Agenda

Course Activity and Digital Microcredential

Each registered participant will develop one activity that employs various concepts and strategies introduced in the course. Participants will be asked to complete assignments between the course segments that support the learning objectives and will receive feedback and constructive critique from the instructors on how to improve and shape their work. Participants who successfully complete the entire activity will receive an EDUCAUSE digital microcredential recognizing their accomplishment.

Schedule and Assignments

Session 1: The Academic Value of Technology Skills

Instructor: Katie Linder
September 9, 2020, 1:00–2:30 p.m. ET

Professional values are the cornerstone of understanding how we can contribute in our workplaces. In this session, we’ll reflect on your values, how they relate to your institution or organization, and how they can help you identify your unique “superpowers” within the workplace. We’ll also talk about strategies for identifying and translating your skills and abilities for academic environments, including cover letters for jobs and documents such as annual evaluations.

Outcomes

  • Identify and translate technology-sector skills for a higher education environment, using academically valued language
  • Connect your skills with your professional values to identify and leverage your “superpowers” for career advancement and growth

Assignments

  • In-session Activities:
    • Identifying and mapping professional values
    • Leveraging “superpowers” for career advancement and growth strategy session
  • Post-session Activity 1: Milestones Map  


Session 2: Expanding Your Alt-Ac Career by Leveraging Your Technology Skills

Instructor: Kevin Kelly
September 16, 2020, 1:00–2:30 p.m. ET

To build our alt-ac careers we must be more intentional. This includes aligning our technology work to advance and support an academic mission, building a portfolio of our contributions, and seeking opportunities to grow and advance professionally. In this session of our course, we’ll focus on the “academic” side of “alternative academic” and share ways for you to integrate your technology role or skills into the academic life of the institution. Then we’ll discuss how to showcase those integration points in a portfolio and use them to move up the alt-ac career ladder at your institution.

Outcomes

  • Prepare for alt-ac roles beyond a particular technology silo
  • Build a portfolio of alt-ac projects, work products, and accomplishments that can be used for institutional knowledge transfer, annual performance reviews, and career advancement
  • Plot a course to reach short-term, alt-ac career goals at your institution

Assignments

  • In-session Activities:
    • Use scenarios to discuss how to align technology work with aspects of an academic mission.
    • Select technology-related work products that you will add to your alt-ac portfolio.
    • Identify potential roles and positions at or beyond your institution that align with your values and Milestones Map (from Session 1) and that you might seek in the future.
  • Post-session Activity 2: Start your alt-ac portfolio  

Session 3: Growing the Alt-Ac Part of Your Technology Career

Instructors: Thomas J. Tobin
September 23, 2020, 1:00–2:30 p.m. ET

Now that you have mapped your professional values, identified your technology-sector “superpowers,” and begun your alt-ac portfolio, it’s time to put those ideas into action. In this session, we’ll uncover some specific people, projects, and advocacy opportunities that help technology professionals grow their alt-ac work. You’ll come away with a customized set of concrete actions that you can take in the near-, medium-, and long-term span of your career.

Outcomes

  • Find and create opportunities for professional and career development within academia
  • List and practice informational interview techniques for colleagues at your institution and in your region
  • Match college and university committees and service work with the skills you wish to strengthen in your technology work
  • Discover ways to gain visibility and credibility among academic-affairs colleagues through work in advocacy organizations such as EDUCAUSE

Assignments

  • In-session Activities:
    • Match skills and knowledge elements from your alt-ac portfolio (from Session 2) with needs and big questions within your institution and in your field.
    • Define your “ten-percent time” passion project. What conversations can get you closer to doing this work?
    • Identify one colleague outside the technology field who is or could be your “honest mirror” for career development (e.g., if your desired path is eventually to be CIO, find the person on the broader leadership team with whom you can have leadership-skill conversations).
  • Post-session Activity 3: Next Steps for Going Alt-Ac in Tech