observe that &#8220;it is important to note that the perceptions of faculty who have never taught online courses are in complete opposition to those faculty with the most experience with online courses&#8221; (p. 69).\u00a0 This suggests that a possible cure to resistance of the adoption of online learning is exposure.\u00a0 C2 recounted an experience with motivating a resistant faculty member to experiment with new technology.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px\">I actually told one of my instructors, &#8220;You need to try.\u00a0 You would not accept that answer from one of your students.\u00a0 Oh, I can&#8217;t do this.\u00a0 This is too hard.\u00a0 You wouldn&#8217;t accept that&#8230;\u00a0 You have to actually sit down, play with this, and see if you can make it work.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Following the initial buy-in from faculty, it&#8217;s essential that the leader continuously remind their team of the objectives and necessity for the change.\u00a0 C1 remarked that &#8220;the leader becomes the cheerleader, and from an ongoing perspective, reminds the team why the change is necessary.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>4. Act<\/h3>\n<p>When it comes time to implement the change, leaders should involve as many stakeholders as is reasonably possible.\u00a0 Julien et al. (2010) asserted &#8220;that people will be committed to a leader&#8217;s vision when that leader has consulted and collaborated with them&#8221; (p. 125).\u00a0 C1 reinforced this understanding by stating that &#8220;imposed change is what people hate.\u00a0 If they&#8217;re involved in change&#8230; they&#8217;re going to be much more susceptible to it being a success.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The likelihood of success is further increased when leaders plan for small, incremental wins throughout the implementation.\u00a0 Small, frequent wins allow leaders the opportunity to recognize progress, reward engagement, and prove project validity to skeptics (Hamel, 2002; Kotter, 1995).\u00a0 \u00a0Some change initiatives can last months, or even years.\u00a0 It&#8217;s been my experience with longterm change initiatives, that a lack of persistence and stamina in these situations can be\u00a0 detrimental to successful implementation.<\/p>\n<h3>5. Integrate<\/h3>\n<p>Finally, upon successfully implementing change, a leader should widely communicate the success to the rest of the institution.\u00a0 Hamel (2002) argued that in order for a change to be truly successful, it should be adopted throughout the entire organization.\u00a0 Communicating success for widespread improvement of institutional practices is critical in online learning.\u00a0 As previously mentioned, most skeptics of online learning lack experience with the format.\u00a0 The greater the number of success stories, the greater the\u00a0 likelihood of its acceptance.<\/p>\n<h3>References<\/h3>\n<p>Fredericksen, E. E. (2017). A national study of online learning leaders in US higher education. <em>Online Learning<\/em>, <em>21<\/em>(2). <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.24059\/olj.v21i2.1164\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.24059\/olj.v21i2.1164<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Glenn Jones, P. W., &amp; Davenport, E. K. (2018). Resistance to change: HBCUs and online learning. <em>Thought &amp;Action<\/em>, <em>34<\/em>(1), 59\u201380. <a href=\"http:\/\/search.ebscohost.com\/login.aspx?direct=true&amp;AuthType=ip,uid&amp;db=eric&amp;AN=EJ1191460&amp;site=ehost-live&amp;scope=site\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">http:\/\/search.ebscohost.com\/login.aspx?direct=true&amp;AuthType=ip,uid&amp;db=eric&amp;AN=EJ1191460&amp;site=ehost-live&amp;scope=site<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Hamel, G. (2002). <em>Leading the revolution: How to thrive in turbulent times by making innovation a way of life<\/em> (Revised). Harvard Business Review Press.<\/p>\n<p>Julien, M., Wright, B., &amp; Zinni, D. M. (2010). Stories from the circle: Leadership lessons learned from aboriginal leaders. <em>Leadership Quarterly<\/em>, <em>21<\/em>(1), 114\u2013126. <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.leaqua.2009.10.009\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.leaqua.2009.10.009<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Kotter, J. P. (1995). Leading change: Why transformational efforts fail. <em>Harvard Business Review1<\/em>, <em>March<\/em>&#8211;<em>Ap<\/em>, 1\u20139. <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.leaqua.2009.10.009\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/marketplace.animalsheltering.org\/sites\/default\/files\/webform\/animal-care-expo-2019-handouts\/Managing and Overcoming Resistance to Change_McFarland_Betsy_File 3.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Kouzes, J. M., &amp; Posner, B. Z. (2011). Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose It, Why People Demand It,. In <em>Quality Management Journal<\/em> (Vol. 19, Issue 3). <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.leaqua.2009.10.009\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/10686967.2012.11918075<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Weiner, B. J. (2009). A theory of organizational readiness for change. <em>Implementation Science<\/em>, <em>4<\/em>(67), 1\u20139. <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.leaqua.2009.10.009\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1186\/1748-5908-4-67<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Throughout the last couple of weeks, I&#8217;ve been reading about change leadership.\u00a0 In addition, I interviewed two of my co-workers, identified herein as Colleague 1 (C1) and Colleague 2 (C2), to discuss their experiences with change in a higher-learning institution.\u00a0 I used the knowledge gathered from my readings, conversations, and own experiences to develop this &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0162\/online-learning-change-leadership\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Online Learning: Change Leadership<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":184,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lrnt525"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0162\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0162\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0162\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0162\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/184"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0162\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0162\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":377,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0162\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359\/revisions\/377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0162\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0162\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0162\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}