Blog

  • More Gender Breakouts of Admission Data

    More Gender Breakouts of Admission Data

    I’ve written a lot about yield rates over time, and I’ve also written about differences in admission patterns among male and female applicants here and here; I’ve decided to take a fresh look at both based on some continuing discussions I’ve heard recently. 

    You have, of course, heard about the crisis of male enrollment in American colleges, which, if you look at the data, is really a crisis of enrollment at Community Colleges.  Far be it from me to insist on data, however.

    Here is the same data for women, just to point out that there are differences.  Whether we should celebrate increasing attainment among young women or decry the inability of young men to keep up is your choice. 

    Regardless, here is a detailed breakout of these patterns as they show up in admissions over time.  There are four views here: A summary on tab one (using the tabs across the top); ratios of women to men at all stages of the process and estimated applications per student; gender-specific admission rates at the highly rejectives over time; and, for anyone who wants to download the data using the little icon at the bottom, a spreadsheet format.  Note: IPEDS just started collecting application data on non-binary students, so it will be a while before any trend analysis is possible.  For 2022, I only included students who self-identified as male or female.)

    Rather than explain the interactivity, I’ve put two buttons on the first view: Hover over the Orange Plus Sign to read some caveats about the data; and hover over the lightbulb for information about how to interact.

    As always, I’d love to hear what you see.

    Source link

  • From a shaky start to a first-class degree, by Tracy Roberts – ALL @ Liverpool Blog

    From a shaky start to a first-class degree, by Tracy Roberts – ALL @ Liverpool Blog

    Although I was considered quite bright in the small primary school I attended, when I started high school as an undiagnosed autistic child I became incredibly overwhelmed and found the only way to cope with the extra sensory and social pressure was to coast through. I fell behind with work as I spent most of my time just trying to cope with the school environment.

    Having developed an apprehensive relationship with academia, I always hoped I might be able to access university. I had to drop my a-levels in 1995 when I was 18, so I could work full-time and move to a flat when it became obvious I needed to leave my toxic family home.

    After two failed attempts at trying to complete a degree, struggling through a lot of personal hardships, when my youngest started school I decided I wanted one last go. That was when I started Go Higher, in 2018. The incredibly kind, knowledgable, experienced and dedicated staff helped me develop the skills and confidence I needed to finally achieve my lifelong goal of gaining a degree.

    Many of us were particularly scared of the maths component, myself included. I actually ended up falling in love with maths, it is taught in such a well designed and easily accessible way. When my mother who had dementia was entering a severe decline in her condition I found the maths module gave me time to enter a logical mental space and actually helped me cope during an otherwise extremely emotional time. I even used the resources provided for the module to help my daughter develop a new confidence with maths.

    I had a shaky start but thanks to the support and advice I received on the course I ended up being awarded the academic achievement award and 99% in maths, and began my degree with the University of Liverpool in 2019. I faced many more struggles and it took me two extra years, but this time I had everything I needed to push through. No more coasting, the Go Higher provided me with a new confidence and a realisation of what I could achieve. Next week I will be graduating with a first class degree in Evolutionary Anthropology and will be receiving the Evolutionary Anthropology Prize. I have been accepted onto the MSc in Human Evolution, and am working on publishing a paper with one of the professors, based on one of my third year undergraduate assignments. At 47 years old I feel as if life might finally be opening up for me.

    For anyone who felt as if other people had access to a secret book of knowledge on how to develop their academic skills and confidence, the staff of the Go Higher team will help you access that book and guide you through every chapter.

    Source link

  • 10 Top Hat Tips for a More Engaging Semester

    10 Top Hat Tips for a More Engaging Semester

    What does the future of higher education look like? At Top Hat, we believe engagement, affordability and equity are at the heart of a great classroom experience. That’s why we’re excited to highlight a number of features in our platform and content solutions to empower students and faculty alike. Take a look at these unique capabilities in Top Hat and get ready to level up your lectures, assessments and grading strategy.

    → Free Toolkit: Get strategies, templates and videos for a successful new term

    1. Add AI-generated questions to every lecture

    Top Hat Ace, our AI-powered assistant, is the latest milestone in our mission to make education more effective, inclusive and accessible. Instructors can use Ace’s Lecture Enhancer to instantly generate assessment questions based on their lecture content. Doing so will spark engagement in class and help educators assess comprehension in the moment. Faculty can even edit generated questions as they see fit, maintaining control over the questions generated. Learn more about our AI-powered Lecture Enhancer here. In addition, educators can save time designing assignments and readings in Top Hat Pages by adding questions automatically generated by Ace.

    2. Assign homework to specific students

    Shore up learning gaps sooner rather than later. With personalized data delivered to your inbox every week, identify which students didn’t answer discussion or poll questions in your lecture and re-assign your PowerPoint slides to this group as homework. This will give students a chance to refresh themselves on your material, which may prove especially beneficial for those who weren’t able to join your class live. Learn more about assigning homework to specific students here. You can also watch the video below as we explore the difference between homework and review mode.

    3. Make your discussion and poll questions media-rich

    Give students an interactive assessment experience. You may know how to add videos or simulations to your Pages, but you can also directly embed media into your quiz questions. Not only will students get a more dynamic, immersive learning experience, they’ll get an opportunity to consume your course material in a different medium. Plus, using videos in your quiz questions makes for a more engaging alternative to the static Scantron or multiple-choice test. Learn more about using videos in questions or discussions here.

    4. Offer line-by-line feedback on document submissions

    Enjoy feedback functionality that will be familiar to those who regularly use Google Docs. Using our file submission question, students are able to upload PDFs, lab templates or spreadsheets to Top Hat. Take your feedback to another level by offering annotated comments at various points in PDF or image submissions. This level of detailed commentary allows students to fully understand their own learning gaps, while giving you an opportunity to flag specific areas for improvement in advance of a high-stakes assessment. Learn more about how to leave detailed feedback in PDF file submissions here.

    5. Measure comprehension of the same concept over time

    If you’re preparing students for an exam and want to check their understanding of tricky concepts multiple times, this feature is for you. Compare student comprehension over a period of your choosing by keeping a record of responses to the same question asked more than once. After enabling this feature, you’ll be able to compare responses submitted on date X with date Y, seeing what percentage of students answered a particular way and letting you adapt your instruction accordingly. Explore how to create multiple question report sessions for your next quiz here. You can also watch our video below to see how to segment question results over time.

