Alright, I have the pleasure of introducing Paul Gregor, who is currently a PhD candidate and Educational Studies department at Ohio State. He is also the academic coach for a program called Spring Forward at OSU, where he meets one-on-one with students and teaches courses. So I will hand it right over to you, Paul. Thank you, Madison. Thank you, everybody. Thanks for having me. Really a pleasure to be here and an honor to be here as well. As you see by the presentation topic, I'll be discussing what I consider to be the benefits of academic coaching on the student instructor relationships. So I might want to qualify this a little bit. Just so there's no misconceptions with what I'm trying to do with this exact presentation. So I initially thought of it as a way to discuss basically the benefits of coaching and how professors could use it in the classroom, which would benefit a lot of people. And I do talk about that a little bit. But as I share both of these identities as a academic coach and instructor well, and a student as well. I started to think about it in different ways. So it came about maybe a little differently than you might be imagining. But it's still very relevant for what you were hoping for. I expect again, I'm Paul Gregor from the Ohio State University. You see the trademark on them. That's the kind of people we are apparently. Anyways, here's the agenda. So when I say filling the gap, more of the instructor, instructor, student gap in the relationship, right? So I often research students who are first-generation students who tell me occasionally or often that they, they, they don't feel comfortable speaking with the instructor. They don't feel the instructor cares about them. They are only there for one thing and it's to teach the material and that's pretty much it. So that's kind of where I got this idea for this presentation, was using some of the skills that academic coaches gain, but applying it to a classroom setting. I don't have a specific plan how to do that or anything, but there will be plenty of thoughts to go around and questions to ask and answer. Okay? So my work, first, we're gonna go over my work as an academic coach and instructor. I do both. Right now. I instruct classes for my job. So we teach self-regulation courses, things like that. So I'll go into that a little bit more as we get going. Then I'll discuss the issues in higher education. Specifically, the thought that teaching isn't necessary to the career as an instructor or professor. Or being adequate at teaching is beneficial in many ways but isn't necessary, I guess, to the professoriate slash instructor will discuss that a little bit and then we'll have a discussion, a general discussion on how coaching might improve that relationship and the specific benefits for students, professors, the classroom in general. And, um, yeah, going forward in higher education. So that's what I mean by filling the gap. Although it is often used for educational gaps as well. Excellent. Okay, so a brief discussion of my background. I give this background really just for context to see where I'm approaching this from. And also to give you a good idea of why I work with the students that I do. So I'll go through some of these real quick very briefly. So I had early struggles in college and challenges. I was, you know, a lot of that was can, you can attribute in some way too, being a first-generation college student. I also have a physical disability, was raised in a low-income household and I generally had limited direction or guidance and I think that being first-generation, I didn't ask my mom for help. In some ways. She wouldn't have been able to help me in a lot of ways anyways. So I was kind of on my own and I think that's where a lot of my struggles came from. I also didn't have very many beneficial relationships. And I feel like that limited my contacts with the university. If you can tell, I wasn't rocket for some years and then I transferred to eat a rocket. That's where I'm from. Okay. Academic coaching now my career. So I started at the University of Texas at San Antonio as an intern for Students Support Office there. I got a lot of really good experience and that was a lot of students. I learned a lot about strategies and, you know, the basics of coaching. I was down there. My wife's in the middle and the Air Force, so I was down in Texas. Let's see. Now I am the spring forward academic coach at Ohio State. So we, we work with students who didn't do as well as I hope their first year of school. And we provide them with different resources and access to resources. Courses that we offer that focus on becoming a better student academically, all kinds of things that we offer them. So I actually have the link at the end if you want to read more about it. Let's see. Through this process as I became the coach you're meeting with students. I also teach students and I I offer workshops to students as well. And during this process, I've gone to a lot of training, both formally and informally. I've worked with ID are the Dennis Learning Center, which is our Students Support Center at Ohio State. Let's see. So my experiences, I've been a coach for roughly six years or so. I've done a lot of research trying to improve my own coaching and to find best practices. Not to mention research like this. If I find a topic that I'm very interested in. Okay, So I'm also a doctoral candidate and I'm almost there and that's about all I want to say about that right now. It's just going on enough. But I do learn a lot about students and my interests are higher education, students with disabilities in higher education. So even when I'm not learning about