Question 1
Posted on Saturday, August 31st, 2019
What opportunities will lead us to greater success, and how would you pursue them?
- Opportunities are not fully pursued. We need focus. What is the one thing for us to focus on/to be known for (e.g. micro learning, online learning)?
- **Quality of our curriculum is core, the rest is not; quality is the priority.
- **Quality programs lead to employment. We need to be more career-focused in our development of programs; students measure program quality by employment post-graduation.
- Our success is our talent (our graduates).
- ***We need to focus on:
- Academic excellence (successful graduates, employment), and
- Exceptional student supports (to retain students in our learning environment).
- **We need a common thread to make decisions. We need to understand our priorities to be able to cascade the prioritization to faculty and staff. Otherwise, we miss opportunities.
- Flexibility to be learner driven:
- Learning needs to meet students where they are.
- Learners are different and complex; we need to adapt our learning to their lifestyles.
- Schedule, mix of course (in-person, online); we need to be available when they are.
- As an access institution, we need to enable access when they are available to learn.
- Quality and employment are not mutually exclusive.
- Quality for the duration, with continual quality improvement.
- How? We need an academic plan, this can detail our vision.
- Is an academic plan the solution?
- Mental focus, adequate mind share. We have strong budgets as the 5th largest College. We have the resources – the funds, the people; we manage in spite of funding. We need to encourage others, to help them direct their energy. There are multiple foci; we need to focus and help people make decisions.
- There has been a lot of change, this has brought challenges. We need to prioritize processes, to simplify day-to-day operations.
- It is our culture. Our strategic decisions are based on a mindset and behaviour that says “yes” to all. This is too cooperative. There is no “no”.
- We need to refine our ideas and work on operations, the implementation of initiatives.
- We need to define the College’s long-term business model. We need a clear vision of our business model for staff and others understand departmental contributions, revenues, constraints (e.g. domestic, international enrolments). Expectations would be clear to know what to do/what not to do. We can’t do all. With clarity, we could leverage efficiencies or change our systems to support our vision (e.g. systems support for 30% international enrolment).
- Once priorities are chosen, we need to mine the complexity.
- Partnerships with the community are essential for the quality of our programs.
- Centralize community connections to the College with 1 point of entry for all (physical, virtual).
- We know the why …it’s how. How do we prioritize quality? How do we prioritize the student experience? How do we align our resources?
- An academic plan can outline our vision. Conversely, is an academic plan the solution?
- Define our competitive difference. We need a signature focus. We need signature offers.
- Our signature focus can be the employment readiness of our graduates; this equates to great programs.
- **Permission to fail.
- Being relevant:
- Employer competencies are needed; transcripts are not as important.
- Different than university; our graduates have ‘boots-on’ ready for employment.
- Review/review committees beyond AQR; reinvigorate the PAC system.
- Community engagement in Ottawa Tech community (Silicon Valley North).
- Student skills:
- Students need to know the subject and tools first, then they need to become ‘citizens of industry’.
- We need to be ‘allies together’ and ‘allies with industry’, to make connections among students, graduates, faculty, employers that will last a career and build the sector.
- Demonstrate group behaviour, model behaviour of our collaboration, our cross-disciplinary, cross-program work, group work to model/resemble work in the sector.
- **Semester workload and/or exam scheduling are opportunities to model the same values; faculty and staff are able to work together and balance the workload for our students’ success.
- Need time to collaborate; we are so big. We are islands of courses.
- Gig economy. Essential skills, not just communications 1, other skills are needed and could be more relevant to students, such as contract law, or entrepreneurial skills, for tech or trades people to operate their own business.
- Competencies upon graduation to help students in the world of work; there is opportunity for students across programs to achieve competencies before graduation. It’s an opportunity to change perspectives of general electives.
- Gold seal curriculum for apprenticeships could be leveraged for other (electives, essential skills) course/program work.
- Bring back sustainability committee. Follow a green model in all that we do.
- Real-world final projects for students across programs/disciplines; projects can be cross-disciplinary like the world of work. There are too many silos.
- More models in the online learning space. We should refine our current model, but explore other models to account for the wide variety of learners who are all potential students (e.g. hybrid models, education-as-a service?, credential only service?, training only service?)
- Some classes lead themselves to combined lab periods (Used successfully in Computer Essentials, we combined all of our lab periods and invited students to come to any lab for assistance or to demo their work. We probably could have reduced the scheduled lab hours by 30%. Students were also invited to attend either lecture each week; including mid-term exams.)
- Don’t be afraid to fail.
- I think it would be great for Algonquin to show it’s commitment to a sustainable future by planting a tree (or paying to plant a tree) for each student, faculty and staff now and in perpetuity. It could be led and coordinated by our Environmental Science Forestry programs in our Pembroke Campus.
- Let the successful programs “breathe” and allow those involved the appropriate
time to keep them vibrant (e.g. AI; Machine Learning; e.g. ICT most courses should be changing 20-25% annually). Trust us to do this with the best of motivations in mind – hold us accountable too. If we don’t deliver on what we promise then we forfeit and teach an additional course instead of using time to evolve courses and programs.
- Opportunity for cross pollination across programs e.g. Natural Resources. Need time for/to develop special projects like this in-class.
- **Student feedback. We need quick response to comments.
- Timelines to align teaching schedule, deadlines (e.g. ordering textbooks/hiring), student work load (macro level). Create a consolidated timeline, to bring group schedules together. Make this an annual plan that is open and visual for all College employees.
- Student Academic Council (faculty, staff, students). Create synergy. Align schedules, speakers, field trips.
- Align local scheduling (micro level) with open houses, other campus activity. Share earlier (e.g. planned in February – share then, not 6 weeks before start of term). Assess timelines of past year. Plan bottom-up next year.
- Meaningful performance appraisals for ourselves and for management (there needs to be opportunity for feedback to your 1-up).
- Mentorship for all. Full-time retirees have wisdom. Need to train others in the role. Junior roles needed to avoid gap in coverage, to be prepared.
- Make ACR more meaningful, integrate with PQR. Improve timing to the spring.
- Improve internal program approval process.
- Proactive, strategic support for students (e.g. counsellors, mental health services have limited hours, limited availability). Need services to meet our student profile (that is heterogeneous) of high school, Indigenous, international, and adult learners etc.
- Academic research (e.g. we are leaders in adult education). Need time to conduct academic research. Benefit of marketing academic research. Academic institution needs research.
- Attracting international students from different cultures.
- We need ways to attract and develop prospective students in international markets (e.g. provide them a hub to transfer credits to Canada).
- Get ambassadors from across the College to speak about our strengths, our diversity, our culture and our success stories to draw more interest and increase intake from international markets.
- Develop more programs that will resonate with/ attract international students; Leverage hot topics: Our Sustainability, Data management, and Regulatory programs.
