The Magellan Podcast

The Magellan Podcast

By Magellan Learning SolutionsEducation
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The Magellan Podcast episodes

  • How to Talk About Higher Education

    If you listen to discussions about higher education, you’ll find a plethora of ways that people talk about it. Is it a workforce development machine? Is it a training ground for future leaders? Is it a place where people grow into fully-fledged human beings? The answer is “yes”—it’s all these. And the language we use to talk about higher education affects how we do it. Join us for a conversation about the many ways we talk about higher education.

    This is part 1 of a 5-part series on "How to Talk About Higher Education," an introduction to the topic and a discussion on Higher Education as an "ecosystem." In further episodes, we will discuss Higher Education as a culture, a machine, an institution, and a marketplace.

    • Read the White Paper on this topic by Dr. Emily W. Heady, "Talking about Leadership: How the Words We Use Shape Our Workplace."
    • Listen to our podcast on Online Learning Ecosystems.

      • Podcast Topics and Show Notes:

      1. Why do metaphors matter when we talk about higher ed? And what are some common ones that people use?

      2. Let’s talk about one of these—the ecosystem. What’s at stake in referring to higher education as an ecosystem rather than as something else?

      • Darwinian ideas—Survival of the fittest, etc.
      • Systems with checks and balances, resource sharing, etc.

        • 3. What can a leader within a higher ed ecosystem do?

        • Guide resource allocation for systemic flourishing – define boundaries, manage territory, etc.
        • Manage tension/conflict rather than stoking or joining it.

          • If you or your school is looking for help with RSI, curriculum or course development, operational services, training, or professional development, think Magellan; our team would love to help. Reach out to us at ⁠⁠⁠thinkmagellan.com⁠⁠⁠. Thank you for joining us on the Magellan Podcast: Navigating Education in the 21st Century.

          Recommended Books:

          • Bowles, K. (2022, March 28). A pocket primer: Types of higher education institutions. Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/just-explain-it-me/pocket-primer-types-higher-education-institutions  Petriglieri, G. (2023, April 24). Driving organizational change—Without abandoning tradition. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2023/04/driving-organizational-change-without-abandoning-tradition?utm_campaign=hbr&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter  
          • Rosowsky, D. & Hallman, K. (2020, May 25). Communicating culture in a distributed world. Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2020/05/26/importance-culture-binding-higher-ed-institution-together-during-crises-pandemic  
          • Rutter, M. & Mintz, S. (2019, January 17). Creating a more collaborative higher education ecosystem. Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/higher-ed-gamma/creating-more-collaborative-higher-education-ecosystem  
          • Schein, E., & Schein, P. (2016). Organization culture and leadership. 5th Ed. Wiley. 
          • Senge, P. (1990). The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization. Doubleday. 
            • 22 min
          • A Conversation About How a Great Vendor-Institutional Partnership Can Look

            Wytheville Community College has a thriving dual enrollment program that serves the needs of many students in southwest Virginia. When WCC lost its dual enrollment partner at the eleventh hour, Dean Susan Evans had to act fast. Through a partnership with Magellan, WCC was able to reinvigorate its dual enrollment program—and the partnership continues to this day. The Magellan partners are grateful to be able to welcome Dean Evans for a conversation about how a great vendor-institutional partnership can look.

            If you or your school is looking for help with RSI, curriculum or course development, operational services, training, or professional development, think Magellan; our team would love to help. Reach out to us at ⁠thinkmagellan.com⁠. Thank you for joining us on the Magellan Podcast: Navigating Education in the 21st Century.

            Podcast Topics and Show Notes:

            1. What’s the backstory? What was the emergency, and how did WCC connect with Magellan?

            2. What was the initial project?

            • Helping WCC design 21 courses in 6 months
            • Helping them define quality courses

              • 3. Why does dual enrollment matter so much?

              • It’s an important driver of college access, particularly in rural and underserved areas.
              • It shores up the bottom line for many institutions, especially community colleges.