coaching and everything, I'm learning about students in certain populations. Just a brief overview of the course experience that I have. Currently I teach a class called AES is set to 2059. That's educational studies, educational psychology. That's how to become a self-regulated learner, knows, roughly the attendance is 20 to 25 students. That is voluntary enrollment, so students are not compelled in any way to enroll. It was created by the Ed Psych department, so we work with them and they, they created that class for us. The focus is self-regulated learning, motivation, growth mindset versus fixed mindset, et cetera, basic academic coaching tools. And then in the summer I also teach EXP 2100, which is we call it the spring forward summer experience. Without the similar experience, the classes that are a little different, a little bigger, and I teach multiple sections of that that is required enrollment. So if you want to learn more about my program, I'll explain to you why it's required. Anyways, it's a similar content to 2059, the SFC course, but with a focus more on personal wellness outside of the classroom, then it's more student-centered, holistic approach to student success. And we focus on personal well-being as well. So just to give you a brief background on my experiences as an instructor. So now I'd like to talk a little bit about issues in higher education. Or maybe, perhaps you don t think there is an issue in higher education with the teaching prep, prep preparation for professors and instructors in higher education. I read a good amount of research on this. And I think there's a general consensus. Well, first of all, that professors and instructors don't have too much preparation for teaching unless it's through TAs or a work like from my job. But for instance, I am lucky enough to be able to teach as part of my job. But I think there's a general there's limits on how much teaching, how much professors and instructors learn how to teach. Then we'll talk a little bit about the issues for instructors. Obviously, they're very busy people. I'm structural problems that kinda goes with that. And then should we even adjust this? Is everything going well? I don't know. I'd like to hear everybody signs. Okay. So some of the things I read was Robinson and hope had an article they described teacher education, professor education, preparation as there's no formalized instructor training. It depends. It's more focused on the institution. Institutionalized programs, wide range. So that creates a wide range of teaching ability. As a student population continues to diversify. That might bring some continuing obstacles for professors and students in that relationship. Then what to expect. So the first generation can enjoy them. A lot of times, first-generation students, they may never have heard of a resource or a service that the college provides. That can be, that can be a challenge for a lot of students, especially if they need a resource or a service. So I think having a professor with that kind of information and is willing to provide that information is going to be key as well for that specific population. But I think for all students in general. Okay. So the general consensus that I got was that there wasn't there isn't a formalized form of. Professor instructor, education, except for what is gained in graduate school or gained through being a teaching assistant, things like that. Your institution might be different. I know Ohio State's is not like that. Okay. Majority. So this is a little graph that I made. I thought this was pretty clever. Majority of new faculty are limited teaching experience, no official instructor training and research focused, right? And that doesn't seem to bode well for teaching inside the classroom. So then I thought, Okay, well let's talk about my own experiences because I was I was preparing to teach classes, but I'd never done that before. So now I teach classes and there was a lot of there was a big learning curve there, right? I had no teaching experience, no official instructor training and i2 and research focused. I don't know. That's just if I wanted to have a career in the professoriate, I will try to get as many things published. His issues with implementation. I just wanted to throw this in there. This is no knock on faculty in any way, right? I think most faculty are trying to do the best that they can with what they have. Um, but I think there's a lot of different pressures on faculty who maybe limit the reasons they aren't able to give a little bit more personal care to students. So some of those pressures are obviously the publish or perish in concept with a more of a focus on research. And you know, that, that is, that is where the prestige comes from. Enough teaching in the classroom rate, increased demands. So more and more classes, more students enrolling. They also want to set keep their sense of autonomy, right? I read a few articles about concerning faculty that don't want to be told how to, how to instruct, right? Or they don't feel they didn't have the need for training in any way because they've been through, they have their PhD or something, right? And generally there's no institutional emphasis, emphasis or accountability on teacher training for professors. I think. I did read a few about a few programs that are doing similar things to implementing some coaching practices in the classroom just to make them more cordial classroom many ways but a diff, different programs but similar ideas. And your, your institution might have something like that right now. A program or something and we can talk about that at the end as well. Okay? All of this is four, concerning