Cross-Training Seminar for University Staff

Nick Fleming

Concordia University Chicago

IDT-6990
Richter
06/18/2021
This interactive seminar will include five hour-long sessions, each pertaining to tasks performed
by one of the administrative offices in the university: Admissions, Financial Aid, Registrar’s Office,
Student Accounts, and Student Life. All participants will be enrolled in the Cross-Training course in
the Learning Management System (LMS) where they will find course materials and activities. The
goal here is that a staff member from any office should be able to act as a “one stop shop” helping
them through processes of other offices in addition to their own.

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The five participating offices will hold sessions on their day from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM. During the
first half hour of each session, members of the designated office will give their presentation as well
as walk around the room assisting those working on the activities at their computers. They will
aslo check in with participants joining the session online via Zoom. The second half of the session
will be open to questions and feedback. This page can be reached here.

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In accordance with Merrill’s First Principles of Instruction (2002) presenters will first demonstrate a
task, activating the learners’ prior knowledge of the Student Information System (SIS) and the LMS.
In this case the Financial Aid Office will walk through the process of helping a new student fill out
the FAFSA among other tasks before having the learners try out the task themselves. Because of
time constraints they would not play this full video during the presentation but would add it to their
module in the Cross-Training Course for future reference.

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https://youtu.be/Y8nfk5ApcQ4
Next learners will have a chance to apply their new knowledge, trying out the tasks assigned
during the session within the respective learning module in the LMS. Clicking on Financial Aid will
take them to a page containing instructions, FAQs, and the activities they will perform in class.

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Clicking the Admissions module link in the Course Menu will take users to the page created by course
designers the Admissions team. A PDF containing instructions and FAQs concerning the Admissions tasks will
appear at the top of the page. Each activity will include a PDF with detailed instructions on how to perform
the task. Participants will work through these in session under the guidance of the Admissions team.

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In many of the activities participants will log in to the test SIS so they can create and manipulate a student
record without affecting the live database. In this case the Admissions team will guide them through logging in
and navigating to the correct screens in order to add a new applicant to the system.

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After completing the process laid out in the directions, participants will take a screenshot on the appropriate
page of the SIS and submit the file into the corresponding activity page in the LMS.

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The designated instructor from Admissions will then be able to check each participant’s work, mark it
complete, and provide feedback when necessary.

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The Registrar’s Office course module will similarly house a downloadable PDF containing FAQs and
important info as well as a few activities for participants to perform. We are working to build a community of
practice among the five offices where experts on each subject share their tips and best practices. Those new to
tasks can then share their fresh insights to perhaps improve processes all around (Marks, 2002).

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Under Course Tools participants will find links to other helpful pages within the LMS. Announcements will
take them to the landing page again. My Grades will show their graded progress and feedback. Zoom is the
link to the Zoom room used for all sessions. Resources is a page wherein the documents from all course
modules are compiled. Learners can reference this course anytime going forward if they need assistance
integrating these new tasks into their work.

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Similarly participants will find the activities from every office module compiled under Activities. The reality is
that not every individual staff member will actually perform all of these tasks on a regular basis. They have
this course as a place to reference anything they have forgotten when it comes up six months later for example.
They can run through the instructions for the activity they require while working live with a student. This
lessens the cognitive load thrust upon them to memorize all of these processes.

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 References

Bloom, B. S. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives. Vol. 1: Cognitive domain. New York: McKay, 20, 24.

de Jong, J. (2010). Cognitive load theory, educational research, and instructional design: some food for thought. Instructional

Science, 38, 105-134.

Fafsamadeeasy. (2019, December 4) Completing the FAFSA 2020-2021 [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/Y8nfk5ApcQ4

Ke, F. (2010). Examining online teaching, cognitive, and social presence for adult students. Computers & Education, 55(2), 808-820.

Marks, M. A., Sabella, M. J., Burke, C. S., & Zaccaro, S. J. (2002). The impact of cross-training on team effectiveness.  Journal of

Applied Psychology, 87(1), 3.

Merrill, M. D. (2002). First principles of instruction. Educational technology research and development, 50(3), 43-59.

Wenger, E. C., & Snyder, W. M. (2000). Communities of practice: The organizational frontier. Harvard business review, 78(1), 139-146.
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