The current admissions and transfer credit assessment team consists of one manager, one senior assessor, four assessors, and two assistants. Every team member, regardless of their position, has both unique and overlapping portfolios within the admissions and assessment division. At the end of each admissions cycle, the team gathers in an annual debrief meeting to review the overall experience that year including successes and challenges within their portfolio and workflow.

Since each team member is the subject matter expert of their portfolio, they will co-facilitate the discussion of their portfolio along with the manager. Team members are invited to collaborate on suggesting and implementing solutions to address identified challenges. Through the debrief meeting, team members identify successful solutions from specific portfolios that can be modeled in others.

The annual team debrief is successful and productive because each team member participates in the Community of Inquiry. To build social presence, there are opportunities for team members to interact, collaborate, and share experiences. The debrief follows a planned agenda which helps outline the goals and expectations of the meeting. Each team member is responsible for facilitating the discussion on their portfolio as scheduled in the agenda. This helps increase teaching presence as the discussion is guided by the subject matter expert. As team members collaborate and share their ideas in the discussion, the facilitating team member can help promote cognitive presence by connecting ideas and feedback, and seeking team agreement on next steps and potential solutions.

The infographic below identifies facilitation strategies adapted from Vaughan et al. (2013) for increasing social, teaching, and cognitive presences. Bull (2013) described varying roles that make up the facilitator profile. Relevant facilitator roles driving the facilitator strategies are identified for each of the three types of presences. Additionally, overlaps and connections exist between strategies and presences. These are identified with green arrows to demonstrate how one strategy can preface or transform into another to build social, teaching, and/or cognitive presence.

By developing a Community of Inquiry through the team debrief process, the team members, each with their individual and overlapping portfolios, will be able to align, collaborate, and develop new processes and solutions for the upcoming admissions cycle.

References

Bull, B. (2013). Eight roles of an effective online teacher. Faculty Focus. https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/eight-roles-of-an-effective-online-teacher/

Vaughan, N. D., Cleveland-Innes, M., & Garrison, D. R. (2013). Teaching in blended learning environments: Creating and sustaining communities of inquiry. Athabasca University Press. https://read.aupress.ca/read/teaching-in-blended-learning-environments/section/43261c4a-6d4c-44cf-8c7f-60bc306eb03a