the focus on diverse students, right? So if everything, if teaching practices and everything stays the same, if instructor accountability is not called into question. With a change in populations and diverse student populations. Those students, in my opinion, will continue to struggle in many ways. Okay, So the new direction in coaching and the benefits, a discussion and I put a question mark in there because I don't know if this is something all of you see is an issue where if, if you think instructors, maybe that's great that they don't have to go through a training, a formalized training or anything, or, you know, usually even be held accountable for their lack of teaching, experience or skill. So yeah, this is probably the part where we're going to have a discussion here. We might do some breakout rooms eventually. It looks like we have a lot of people in the room, so that's great. But I'll discuss a few things first before we get into the discussion, right? So one article I read, I think most of the qualities that students appreciate and faculty, they were similar in some ways along gender lines. But this, this article I just read, and I found it interesting because it focused more on the personal side of being a professor, right? The personal side making that relationship. So claim Brazil found that caring, compassionate understanding is that desired quality. Professors that are knowledgeable who teach the course well. Even if it is challenging. Encouraging students, personable to students, so able to interact with students and engage with students to make them feel comfortable anyways, then just generally helpful, so flexible if there's an issue. So what I will show is that I believe academic coaching improves the desirability of faculty. Okay? So again, here's the course of my courses, the courses that I teach, and they're a little different. Like I said, I think the big difference is the voluntary enrollment verse required enrollment. Now again, I want to qualify this all with my job and my direction in my PhD program is all student access based. I realize not everybody is in that position. Maybe a lot of you are in this room here. But this is all I do like every day is think about ways students, we can improve access for students. I focus on students with disabilities mostly, but I think improving access for a number of student populations would be ideal. Okay, so again, we design the EXP 2100, the spring forward staff. We are not ed psych majors. We design the spring forward summer experience with our own experiences. So for my coaching experiences and through our other advisors, hurt advising experience. And that's where we got to this student-centered approach, right? So putting the student first, listening to students, having students discuss, engage, trying to make it a student-centered class, right? So that's kinda where we're at on that, on that in that curriculum. Um, some of the benefits I've noticed from my own teaching as a person who has studied and researched coaching my own practices. These are some of the things I'd touch on even when I'm just talking with students one-on-one or in the class. And things I think that all professors could implement or try to, try to use in some way, even if they're getting creative with it, right? Obviously, growth mindsets are big in both of our classes. We try to teach students that maybe you're not in the place you want to be, but you can be there eventually with enough work and effort. And I think that's something that all students would like to hear, right? So I felt professor could include that in some way that would be ideal. Planning and scheduling your days. I meet with students constantly that don't use planners. They like to remember everything. We focus on planning in our courses actually, and we actually have an assignment where they submit a plan or to a weekly planner to us. Maybe something that could be implemented in a regular classroom. Anyways, That's not really the main focus of my presentation to get into the nuts and bolts of this plan. But just to understand some ways it would be beneficial for students, all students motivation. So we go through expectancy value theory and finding your why by snack. So getting students to start to reflect a little bit, evaluate why they're feeling certain things, right? I think again, I'll professor, any professor could provide that kind of information. Procrastination, that's usually the biggest thing for me, right? Well, we'd like to get it into what is behind the procrastination and come to the consensus that we all do it right? We all procrastinate, but it's all about limiting your procrastination. I think even if a professor just discuss these four topics and mind you, this could be a professor in chemistry, it could be a professor in business, I'm not sure. But, you know, just, just focusing on some of these things. Even one once in awhile, I think, would benefit students. Okay. Maybe the most beneficial spot that I thought of, it came from one of my disability studies readings. It's a book called mad at school by Margaret Price. In the book she discusses these periodic spaces. And I'll read this quote and fold because it describes it but less formal, often unnoticed areas of academia, where knowledge is produced and power is exchanged. A classroom discussion is a chaotic space as, as an individual conference with ones as advisor. So one of the motivations for this presentation, for me was thinking about students who, let's say have a social anxiety or not quite comfortable in spaces. And how academic coach, recognizing that could use some of their skills to kinda walk through that. A little