                • 4. What’s next for WCC and Magellan?

                46 min
              • How Magellan Helps Our Clients Create Quality Curriculum

                In this episode, we are joined by Kathy Calvert, Director of Learning Design and Development at Magellan Learning Solutions. Through the dedicated work of the Learning Design team, we help our clients produce quality curriculum that facilitates learning in schools, business environments, and custom solutions. But what exactly is good curriculum and how do we help our clients create it? Join our conversation with Kathy and the Magellan partners, Wayne Patton, Aaron Traphagen, and Emily Heady, to learn a little more about how Magellan can help your students succeed.

                If you or your school is looking for help with RSI, your online ecosystem, curriculum, or course development, think Magellan; our team would love to help. Reach out to us at thinkmagellan.com. Thank you for joining us on the Magellan Podcast: Navigating Education in the 21st Century.

                Podcast Topics and Show Notes:

                1. What we do before we begin creating content. This includes planning the program/course, helping the SME’s vision flourish, setting goals and outcomes, and training in the LMS.

                • Explaining the backward design model can be difficult for SMEs to grasp. They are not used to always planning their course this way. Helping them understand it is important to know where (outcomes) we are going before we figure out how we will get there.
                • Invest in building a working relationship with the SME as early as possible. It is important to have mutual respect and trust for a smooth development. SMEs have different ways of writing or planning, and communicating. It is important to give and take on both sides to settle on what works for both.
                • How will we assess or confirm we got where we intended to go? The assessment or assessments will show student attainment of the outcomes.

                  • 2. The work we do during the building process. What makes a quality online course? Alignments, types of content, pacing and time on task, ADA, RSI, and more. These are all things our Magellan team helps to develop and knows to look for.

                  • It is important to keep directing the SME back to the outcomes we are trying to help the student attain and show attainment of.
                  • A good course will map every item added to the course, and it will either teach or assess a CLO.
                  • Building in the accessibility pieces is important. With a good solid template, building a course that meets the criteria is easy.
                  • Another important element is building a consistent course design across all courses. This is also where a template comes in.

                    • 3. What barriers can impede the successful development of an online program/course? How can an institution proactively plan to avoid getting “stuck” in the common pitfalls that we often see during development?

                    • A lack of clear, observable, and measurable Program, Course, and Module Learning Outcomes can make course development very difficult.
                    • It is important on a project to have the plan and expectations that Magellan, or other companies, brings to the table communicated and confirmed by the administration. Lack of administrative communication leads to many additional conversations in order to clearly communicate the objectives and standards to create quality courses.
                    • Being an ID is like dancing with a partner. An ID works to show respect to the SME for their knowledge, vision, and dreams for a course, while guiding the course-building process to use best practices and established standards. Sometimes the SME leads, and sometimes the ID leads.
                    • Regular communication is key. ID to SME and SME to ID. If an SME is stuck, they need to let their ID know, so an ID can help them clear a path where it may not be clear. In both cases, the 2 must learn how best to talk about their work and issues to create the best quality content.
                      • 1 hr
                    • Client Spotlight: Reverend Dr. Debra Lynn Haggins

                      For this special client spotlight episode on the Magellan Podcast, we wanted to introduce you to one of our clients, Reverend Dr. Debra Lynn Haggins. We've been privileged to support Rev. Dr. Haggins' project, the D'ART Collective, an exciting, innovative collection of 6 online courses, Pathways, designed to help Christians, pastors, and church leaders strengthen their ministries and impact their community and culture.

                      Reverend Dr. Debra Lynn Haggins is the founder of The D'ART Collective, university chaplain and pastor of the historic Memorial Church at Hampton University, and the executive director of the nationally acclaimed Hampton University Ministers’ Conference-Choir Directors’ & Organists’ Guild Workshop.

