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Thank you Annie. Your support and guidance through this subject has been nothing short of amazing! I have learned so much from this subject and I know my learnings will improve my professional practice in the future.

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By providing dedicated time in the live sessions to complete the feedback sheets, participants were able to concentrate and provide timely feedback while being engaged in their module specific learning.

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One of the topics in Elevate Leadership Development program is importance of seeking/receiving and actioning feedback. as a leader.
As part of this module, we discuss the Situation/Behaviour/Impact (SBI) Framework created by the Center for Creative Leadership, where it is emphasised to enable growth, feedback must be sough and the gap between intent and impact must be closed.

Our participants utilised the way talent team pivoted with what feedback we seeks and the method it was collected in their everyday roles. The timeliness of feedback, examining the ways to collect this feedback to ensure the feedback is heard, and the impact on the provided feedback was offered was observed as a topic of discussion in one of the small group activities.

Participants were observed discussing how the talent team utilised the SBI framework with the feedback they were collecting. They were able to utilise Self-directed learning and incorporate practical learnings to embed their own learnings (Knowles, 1975)

This classroom action research assisted with embedding learnings from the program.

Reference:

Center for Creative Leadership August 2023. Closing the gap between intent Vs Impact. Leading Effectively Articles. https://www.ccl.org/articles/leading-effectively-articles/closing-the-gap-between-intent-vs-impact-sbii

Knowles, M.S. (1975) Sef-Directed Learning. A gude for Learners and Teachers. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Regents

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From the start of the Elevate program, the only channel for participants had  to provide feedback was to utilise the monthly feedback sheets that was sent to them seeking their feedback.

The email communication sent from the talent team not only enabled another channel  for participants to utilise but also enriched the relationship between the program directors and the participants.

As you can see from the graph above, throughout the first 4 modules of Eelevate, the talent tea, only received 7 emails from participants with their feedback, but this number grew expedientialy to 32 feedback emails.

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Many participants appreciated the email communication that was sent to them explaining what their feedback is being utilised for.
It opened more communication channels between the program owners and participants. As evidenced above, direct emails started flowing through to our inboxes with appreciation from participants on the feedback collected and actioned.

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Feedback captured while on live learning activity resulted in higher contributions. Participants were provided time to complete the MS Teams Poll, and in addition encouraged to chat on the topic of support received from their managers and the value of this support as part of their learning activity that followed.

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Feedback capturing while on live environment allowed contribution rates to be much higher. As participants were provided time to complete answering these questions, and the questions being asked related to topic on hand, global talent team were able to capture the results immediately and address any concerns.

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The planned teaching innovation will look to increase the participants understanding of the value of providing feedback and introduce a more interactive and live opportunities for participants to provide the feedback.

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Feedback plays a crucial role in improving the quality and effectiveness of professional development endeavour, facilitating in participant engagement and informing the decision-making process of the program design. Participant feedback allows for improvements in program design and implementation.

It assists with identifying areas in the learning journey that require adjustments and ensures that interventions can be tailored to meet participants needs (Cleary et al, 2009).

The purpose of this classroom action research was to explore the effectiveness of requesting participant feedback in live environments rather then at the end of the each section. I wanted to prove that given a more timely manner to complete the feedback while understanding the importance of the feedback being collected will result in higher participation levels.

The classroom action research was conducted over 6 weeks with all participants of the SEI Elevate Leadership program which currently has 289 enrolled.

The increase in participation numbers along with more interaction between participants and the global talent team have proven participants are willing to provide feedback, if they are aware of the results of feedback and are given timely/live access to providing the feedback.

Overall, this classroom action research achieved its desired outcomes of increasing the participation in providing of feedback and resulted in more engaged learners.

At the end the project, all data gathered have been analysed and the information gathered provided a pathway for participants to have higher engagement, more empowerment, ownership of their learning journey, while also provided the global talent team with feedback to review for the next iteration of Elevate.

It is already been referred to as Elevate 2.0.

Reference: Cleary, M., Horsfall, J., & Hunt, G. E. (2019) Participation in research: Informed consent, rights, and responsibilities of people with experience of mental health issues. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 40(4), 301-303.

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Communicating not only the results of their feedback but in addition how the global talent team utilise the feedback to enrich their learning experience allowed participants to feel they are part of the design process, and increased their interactions with us.

Research suggested by sharing the purpose of collecting feedback, participants are more likely to retain information and be motivated to provide feedback (Moser & Fischer, 2017).

Collection of feedback also empowers participants by giving them a voice and involving them in the decision-making process of what and how they develop their professional capability. This engagement promotes a sense of ownership and motivation to continue on the learning journey and complete all program requirements (Jormfeldt et al, 2011).

Reference: Jormfeldt, H., Svensson, B., & Hansson, L. (2011). User involvement in mental health services: A Swedish perspective. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 18(1), 82-88.

Moser, K., & Fischer, F. (2017). Evulation and organisational learning in the public sector: Strategies to generate knowledge and improve decision-making. Public Administration Review, 77 (3), 356-367.

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For the second interaction we had with the participants on the last module of Elevate program (which was conducted in MS Teams) where we have more local interactions and discuss their everyday leader challenges , I implemented the exact question that were asked of the participants to answer the question in MS Teams Polls instead.
The participants were once again given 2 mins to complete the MS Poll, prior to moving into their breakout activity.

Gathered feedback acts as a catalyst for innovation by stimulating new ideas and generating insights for future development of other internal professional development programs which will then increase growth mindset across the organisation(Duncan et all, 2020).