bit more sympathetic. If somebody doesn't answer the question you ask, right, or doesn't turn their cameras on or certain things. So I think I think thinking about the benefits in this kind of space would help instructors out a lot. And I know that is something I do as a coach is tried to establish a trusting, non-judgmental environment. During our coaching session. I think professors could do that as well in the classroom. Okay? I think the coach can be someone to lean on or the professor is not usually described that way, right? A professor is someone a student might go to to get an answer, or I get a question answered, right? Not necessarily someone to go to to discuss their problems, right? So that's something we encounter a lot with our students and we tried to tell them or ask them to work, reach out to their professors before they go to another entity on campus. But it's not always, not always what they choose to do. Okay, How might students benefit? Well, I think students, the way students benefit from academic coaching almost across the board would benefit students in the classroom, right? So faculty in a program that sought to instill some of the academic coaching skills I'm faculty, they would study learning theories or the best ways students learn. Faculty would study academic strategies which all students need. Especially students from under-resourced high schools. Faculty have better knowledge of student learning and variance and learning. So that's where my, when I was thinking of that mad at school book concerning. Students with cognitive disabilities. That's kinda where I went with. The professor would be able to acknowledge a variance and learning and understand that all students learn differently. Here's some strategies that might help that particular student. Faculty feels more of a stake in student's success if they're working with them one-on-one. Even faculty might design a class with less barriers and more flexibility if they are in tune with the concerns of students, a person to rely on again, so if the professor is cordial and friendly and inviting, the student might consider you a, another contact right? Through one-on-one experiences, faculty meet more students to learn about challenges both in and outside of the classroom. So again, during that, if there was some sort of training for coaches, coaching, training for faculty, they might meet one-on-one with students to just get more experienced. And I think that in many ways has benefited me the most. Let's see, understanding and empathy and periodic spaces. I touched on that a bit. But I think academic coaches, we have a way of listening that we have experience with. And a lot of, a lot of, we've had a lot of chances to learn and grow in that space, right? But I don t think professors necessarily get that kind of experience talking to students one-on-one, understanding their concerns, maybe even empathizing and some ways. So I think that is in my opinion where the academic coaching, the skills of academic coaching would benefit students the most is in those places. There's a lot of talking from me. I'm sorry. So now I have some guided feedback and discussions. Maddy, did you want Do you think that's still a good idea to throw a breakout room in there? Sure thing. Okay. Great. Create about four of them. Got 46 people here. How about how about five or six now about 667. So go ahead and do these breakout rooms and just answer these questions. So I'll go in there. Well, I think we can have about ten minutes or so. What do you think, Maddie? Is that good? Yeah, That sounds good. I will go ahead and open the rooms. Okay. Great. And then so go in there and discuss and then we'll come back and discuss. Okay. Sorry, I didn't go in. Oh, you did not okay. Meet you? I could but, you know, sometimes, um, during the if I do an online class, I put them in breakout rooms and I say, oh, I'm going to jump around now just to check on you. But it's so it's so awkward when I come into the room and you want me to go it wants me to any of the room theory, if you'd like. Yeah, sure. I mean, that's fine. I'm actually going to put you in room for history. Okay. Did it okay. Ashley, you had a good point though. And what was your can I just email you and Melissa? Maybe we can talk about this more because I'd love to pick your brain about it. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. I'll share my e-mail at the end. Okay. Okay. I yeah. I don't know that I had a point so much as I need some brainstorming partners. That's great. Awesome. Thanks. Madison. Hi Maddie, are you okay, cool. I was probably just gonna kinda run through these questions a little bit. Just see, see what some answers, some of the answers we were able to get. And hopefully you all had a chance to discuss. So yeah. Would any of the group to go about this informally, I guess, right. Is it so is there was there a general consensus in your group that there is a problem in the classroom? Anyone, and you can always put in the chat as well. I appreciate. Is there a problem with instructor training, I guess would be the bedroom or the lack thereof, I guess. Well, I guess from my point of view, they might be fully trained in the subject they're teaching the students. But I think some of their communication skills and their personal mobility skills, they might need a little bit more training in that area. Okay. Sure. Thank you, Amy. Yeah. I think I think that's kind of as I was writing this earth, completing this presentation, that's kinda where my mind starting to go Like what they could benefit the most from a coaching, some sort of training. Again, I was saying in the small group it doesn't