- Attend educational conferences worldwide.
- Build the brand worldwide. Increase the Algonquin College brand presence and recognition worldwide.
- Help prospective international students be aware of/understand/find their academic pathways to take advantage of our quality educational programs and all that Canada offers (e.g. employment, lifestyle).
- Promote online programs for international students.
- Help students understand indigenous culture and Indigenous knowledge in course work.
- We need opportunity to break the barriers between different departments (across the College, across disciplines).
- Looking well after international students, more degree programs, collaboration with industry (i.e. offer learning [leading to certificates] for cohorts of learners from a specific company)
- With the current provincial government focused on jobs, we are well-positioned to be a very valuable asset to Ontario and community (by focusing on): the employment of our graduates.
- **Sustainability is important. The environment is key for learners coming to campus. There is a big opportunity to focus on waste as an institution and sustainability programs for students.
- Sustainability is a social responsibility. Raise profile of/model our Corporate Social Responsibility. We do it in small ways (e.g. impact day); we could give back in a greater way.
- Thrilled Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a priority. We need more coordination across the College for accommodations (upholding legislation). Increase budget for height adjustable desks in all classrooms.
- Great knowledge comes in conversations across the College. We need a PARKING LOT for these ideas and a method to come back to them. Enable design thinking with a framework to embed knowledge and how to use it. Collect ideas, schedule the process to review and use the ideas. Opportunity is for students and staff. Need simple process to collect BIG IDEAS.
- **Re-engineer the way we work. We need to be able to actualize our vision, today and in the future. What does this look like going forward? We need to be future-ready and we aren’t organized for it – need behavioural, structural, cultural shifts.
- Need formal Manager Council. There is ACLT, Academic Council, Chairs Council, ASA, need formalize/create framework, time for this for operations, communications, partnerships etc. So much is happening that can’t be done off the side of someone’s desk, need framework.
- We can do more digitally if is integrated properly. Tech can increase visibility, collaboration (e.g. electronic Huddle boards). Tech supports these wishes. IT plays a role in sustainability.
- We need to know how to use technology (e.g. not leveraging the tech we have, Office 365); need education, training, time; awareness/understanding is lacking on tech implemented.
- Power of the Post-it note. The ability to free think in the absence of tech is important. Need to have human interactions for creativity.
- Start working differently together. Focus on the value streams, the experiences end-to-end of the employee, the learner, across departments – capture our inter-connection/ inter-connectivity. Experiences are connected, not in isolation; focus on the full experience.
- As a services group we don’t have enough time to collaborate and identify issues together. We are working together organically, reaching out on our own. We need to systemize, operationalize this collaboration, to remove silos. Think differently from a services perspective across all areas of the organization.
- Manager communications; we need to learn from another, share best practices, improve cascade of information to employees. Helps break down silos, brings all in the loop, more communications across departments.
- Badges as an opportunity to highlight the skills students achieve – making the skills visible to the employer. Leadership badges would help employer discern, differentiate, and distinguish the student for employment. Certificate is a major achievement. Badges are smaller than a micro-credential (cluster of achievements).
- We need a framework for badging, for AC to assess/validate the achievements, to report achievement. We could stack the badges. Need to break down skills to assess badge achievement.
- Focus on what we do well now instead of new opportunities: our core programming. We’re pretty much jammed, not much opportunity for more.
- Badges could be used instead of general electives. We could respond to community/employer needs. General interest courses are not helping the employers. Students could take a specific skills in the trades, could be a boutique offer, a badge [e.g. Welding specialty (‘Tig’); Tourism PAC members want specific courses (e.g. revenue management), Health community wants specific skills (e.g. IV puncture); Auto Cad proficiency badge (e.g. need for Architecture).
- How do we introduce these opportunities needed by industry? How do we offer new courses? Capacity issues: opportunity for success gets left behind because we do not have the capacity.
- Advantage of badges is breaking down the knowledge. Why aren’t we doing this today? Waiting for the framework for badges. We have CE – this doesn’t have the same value as something AC could put their stamp on, as AC validated. Break down the knowledge into badges, and then stack them. Makes transitions easier between programs
- Tourism industry and PAC members are asking for one-off courses or micro credentials (e.g. Revenue management, sales). Corporate requests for specialized one-off courses. Larger hotels have a budget to spend X amount to get pre-management training (e.g. Marriott). Let’s compete in GTA; George Brown, Seneca offer industry bit-sized courses.
- Complete or operationalize the initiatives that have already been started over the last five years, and do it well. That is, get Workday to work for us (the academic Area). I hope we will not repeat that mistake with the GeneSIS replacement project. Get Adaptive to work and reflect on how we do business. Clean-up your program offering. Know why we are in that business, stop treating programs the same as everybody else (e.g. apprenticeship programs). We need to define the parameters that will allow us to keep programs on the books. We need the space. Follow-through on: the coop movement (the admin burden, need to define the process, test, clean up, support and assigned the resources to make viable; the movement to spread out intake over three terms; the addition of the seven weeks of teaching to the annual workload of our full-time faculty; the handover from one professor to the next; the opportunities to redesign some of the programs to offer seven week courses.
- Red Tape. The process. The initial scoping. We are not training for several positions that are open. We are not meeting demand of industry. Board approved certificates: we need a faster lifecycle for curriculum from development for cycle of -> planning to launch. We could buy and sell curriculum for faster launch.
- We could leverage our existing industry curriculum for micro-credential/badge such as CAD AutoDesk.
- Process for developing new curriculum. Need efforts of professionals/part-time /full-time to be integrated. Need room for development (time/space) Need capacity.
- Refine our process for hiring experts to meet needs: process for development, internal or external professors. Qualified. Existing faculty might be boxed in, cannot box in, need to integrate capabilities. Capacity is an issue.
- Labour relations. Limits on categorizing labour hours. How do we find hours (for collaboration, development)? Need to build relations with our unions. Recent attendance at AC functions creates hope of new engagement.
- More HR support when hiring faculty (part –time or full-time). Need support to recruit a specific skill set. The speed of offer, the timing of help, HR response time needs to be faster (e.g. to fill for sick leave). Challenge to find talent with proper credentials.We/they don’t have the bandwidth.
- Break down the silos for the development and launch of programs. Industry is looking for multi-disciplinary, creative thinkers, but we operate in tight silos of our subject areas. Create joint collaborative programs -> AI has a foot in business, tech, media; it is multi- disciplinary. We deliver programs in our own area, but not successful in delivering across departments. Don’t have the process, management systems, or framework to support collaborative systems. Need multi-functional projects and applied research. We have to work around the barriers or system to support this.
- There are a lot of initiatives. It would be nice to finish them – to operationalize them. It’s not the tool, it’s the processes. Workday, Adaptive are great tools, but processes are changing (need to align operations: processes, tools).
