The term “lifelong learner” can mean different things to different people.
Certainly, as a licensed professional engineer, it goes without saying that we HAVE TO BE lifelong learners – Continuing education is a requirement for license maintenance. BUT, to be a true professional, we have a responsibility to stay as sharp and as current as possible in order to be effective in our day-to-day roles.
In this episode, I discuss several instructor-related topics:
- My current tour of duty this summer, working through two formal on-line instruction courses.
- A proposal to reduce my Construction Layout course from a 16-week 100% in-person format to an 8-week hybrid course and the challenges that change will bring
- The value of being on the “other side of the lecture,” working as a student taking classes, and getting a chance to see what it’s like to be a student again
I hope this episodes rekindles your drive to enjoy continual learning & training. We’ve got to be diligent and fight complacency!!
Connect with me anytime!!
Show Transcript
What’s up team Bob Hildebranski Construction Engineering show podcast website Good to be talking.
Just gonna try to flush out some ideas.
Running through the head, top of top of day, as is usually the case on my mind.
0:35
Training, training, education, continuing education, paying things forward.
Always spinning through my head.
One of the things that’s been kind of front and Center for me over the course of the last few weeks.
I say course, pun intended, through my teaching work at Julia Junior College.
0:58
One of the things that we are looking at in the CM program is potentially changing some of the courses from 16 week courses, which is our current semester, to 8 week courses.
Jim, the program coordinator, one of the things he’s been kind of thinking about is how can we get content?
1:21
How can we get coursework done by the students in the CM community faster?
Ultimately, the goal of an education system is to educate the students so that they can then assimilate, become part of the working the workforce, right?
1:39
And in our case, industry, especially industries in everywhere but industry, the construction industry right now, we need people.
We need people that can manage projects.
We need superintendents, we need that construction management acumen in, in the workforce.
2:01
Certainly it’s, it’s a double, double, double edged sword right now that not only are we beginning to lose technical professionals, people entering in on the technical side of things, but certainly, you know, the trades, the, the, those, the, the skilled labor that builds things.
2:20
It’s it’s kind of this coalescing of, of loss because of other, other dynamics in the workforce.
So how can we help industry replenish the, the turnover, the attrition that’s currently going up?
2:38
So Jim’s kind of thinking is can we take some of our sixteen week courses and turn them into eights?
Is there a means of being able to take what maybe was a two year program typically and be able to turn that into umm, maybe an 18 month, you know, a year and a half program to be able to get, get students educated, get them trained.
2:59
Don’t take away any of the education process of it.
Still the learning, the learning aspects of that still need to be accomplished.
But how can we do it faster?
I’m going to be challenged in my construction surveying class, which is currently 16 weeks.
3:15
It’s hands on making a transition to 8 weeks and that that’s going to be tough.
That’s going to be tough.
I know that Tim, the guy that was teaching the class before, one of the, one of the tough components he had was going through COVID where everything was remote.
3:33
How do you teach a hands on course?
How do you teach a lab course where that is a huge component of it?
How do you do that virtually?
So Tim had, Tim had to work through and struggle with that for me.
Now it’s going to be taking 16 weeks of content level work, total station work, GPS work.
3:54
How do you make that component condensed and do it in half the time?
Part of that component will be hybrid.
For those of us, hybrid, hybrid learning work outside of the classroom that is more engaged through a virtual environment, which certainly is, is now in 2026.
4:14
I think everybody’s kind of accustomed to it now being able to, to learn online, being able to, to, to teach online.
How do I now transfer a lot of the, some of the content into more of a virtual outside the classroom setting so that the students can be working on, on modules and skills and different, different learning curriculum outside.
4:38
And part of that is now me as an instructor needing to learn how to how to take advantage of that, how to do that.
I think it’s really interesting that for those, and I’m sure there are some that are in my mode where you’re an adjunct, where you’re teaching maybe a seminar course, you’re teaching a one hour somewhere as part of a a cadre, maybe at a conference.
5:04
It is definitely a learning process as an instructor.
How does that happen?
I know since I started teaching the class in 2022, I’ve learned a lot.
I’ve, I’ve gotten, I’ve gotten better.
I’m sure the first couple times that I taught the class, you know, it would be interesting to go back to the student population and, and now compare how, how things, how have I my, my teaching aspects?
5:28
How have I changed?
How have I improved?
How have I adapted?
Part of being in any profession is continuous learning.
We, we have to be lifelong learners.
I’m enjoying the process.
It’s different for me.
5:44
I’m taking two classes right now. 1 is how to better use Canvas, which is our, our LMS, our, our learning system where everything is uploaded, students are working.
So quizzes, assignments, our lecture notes, different things are that are all housed in a place where the students can access and be able to pull their homework assignments, their quizzes, upload their homework, stuff like that.
