Eventually I moved into a marketing position in the college system, and then, when a full-time teaching position in Advertising and Marketing Communications came up at a nearby college, I took the plunge and became a full-time college professor.įull-time teachers in the college system work up to 44 scheduled hours per week during the academic year, a total that includes teaching-contact time (hours in the classroom), preparation and marking time, and general administration time. More than 20 years ago, I responded to a call by a college for continuing education courses and teachers, and for several years shared my love of interior design with students taking general interest night courses.
For example, in a five-day PD window, plan for a maximum of eight to 10 hours of video viewing time, with the balance of the 40 PD hours protected for note-taking and hands-on software practice.Īsynchronous, autoethnography, bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, chunking, Cornell notes, intrapersonal intelligence, professional development Backgroundīefore becoming a teacher, I studied illustration and advertising, then worked as a graphic designer and art director, and ultimately added journalism and short story and novel writing to the mix. Lessons learned? Request four to five times the total video-viewing hours as total PD time, or conversely, select videos to fill only 20% to 25% of the total PD time. This PD practice made me a better, more realistic teacher to my present and future students. Ultimately, I found LinkedIn Learning to be an efficient way to revisit and confirm industry-specific approaches, strategies, and current trends sufficiently to bring that learning to classroom teaching in industry-specific courses. Was my ambitious target setting evidence of professorial arrogance, the assumption that I could learn more efficiently than my students? I was surprised by the strategies that helped keep me on task, and encouraged to see that my retention rates have been high. I completed only 21% of my original goal. My poor completion rates were predictable given my failure to plan for scaffolding my own learning.
Despite working full days, I completed 58% or less of each of four selected LinkedIn Learning courses over four days, abandoning three courses altogether and adding one course impulsively on Day Two.
The experience was both humbling and productive. In May 2018, I planned, requested, and completed four days of professional development (PD) training using seven LinkedIn Learning technology-focused video courses, totaling over 31 hours of video viewing. Teaching adults full-time while simultaneously keeping hands-on skills current in complex, fast-moving fields is a real challenge faced by many college professors.
4 LinkedIn Learning as Professional Development