    6. Annotate your slideshow with whiteboard sketches

    Sometimes, visually explaining a new concept can be easier than describing it in words. Top Hat’s Whiteboard Sketch tool allows you to insert blank slides into your slideshow, which you can then draw on in real time. For instance, complement a presentation on mitosis by drawing out the various stages live, answering student questions along the way. This tool doesn’t just allow for richer, more detailed discussions, it ensures students get a visual depiction of challenging concepts before moving on to your next topic. Learn how to embed interactive elements into your slides here.

    7. Embed iFrames to create a truly interactive learning experience

    Tailor your learning materials to the needs of Generation Z. When creating assessments, homework or customizing chapter readings in Pages, use iFrames to link to media such as podcasts, websites, simulations and GIFs. Open the interactive toolbar in your page, select the iFrame option and paste your desired link in the field. Learn how to embed iFrames in your course content here. You can also watch our video below for guidance on creating course materials using Pages.

    8. Use Presenter View to view personal notes and real-time responses

    In a single view, get all the information you need to deliver a high-quality presentation. Use Presenter View to get a second screen that’s only accessible to you. View lecture notes that you added into your slide deck and get a live report of students’ responses as they answer questions live. Plus, preview which slide is next—and shift your conversation with students accordingly. Explore the power of Presenter View in helping you deliver an impactful slideshow here.

    9. Keep your course textbook fresh and relevant with in-app content updates

    Give students a learning experience that mirrors the world around them. Incorporate the latest content updates without losing any customizations in your interactive Top Hat textbook. You’ll be alerted whenever new author-created content is available for your text and will be given a chance to review all updates before accepting or rejecting them. This functionality ensures that educators have access to the latest content when it becomes available, on their own terms. In-app content updates are currently available in beta format for select Top Hat textbooks. Discover how our content enhancements make it easy to keep any textbook up-to-date here.

    10. Provide AI-powered study support 

    Make sure every student has in-the-moment study support. Students can use our AI-powered study assistant to clarify challenging concepts, generate examples of specific topics and quiz themselves in advance of a test. Ace delivers relevant responses built from the context of your uploaded materials, making it easy for students to review lectures and study notes in one place. Read more about our personalized study assistance here. You can also watch the video below for a closer look at our AI-powered study tools.

    → Free Toolkit: Get the Most Out of Top Hat

    Source link

  • Top 12 Marketing Project Ideas

    Top 12 Marketing Project Ideas

    What are the benefits of working on MBA marketing projects?

    MBA marketing projects let students use their book knowledge in real business situations. They learn skills like market research, data analysis, and strategy making. Plus, they make professional contacts that could help their careers later.

    What are some popular topics for MBA marketing projects related to branding and positioning strategies?

    Popular topics include checking brand value and making strategies for changing or refreshing a brand. Students also work on creating marketing plans to improve a brand’s image and stand out in the market.

    How can MBA marketing projects help students understand consumer behavior and develop effective retention strategies?

    These projects look into what makes customers loyal and how they make buying decisions. They focus on managing customer relationships, improving customer happiness, and making a brand stand out from others.

    What are some emerging trends and innovative strategies that MBA marketing projects might explore?

    Projects might look into digital marketing, using artificial intelligence in marketing, and how social media fits into marketing plans. They also cover using games in marketing and how data changes marketing strategies.

    Where can MBA students find inspiration for their marketing project topics?

    Students can get ideas by looking at industry trends, studying case studies, and doing market research. Talking to professors, industry experts, or going to marketing events can also give them new ideas and insights.

     

    Source link

  • Dr. James Lang’s 4 Tips for a Great First Day of Class

    Dr. James Lang’s 4 Tips for a Great First Day of Class

    What goes into a great first lecture? Ask any educator and they’ll highlight three resounding themes: prioritize community, foster connection and build excitement. The good news is that designing a high-impact first lecture doesn’t involve a complete rewrite of your existing lesson plan. Rather, it’s about making simple adjustments to help students form a great first impression.

    Dr. James Lang, acclaimed author of Small Teaching and featured speaker at Top Hat Summer Camp 2024, shares actionable strategies to deepen engagement during week one of your course. We’ve rounded up his ideas below.

    → Student Engagement Toolkit: Enjoy FREE teaching tips, templates and more!

    1. Focus on community building

    Set the table for long-term success by getting to know students and in turn, help them get to know you. Consider sharing what made you want to teach your specific subject and the most rewarding part of teaching. Dr. Lang also suggests intentionally forging personal ties with students. Simple practices could involve showing up to class early and greeting students as they file in. You might also use your first lecture to stream a relevant TED talk, podcast snippet or music video that relates to your course material. Helping students see that there’s more to the first day than reviewing the syllabus will surely leave them feeling inspired and primed to learn. What better feeling could there be as an educator?

    2. Ensure activities model your course structure

    The early stages of your course represent an important opportunity to instill the right behaviors. Dr. Lang’s advice? Begin as you intend to continue by modeling the kind of learning environment you seek. For instance, if your course revolves around peer-to-peer discussions, consider including a collaborative exercise during your opening session. If active learning is important, give students a problem to solve or have them respond to a series of polling questions. Dr. Lang shares other discipline-specific examples of how to break the ice between students.

    History English Math
    Take a page out of Dr. Cate Denial’s book. The Bright Distinguished Professor of American History at Knox College, who teaches a problem-based course, randomly places students in small groups. She then provides each group with a document package about a specific event. Students then work together to develop stories about what occurred during the event. Finally, they share their stories with the wider group. The purpose of the exercise is to demonstrate that in the pursuit of truth there are often numerous ways historical events can be interpreted.  Any English instructor can vouch for the importance of discussion and critical analysis. Consider holding a prior knowledge brainstorm to spark conversation among students. For example, if your course covers 21st Century British literature and culture, you might ask students to respond to the following prompts: a) what do we mean by the word ‘British?,’ b) what are your impressions of British culture and c) are you familiar with any British writers? This is a great way to surface prior knowledge, clarify common misconceptions, and get students thinking about the journey ahead.  You might also use your opening class to get students reflecting on their past experiences in your subject. Dr. Robert Talbert, Professor in the Department of Mathematics at Grand Valley State University, uses open-ended questions to encourage students to reflect on their learning. He shares the following prompts: a) what is something that you are good at doing? And b) how did you get good at the thing you are good at doing? Math is a challenging subject. This exercise gets students thinking about their approach to learning while sending a subtle message that you are invested in their success. 