- Need to clean up our program offerings. Haven’t seen any eliminated.
- Need more space.
- *Our processes are creating a lot of headaches for Coop implementation. Co-op has increased at least 50%. There is no central process to alleviate this (e.g. Coop, RO, student, Chair, employer). Validate and document the formal process (we work around with informal process).Difficult with turnover, new hires to know the process.
- Associate Chair role. Acting roles. Starting new role with knowledge of the role. AC is filling theses acting roles, this has made it a lot easier. Need mentoring, shadowing, success planning.
- Bring back the Advanced Housing Program. We’ve gone over a number of changes – the program we’ve delivered for 15 years was suspended. It fit in this community, it fits for those seeking post-secondary (e.g. Adult education interest, interest in sustainable practices). Need to reintroduce programming that looks at progressive building construction.
- Increase mix of programs. This campus is getting livelier, with more programs. At Perth, we have the academic teams and the infrastructure for high-efficiency, sustainable construction/ housing programming. CE or full time programming, there is interest in this training.
- More sustainable, progressive programming. We need to lead the students. Be at forefront. Smaller Universities are doing this in their programming, from the student standpoint. We are working with different community organizations to bring forward new ideas (e.g. The Table). Why can’t we take these new/garden models to move forward?
- Unique product/ programming to help our community. We can’t attract from outside the community unless we have unique, destination programs. We offer the exact same as different locations (e.g. Ottawa, Pembroke, St. Lawrence), we need a competitive advantage in our community.
- Launch with the ministry takes too long. Programs without local needs aren’t sustainable; need cycle of programs suited to our graduates to continue (e.g. degree pathways, post-graduate programs, specialty market programming). Is it unique to draw from outside, locally? Have an end game.
- College seems risk adverse (e.g. Cannabis programs, we missed the boat). We have a unique location, Niagara took advantage. Increase our calculated risk. Be on the cutting edge, we need to be able to dip toes into something with an upward trend. Need to be on the forefront.
- Need more entry level programs to take (e.g. basic carpentry).
- Financial aid (OSAP) and funding for our students.
- Housing is a problem. Tweed took much of our supply
- Need post-graduate certificates/specialty programs. ECE indigenous-focused graduate certificate would appeal to our graduates. Need to be competitive. Offer at different times such as in the evenings to attract populations to come back (e.g. Advanced Timber carpentry). York has post-grad specialty offers that are 6-8 weeks long. If we have graduate certificates, people would come back. Need to appeal to our graduates with alternatives – graduates can come back.
- Professional continuing education is an opportunity, to maintain your professional status – your professional development. Additional Qualifications (AQ) from York, $600, 6 weeks in duration for professional certificate.
- Building Innovation Research Lab (BIRL), how much innovation and research is going on there? Applied Research is important for faculty and students. We could be at the forefront and lead.
- Masonry was under subscribed. Lowered morale. Is it a marketing or demand problem? Doesn’t make sense. Employment is sitting only an hour away – our data for retention is misrepresentative. Our students are employed. They are pulled out before graduation due to talent demand.
- The demand for heritage products is here, there is need in this community. We need to offer programs, build with the community: be symbiotic between campus, college, and in the town.
- Need to increase highly competitive programs in Perth – connect to the hospitals, to industry, watch St. Lawrence and be different. Ottawa/Pembroke highly competitive programs have wait lists – bring them here to Perth. Watch St. Lawrence trends.
- Create competitive post-grad offers, create opportunity for faculty/student year of research.
- We have to have plans in place for housing. We need to have a vision to support students and retain them on campus. Great to have plans to attract students. Need unique programs with ways to retain them in this community.
- Need new ideas for us to be a destination campus. The PSW program could have a pathway/ bridge to nursing. What is the unique idea for student past grads?
- Transportation or Housing: have to get the people here and somehow provide meaningful way to keep them here. Look at Perth campus as an extension of AC Ottawa. Establish a route (bus, train) that ran on regular basis that supports the tipping point of course success. Find the viable approach. Evaluate an environmentally responsible approach to increase group transport such as a school bus (or the train) instead of single cars.
- *Wealth of knowledge we have within the walls already. Faculty and Staff, rigorous support we have here. Success is through greater support within. Everybody has important pieces that hold up the structure. Take too much on and don’t focus on what is successful, we can’t grow. Not just the physical space, it’s the people in it. Institutionally we’ve had some ups and downs in regards to changes. Motivation is transparent in nurturing growth from within. Between all systems, a lot of change in short amount of time
- **Class sizes. Enrolment is a necessity, but class sizes increase to take them. Very hard to get better success with large class size. Cut it in half to make sure we can connect with them, and add to greater success rates. Pace, they get lost in big sizes.
- A lot of experts that come to teach, from community & various places, bring knowledge with them. Use these connections to build with community. Greater success comes from relationships. Supports our student’s growth and betterment. Relationships drive success.
- More engagements. Involve the content experts from outside with inside experts would get them to engage more into college. Investment of Loyalty
- ***Reputation. Community connections are heavy on placements. Over 100 agencies we work with, and the smaller the classroom size, the better we can prepare our students which, intern, create better relationships with community
- Reputation of success. Better students do post grad, the better our reputation, and better our enrolment, our funding and our metrics.
- **Participate in decolonization; we need to know how we are benefiting, and perpetuating it. Strategy from the knowledge. Increasingly seeing Indigenous knowledge affecting what we do, but haven’t heard how we are befitting it. Integration isn’t enough. Appropriating that knowledge -> need a deeper conversation about how we are benefiting and our systems can benefit.
- Increase the ‘blanket experience’. New information each time. Debunk myths. Increase understanding.
- Movement to understand more colonialism, we have electives but don’t have course on reconciliation. Courses are out there, developing something in-house is definitely an opportunity.
- **Revisiting international placement opportunities. *More opportunities for clinical experiences internationally. Currently it’s a little fragmented
- New strategic plan for international student placement structure. Our students leaving abroad. Lagging on outbound students. Supporting developing projects, sharing resources we have, things we’ve done. Collaboration to maintain great initiatives.
- Opportunity to engage more with ideas for universal design learning (UDL) – transform courses to align. Don’t have resources or time to implement ideas.
- Structures of college are interfering with UDL. Timelines make it difficult, structures of course outlines make it difficult. Course outlines aren’t really designed to facilitate multiple modes of assessment and outcomes. Scheduling and timetables impede this; we need more flexibility for course outlines.
- Time for any kind of research. We need to publish research. As we grow, need to recruit more people with credentials to teach our degrees. Very difficult time recruiting PhDs. Need to support and understand this wealth in-house.
- Branding communication and marketing to our internal communications. Need work there as we grow. Perhaps we forget about our own.