Reference: Duncan, T. E., Duncan, S. C., & Strycker, L. A. (2020). An introduction to latent variable growth curve modeling: Concepts, issues, and applications (2nd ed.). Routledge.

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It is important to receive timely feedback from participants in internally run Professional Development Programs. Providing feedback throughout the program increases participant engagement, allows the program directors to pivot the program format, timelines or content and gives them the opportunity to receive immediate feedback on the facilitation/facilitators which in turn increases participant buy-in.
For Strategic Education Inc's (parent company of Torrens University Australia) internally designed and implemented leadership development program Elevate, talent team identified a steep declined in participation of feedback.

The number of Elevate Leadership Program participants that respond to feedback requests are declining by 20% each module e.g. 87 for Module 1, 70 for Module 2, 58 for Module 3 and 39 for Module 4.

This results in not being able to customise and pivot the learner journey along the way and impacts on the viability of reporting back to executive team of Torrens University on participant satisfaction.

The planned teaching innovation will look to increase the participants understanding of the value of providing feedback and introduce a more interactive and live opportunities for participants to provide the feedback.

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The number of Elevate Leadership Program participants that respond to feedback requests were declining by 20% each module e.g. 87 for Module 1, 70 for Module 2, 58 for Module 3 and 39 for Module 4.

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Hypothesis were made by the global learning & development team that the participation in feedback lowered due to participants;

- Not recognising the value of feedback?

- Feedback they provided did not change in nature module to module?

- Earlier feedback been taken and actioned, hence they no longer had any other suggestions for improvements?

- Feedback questions asked were consistent across all modules, and did not entice excitement to complete?

- Being asked provide feedback at the end of a 90 min collaboration session and they were due for other work tasks and did not have sufficient time?

-  Receiving reminders via email or via Workplace posts were not being received at convenient times or being lost amongst multitude of other communications?

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My global development team were provided with a challenge to develop and roll out a leadership develop program that not only increased our leadership capability across the globe, but as a first global program undertaken after the takeover of TUA, allowed employees across many divisions of SEI to align on organisational values, expected leadership behaviours and network and learn from each other across the globe.

Being the first global program, learning experience/journey is upmost importance, and while designing the program, global talent team designed feedback receiving opportunities to allow pivots on the program whenever necessary.

The participants who were chosen and nominated to partake in the program were advised of this program being a first of its kind and their valuable insights and feedback were important to ensure the further iterations of the program can continue to add value to the leadership growth and development across the global organisation.

Internally designed and implemented professional development courses should be engaging for the learnings as engagement is crucial for employees to stay motivated, focused and interested in completing the course material and can apply their learning immediately (Guskey, 2011), therefore it was very important for the global learning and develop team to ensure regular and consistent feedback is received from the participants to ensure engagement and motivation is retained.

The decline in the feedback numbers from at the end of Module 1 to only 39 by the end of module 4, were a concern for my team, as we worried it had a unseen impact on engagement as well.

Reference: Guskey, Thomas (2011) Enhancing the Effectiveness of Professional Development Programs, Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation, 2:3, 239-247, DOI: 10.1207/s1532768xjepc0203_3

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Addressing our concerns on the feedback numbers declining with the participants and indicating the importance global talent team placed on their feedback. In addition to this, we also implemented communication pieces to ensure participants on what has the feedback collected enabled us to do.

This newly implemented communicated piece also allowed us to showcase the engagement with the program and for alternatives pathways for participants to communicate with my global talent team.

Providing a variety of methods to give feedback and considering the timeliness of collection of the feedback also enables participants to express their thoughts, opinions and suggestions while the feelings are fresh and can be easily recollected (Tourangeau et al, 2000).

Reference: Tourangeau,R., Rips, L. J., & Rasinski, K. (2020). The Psychology of Survey Response. Cambridge University Press.

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I implemented the exact question that were asked participants to answer in MS Forms from Module 1 - Module 4 to be replicated in Zoom Poll.

Prior to moving into a breakout activity that examined some of their learnings gained from the completion of their e-learning, participants were provided with a live Zoom Poll and were presented with the questions. The participants were then given 2mins to choose an answer and when the polls were closed, they were moved onto their activity.

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The major approach I chose to address were multi-pronged.

Firstly, address the concerns and inform

Secondly, change feedback gathering formats

Thirdly, providing time in live sessions for everyone to complete their feedback sheets

These approaches allowed our participants to provide feedback while they were interacting with the learning program and not have to provide feedback in their own time.

As adult learners thrive in learning environments where they feel engaged, supported and empowered to take charge of their own learning, providing the opportunity for learners to construct their own learning through appropriate learning activities were considered for success (Biggs, 2003) and participants were encouraged to provide feedback to the global team at the end of each module to ensure participants can continue their engagement and their learning journeys were customised to meet their needs.

The increase in feedback received will allow for the global team to ensure all participants needs are considered while designing the remainder of the program for this cohort while also ensuing enough data is compiled to inform the review project that will take place at the end of program informing the future program iterations (Darling et all, 2013).

Reference: Biggs, J. (2003). Aligning Teaching and Assessing to Course Objectives. Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. New Trends and Innovations. Open University Press.

Darling, H. B., Reiser, R. A., & McMahon, G. T. (2013). Planning and implementing an evaluation of a curriculum renewal. Medical Teacher, 35(6), 1-7.

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The format in which the feedback was sought changed to implement other technologically enhanced innovations. As the feedback was for the Elevate program was collected in Microsoft Form in the first 4 modules, we implemented other methods we use in the learning journey to help us ask more live feedback, such as Zoom Polls, MS Teams Chat Polls.