    3. Pose ‘big’ questions to students (and yourself)

    Framing your course as a BIG question to explore over the term is a powerful way to pique curiosity, build excitement, and communicate the value of what students will learn. Starting your course with a BIG question is also a great opportunity to engage students right away in a meaningful discussion. Here’s an example from a course on science fiction:

    “Can you be confident that the person sitting next to you on the bus is really a human rather than some remarkable replica conjured up by a mad scientist or, perhaps, an alien from another planet? What evidence is needed to conclude that the person casually looking at her mobile device is human? How have we constructed the conceptual boundary between what we qualify as human and what we categorize as robotic, animal, android, or alien? What, in the end, makes the human “human”?”

    If you’re struggling to craft a big question for your course, Dr. Lang suggests thinking through the following prompts:

    • What deep questions drove the development of my discipline?
    • What questions drove the creation of my course?
    • What intriguing questions have arisen over time?
    • What questions remain unanswered in my field?

    To drive a first day discussion around your big question, you might ask your students to pair up and answer the following: What do you know about this subject? How might this relate to other things you’ve studied? How would you answer this question? What other questions does this bring to mind?  Once students have had an opportunity to discuss, regroup as a class and ask a handful of pairs to share their insights.

    4. Try out the Annotated Syllabus method

    Your course syllabus serves as the roadmap for the term. While important to review, Dr. Lang advises it shouldn’t be your first priority and counsels against simply reciting each section. Instead, he suggests using the Annotated Syllabus methodology. Conceptualized by Dr. Remi Kalir, Assistant Professor of Learning Design and Technology at the University of Colorado Denver, the Annotated Syllabus is a tool to generate a broader conversation about your course.

    Prior to the next class, ask students to work through the following prompts: What do students feel needs further clarification? What are their sentiments around your course policies? What are their opinions about readings and assignments? What advice do you have in order to be successful in the course? The goal is to strive for commentary that is “inquisitive and constructive.” Above all, an Annotated Syllabus invites feedback that may otherwise go unheard. Students are made active participants from the get-go and are more accountable for reading the document before coming to class.

    Source link

  • Changes in AP Scores, 2022 to 2024

    Changes in AP Scores, 2022 to 2024

    Used to be, with a little work, you could download very detailed data on AP results from the College Board website: For every state, and for every course, you could see performance by ethnicity.  And, if you wanted to dig really deep, you could break out details by private and public schools, and by grade level.  I used to publish the data every couple of years.

    Those days are gone.  The transparency The College Board touts as a value seems to have its limits, and I understand this to some extent: Racists loved to twist the data using single-factor analysis, and that’s not good for a company who is trying to make business inroads with under-represented communities as they cloak their pursuit of revenue as an altruistic push toward access.

    They still publish data, but as I wrote about in my last post, it’s far less detailed; what’s more, what is easily accessible is fairly sterile, and what’s more detailed seems to be structured in a way that suggests the company doesn’t want you digging down into it.

    But based on a series of tweets by Marco Learning, based on research by its founder John Moscatiello, I set about scraping the data off the website, as on this page for 2024, this page for 2023, and this page for 2022. After first making a mistake because of the way the data are formatted and laid out, I’ve done manual checks and double-checks on this, especially on the exams where the results look way out of whack with what you would expect.

    Marco Learning’s take was that this was intentional on the part of the College Board, and that it would continue on other exams in the future.

    They also pointed out that this would save students a lot of money in college tuition, and of course, that’s true; if the tests were correctly designed, and students did better, that would be good news.  But the question is really: Should they be getting credit for these results?  Do the changes in performance mean that students are more qualified, or that the tests are easier?  And in some subjects, does giving credit for some courses actually set students up for failure in subsequent classes?

    This is problematic because College Board has spent a lot of money lobbying state legislatures to pass laws requiring public universities grant credit for AP exams (usually a 3 or above).  The assumption on college campuses is that–despite some mistrust of the College Board and their methods–they have good psychometricians who ensure test design meets rigorous standards that ensure a grade of 4, for instance, means the same thing today as it did five years ago.

    But the incentive to enforce that rigor is gone, since states have effectively endorsed the outcomes of these exams as valid and worthy.  College Board can now shift to growing market penetration, as they do when they encourage school districts to push AP, and encourage even students who might not be prepared to take AP classes.

    And, of course, as always seems to be the case, there is some measure of hypocrisy in the current statements of College Board compared to things they’ve said in the past. Remember the book “Measuring Success” which was written in large part by College Board staff members and fans, and railed against grade inflation, using data that suggested otherwise? (College Board disavows any formal connection to the book, but their Communications Staff Members were thanked in the foreword.)

    Paul Tough, in his book “The Years that Matter Most” pointed out that College Board’s own conclusions contradict the evidence they published:

    The data are below, in three views: And before I allow you to leap to conclusions, there are a lot of things that might explain why scores in some exams are swinging so wildly in a year, but College Board’s refusal to publish this data in an easily, machine-readable format makes that insight really hard to get at (and they won’t do it themselves, as they never respond publicly to criticism like this.)

    At a bare minimum, when College Board exam results show wild swings like this (especially if they are intentional) I think they owe it to actively notify every university that accepts scores, and every state legislature they’ve lobbied to approve the tests, of the changes.

    View one (using the tabs across the top) shows thermometer charts: Choose any class using the drop down box.  You’ll find big changes in some of the classes, and some that seem perfectly tuned over time.

    View two shows the same data in a format some might find easier.

    View three shows all exams that have three years of data (thus, excluding African-American Studies and Pre-Calc) for a wider view of the program.

    Source link

  • I Did a Boo Boo

    I Did a Boo Boo

    Last night, I looked at a chart that had been tweeted out by Marco Learning, a terrific source for information about The College Board’s AP Program.  It showed the percentage of all scores graded 4 and 5 over time by subject, and there were some glaring points: Lots of big increases in certain subjects that didn’t seem to make sense.  Turns out, their data was correct.