- Faculty mobility. In terms of what people can do over a span over 25 years at AC. Mobility to take on other projects, or work throughout college. There will be an increase as millennials like to move around, stay engaged. Need opportunities/postings for niche, temporary or shadowing assignments.
- Grow our volume of students. Provide more offerings. More than diplomas, certificates, other models as options. Give reasons to come back, more options for alumni to return. Not necessarily credentials, certificates, new ways to streamline skills.
- Industry professionals, who don’t have necessarily have the skills needed, can improve their skills. A mini-certificate. Piggyback off current courses -> offer preexisting pack of courses as valuable mini-certificate.
- Needs to be more structure for part-time employees -> performance reviews, sustainable goals for growth, career at the College. How do we keep good people and not have turnover when there is no time to assess them? Need ways to recognize them, incentives to keep them. Professional Development plan to keep part-timers, and guide them. As far as feedback and training, there will be stepping stones for them.
- Dedicated PD for part-timers will show their dedication to the College/ours to them. Investment provides returns (see Conestoga). Professional learning to meet their needs.
- Seems to take 5 years for new faculty to feel like they fit in. Formalize and identify the benchmarks.
- 70% of part-time faculty would like to have full-time role (or working towards it). Need career coaching, good avenues for PD. Sends a signal of AC intentions, shows joint commitment.
- Incorporate environmentally sustainable initiatives. Increase the presence of sustainable initiatives in operations.
- Be able to have more front-line, facing access to students to be exposed more to their needs and help more. Make more connections. More volunteer opportunities to see what is going on campus.
- What’s the definition of success? To be able to contribute to a legacy, generational, sustainable legacy of success. Environmental sense: give them tools to work in the world sustainability. Look at how our practices and decisions affect the environment and our sustainability. If we just teach industry standards and not alternatives, we aren’t reinforcing sustainability. We need to teach our students what to do once they are out in their professions. This is sustainability; the outcomes of practices overtime will be significant. Need to tackle this. Also dealing with a changing economy which will be driven by our environment.
- Success: define it better. Needs are different dependent on type of student. Foresee emergence of private schools offering similar training we offer. They have slick recruitment, marketing, with a quicker delivery; they are shiny and attractive to certain students. What is student success? How are we different from competitors? It’s the depth of education here.
- Grad certificates are one year; these are competitive offers. Students are getting the greatest depth, with the quickest route to employment.
- Need a dialogue to compete with private colleges. Recognize our strength, and have a competitive position. Strategically we need to start putting this on the table; competing with private colleges.
- Students come to us after private colleges, as industry doesn’t recognize their credentials. They can get in, don’t advance with employers -> with us, they can.
- In certain industries, they are less concerned with academic credentials: need soft skills, personal skills, need a class on networking. Market is shifting. We need to talk about how to operate in this new world. Skill sets are changing. Recruit organizations, go to companies and ask what they are looking for. Approach to education is changing. In the real world – how quickly can we adapt to change, and implement it (technology, etc.)? Working with the public and provide good customer service is main goals of most companies. Does AC offer courses that teach that?
- Success: College as a whole looks at this as retention. Faculty looks at student success, with graduate employment/maintaining their career as success.
- Pre-screen students before application to see if they have selected the right program choice to alleviate withdrawals and enroll others who may be lost on a wait list or go elsewhere before they are placed.
- Publicly-funded high school advising. We reach out to them and bring them in. We can do more to increase awareness. Give course trials such as camps, SWCI, dual credits, etc.
- College and university collaboration. We cannot access academic databases and journals for research. There is opportunity to partner with university libraries to give students access for research, for faculty development. Students in the BIT programs have access to Carleton library- let’s enlarge the umbrella.
- Great deal of disruption. Need to provide training on solutions. Students are worried about the environment. If you can offer solutions, and incorporate into courses for their career, we will have competitive advantage. Need sustainability in economics and social services also.
- Staff success, career pathways. Nice if there was a way to recognize employee on the job skills. PLAR for students, can it be for staff? Postings ask for 3 year diploma, and most staff have a 2 year diploma only. How do we recognize equivalencies, open postings to staff?
- PD to upgrade credentials as part-time faculty and staff.
- Building new buildings – we have developed some state of the arts buildings. We see that. But they age aging exponentially and can’t be maintained. Build at level 10, and maintain at 6. They get worn quickly. Courtyard is already deteriorating. If we are going to fund it, we should maintain it
- Prioritizing what we work on. Giving it the attention and focus it needs. The follow-through.
- Learner Driven Plan: all take the opportunity to really understand how it can align, where we are in it, shared common goal and interest. Empathetic working towards a common goal – touch on each of us and students, really important that this is shared and collaborated. Share that vision.
- Building a climate where unearthing a long-standing frustration is okay, it’s okay to identify it. Really look at things, uncover root causes instead of treating symptoms. There are pockets of fear to raise issues to 1-Up. It’s evolving, need to continue to build trust.
- Many vacant positions – if the positions are filled it would vastly improve workflow, morale and our success. We need people. We are very short of people in our department. Positions are there, every position takes a long time to fill.
- Technical skills can be taught, but personality can’t. It’s important to be motivated, to excel. Most of our department is services – we don’t make money, we spend money. We don’t have enough resources and staff to implement. There is a misalignment of our growth, and the services we offer. Space increased by at least 300 000 sq/feet but we have less staff. We have not grown with the growth.
- People who fill-in temporarily, are seen as not qualified to fill the position full-time. They are qualified to fill-in, but not qualified to be employed full-time. Experience needs to be valued. Can do the job, but don’t have the title to move up.
- Succession planning: when experience leaves, we need knowledge to replace those leaving.
- Rolling out new systems and teaching people new systems. We are an educational institute but failed drastically in our Workday roll-out. We have not made any efficiency improvements.
- System changes. Processes have changed. These weren’t communicated properly. There is no clear guide or printed guide on how to do things. Each department could work on processes to create the guides to help involve new people. Need Standard Operating Procedures SOPs.
- Need help undertaking, realizing our value streams instead of working in silos.
- New SIS coming (hoping that we learn from our other systems implementations).
- Continue growing our different options of course delivery/teaching: online, part-time. Offer what the market wants, available “however the learner wants to learn” with more selection, offerings, and alternatives in future. Change how we develop our offers in the future.
- More engagement with students using social media. Reach out to prospective students via social channels to give opportunities to ask, engage, and see what’s happening on campus e.g. FB, IG.
- Two-way communication: Brightspace has room for more engagement. Open it up to prospective students. Use tech/tools with prospects for community building, course preview(s).
- Offer services in multiple languages. There’s a growing presence of newcomers and international students; we need more employees who speak multiple languages to translate (e.g. in Registrar’s Office, Language Institute).