                      Learn more about:

                      • The D'ART Collective
                      • Lilly Endowment Inc.
                      • Hampton University
                      • Hampton University Ministers' Conference

                        • If you or your school is looking for help with RSI, your online ecosystem, curriculum, or course development, think Magellan, our team would love to help. Reach out to us at thinkmagellan.com. Thank you for joining us on the Magellan Podcast: Navigating Education in the 21st Century.

                        Topics discussed:

                        1. Who is Reverend Dr. Debra Lynn Haggins?
                        2. What is Lilly Endowment Inc., and how did Debra get interested in working with them?
                        3. What is The D’ART Collective? How did Debra conceptualize it, and how did she find Magellan?
                        4. What has the process of working together on this been like?
                        5. Where can people find information on The D’ART Collective? Who should check it out?
                        6. What is next? What are Debra’s new projects and new visions?
                          7. 30 min
                        7. How Instructional Designers Help with Cognitive Load Issues

                          We've spent a lot of time talking about the theory of cognitive load and some ways we might apply it in our classrooms. Instructional designers can be instrumental in helping instructors to think through the ways their courses create and distribute cognitive load.

                          Join the Magellan partners, and special guest, Dr. Chris Davis, Assistant Director of Learning Design and Development at Magellan, as they discuss how instructional designers can help with cognitive load issues.

                          This podcast is three of three discussions from Part 2 of Cognitive Load.

                          If you or your school is looking for help with RSI, your online ecosystem, curriculum, or course development, think Magellan, our team would love to help. Reach out to us at thinkmagellan.com. Thank you for joining us on the Magellan Podcast: Navigating Education in the 21st Century.

                          Topics discussed:

                          1. How Can Instructional Designers Help with Cognitive Load Issues?
                          2. Assuring a good mix of modalities
                          3. Chunking learning appropriately
                          4. Assisting with schema-related scaffolding
                            5. 34 min
                          5. Germane Load

                            If you're like most people, you've probably learned some piece of information and then, as soon as it didn't seem useful anymore, promptly forgot it. It takes a lot of effort to move knowledge from short-term memory to longer-term memory, where you can call on it over and over again. Today's conversation about germane load will give us tips for helping students do this more effectively.

                            This podcast is two of three discussions from Part 2 of Cognitive Load.

                            If you or your school is looking for help with RSI, your online ecosystem, curriculum, or course development, think Magellan, our team would love to help. Reach out to us at thinkmagellan.com. Thank you for joining us on the Magellan Podcast: Navigating Education in the 21st Century.

                            Topics discussed:

                            1. What is germane load, and how can we design for it?
                            2. What it means to design good assignments (not Google-able, not AI-produced).
                            3. Keeping what we teach relevant to students’ own lives and helping them jump quickly to application and to areas where they are already emotionally and personally interested.
                              4. 26 min
                            4. Schema Formation

                              Did you ever have a student who was able to memorize everything you said but couldn't quite understand how it all fit together? Have you ever found yourself fielding questions about what the point of an assignment is? If so, you might want to spend a little time pondering SCHEMAS with us—one of the key components of cognitive load that can help us move students from simply memorizing material to understanding and using it properly.

                              This podcast is one of three discussions from Part 2 of Cognitive Load.

                              If you or your school is looking for help with RSI, your online ecosystem, curriculum, or course development, think Magellan, our team would love to help. Reach out to us at thinkmagellan.com. Thank you for joining us on the Magellan Podcast: Navigating Education in the 21st Century.

                              Topics discussed:

                              1. What are schemas, and why do they matter?
                              2. Designing to show connections among outcomes and objectives, assignments, and larger goals clearly.
                              3. Scaffolding learning – going step-by-step.
                                4. 29 min
                              4. Cognitive Load

                                Cognitive load has been a major topic of conversation among psychologists and educators for the past few decades. Thanks to research in this area, we now have the capacity to design activities and curriculum in a way that helps students to use their mental space effectively for learning new material. But this concept goes beyond what’s happening in the learning space alone and touches all aspects of a student’s educational experience. Join the Magellan partners and guest, Dr. Pat Neely, Executive Vice President for Online & Distance Education from Bluefield University, as they discuss cognitive load.