    Wanting to dive down a little deeper, I went to the College Board website to look at the data myself, and to “download” it for some additional analysis.  I put the word download in quotation marks on purpose.

    I have a history with College Board, of course.  I used to download the very rich AP data by state, exam, and ethnicity they’d post on their site and put it into an interactive format that pulled out insight better than the large, text-exclusive spreadsheets they’d post.  Then–despite the organization’s oft-cited commitment to transparency–they stopped.  

    In an example of Newspeak worthy of the novel 1984 that they might want to use in a future AP English Literature Exam, College Board said they were going to implement a “streamlined” reporting protocol for the data.  Less data, and less insight, in other words, was better. (They also announced that their “Landscape” product was being pulled down while they were saying they were making it more transparent, by the way, and no high school person has access to it today.)

    Anyway, this chart shows incorrect data for AP Psych, suggesting that the percentage of 4 and 5 scores increased by 42 percentage points between 2022 and 2024.  Let me explain how it found its way into my tweet, and the larger issues it points out.

    You can still download summary data at the subject level (but not more detailed than that) on the College Board website, but it comes in a messy format that makes one think they don’t really want you to do any analysis on it.  It has hidden rows, hidden columns, merged cells, and different formats by row that make anything other than tedious manual extraction almost impossible. It looks like this; the data are clearly intended for casual users who want a quick answer, and not in a way that makes it easy to study in-depth.

    So, after getting frustrated after wrangling this and admitting I’d been foiled by the data people on Vesey Street, I settled not for raw data, but for summaries on their website, on pages like this for 2024 and this for 2022.  I manually copied all the tables, pasted them into Excel, and then set about cleaning them up.  Even that was frustrating:  In some years, College Board calls its exam “AP English Language & Composition,” while in other years, it’s “AP English Language and Composition.”  Similarly, it’s either  “AP 2D Art & Design” or  “AP 2-D Art and Design.” Some years, data are rounded to the nearest whole number; in others, to one decimal point. These are insignificant differences to human readers, but they’re a big deal for computers.  

    All seemed to be going well, although the year-to-year changes in nomenclature and formatting seem capricious and undisciplined from a data standpoint, especially for an organization that prides itself on its research and analysis capabilities.

    And, finally, on the 2024 link, above, guess what? AP Psych is listed twice: First under “History and Social Sciences” 

    and then again under “Sciences.”  So, AP Psych in 2024 (but not the other years) got counted twice.

    Had I been successful in just downloading and cleaning the numbers, this would not have happened because I calculate the percentage of the totals of raw numbers.  But because I had to scrape this off a website, this error showed up.  I should have checked this a couple of ways before posting, but I didn’t, and that’s my fault.

    This would normally be where I’d call on College Board to make their data more accessible to the general public in the interest of transparency, but a) they don’t listen, b) they don’t give a crap about the members, and c) they just wait for people to forget how bad they are at the most simple things and keep paying their executives multi-million dollar salaries.  

    And these are the people, I’d remind you, who are being asked to fix the FAFSA, and despite the massive conflict of interest it creates, gleefully and arrogantly agree to do so. 

    All is good.  Carry on.  I’ll post the complete data soon after I do more more auditing. 

    Source link

  • Colleges that might close soon

    Colleges that might close soon

    OK, I admit it.  That headline is clickbait.  I have no idea which colleges might close in the near future, but I want to take a look at the problem from 30,000 feet.

    This is prompted by the recent announcement that Eastern Nazarene College in Massachusetts will close. It comes on the heels of several other announcements like this over the past few years.  And of course, because we’ve become accustomed to colleges surviving for long periods even during bad times, the surprise makes people wonder who’s next.

    The meta-answer will surprise you: While we of course feel bad for the people who lose jobs, the students who are displaced, and the community that finds itself dealing with the loss of a respected institution, these trends are small blips in the industry.  In fact, the institutions most likely to close (probably) collectively account for a small fraction of enrollment at America’s colleges and universities.

    Follow along.  

    One of the challenges in talking about this is the graduate/undergraduate split in enrollment (enrollment is complicated, y’all) and the wide range of different types of missions in higher education.  Some small institutions are completely undergraduate, while some are mostly graduate.  Some institutions are heavily supported by outside money from a congregation or donations (think seminaries or other religious institutions), and still others are small by design, often because they have enormous endowments and/or highly focused missions.

    But here is the hypothesis, and the data to give you some perspective on it.  

    Let’s suppose that colleges in danger of closing are very small, in either total enrollment or undergraduate enrollment.  Some of those, as I suggested, aren’t in danger but we’ll leave them in for the sake of simplicity.

    I took all four-year private colleges, since public institutions rarely close purely for financial reasons, and for-profit college closings happen frequently, without much fanfare.  And I grouped them by undergraduate and graduate enrollment in 2022, and arrayed them on a grid.  The values across the top break institutional graduate headcount enrollment into groups and the values down the left-hand column breaks them into undergraduate enrollment by that measure. 

    This is what the grid looks like. Click to expand:

    Let’s get draconian, and say that in the not-too-distant future every college in the second and third row will close: That is, those colleges with undergraduate enrollment of at least one student, but fewer than 1,000, regardless of graduate enrollment. All 687 of them will close. 

    If that happened tomorrow, it would displace about 268,244 undergraduate students, or about 9.5% of all undergrads enrolled in those four-year, not-for-profit institutions.  Not a small number or percentage.  Again, these are real people who feel the results of those decisions.

    But of course, four-year not-for-profit institutions are a small sliver of college students in America. All told, in the Fall of 2022, there were 15,964,998 undergraduate students enrolled across all types of institutions.  If we were to lose all of those 687 institutions and all 268,244 students, it would represent 1.7% of all college students nationwide.

    Again, not insignificant if you’re one the students affected.  But do we believe that we will see 687 closures in the coming years?  I suppose some people do.  I don’t. And if you don’t, you’ll realize the net effect will probably be much, much smaller than you might have anticipated.

    So when you hear about colleges closing, you should feel bad for the people affected.  But take a look at the data before you make rash pronouncements about higher education in general.