- Offer quick, short, fast learning options, such as micro-credentials. Target tech audience.
- The world is our market; build on opportunities to recruit outside Eastern Ontario.
- Use technology and increase access to our data. Empower us all to make data-based decisions, provide benchmarks. Empower everyone in every job. Create a common language using data.
- Communication with prospects: with technologies, but with a real personal touch. Other universities, colleges are nurturing their leads (e.g. US schools). We need to improve the way we nurture leads to conversion: personal phone call, personalized letter, etc. What would win over students on the fence? What would we do differently if enrolment was down?
- Opportunity to attend events such as these, to be able to participate beyond our designated roles. Provides opportunities to share information, to have conversations across departments.
- We’ve made strides by physically centralizing some of our roles in one location (e.g. marketers across the College) — but we could do more. We need to put us physically together to allow for more communication, to increase understanding and share ideas big and small — needs to happen every day. Not everything is as systematic as it could be; we adhere to a system of scripts. We could do better with our messages.
- Need opportunity to see labs, see each other’s spaces: Open doors AC. Need more transparency between departments so they know what we offer. Increase our knowledge of the College and improve our students’ experience.
- Learner Driven Plan – made great strides, continue the momentum. We need curriculum delivery that is personal, that is flexible for the learner. Keep it up, make sure the LDP works.
- Develop our external partnerships, understand the needs, offer them the learning they want. High amount of Tech companies that require specialized skills (e.g. Shopify, Salesforce, Tableau learning); there is high growth of SAAS products that require training, and they/private partners are starting to compete with us. Let’s work with these companies, offer this training.
- Support the service areas more robustly, more broadly. ITS, HR facilities, Finance, non-academic service areas. These service areas are just as important. We need more resources (money and people.
- More grunts and less management. Employees doing the work – there is less and less; the amount of (Jr., Sr., Directors and) managers is more and more. There are too many layers. The jobs are going away when employees retire (not replaced) and the work is increasing. ****Look at the engagement with ITS over the last 30 years, it’s always the #1 problem: we’re dissatisfied with amount of employees (for the work); all (employee) service areas have same problem. We need more employees and less management.
- Legislative restrictions with funding. We’d do well with more corporate training. A lot of money out there for training and partnerships. Leverage the potential of corporate partnerships. We are getting less provincial government money to subsidize students. Less from the province, let’s find it somewhere else.
- Low awareness of the tools and technology we have. Let’s meet them where they are, instead of 3 weeks back and forth – spend 2-3 days/half days, we could be more efficient if tools are used to their full potential.
- We want to start learning while at work, learning new technology. Only our resources are stretched so thin, can’t take advantage of the great opportunities to learn
- Amount of contract employees we have. The time, money, the training we offer, and they are constantly looking for new jobs. There is no job security. We have great, valuable people that are leaving and moving on. Then we start over (posting, searching, training people). It stops us from moving forward. If you need someone there full-time, it’s a full-time position. It’s costing more by losing and retraining, than to have full time employees with benefits. Need to change the evaluation of time in position, have a process to go from I/O, short-term, part-time to full-time. Hiring, training – we’re left with delays (and positions not filled).
- Human Resources practices and policies dictate and create obstacles in providing sustainable positions. (The policies are) archaic. Rather than providing short-term contracts, there could be permanent part-time or full-time people in positions to address our needs.
- Mapping processes. It really comes down to ‘what are we doing’, ‘who’s doing it’ and ‘in what time frame’. Key thing is to keep systems current. You actually have responsibility to keep those processes up to date, to understand how they are transforming and then do more analysis. What is really adding value, and what is not? How do we get the processes current?
- Processes. People don’t really understand why they are doing things in certain way; it’s always the way we’ve done it. Need to move away from that and understand “Why are we doing it like this?”
- Workday. We need to be taking advantage of the technology, the systems that exist at the College. Workday has been able to cover a lot of gaps at the College that weren’t paid attention to. Its change management that is affecting our processes. We weren’t ready for Workday – we were used to a system that had changed with us, policies were in the old system, now workday is uncovering our policies. Policies we were unaware of – it’s a misconception that Workday wasn’t configured well; our past practices weren’t upgraded.
- College culture is not supportive of the online model. Need to be more integrated with the academic area. They see us as an isolated area. This is based on a past philosophy. Need to work with our counterparts. Learner Development Plan – need to work together to be successful. A culture shift is needed.
- *The waste. We could be living up to our sustainability goals: to repurpose, to reuse. We need a resource to spearhead that.
- Real hoarding culture…we have storage space filled with junk. We have lost classrooms that are unused. Room inventory is a challenge. What do we do with the junk?
- AC Online – we need micro-credentials and badges. They are for everyone at the College. We need to apply a design thinking approach to our departments, programs and College. We need to keep courses current, class sizes low.
- Shout out ‘Thank You’ for the signage in the college. We’re getting it right – it’s helping people.
- Invest in the front-line. It’s the first impression a student has. We need to be available when they are here. It could affect how they move forward – we want to convert the lead to applicant – not lose them or their parents from campus. It could affect how they move forward. We need to handle student support with more staff during peak times.
- Allowing students to do more online: Registrar’s Office, forms, etc. Need to have 24/7 access. Need tools like live chat, alleviate phone and email requests.
- Multiple layers of management: not saying that the diversity of layers isn’t necessary, but sometimes lines are blurred between where the support staff role stops and where management begins. We have management doing work that should be support staff tasks, and vice versa. Define the lines, the workflow. Get management out of the weeds.
- Motivational engagement of people. We have hours and experiences: “What is the College doing to keep me?” We need to motivate people to stay in the positions and be engaged. We need active engagement. We need recognition to earn their loyalty. Like the phone companies, we are the loyal employees – we need to be recognized.
- Online learning. We are tight for space. We need to embrace it. Need to consider alternative working arrangements. Employees could work from home, or on staggered hours or schedules (different start/end times).
- A lot of mature students, and one thing I hear time and time is only reason I came to college is co-op. It’s a gateway to employment opportunity can’t find anywhere else. Open the door to their future. Is this a good promotional opportunity? Start to a professional job (or access to a professional job)
- What Algonquin does for the community; better way to share our accomplishments with community. Contribute to our employers, client research help, alumni success stories, indigenous work among campus. Shout it out a little more. Utilize partners and their channels to showcase ourselves within community. Could increase partnerships.
- When Alumni return to campus, our communication with Alumni department isn’t great. Missed opportunity to collectively capture these relationships and give exposure.
- Astounding to see how many alumni I meet, or recognition we’ve received. The little relationships matter.
- Online reference to where alumni and employees could see all opportunities to get involved: coop, hiring, reach out to students. Better active participation
- Corporate training = our best kept secret. Few people in industry are aware of this arm of college. More collaboration to get our voice out there. Physical visibility will create enthusiasm.
