3rd Edition: Texas, Jetpacks & Self-Assessments

Thanks for being here

Hey L&D fam, hope you’re having a wonder-full week!

It’s been slightly over a month since I started my freelance adventure and it’s been nothing short of amazing. I far from have things “figured out” - but I’m leaning into the unknown and letting my curiosity illuminate the path forward (which is pretty cool given my past tendency to be hyper focused on specific outcomes).

Here’s a great piece by Nick DeWilde that gave me all the feels about taking this leap:

The past few weeks have been action packed with my time split between workshops for my former employer (District 3/Concordia University), participating in David Perell’s Write of Passage and supporting Maven Instructors as a pedagogy coach.

It was bittersweet when all three gigs were due to finish in the same week (especially given how incredible they were).

But then… as if magically, all three were extended for another month! Well, sort of. D3/Concordia and Maven extended me and I enrolled in Write of Passage’s “Writing Studio”, a cohort-based course of 14 WOP alumni. Stay tuned for details (plus updates on a couple other projects that have rolled in)!

An Experience To Inspire: Entrepreneurial Mindset Bootcamp (Texas Edition)

Here’s an “avalanche” of encouraging comments for one of our students who was having a particularly tough week.

If someone told me a month ago I’d be helping teach entrepreneurship to students in Texas (remotely from Montreal), I wouldn't have believed them. But here we are, and that’s what makes “strapping on a jetpack to go exploring” so epic!

Last week I joined Actionworks’ Founder Cam Houser as he kicked off the Entrepreneurial Mindset Bootcamp - a four-week program funded by The Blackstone LaunchPad & Techstars network to make entrepreneurship accessible to students in Austin and Dallas.

Cam is a native Texan who I met through Maven during our joint coaching stint and when he needed an extra hand for the program, I was happy to hop on board!

A Resource To Consider: Self-Assessment Snapshot

Self-assessment rubrics serve two purposes:

1. They define core competencies required to fulfill an identity (ex. online writer)

2. They prompt reflection and empower students to drive their own learning.

Using a self-assessment at the beginning and end of a course is a great way for students to map their progress.

Below is my before and after snapshot from Write of Passage. And while you might be surprised to see one of the competencies (on choice, structure & flow) has actually decreased, it’s important to note this is not uncommon. I saw this many times at D3 (a startup incubator) - early-stage founders would rank themselves lower on certain competencies by the end of the program because they would realize they’d underestimated how much they didn't know.

A Question To Ponder: Simulation Exercises

The first step in anything is often the hardest - usually due to a psychological barrier. So my question to you is, how can you create low-stakes simulation exercises to help your students build up confidence to overcome psychological barriers?

Here are a couple of examples to get you thinking:

Thanks for reading my third “digital postcard”.

I’m experimenting with how to create value for fellow L&D enthusiasts by sharing my reflections, so I’d love your feedback on how I can make future editions beneficial.

Got an idea or burning question I could address? Hit reply and we’re off to the races!

Have a wonder-full week,

Alexandra