    Source link

  • Speaking Out on Social Media with Dr. Monica Cox, author of Never Defeated

    Speaking Out on Social Media with Dr. Monica Cox, author of Never Defeated

    Jennifer: I’m so excited to feature Dr. Monica Cox, a professor, author, and change maker. Monica, thanks so much for coming today to talk about your new book Never Defeated: Nine Lessons from the Workplace Front Lines. I wanted to be sure to get that right.

    Monica: It’s okay. That’s fine. It’s very long. So you did a great job. Thank you. So great to be here and to meet you in person, kind of.

    Jennifer: Yeah. I know we’ve been connected on social media for a while and I’ve been following your amazing work, but I’m so excited to introduce you to The Social Academic community. Would you mind telling people a little bit about yourself?

    Monica: Sure, sure. So I am of course Dr. Monica Cox. I am an academic and a professor, an engineering education professor. I’m also a former administrator and I am an entrepreneur who is the CEO and founder of STEMinent, LLC, which offers a variety of offerings that have an umbrella of helping people to emerge whole and bold and strong in the workplace, or whichever environment they so choose. So that’s me in a nutshell.

    Jennifer: Bold and strong. I love it. I love it.

    Monica: Yeah, thank you.

    Jennifer: Tell me, What prompted you to write Never Defeated? This is such a powerful book. What, what made you know that it had to be out in the world?

    Monica: Okay, so there’s the business answer and then there’s kind of the other heart related answer.

    Jennifer: Yeah.

    Monica: So I would say from a business perspective, I have a Stop Playing Diversity brand, which is based on just my commitment to authentic diversity, equity, and inclusion. And the quick part of that story is that when I was hired in my most recent organization, I told them not to hire me if they were playing diversity. And of course, they didn’t know what that meant. But over time I realized that a lot of the things that I needed to be successful in that workplace as a black woman administrator just, they weren’t there. And I decided to trademark Stop Playing Diversity, and that meant that I wanted to have guides coaching the business arm, and I wanted to write a series of books. So Never Defeated is one of the books that I’m gonna write as part of the Stop Playing Diversity brand and the trademark for the business. Amazing. So, like I said, that’s the business part.

    Stop Playing Diversity Podcast: Starting the Conversation That Should Be Happening But Isn't with Dr. Monica

    Monica: The personal part is that I went through hell at work. It was a mess. And there’s a quote in the book where I talk about a blueprint and I wished I had a blueprint before I started this experience. But I always said, sometimes you have to be the blueprint. And as I was learning and documenting what was going on, I would look at tweets and kind of just record the tweets. And I wrote essays based on the things that were resonating with people on social media. So that is the heart part of this, where it’s my story where it also is informed from the voices of people who’ve gone through situations very similar to mine. And as you know about social media, there was also the upheaval with Twitter/X. And I thought, if it goes away, what about all of that information, all of those conversations. And this book is kind of the way for me to almost take ownership, to take back some of the valuable conversations and resources that came out of a really good time for me on social media. That was the long story.

    Jennifer: Ohh! And a beautiful one that really touched my heart. So I hear what you mean when you say the heart side of, of your reasons for writing this very important book. Never Defeated is so powerful because it reads as authentic, it reads like you’re talking to me. And I think that’s what made me pick it up and not put it down until I finished.

    Monica: Thank you.

    Jennifer: I mean, I was like walking around the house with it, trying to make sure that I got all of these words in because, you know, sometimes when we see things on Twitter, it does make a meaningful difference in our lives. But seeing all of it at once, like being able to read your words, it just, it was, it was quite meaningful for me. I really appreciated it. Yeah.

    Monica: Thank you. And I’ll say something really quickly about it, even this morning, my husband was telling me that someone was reading it and the words were powerful. So I thank you for this. It is still kind of difficult for me to process all of it because I’m also healing as I share what I’ve talked about. So it’s not easy for me to just be like, let me read this every day now. No, that was my life and I lived it. And it was just a moment. And there’s just an element about that that I wanna put about the book too, where it felt like I was sharing a piece of myself and it’s just that it’s all compact, but that was really my life with the death of, you know, my parents and so many real things that have impacted me. So, so even now I feel a little emotional talking about it because it was that real to me as a person.

    The form above subscribes you to new posts published on The Social Academic blog.
    Want emails from Jennifer about building your online presence? Subscribe to her email list.
    Looking for the podcast? Subscribe on Spotify.
    Prefer to watch videos? Subscribe on YouTube.

    Jennifer: Oh, I hear you. I hear you. And I really appreciate that maybe despite the emotional weight of writing the book and sharing, like you, you still put it out there in the world and you still write your tweets, even though, I mean, I, I guess I wonder, is there some fear when you’re talking about, you know, things that happen that are maybe not talked about in the room, like, but like you are saying it on Twitter. And so I’m wondering what are your feelings about that? Was it different when you were writing the book?

    Monica: So, when I talk about the tweets, this seems very spiritual and some people may not get this, but I will, I will be asleep. And when I wake up I hear like, it’s almost like the words come to me. And so I’m writing them because it’s like, this is what I’m supposed to say for the day. And sometimes it’s punchy, but it is almost like you, you and I talking right now. I just know that there’s a thought that has formed. And so that’s what that is. I don’t feel the fear. When I write things that are so truthful because it is just as clear as to me that that’s what I’m supposed to say.

    Jennifer: It’s like already formed in your mind when you’re going to say, I get that. ’cause it’s a poet. That’s how I write poetry. It’s not how I write social media posts, but it is how I write poetry. And so I really, I hear you when you say like, the feelings that, like, that happens when you’re writing it in your head and then it’s out there and you’re like, but I’ve already, it’s already there. It, it exists.

    Monica: Exactly. And sometimes I’ll even, I have my phone next to me and I’ll write something as a note. And so that’s something too, like I’ll wake up at 3:00 AM and that’s one thing, the part about the book is that I had a book consultant, a developmental kind of editor.

    Jennifer: Wonderful.

    Monica: Thank you. And at first I was not going to write stories. Hmm. The first draft was very much practical, and that was it. And she pushed me to include more of myself in the book. And I did not think that I was ready to do that because there are some stories people didn’t know about. And I knew that I would be very vulnerable sharing, for example, how I contacted the president of my university when there were things happening after the murder of George Floyd. And you know, kind of what happened, like I’m whistle blowing on myself. To say, this is what I did with other people during this time. And one thing that people have really complimented me on, and I was very careful about is making sure that I, I was very truthful with my stories without naming names.