- Presenting value of what we can do at college. Our applied research. Always a project or solution we can find for employers. This lead to coop, corporate training, learning opportunities, etc. The interest is there! How do we leverage it?
- Centralized area or approach towards helping employers who want to reach out for field placements, or co-op, or short term projects.
- Critical to have human interaction / personal touch. ‘Small town approach’. Huge competitive advantage.
- When a call goes to contact centre, they need to know who to direct people too. Education to leverage?
- Part Timers who have experience, but very high turnover. Is there way to leverage their expertise so we don’t lose them. What to do to keep good people here, and help them to be better. How do we keep them long term?
- Language institute; a lot of new Canadians in programs. Study to work here, have degrees from other countries. We could show them what the College offers and info available to these types of students. Would work well for recruitment. Traditionally, our academic advising is for the post high school model – we need to give more an intercultural lens to this, with simple language.
- As an alumni; every piece of mail from College is insurance or credit cards offers (ads). Maybe a one pager to outline what’s going on at college, etc.
- I feel that we need more companies to come to the college. I see a lot of companies go there, not come here. I see a lot of qualified people here. Maybe we can try to attract companies to come to employment fairs. What I see is more part time jobs from Costco’s, and Tim Horton’s but students are more qualified here for real employment.
- More part time companies that are field placements, not general jobs we could get without college credentials (Tim Horton’s)
- Bigger projects should be develop the business , integrate employers day-to-day. Great tech companies in community, AC needs more exposure to these postings. Gov, Shopify, etc are looking for placement jobs, why can’t they come here and talk to us about their needs.
- Integrate employers more on campus and in the schools. Career fairs, field placements.
- International students . Be globalized and international, from a marketing perspective.
- Like the activities, the social. Cultural exchange at college is working well in that. Campus Life. Keep it up
- More volunteering opportunities. NGOs. Actual workers/people from those companies, not from field placement agencies.
- BrightSpace: new teachers lack on knowledge of BrightSpace. Need more training on this tech. Calendar function: not used by teachers, hard to see overall study plans and exams. Grades: hard to see overall grade without going through each course. Needs centralization. Sometimes it doesn’t accept your timed submission, or wasn’t opened properly : creates frustrations. A lot of questions about it from Students.
- Part Time professors are experienced, but I see they have problems 1) taking over courses, you don’t change materials but in tech, some materials are two years old and now out of date. Even course links to online videos (Linda,etc) don’t exist anymore 2) assignments are built on each other . We don’t get the assignments back on time, or marks back at all. You have no idea how you did (or doing). We have time frame to submit, they should have some sort of accountability as well. We need to keep pace with the market (current tech and trends).
- Teacher checks. Random class checks, oversights of how professors are doing. We are missing foundational issues as professor isn’t engaging, or communicating course content properly. If it’s hard to understand with way he’s teaching, how are we to understand it?
- Class reps: they have meetings with program coordinators and dean of school. We bring up these points, and we don’t see any action or concern. Especially on unanimous feedback, we don’t see actions taken. Provide meeting notes, or action plan after these meetings take place.
- Class Rep: I didn’t know we had a class rep. Didn’t make it known. No voting system. Where did they come from. Doesn’t reach out to all of us, only a select few. Put aside time for students to decide, and be able to communicate.
- Opportunities to help students find part time work here relating to their programs.
- Providing students with best education. We need to look closely on how we are keeping up with emerging technologies. Find the different modes that define learning. Maker space, and applied research: learning by doing. To be able to continue to have that, but at a quicker pace, but also to capture how they are learning. Being able to capture exactly what they are learning is important. A competency base, level of achievement.
- Funding, backing, or endorsing student lead research initiatives. If funds aren’t there, maybe collaborate with student to support their projects
- The Kanata business park is big cutting edge spirit of innovation. Lucky to have it here, to have engagement or hooks into that community. Increase engagement with them.
- Business development partnerships opportunities. Need more relationships built. Students get value from it. Define these relationships
- More competent processes; professional development needs to be clarified. Process fix. Support the professor well with the processes will lead to better professors. Support or committee to look at professional development.
- Success of learner vs financial success of college. Mutually exclusive. Current approach is hurting the learner. We are bottom line focused. We have to be honest and ask ‘what are we focused on’. Not helping students when actions aren’t following the ‘learner focused’ ideal. We need to refocus what the college is. We have lost our way, ethically and competitively. Opportunity to see what happened in the last five years, assess, and move forward.
- Opportunity to focus. We have great ideas and opportunities. We chase too many opportunities; it dilutes the staff and we lose our way. Too far apart between financial and student. ‘This is what the college is about’. Fewer things in more focused manner, could let us accomplish more in long term.
- More focused could make us less innovative. Need a process to make sure we don’t lose that.
- Confusing with too many strategic initiates – loose focus
- Figure out what our definition of success is. Refocus on students. We have huge financial concerns, but we need an honesty about it. If we make promises, we need to keep them. If you hire the right people, you should recognize what their PD is, industry and PD. We are not fulfilling promises to our students.
- We spend too much time scrambling to find someone who’s available to teach class. Best we could do is keep them part-time?
- Internal partnerships: students are learning concepts in class, if we had internal applied research between schools. We don’t have the resources and process to support this.
- PD policies don’t line up. How do we figure out the policies that promote? People who are tasked with administering policies, are they aware or working on precedent.
- Time to prep for a class. Was given a week’s notice to prep a class.
- No punishment for employee for didn’t do the job as promised. What encourages great work, when poor employees get away with everything. Hard to keep wanting to do outside projects when these people are being rewarded. Affects motivation.
- Listening to community. These ideas have come up before, not a new issue of concern. Here we truly don’t hear what stakeholders are saying. It feeds into moral. Hearing is great, actions are better. Are you hearing, and what are you going to do to contribute to this conversation.
- Leadership award. Is there possibility to award to someone who has demonstrated leadership for employees. New form of recognition.
- We should avoid (RE05) – student work: IP ownership if student uses college property. Policy is impeding students from wanting to pursue innovation under our roof. How do I come up with an agreement between me and student before they come up with something. They see this policy as a threat to their ideas.
- International students; their tuition fees have skyrocketed. yearly increases. How do we help these students to better afford it. They are suffering because of it. First part is to determine where the problems are and how we could help. Scholarships, not have multiple price jumps within the year. Look at how we help them
- Mission statement of proving long life success. It means having the tools to graduate and go to workforce. Increase the opportunity to have more access to workplace experience. More Work integrated experiences.
- Micro credentials and multiple educational ins and outs. Better way to build something an employer wants. We haven’t rolled out a smooth way to give student more options. Designed for the learner.
