I often wonder what happened to students who struggled in the courses I teach. Was it a tough semester with a series of demanding courses? Was the way we presented information not accessible? Did I not communicate clearly? Was critical background information missing? Did I forget to scaffold or follow up? Last night, I watched a 2020 Lilly Conference session by Drs. Laura Cruz and Eileen Grodziak from Pennsylvania State University. Entitled “What about Joe?: A Case Study of FYE Student Success” and using several awesome 3D character images, I was curious. Who is Joe? What was this study? Are the results only applicable to First Year Experiences (FYE)? As Cruz mentioned: “in one sense Joe is nobody… is a composite of student characteristics … or everyone…”. The student that makes your rethink what you did or didn’t do and whose experiences are not easily characterized… that’s Joe. We all have Joes… with different names, experiences, and they all stick to our minds. Think description was used to uncover layers and learn. Grodziak told a compelling and honest narrative using layers. Layer 1: Direct observation: Grodziak described a Joe: sat in the front, was interactive, chatted in a first year seminar… and failed. How! Layer 2: the class was a first year seminar to teach the skills to be successful in college courses. Layer 3: ethnicity: Joe was an African American male. Layer 4: discipline, Joe was interested in STEM. Joe was not taking remedial courses. Layer 6: the campus is one building and a commuter campus. Layer 5: the region is close to professional workers and warehouses. The campus has a higher percentage of males than females. Layer 6: online engagement suggested cherry-picking for interest… wanting relevance. Layer 7: the analytics showed lots of page views… and the grade book, even revisiting assignments that were not submitted. Layer 8: finding out more about yourself: Grodziak is an instructional designer! What happened? By finding out more about Joe, Grodziak found out more about the instructor and the instructor-student relationship. Did the assignments and objectives align in Grodziak’s course? This incident, as Grodziak mentions, made them rethink student communication, course design… and a little about Joe. What I love is that this reflection and reflective teaching practice, layer by layer, helps us value the purpose of our courses as well as the complexity of each of our students. Grodziak exercise of studying what happened to Joe prompted them to revisit course alignment and how to foster meaningful connections. I enjoyed this story. It reminded me of several Joes I’ve not been able to help, yet, without them knowing, their experience helped improve the course for others.