    Jennifer: Yes.

    Monica: So if people do not know where I work, you would not know. And my developmental editor, even by the time she looked at it, she’s like, I don’t even know where you work. So I realized that that’s an immense skill to be able to tell so much. And I do that on social media as well. So, so much without fully telling you what’s up.

    Jennifer: Yeah.

    Monica: And that also is something I would say that I have to tread carefully with from a legal perspective. Yeah. Because I was so involved in a legal case for three years where I had to decide, am I going to remove myself completely from social media? Am I not going to write? Am I gonna shut down my voice? Or am I going to figure out how to still share my truths without incriminating myself without telling too much? It was, it is a slippery slope to do this work. And I’ll say it’s very strategic, very deliberate. And I hope that’s what you see even as I’m like teetering right there. But nah, I, I know how to say it.

    Jennifer: I’m curious when you say that you really had, you approached a point in which you had to make a decision whether to remove yourself from social media or to stay, what helped you make that decision?

    Monica: Well, it’s the motivation for me actually being on social media. Once I was an administrator, I said it in my book that it was kind of like an archive for me, but I got to a point in my organization where it became very dangerous for me to be there because of the lack of equity work that they were doing. But also I could tell that I was being set up to be this scapegoat. And I wasn’t going to be that person, I was going to fight. So I had an attorney who I worked with at the time, and two of the things that he mentioned about social media usage is that it’s archived. And I mean, it’s an archived record, of course, of what happens. And he said, you have to tell the truth. Like in, in a court of law, it would be like the timestamps and is what you’re saying true. So I used it very strategically and I always said, because it literally got to a point where I was being harassed because of some stuff. I said, if anything, God forbid ever happened to me, then my husband, maybe my legal team, the people around me could look at what I wrote on social media and have that as evidence of what I was going through. So I was hiding in plain sight.

    Jennifer: Yeah.

    Monica: And people didn’t understand. What, why does she do this every day? Because I want people to know what happened on say, you know, Monday, February 17th. You know, people would say, “Oh, it’s too much. Why would a department chair do that?” Because I was concerned.

    Jennifer: Yeah, you’re protecting yourself. That’s interesting.

    Monica: Absolutely. Yeah.

    Jennnifer: People tend to have fear when it comes to social media, but you actually found some protection in it in the sense that it was a documented record.

    Monica: Absolutely.

    Jennifer: I’m wondering, for listeners who may be experiencing something similar on their university campuses, what kind of documentation do you recommend that they practice?

    Monica: Well, I would say social media could be good, but you don’t even have to use your real name. You know, so some type of pseudonym or something. And I mean, of course if it ever came to the point where people needed to know that was you, you could say it was you. But that’s one way that you can use it. Another way. I mean, it’s email. When I was a department chair, I used to think about this all the time. There are some like basics. When you have a meeting with someone, you wanna make sure that things are clear. So you can send an email afterward. One of the things that people need to be careful of is having conversations on the phone, because that’s not really documentation.

    Jennifer: Right.

    Monica: You need it to be written. You need the summary to be written. And one thing that I even learned through my organization is that I would send things and people would not respond. But when it was time for me to compile information, you know, I could have, you know, five examples for of like, when I did contact people, like, “Hey, I told you I was in distress on this date. I told you that I was having this issue with an employee.” And I think that’s going to be one of the big things that we do strategically moving forward to protect ourselves, particularly in an anti-DEI age. People are going to avoid, they’re going to want to walk that fine line, but if we are in distress, we need to put that out there in writing that this is unacceptable. I am being treated this way and this is how I move forward. And I think one other quick thing I’ll say, the reason this is, this is very vital is because I’ve also learned through my experience that the policies are not in place to protect certain issues like microaggressions. There is no law against someone microaggressing you. There is no law in place against workplace bullying. So when you are experiencing situations that make you feel that your life is in danger, or in the case of, I don’t know if you saw Dr. Bonnie, Dr. Antoinette Bonnie, her full  name is Candia-Bailey, she ended her life. You know, we need to tell our stories in ways that sometimes are cries for help, but are sometimes those records after we have left an organization to say, this is what happened on this day. This is my voice. These are the people who knew, you know, et cetera. Sorry I went off. That was long, but.

    Jennifer: No, Thank you for sharing that much about all this. I, and I think that I have wanted to ask this kind of question before, sometimes I’ve had guests on my show that have experienced some bullying on social media and other things. I know I had Dr. Carlotta Berry, who came and talked about it. But you’ve been through the kind of legal battle and something that’s public. And you’ve written about it in ways that I feel like people will really hear what you’re saying and it, they’ll take it in and they’ll start practicing some of those things themselves. Like, I want to help inspire change with this conversation. And so I really appreciate you being open and authentic about that.

    Monica: Oh, thank you. Of course.

    The form above subscribes you to new posts published on The Social Academic blog.
    Want emails from Jennifer about building your online presence? Subscribe to her email list.
    Looking for the podcast? Subscribe on Spotify.
    Prefer to watch videos? Subscribe on YouTube.

    Jennnifer: Now, when I think about your time on social media, like it’s been so impactful for your thinking and, and your thought leadership and what you share with people. But how has it changed over time? Like, you’ve been on social media for a while, right?

    Monica: I have. I think Twitter was documented. I think I started in 2010. So how has it changed? I think people are actually talking, which is funny to me. You know, academics were not talking back in the day. I think there’s still some fields where people just kind of post their accolades, but now people are having more conversations. I also think when it comes to marginalized communities, people are bold, bolder about talking about the issues that are going on in their personal lives. So they’re showing more of themselves. They’re also talking about problems that they experience. I see a lot more political statements.

    Jennifer: Yes.

    Monica: You know, even religious statements, displeasure with things. And I wonder if it’s like the younger generation that’s coming in, but I feel they just have less fear when it comes to displaying themselves. And just talking about. I’m southern and you know, I come from this more subdued, maybe cultural environment. But I mean, there are people who drop in their pics in tight dresses. They’re kissing up on folks, you know, they’re just like grown and sexy. And I think we need to see people who are just beautiful in every form, who are thoughtful and funny. And so that’s what I see. I see people who are human more and not afraid to be human. And that’s good.