- Micro-credentials: college admin has been following the trends and what is that? Discouraging of not having masters but you also don’t have the real world experience. What you offer them for the learner, acknowledge them in the AC employee.
- Listening could go a long way when it comes to students. What we offer to employees here, training, etc – if that was also offered to students would go a long way to help them. Listening to students, needs assessments – being able to understand where the student is coming from. Offer Mental health first aid.
- Mental health strategy: allow for greater success by being more clear on what that strategy is. At the moment we support the student with mental health issues, but it’s a challenge to meet the long term and complex issues.
- Looking at partnerships more. Employees and staff that support the students are given the opportunity to give their best with support available. Support for the staff: counselling side numbers are up, but can barely meet demand. Capacity of employees and their mental health as well
- Capacity issue to offer services. Whole piece of greater success is hearing ‘this is so helpful.’ They want and need more. We really have become so crisis focused, putting out fires, but there’s so much more we could be doing as preventative work. We have not increased our complement for services in a long time. Don’t want to be firefighters, want to be proactive with our students.
- What does wellness look like; build it into the curriculum. If it matters, build it in.
- Upper executive folks my not have understood serious student issues, and the numbers that we have to care for , advocate for, etc – two sides: is the student getting enough support? No. we need the full time hires. For Staff: a manageable day, don’t want the concern that I missed something at end of day. Ensure the student is covered = more people.
- Specialized services – more of that pushed out to entire student body. Students can’t get on my calendar unless I’m invited to see them. Rolling out services available to everyone. Standardizing services to everyone. shouldn’t require specific need to access that
- We need to provide a universal set of services. Some students are young, don’t know how to be students yet. I’m spending time teaching them how to learn. Services: How to BE a Student.
- We haven’t provided the proper services to struggling students to justify the costs of school. Nature of student has changed. They struggle more than they used to . They don’t know how to come to us – help them learn how to problem solve. Where to go, who to talk to.
- Positions are not being filled. Left vacant. Causes more of higher stress. When people aren’t there to support and do work you need, it increases workload and mental health issues
- Don’t loose courses (Pre-trades, etc) that could help students become better learner. It’s a tool to allow them transition to college. Pre-trades, Pre-Technologies- they are great.
- Full time program reviews or created. We miss what the industry need – research needs of industry/ reevaluate the offerings.
- Update policies and references available on website. They are very outdated.
- Align services with students and staff.
- We have a lot of talent here , and we should be looking to fit them here.
- Innovations in the way we communicate. Live chat or system to communicate information. Information sharing. A way to ask a question. Would be great way to do for students and staff – most immediate way of communication. A People don’t know were to go, so big, we pass the buck – just find the information.
- CCOL has it currently – a live chat feature.
- Possibility to leverage chat bot or AI, instead of person. For repeated questions, with very straight forward or easy answer: a chat bot that could be programmed. Could alleviate real person to spend time on more high priority problem / solution
- I find that each department has it’s own website. new users using main search bar it doesn’t direct you properly. Time is wasted digging trying to find answers I’m told is there from an employee standpoint. How does it support the employees? I was a growing pain for me
- An announcement goes via email or posting to our own website – doesn’t reach everyone. Less that 10 percent reads the AC news (morning email) . Almost as though everybody who tries to get in as an employee should have a standard opening page that’s updated and non-cluttered with outdated info; how do we stay current?
- Time sensitive messages on AC gets buried. What is the answer? Have dedicated to just the people it impacts, somehow segmenting?
- Ask the employees what methods they want to use: email we have a lot of faculty that we are trying to reach who say they don’t use the AC email. We don’t know how else to get it to them; maybe they could have a choice to how to receive it. Forcing the AC email / How do you force that? People want to receive their info different ways / a personalize choice. One standard way to send it out, but multiple medium output.
- Our systems still don’t seem to work together. Part-timers: I found out that others didn’t know what was going on since they don’t even open their AC email.
- Beyond that, heard ‘how did you get in full-time’. I’ve been applying for multiple years. There’s a conspiracy/ perception that college don’ts want part-timers to move to full-time. Give a clear pathway from part-time to full-time.
- If we expect students to use secure AC email, then it should be our staff practice as well. What’s the pursuit? We need to make it clear on new hires.
- Make it a condition of employment: you must check your AC email.
- Standardization of system use. Too many systems being used, files are in 6 different places. Standardization of what our processes are.
- Provide training with systems change. Change management. Systems and process training.
- With the new system we have: Workday – We are not always aware of what it can do. If we knew more about it, we could adapt it more. We don’t know what the system can do for us, that it’s not currently doing. Information for future buy in. Opportunities with Workday that we are not aware of.
- Workday roll out. It didn’t feel prepared. To not do same thing as when we launch SIS. A lot of lessons learned and we need to utilize that knowledge. Roll out for Bright Space was good too.
- COL: related to living our values. We were involved in a pilot related to social responsibility. Three volunteer initiatives we participated in. After that, nothing materialized. We are a big org, social corporate responsibility is important. Volunteer into the community should be important.
- Environmental sustainability: grow it’s green opportunities. Actually be more green, not just be seen as green. Recycling on campus is a start.
- School of Hospitality and Tourism are working on green initiative. Piggy back on this. Add to this approach
- Process mapping : map out our processes and be transparent would alleviate a 5 person chain of info flow. Information should be available on website.
- Retirement knowledge leaves, and then we start from bottom. Build it back up.
- Sustainability: we had a real sustainability presence for a while. Would be nice to have that collaborative presence again. It was a lot of effort for a very few of people. There was passion. Physical resources .
- Retiring knowledge . Iv’e seen opportunity for knowledge network. Shoot an email if we have a question specific, or a social gathering.
- Process mapping: sometimes there are different processes for different things in different departments. Knowledge gets lost when moved around. Standardizing processes .
- Succession planning. It’s often folks left behind are taking more that workload. And it becomes the expected norm. Extra capacity can get lost. Allows you define core competencies and define what leadership is as an organization. Succession planning is a program.
- Lean approach. Push that a little further were were have the opportunity to improve the processes.
- I think it would be awesome to see the College reach out to community and sponsors to help (Indigenous people) attain education and move forward in life. Need more sponsorship, (promotion, and) letting these opportunities happen more often. seems like a lottery to some communities. Finding the best way to fund it, maybe it’s through sponsorships.
- Utilizing the Indigenous spaces for us. We are stuck learning in a non-traditional way, not a positive learning environment for us. Let us use the Lodge. The harvest room. Open up those spaces for us. Healing and sharing circles – we can’t do that in the classroom. It’s not fair to us. You preach you are understanding, but not allowing us to learn our way. Pathway for Indigenous learning – we can’t sit in a circle to follow protocol. We are doing stuff in classrooms that are not right.
