Back   OpEd News
Font
PageWidth
Original Content at
https://www.opednews.com/articles/Academic-Coaching-is-Encr-by-Eugene-Elander-121106-843.html
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).

November 6, 2012

Academic Coaching is Encroaching!

By Eugene Elander

Academic Coaching is a new development in on-line education primarily. This article points out the pitfalls of using an outside purveyor of coaching rather than developing that capacity in-house.

::::::::

You may not be familiar with Academic Coaching, a relatively-new trend in on-line education, and one which has some potential value.  The concept essentially involves the injection of an "academic coach" between faculty members and students -- a coach who mentors individual students, helps answer their questions, and facilitates their learning process.

Sounds good -- but I learned firsthand that the reality is often far from the promises made by slick purveyors of such coaching services.  After more than five decades in higher education, I thought it would be a meaningful experience to become an academic coach myself.  I applied with one of the most-aggressive firms in the field, which I will designate by the nickname ICKY (that is an elaboration of their initials) based in Texas.  My next step was an intensive on-line training program which also serves as ICKY's screening process for potential coaches.  So far, so good -- but wait!

Aside from blunders made by ICKY's key staff, including one top official repeatedly telling us trainees that our program ended on Monday -- when the actual ending date was Sunday, it was only after considerable training had occurred that we were told that our rather-minimal coaching compensation was exactly the same whether a course runs for five weeks, seven weeks, or the typical college's fifteen weeks.  That bit of startling news was followed by ICKY's allegation that the amount of effort required of coaches was essentially the same regardless of the length of the course!  Obviously, either that statement is totally untrue, or else coaches are encouraged to cut back on their weekly efforts in longer courses.  Either way, we should have been told of this adverse payment policy up-front, not after considerable training took place.

It was very difficult to get any replies to emails sent to ICKY's training team
regarding this issue, or a number of other issues I raised during their coach training.  And, although I completed that training with a score of over 99%, I was unable to get the promised certificate of completion.  Finally, after many email requests, I got a snotty reply that it could take up to eight weeks to get that promised certificate, for no good reason I could find.  At that point, it became eminently clear that ICKY holds all the cards, and the coach trainees mostly hold the bag, as the saying goes.  So, FAREWELL ICKY!  If any school, college, or university needs coaching, it would do much better to develop that capacity in house, rather than deal with firms like ICKY, which are, indeed, far too icky for me.


Authors Bio:

Author's Biography

Eugene Elander has been a progressive social and political activist for decades. As an author, he won the Young Poets Award at 16 from the Dayton Poets Guild for his poem, The Vision. He was chosen Poet Laureate of Pownal, Vermont for his poem Pownal People. His three new verses for America the Beautiful:September 11, 2001 were widely acclaimed and read into the Congressional Record by U.S. Senator Chris Dodd.
Dr. Elander has authored four volumes of poetry: The Right Click, The World Click, Journeyings, and Philosophy over Fika, all written from 2004 to now, in the U.S. and Sweden -- as well as two published novels: The Goat of God, and Turning the Tides, both available via Signalman Publishing on Amazon.com in Kindle and electronic pdf editions. A self-help book titled Empowerment:Taking Charge of your Life was recently completed and is available via Amazon.com KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing.
Dr. Elander is a freelance columnist who published a newspaper for ten years in New London, CT. He is an economist and college lecturer, and has been an agency executive director, emergency management consultant, investigator; and former animal control officer, deputy code enforcement and health officer for Farmington, New Hampshire. He and his wife Birgit, who co-authored The World Click, divide their time between Georgia and her homeland, Gotland, Sweden.
Several other books are underway, including a sequel to The Goat of God, and a public version of his doctoral dissertation on Cooperatism, a new economic system he developed which includes all stakeholders (workers, consumers, and the public as well as stockholders) in crucial decision making. Dr. Elander has been a member of the Stonepile Writers group in Georgia and the Poetry Society of New Hampshire. He is president of his own Elander Press.


Back