the time when i got to “interview” a professor candidate @ reflection

_{Vietnamese version (Đọc tiếng Việt): Ở ĐÂY}

1. background.

3 months ago, I saw a post on our program’s Instagram about finding a new assistant professor.

2 weeks ago, I received an email from a respected teacher in the department inviting Master’s, PhD, and EdD students to participate in the selection process for new assistant professors.

While participation is optional, it is asserted that our feedback will be considered during the decision-making process.

Overall, we have the option of participating in the three online sessions listed below.

• Session one: informal meeting with ISLT students
• session two: Teaching presentation.
• session three: Research presentation

In addition to these three sessions, the candidate will have numerous other interviews with the dean, other faculty members, and so on.

“Are they really letting us do this? I mean, I am super new!” – I nervously asked a classmate who is a PhD.
“Yeah. Wonderful, isn’t it? And just be a good student as you are, lol.” – Said the classmate.

2. the “interview”

I have to use quotation marks around the word. “Interview” is, to be honest, a punchy phrase with simple meaning. Better words would be sharing session, sensing session, networking session, or simply meet.

While the second and third sessions are fairly predictable. The first session piqued my interest. “What will they discuss? How should I participate actively? “, I wondered.

After attending the first session, I immediately grasped the recruitment objectives, which is for PhD students to interact with the person who may become their “Advisor” for their research projects. Another reason is to assess the candidate’s general ability to interact with students: can teachers encourage students to share, express opinions, ask questions, and critique?

The majority of PhD students’ questions revolve around research: what topics are the candidate interested in? What model or tool are they using for that? What are their thoughts on this and that research topic?

My question was:

“To you, what are the differences between teaching an asynchronous online course and a synchronous offline course for a graduate degree? Are they obstacles or challenges for you, and if so, how do you handle them to ensure the students’ learning experience?”

Among the answers, the one that I liked the most mentioned the word “learners’ presence”.

3. reflection

Indeed, I also found presence to be more difficult to achieve in an online environment that is overflowing with distractions, ranging from a text message notification to the temperature of the room to the internet connection. There are thousands upon thousands of distractions.

I also found that presence is more than just concentration. As in Vietnamese, we call it “Toàn Tâm Toàn Ý”, which can be translated as “With all the heart, and all the mind.”

“All the heart” is to understand why I am here (motivation), what are the skill or the gap that I hope to achieve? (performance gap).

“All the mind” is that every time we receive new information, we connect it with what we already know (prior knowledge) in order to build a better knowledge system (schema).

As a person who attempt to be a Learning Designer, I recalled some of the design principles that I have been noting for myself

(1) Making sure that the learners comprehend the significance of presence in improving their own learning effectiveness.

(2) Creating a learning environment that encourages presence: for example, create an interactive guide in Zoom, interact like this if you are still here, and interact like this if you will be right back. Use this avatar if you can not use microphone or camera.

(3) Releasing some of the pressure. There are things that we just can not achieve without the learners’ collaboration.

These days, when I am becoming overloaded with information, a few key words like this are needed to get me back to the core of the core.

And yes, despite the fact that there have undoubtedly been obstacles and difficulties, this learning journey has been incredibly enjoyable. All of the experiences I’m having are also incredibly enjoyable, to the point where I’ve occasionally found myself upset knowing that the journey is coming to an end.

I guess, when everything is still enjoyable, I just simply need to be present in that happiness.