- 7 generations, you are looking three years behind. You have your history, and look at all the issues and what has been done to solve those issues. Present year, we look at current problems to solve in the next 3 years. A lot of issues to look at: Academia is a product of colonialism. Trying to Indigenize, it is pretty complicated. We need more off field things, can’t just stick us in the corner. Not all environments have four corners. My sister was on the board: Did not receive any support for the board, was made to go home, wasn’t supportive and upset that she wasn’t able to attend management meetings: she missed out on a lot of traditional and culture time because of the board meetings. She was the only Indigenous person on the Board; they could have been more understanding about her life needs. It was very unprofessional to me. How do be able to talk about it. it shouldn’t have to be from me. shouldn’t have to always come from us. it gets exhausting. always having to educate everyone. it’s the bulk of others ignorance. It’s emotional and frustrating. It’s not talked about because it makes you uncomfortable. You should be uncomfortable as the privileged one. We need more spaces, safe spaces. Having the presence of someone in power that you can’t ever hold, we are not humanized in this system. You call it out when you see it. Talk about it with other white peers, institutional power should be talking about it. You are the one who can influence. We shouldn’t be seen as a minority, but a priority.
- Have a compulsory class to have to learn Indigenous practices and ways. It would do a lot to have a way of understanding what we’ve been through. Help with the division of it. Could be part of orientation.
- Algonquin could use spaces on reserves for partnerships.
- If I’m to feel included I don’t want to feel what I went through: I was directed to go have a cigarette. I was approached by a lady – came directly to me, singled me out (of a group of people and I was) to ask (me) to move. I said it was a common land. I was frustrated and angry; it feels like I was profiled. She took a picture of me (said she would report me). She went into the College. I detailed it all with security. To have it here in a place where I started to feel engaged and sense of propriety, it was a kick in the gut. Still dealing with racism on a daily basis. (People need) to change, start anew, more forward.
- Start with acknowledging us, especially in academia. Sociology: Karl Marx thought solution was to ban private property. We’ve been living with this ideal since dawn. It’s only acknowledged when a racist man says it. Their concepts, way of life, is celebrated because of the institution. Makes people ignorant. Needs to be mandatory to be exposed to it, it becomes dangerous to be in this world with hate and ignorance. They are afraid of us because people don’t know us, who we are. It need to be discussed first!
- How I came to learn (about each other) was through socials. Singers, dancing, totally free, potlucks. It would be cool to do that as a regular basis. Winter is long and dragging. Overcome difficulty to engage non-natives to participate (with celebrations – share traditions, food, dancing, and singing).
- Make use of the Mamidosewin Centre. Invite the whole College to come and spend time with us. An Indigenous culture we use space as a way of getting together and connecting. Colonized thinking is having meetings – let’s deconstruct the colonial ways we do have. Need a social celebration. With education to culture was singing and dancing. It’s just a small action but it really resonated as a First Nation boy – great impact on me. People that who weren’t First Nation and came, they got community members involved with the native community as well. Make a melting pot. People were hired, volunteers, meet similar studies. Mixing together – through art, music, and culture … and food! Open house – get other people that are non-Indigenous to check it out. Would also let all other Indigenous students aware of us. Helps with home sickness. Helps with students that have moved here from away – a sense of community. Should be included in the orientation for employees, for students: racism is not tolerated here.
- Indigenization and Reconciliation is important. Currently we have a lot of Indigenous students but don’t have a lot of front end support for them. We do 30-40 activities with different Indigenous groups a year, but can do more for them before they come here by providing more information and they know what is available to them and what they are getting into. We could do a lot better in that area.
- Changing workforce is a great place for us to take a lead in and adapt for. Be adaptable and adjust. Have the agility to embrace new challenges. Having the credentials is one things, but what you do with it is also important. What will the workforce will look like in the future? IT has evolved. Working as a project team, collaborative way of doing things. We are in a good environment here to support that. Work Life experience is a big factor.
- Career gear tool where academic credentials are just a piece of the pie: people skills, workplace skills, are other pieces as an employee or entrepreneur. It’s a new world where you can work in many different ways. We have an opportunity to collaborate and promote Ottawa as a whole. Think more broadly about being a community in a city.
- From a facility perspective, we see a lot of trends. Used to be 8-4 Mon-Fri but we see some organizations moving away from that. Now it’s objective focused. As long as you meet the objective, you work when you can. In terms of objectives, or learner driven environment – this is something new.
- Global Sustainability: can’t find any info about AC leading the way. We scored low only since there was not any info readily available. Create section on website for what we are doing for community, environments, etc. Updatable annual sustainability report.
- Employees: great opportunity to focus on tracking employees through the college. Just have to pick some amazing opportunities. Pick less, they are all phenomenal – I’m just listening to colleagues struggling with workload. We need to streamline the opportunities and priorities.
- We offer a lot of services for students. We need track touch points students are doing in while interacting with the services. It’ll give us better understanding on how they are doing, and how to give them the best road to success. Holistic view of the students to make it better. It allows us to be proactive in the outreach. Enables proactivity, eliminates redundancy.
- With our people. Hard working and dedication here. We are filled with these types of people throughout the ranks. Competing priorities prevent from making decisions with priorities. Formalize the off-side desk work – is there a way to attach that to strategic deliverable. Sustainability is a strategic goal; our team doesn’t spend time on that. What is everyone doing every day to help that? We know people want to help – they need permission to take time on it.
- Youth are highlighting college as a green ethical choice.
- Create research project where students track their use of services at the College. Possibly enlist students and reward them for tracking.
- After retirements – there are so many new people and we are so segmented more than ever. How to get new employees and young together to know each other and us – to be better orientated here.
- Standard process piece and your social allies. It’s not always the process in the way, it’s who’s on the other end. Who’s your ally. You know the process, but don’t know the people supporting the process.
- Profound opportunity for our institution to do academic publishing. We have faculty who are hungry to publish, we have staff who have lifetime experience to publish. Incredible place to celebrate our excellence. Faculty written material does make up some of our revenue.
- Storytelling culture. Foundational processes need to be in place. I found it somewhat lacking. Telephone tag, figure out non-documented processes.
- Reducing barriers on HR, Financial, and academic – staff and faculty – to participate in international placements.
*asterisks note agreement among attendees.
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- Listening Tour
October 29th, 2019 at 8:41 am
Part-time employees need more opportunities to become full-time staff. Some departments seem to have more part-time employees than full-time. Why would someone stay on as part-time if they are provided the opportunity to be full-time with another company and they don’t believe the same opportunity exists at Algonquin! Part-time employees need to know that their contributions matter and that full-time positions are available to them.
November 12th, 2019 at 9:44 am
A relentless pursuit of creating lifelong, self-directed learners, with most of our efforts going into the front end – level 1.