    Jennifer: Hmm. What about for yourself? Do you feel like you’ve leaned more into that over time? Or have you always shown up and been authentic?

    Monica: You know what? I think that all of this connects back to our disciplines because I said I’m an academic. And so as an academic in a STEM discipline, it’s got its own culture. Engineering has its own culture. I’m in engineering education. So that’s got its own culture. So it’s like nested cultures. And I would say my culture is very, very, very conservative in how they move. And this was like the running joke of me on social media where everybody would say like, “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe Monica said this. Like, is she off?” And one of my friends even said in my community, she said she didn’t wanna look at my social media because she’s like, she’s gonna get fired for saying stuff. 

    Jennifer: She was scared for you. 

    Monica: That’s what she said. And that also speaks to that culture. So how have I changed? I have gotten out of the fear of my community and I have connected so much broader, like my platform, I think across all of my social media. And I probably have repetitive followers as well. But it’s about 75,000 people. 

    Jennnifer: Wow. 

    Monica: And you know, I started with a handful.. And the noise of my community is so quiet, it’s so quiet now in terms of what they think, because I see the impact of my work.  I see the feedback that I get, like people who are leaving careers because of a book, because of a tweet, people who are sharing their stories because of things that I’ve said. And I’ll even give this as like a testimonial. I knew that. I know there’s something to it. I started a newsletter on LinkedIn in December, and I only have maybe like 13 editions. ’cause it’s biweekly. And I am up to, I wanna say like 8,500 subscribers right now. 

    Jennifer: Wow. Back from December. Since December!? 

    Monica: And I had maybe 700 in the first day. So there is something that is happening that is bigger than what I am. So that’s it. It’s the boldness, it’s the, I don’t care what my academic community says about me, because I know that what’s happening is more impactful and bigger than what’s in their box.

    Jennifer: Hm. Ooh. Tell me a little bit about the Accomplice Academy. I wanna make sure that people who are listening can join if they’re a good fit for it. 

    Monica: Absolutely. So it is a really intimate group right now of people who want to be equity accomplices. And what I mean by that is people who we have, we focus on three areas. One is, I talk about like the level of risk. You know, as an accomplice, you’re gonna understand that what you’re doing is high risk. And so I engage through a subscription service, a monthly subscription service, where we talk about what it’s like to take those risks and how people can do this and protect themselves in the process. The second area that’s kind of connected back to being an accomplice is like looking at the level of change. And so I really focus on systemic change. So if you are in an organization, how are we making sure that we are offering sustainable solutions for people to remain safe and for equity to be real? And the third part is really having people focus on others instead of themselves. Many times when you see people who are allies, you know, they’ll, some of them will wear it like a banner and be like, “I’m an ally, I’m an ally. Come to me!” But I often tell people, you’re not an ally if I don’t say that you’re an ally. And it’s this space where sometimes as an accomplice, we do the work and people don’t even know that we do the work. But that’s what it means to do it. And I, I brought up the example in the book about, you know, going to the president of the University, of my university and saying, this is what’s happening in our organization. Please look at these statements from our engineering students. Look at the statements from our engineering faculty and staff, and take that into consideration when you hire the next leader of this organization. So, like I said, even though I shared what I did at the time, it wasn’t that people knew it. And as I told you, my developmental editor was like, you need to share stories. And I was like, okay, I’m finally gonna tell people that I was an equity accomplice in my institution at a very dangerous level, at a pretty high level. And I knew that the consequences could have been a lot worse if the leader was not committed to racial equity. That was a lot. So those examples, that’s what The Accomplice Academy is. It’s like doing the work and having the support to talk about it in a safe space. And I would say a couple of my most active people, one is an LGBTQ plus advocate who is a burnout coach, and another is a professor in a state where they have anti-DEI laws now. And you know, we really talk about this, what does this look like in your roles as a coach or as faculty. So thank you for mentioning that.

    The form above subscribes you to new posts published on The Social Academic blog.
    Want emails from Jennifer about building your online presence? Subscribe to her email list.
    Looking for the podcast? Subscribe on Spotify.
    Prefer to watch videos? Subscribe on YouTube.

    Jennifer: That is amazing. It sounds like a group where real change can happen, not just change within ourselves, but change in our communities. That sounds so cool. Thank you. Oh, I’m curious, since we were just talking about being a good accomplice and, and how being an ally is really about making sure that other people feel that we’re good allies, not just ourselves. What’s one way that we could be better accomplices or allies on social media?

    Monica: Man, there are a lot of ways. I think one is like amplifying statements that I think are very courageous. You know, so if there is someone who is saying something that the world needs to hear, and if they could be, you know, criticized for it, or if they’re in a vulnerable position by saying that, I think that the very public way that we show support sends messages to organizations that we are aligned with that person. Another is actually putting real content out. You know, being brave, being courageous and saying, you know, this is what systemic change looks like. Or here are some examples. So, so tips. You know, I think social media is a wonderful place to educate. And if we have handbooks, if we have resources that have helped us, if we have contacts, you know, other books, this is the prime place for audiences to see how to do the work really well. So sharing is another piece, but I think being authentic, like once you’re there, and I feel like this gets to like the risk part, but once you are on there, it’s about being that consistent voice so people know that you are trustworthy, that they can rely on you, that you are that person who is for the cause. And so consistency. I feel like that’s an internal thing, you know, for you to, for someone to be courageous, there’s a difference between the theory and action of it. And that’s what I mean. Like my inner circle of accomplices is so small right now because anyone can post just a good statement. But it’s the translation of that statement into action, under pressure that shows me if you are really an accomplice, because it can come with negative impacts on your livelihood.

    Jennifer: Yeah.

    Monica: And that can include a job. Maybe you lose an opportunity because you’re too dogmatic or because you know, you’ve said something that is really pushing the envelope. But from a business perspective, I often tell people, anyone who reads what you present and they’re turned off wasn’t someone you probably needed to connect to in the first place, because you are gonna have a lot more issues down the road. And that’s what I say even about doing equity work. You know, if someone’s like, “Oh, can you tone it down? Can you do whatever,” guess what? I’m not the consultant for you. Go to the one who’s going to help you to clear things and make sure everything is measured in your organization because that’s what you’re looking for. You’re not really ready for the accomplice level. That’s the work that I’m proposing.

