Major Exploration Courses
I developed a Major Exploration Workshop for undecided students at Utah State University to be guided in self exploration, career paths, and in finding the major that may be best suited for them at the University. This workshop was a huge success. I ran the workshop 12-15 times per semester for 9 semesters. I wrote the curriculum, of which you can see a content outline below and conducted the workshops as instructor during my time at USU as an Academic Advisor. I also trained other academic advisors on campus on this process and major exploration. This workshop is still being conducted with the same curriculum at USU today!
Course Content Outline
Instructor Script/Outline
You may read the script/outline I developed for future instructors facilitating this course here.
Student Feedback
USU Academic Advisor Training on Major Exploration
I traveled throughout the state of Utah and conducted multiple trainings to hundreds of academic advisors at Utah State University on Undecided students and how to incorporate major exploration into their academic advising appointments.
Here is the presentation I created and utilized during these trainings along with the script I wrote for the presentation.
Course Abstract​
I taught a course to USU Academic Advisors on guiding students through major exploration activities and resources.
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End Goals
USU Academic Advisors across campus and especially within the Exploratory Advising Department will have the tools, knowledge, and confidence to guide their students through various major exploration methods according to the student’s needs.
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Course Objectives​
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Be able to recount major exploration resources and advice to students in appointments. [Bloom’s Taxonomy: Remember]
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Identify appropriate major exploration steps for specific student situations. [Bloom’s Taxonomy: Understand + Apply]
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Help students navigate appropriate majors and neighborhoods of majors based on their interests. [Bloom’s Taxonomy: Apply + Analyze]
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Advise and assist students through major exploration exercises that encourage introspection and heightened self-awareness [Bloom’s Taxonomy: Apply + Evaluate]
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Connect with other university departments to develop and implement new ways of exploring those majors for your students [Bloom’s Taxonomy: Create]
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Project Plan Overview
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I will inform and train advisors on currently available major exploration resources on campus and create opportunities for advisors to practice recommending these resources to students.
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Train advisors on appropriate starting points and how to identify where a student is in their major exploration process.
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Inform advisors of the various majors and major neighborhoods in addition to ways of helping students self-identify with a neighborhood accurately.
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Educate advisors on theories and practices for nourishing self-awareness in students and how to walk the student through introspective questions.
College Orientation Hour for Undecided Students
Among the Major Exploration Trainings I developed was College Orientation Hour.
College Orientation Hour Handbook
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In planning for this project, I developed a manual Kanban board for the activity sequencing of this project and documented for your reference here.
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I also developed an RMP (Risk Management Plan) for this project that you may see and read about the thought process behind this plan here.
GRIT course for academically
at-risk students
I was assigned the task of creating a course for students who were on academic probation and academic suspension at USU. The ​course needed to be founded on learning theories and methodologies when being proposed for approval. You may read my rationale on the theory behind the course design as well as the course outline I developed for the course. This course was approved and implemented at USU.
Learning Coach Training Consultation
Another academic advisor from BYU reached out to me to help them establish a documented outline for their Learning Coach Training they were conducting for the on-campus learning coaches at their institution. As we discussed what the training would entail, we created the following brief document that outlined their speaking points and kept them on track to present an instructionally-sound training based on adult learning theory.