have to be coaching necessarily, but the similar coaching skills that are gaining great. What a program like this. Does anyone think that a program like this would help the student instructor relationship? And if so, how it couldn't hurt? Couldn't hear. I just yeah. Yeah. Right. And another thing I might have failed dimension was I am not here to knock professors. I apologize if you're an instructor or professor in the room, I know that wasn't my intention. The intention was it does seem that so the student population is becoming more and more diverse every year. Students with disabilities from my perspective, are continuous, continuing to enroll in college. So having a maybe a more updated training program would help propel the relationship forward into a new, a new era when students, which students benefit from additional teacher training in general, like do you think that's something they would actually benefit from or is it wishful thinking? I don't know. Young tests. Production by itself could be beneficial because sometimes they're good at instructing the students think they understand what they're doing. But the test itself is worded in a way that makes it hard to date. Yeah. I mean, again, I think little things like that. I've noticed my own improvements in, right? I've started to kind of adapt things to the students themselves. Trying to describe things and, you know, maybe a little simplified form so they can understand it then they can use it, right? So I don't know if I would have done that had I not had the kind of training and experiences I've had. Again, I'm not trying to call this a fixed all or anything, but just some ideas to move forward. What do you think some additional barriers to implement this plan would be? Obviously, there's institutional barriers and faculty barriers, all kinds of financial, all kinds. Are there any other barriers you can think? Potentially a barrier could be just if anyone on the campus doesn't value interpersonal relationships. Because sometimes the focus can be strictly academia and content mastery. And so if there's not a value placed on what learning from academic coaches and the student-centered mindset and relationship-building could offer, then potentially that could be a barrier. I think for sure for sure there's a lot of moving parts and there would be a lot of moving parts in a program like that. I think I'm racking my brain to come up with better responses or anything. This is really all I could think was improving training in some way. You can't force instructors to do, to teach a certain way, but you can give them some good ideas and ways to move forward. Um, that might benefit students, so I appreciate it. Thank you. So I did I found research regarding specific programs and I know that my small group, the two, maybe three of the people we're talking about programs at their own institutions. And some of the programs I've discovered where they require either require the training or incentivize the training. And I was wondering at your institution first of all, would this be a better program on the institutional level or a little lower down on the departmental or college level even though chain. Yeah. What do you what do you feel about that? Does that matter? I guess it wasn't my best question. Was good. I think there's a lot of variations of college size within the group. That's true here. Because when my group there were some coaches are people that are talking to and there's classes. Sizes are 200 plus where I work at a community college where our students, we only have 1500 students. So my concern at our colleges, there are a few instructors that even with those small classes, aren't willing to like, I don't know. That not willing but should possibly maybe go through some training regarding what I've been discussing before, personal ability and that kind of thing. It just varies really so much. I mean, yeah, I think, like all things in education, every student is different, every faculty member is different, every class is different, right? So yeah, I think depending on the institution. So it might be a little bit more better position to implement something like this. That was a great point, Amy. Yeah, like sometimes these classes are huge, right? And I know Ohio State has 300 plus psych, one-to-one or chemistry. And then they have labs and maybe even the TA could be the one in that case who is more trained in that direction. Because there's no way a professor who is going to have a one-on-one relationship with 300 students, it's just not possible. So then my final question was, I realized there's a typo there, but should the faculty partially or fully control the creation of the program? Should they? I think for buy-in, like someone mentioned earlier, I think for buy-in it would be a good idea to include faculty in this. Especially if we're concerned about them telling us that they want to maintain control and nobody respects them, things like that. But yeah, I was just like, What do you think? What do you think about control in that case? Should they be bystanders or should they have some sort of say on the matter? I would I would I would say they should at least have a seat at the table. Yeah. I mean, I think that makes a lot of sense, right? I mean, if we're trying to if you're trying to explain to they have someone change something that's mostly personal in some ways. Especially the way, you know, some professors take their teaching. They take it very seriously. And they don't want to think that they're doing a bad job, right? So just if they were at the table and you could explain the program to them, the things that they might gain. And if anything, the