                                If you enjoyed the podcast today or found it helpful, follow us on iTunes, Spotify, or where you listen to podcasts and listen to our earlier episodes on RSI and Online Learning ecosystems. Leave a review to let us know what you think. If you or your school is looking for help with your online ecosystems, RSI, consulting, or course development, our team would love to help. Reach out to us at thinkmagellan.com. Thank you for joining us on the Magellan Podcast: Navigating Education in the 21st Century.

                                Questions discussed:

                                1. What is cognitive load, and how can it help us to understand how students learn?
                                2. What are some practical ways we can apply cognitive load theory in the learning space?  [5 effects]
                                3. Besides the material in the course, what are some places where cognitive load shows up for students? [SES, beliefs/prejudices, motivations/desires, pre-existing learning habits, technology]
                                4. Besides designing courses well and trying to help students manage their own attention, what are some practical things that universities can do to reduce students’ cognitive load? [clean up terminology/nomenclature, address accessibility, communicate strategically across campus, address socioeconomic realities explicitly, facilitate interpersonal supports systems]
                                5. How can understanding cognitive load help us to be smarter about the effects of the pandemic and the political environment in which students are now learning?
                                  6. 1 hr 7 min
                                6. Online Learning Ecosystems

                                  What is an Online Learning Ecosystem? Online Learning, especially at the higher education level, requires more than just courses and instructors. It requires courses to be designed intentionally and the instructors to be trained specifically for the online environment. Additionally, the entire online student journey from inquiry to graduation requires an interconnected student-focused network made up of people, policies, and processes that undergird every aspect of the educational experience. All of these factors are necessary for a successful online program, whether large or small. Join the Magellan Learning Solution partners Wayne Patton, Aaron Traphagen, and Emily Heady as they discuss the key components of an online learning ecosystem.

                                  If you enjoyed the podcast today or found it helpful, follow us on iTunes, Spotify or where you listen to podcasts, and leave a review to let us know what you think. Come back in November where we will talk about cognitive load. If you or your school is looking for help with your online ecosystems, RSI, consulting, or course development, our team would love to help. Reach out to us at thinkmagellan.com/contact.

                                  1 hr 14 min
                                7. Regular and Substantive Interaction (RSI)

                                  Our first episode grapples with the Department of Education’s new standards for online learning, RSI, or Regular and Substantive Interaction. Many institutions are asking: what does RSI mean, and how might our online division seek to meet its stipulations?

                                  Join the Magellan Partners and guest Terri Milroy, Coordinator of Education Technologies at Southside Virginia Community College, for a conversation.

                                  An overview of the questions we will tackle:

                                  1. The Magellan Team has been working in the online space for a long time, and we've seen online learning go from the Wild West to, in some cases, a beautifully organized, well-run educational machine. But in some places, it’s still the Wild West. So—given that background—can we put RSI in context? Where did the need for it come from, and why do we suddenly see this federal regulation?
                                  2. What specifically does this RSI regulation require?
                                  3. Doing RSI related things in individual courses is a good practice—but of course, institutions are going to have to show system-wide compliance. This will tie to creating standards, training to those standards, and verifying those standards are being met. How do you bring about the sort of culture shift that you need to accomplish that?
                                  4. One of the big concerns that is often articulated about higher education has to do with its value—is a degree worth what people pay for it, will people really learn enough that the time and effort they spend is worthwhile, etc.? How does RSI play into this conversation?

                                    5. We hope the conversation is edifying and helpful. Please feel free to reach out to us at thinkmagellan.com/contact.

                                    59 min

                                  About The Magellan Podcast

                                  From the publisher's feed

                                  Navigating Education in the 21st Century.