    Jennifer: Ooh, that’s really helpful. And I think it also helps people know whether they should join the Accomplice Academy. Like, are you, are you really ready to, to do the work and to take action in your organization? Oh, that’s fascinating. Absolutely. Oh, I love that. Okay. Well, I wanna show the book again.

    Be sure to pick up your copy of Never Defeated by Dr. Monica Cox. Monica, it’s been amazing chatting with you today. Is there anything you’d like to share before we wrap up?

    Monica: You know, just, I’m also an author. I write fiction. Yes. I have one that’s dropping this week.

    Jennifer: I’m gonna get it. I’ll say I love romance books. I do.

    Monica: Thank you. Thank you. Because you know what, that’s a taboo. So we can talk about that.

    You know, we talk about authenticity, people like, what are you doing? Are you out there writing smut? What’s happening? And I’m like, my people love each other. Okay. They love, they love on each other. They love each other. So I will say that, and the thing that I will also mention is that I put social justice things in my book as well. So even in the one that’s coming up, and I’ll say this really quickly. My protagonist did not earn tenure, but she was involved in a domestic abuse situation. And we have an issue where she goes to Alabama and because of their laws, she can’t be an unwed mother and keep her job. 

    Jennnifer: Oh wow. 

    Monica: Yeah, with STEM students because of donors. And so that sounds very familiar. The arranged marriage part of my romance is when, spoiler alert, her principal boss doesn’t want to lose this amazing teacher. And so, they kind of like each other anyway. 

    Jennifer: Oh, That sounds great. 

    Monica: It’s this whole social justice thing that’s embedded in romance and how they have to move forward. So I’m just putting that teaser out there to say, it’s not just smut, although you get it, but it’s the lessons behind how women of color have to move professionally and personally to be successful and to be whole, bold and strong. Same thing.

    Jennifer: I so appreciate that. As a survivor of domestic violence, myself, I found love. I found romance. Like I can’t wait to read this book. It’s, it’s, yeah, it’s on my reading list. I’m very excited. Okay.

    Pick up your copy of Never Defeated by Dr. Monica Cox and connect with her on social media.

    Thank you so much for listening to this episode of The Social Academic.

    The form above subscribes you to new posts published on The Social Academic blog.
    Want emails from Jennifer about building your online presence? Subscribe to her email list.
    Looking for the podcast? Subscribe on Spotify.
    Prefer to watch videos? Subscribe on YouTube.

    Monica F. Cox, Ph.D., is an unstoppable force who has made it her mission to disrupt and trailblaze her way through the world. Her unapologetic approach to life has made her a change agent and leader who is unafraid to make people uncomfortable. Despite facing personal and professional adversity, Monica was raised by her educator parents to persist and pursue her dreams.

    As a 2020 Fellow of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), Distinguished Professor of Engineering, and former department chair at The Ohio State University, Dr. Cox is no stranger to conflict. Her unwavering dedication to advocating for people and women of color has transformed the fabric of her department and the larger organization.

    Dr. Cox’s research focuses on the infusion of equity in STEM education and the empirical exploration of women of color in the workplace. With over 130 publications, a presidential award for research, and approximately $20 million in led and collaborated multidisciplinary projects, she is a true expert in her field.

    Authors Guides and Advice Articles Interviews Online Presence How To’s Professor Interviews Social Media How To’s The Social Academic Women in Academia

    Source link

  • Medical College Admission Data, 2023

    Medical College Admission Data, 2023

    This is a reboot of a visualization I did in 2018, which I found fascinating, but which didn’t get much traffic at the time, and thus, I’ve not refreshed it.  But I still find it compelling and instructive.

    Each year, the Association of American Medical Colleges publishes a lot of data about admission to medical colleges in the US. But frankly, it’s a mess, and takes a lot of effort to clean up and visualize: Each link is a separate spreadsheet, and each spreadsheet has spacer rows and merged cells and lots of stuff that needs to be scrubbed (carefully) before analyzing and visualizing.  So, if you use this work in a professional capacity, I’d appreciate your support for my time, software and hosting costs at this link. As a reminder, I don’t accept contributions from high school counselors, students, or parents who are using the site.  (And if you know anyone at AAMC, tell them raw data would be much appreciated).

    There are seven views here, some of which combine several data sets.  Use the tabs across the top to access the views.

    The first three tabs show similar data, broken out three ways: By undergraduate major, by ethnicity, and by gender for applicants and matriculants. Don’t be afraid to use the filters to get what you want; you won’t break anything, and there is a reset button at the bottom.

    The top chart on these three views shows Total MCAT scores for applicants (blue) and matriculants (purple).  The middle chart shows your choice of GPA, using the filter at the top: Science, Non-Science, and Overall.  And the bottom chart shows sub-scores on the MCAT, again, based on the filter you choose.  Hover over a bar for details. 

    Total MCAT scores range from 472 to 578 with 500 being the mid-score, and each of the four sections–Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems; Chemical and Physical Foundations of Biological Systems; Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior; and Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills–is scored from a low of 118 to a high of 132, with a midpoint of 125. Read about them here, whence I shamelessly stole this information.

    The fourth tab shows which undergraduate institutions sent applications to US Medical Schools in what quantity, based on student ethnicity.  Note that the data are not complete, but rather a compilation of five different reports, for colleges sending applications from at least 100 White students, 50 Asian students, 15 African-American students, 10 Hispanic students, or five Native American/Alaska Native students.  A college can be on one list but not another: For instance, the University of Oklahoma is #1 for Native students, but not on the list of institutions sending at least 50 Asian students.

    When you hover over the bars, you can see that institution in larger context, like this:

    The fifth tab gets into the nitty-gritty, and show the distribution of applicants and admits by GPA and MCAT ranges (top two charts), as well as the admission rate (bottom), showing the success of being admitted to at least one medical college.

    The sixth and seventh tabs are simple summaries by first-generation status, and gender over time.

    There is an awful lot of data here, and again, if you have any sway with the AAMC, tell them I’d sign my life away to get raw data in one big file.  As always, let me know what you see here.

    Source link