reason for an adjustment, right? Again, not to, not to come down on the professor yet. It's more of a way to move forward in a positive direction that might benefit students in the long run. Great. Thank you. Everybody has a lot of talking. I'm sorry. Okay. So that's it for me on unless anyone else has any questions or anything, I can stick around and talk or if you have anything or if you think of something. In the meantime. Send an email to my email here, Gregor dot 32 at OSU.edu or my office number is 6146880 1A2. Feel free to check our program, my Spring Forward Program. Right there, There's the link and the Dennis Learning Center is the Students Support Center that we work with at Ohio State. Thanks for coming, everyone. I really do appreciate it and thank you. Thanks, everybody. I just wanted to make sure real quick. Did we get to Amy's question about dealing with instructors that are stuck in their ways. I really apologize. I'm sorry. She asked, how do you deal with those instructors that are stuck in their ways and aren't willing to budge on helping students succeed. Or when success rates are low for an instructor's classes and they don't take accountability for this. That's a tough one. That's a tough one. I mean, I think those are the those are the instructors that I had in mind when I was writing this obvious, I didn't focus on the more progressive minded or student-centered my professors, which I apologize for. Um, but yeah, I think there's definitely going to be instructors out there, right. This is again, it could be voluntary or involuntary. Voluntary might be the best row. Having buy-in from an instructor like that would be great. And hopefully you could do some sort of training program or even the department just discussing with the professor, right? But there's really honestly no way to get them to force them to change their ways or do anything like that. But I think providing them with some guidance and things that they might use to help students. Maybe that would start to change their mind a little bit. Who knows? We all know those professors and they're not, they're not changing anything, right? But thanks for the question. I appreciate a new question. If there's nothing else. Thank you, everyone for attending today's session. You've heard it all already. We're so grateful that you came to attend check this year. I had dropped the link for the survey in the chat. Please fill that out if you have a moment and we'll see you at the next one. Thank you, everyone. You need anything else from me, Maddie. Now, I wanted to apologize because the breakout rooms got a little squirrely there for a second. Was it okay on your end? Yeah. No, I was fine. What was going on in the other ones? Well, for some reason people just kinda dropped from them. We went from attendance at 49 to 38 when we came back from the breakout rooms. Oh, no. Oh, I'm seeing that That's a phenomenon. I believe. It kinda made me nervous for a second because people were coming into the main lobby. So I was trying to assign them to rooms. So there's just a little bit of panic on my end that something had gone horribly wrong. No, I think everything ended up. I think anyone who wanted to go to a breakout room went to a breakout room. So that's probably that's that's fine. I'm sure. But yeah, Mine was good. We had good conversations, so yes, my mind was great. I ended up staying in group three for awhile. But I also just wanted to say thank you for presenting on this. I also feel very strongly about this topic and the word chaotic. I didn't have a term for that, but I am writing that one down. I can't wait to look into that article. Yeah. Well, it's actually a full book and she's a she's an instructor at Ohio State as well. So I put in a double plug for her, I guess. But no, yeah, it's a really, really good book. It's called mad at school. Yeah, Margaret Price. So hopefully, hopefully you check it out and you enjoy it and feel free to if I put my e-mail out there, if you ever have any questions about anything or anything at all. Thank you so much, Paul, do you have any questions, comments for me at all? I don't I don't know. Well, actually, I did about the CGC and is there a journal of some sort that you all work on or are you? Uh, I'm not sure. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Great. Because I was thinking where this would where I could maybe pitch this idea. And yeah, but I don't know of anything, but I'm kinda new to this. I was working in clinical mental health counseling before I came to coaching in higher ed. So I'm still kinda like getting the terrain down. If I hear of anything or any journals, I think it's a good fit. I will send it your way. Gray now. I appreciate that. I really do. Thank you. And are you currently in school? Are you working full-time? I was echo. Yeah. So COVID really through just a total curve ball at me. I was supposed to start a doctorate and Wales in 2021. And then the Delta virion happened and I'm immunocompromised and they were just letting the Americans are in around like playgrounds. I came back to my Alma mater, I did my undergrad and my master's here and was planning to do a doctorate, possibly an educational studies or Rhetoric Studies. But I'm just not, just not there yet. I don't know what I wanna do yet. I'm still getting the field for coaching, So yeah, I think that's good. I appreciate that you're taking your time because if it's something you don't want to do right now and don't do just waiting because if the age is still there, it'll come back. But yeah, it was really nice meeting you. Thank you for accounting and let me know. Sounds good. Thank you so much, Paul, nearby.