6:08
There’s so many facets to that that I wasn’t aware of that.
Now going through this course, it’s a crash course.
It’s four weeks, it’s online modules, it’s teaching, it’s me practicing some of the skills that are a part of that.
It’s good, it’s good.
The second course that I’m teaching is actually from University of Illinois out of Springfield and it is a full semester course of learning how to instruct online much broader in terms of its scope and scope and scale.
6:39
It’s a little more intensive.
I, I’m a student again, I’m a student going through an online kind of curriculum in having reading assignments, having to prepare papers, submissions, PowerPoints, actually being doing some peer review with some of the other students that are in the course and discussion boards.
6:59
And that it’s almost a hybridized.
Not only am I learning how to teach, but I’m also going back through and kicking the tires and hitting the refresh button on a lot of, a lot of what it means to be a student being on the other side of the, of the monitor and, and the learning environment.
7:15
It’s been really healthy.
What I think that the roll up for this is just part of this talk is making sure that you are doing the same.
I think a lot of times, and I find myself in that, in that vent is I’ve got to get my 30 PDHS.
7:33
I’m going to a conference or a seminar.
I’m, I’m being diligent about taking notes and trying to educate myself, glean the knowledge from these conference talks there or seminars that we’re going to gain things that I can apply and use.
Am I always proficient in being able to take that information and actually make it serviceable?
7:54
I could do a better job at that.
I’m a good note taker.
I enjoy learning and being in the environment.
But how, how good am I doing it?
Actually taking that knowledge and and putting it to use.
I need to do a better job at them.
Being in this online class right now is really got me in a in a whole different kind of mind mindset because I’m a student now.
8:16
I’m kind of now looking to see as a student looking back into the instructor, how is the class formulated?
Is it organized?
Can I follow the content?
Are there any blocks of confusion?
Am I being clear in the outcome?
And really for me, it’s thinking how good of a job am I doing on the other side of the monitor as an instructor in hey, now I can kind of see if things are not organized well, if I’m not clear with the presentation or what my expectations for a certain outcome are, how does that translate back to the students?
8:50
Now I see it, I kind of get it.
Point point in service, be an educator, be a learner.
You have to do both.
I think it’s important for us as in a in a mentoring environment, we have to be willing to be able to do both thinking about ourselves as educators and not formalized.
9:08
Certainly teaching in a classroom that that’s a formal setting for me, it’s a formal education.
But you know, even in your day-to-day functions, in the office, on site, being in a meeting somewhere, How are you doing at being able to concisely convey information?
9:26
How are you doing as a, as a mentor, as a communicator?
How are you doing and sharing what you know?
And, and when it comes to maybe some of those formalized sessions, how good are you at arranging the material so that it’s digestible?
If you’ve been asked to do a, a 45 minute PowerPoint, let’s say a lunch and learn on a topic that you have with your, your group or your, your core, take that extra time.
9:51
Look, look into it, understand, think about how it’s being received by the students or the attendees to that conference.
Is it organizes?
Is it engaging?
All those things play into this translation of knowledge.
I know right now, just sitting here talking, posting a podcast, writing content, doing different things for the website.
10:10
I try to always keep that stuff in mind.
It’s, it’s ultimately, you know, a lot of, a lot of what you say is in the creative space is we create for ourselves.
We want to satisfy, we write for ourselves, but we’re always thinking about the audience.
We’re always thinking about the people that we’re hoping to connect with.
10:27
It’s an important process of that, but it has to be, has to be thought about.
It’s got to be diligent.
You just can’t sit down at a computer monitor and not really have a plan of what you want to do.
Same with mine.
And that’s what I’m learning with the course content.
I, I need to be deliberate about it.
I need to actually think what is this trying to accomplish?
10:45
Are the goals clear?
Is it, is it clearly defined as to what the outcome is by the end of this 16 week course?
Do the six things that I want the students to be able to walk away with, are they clear and are we working towards that?
Are we building up to that?
So it works in a seminar fashion.
11:02
It works any time that you are in an educator, A mentoring role, that you are clear, you are clear with those that are working with you or for you or that you’re helping along, that that the messaging is on point, that you’re getting them to a destination.
And it comes in steps.
11:17
You know, first, first we have to learn, learn about it.
We have to practice and actually apply some of that knowledge till we practice and get proficient at it.
So it’s always that that learning step.
So, so keep that in mind, you know, as you’re working with people on your cruise and that you just can’t throw them into the deep end of the pool and expect them to automatically be able to think the way that you think to know what you know in those basic steps.
11:40
It’s important.
So, so that’s my reminder always being a student.
I, it’s cool to be a student again.
Say it as I’m sitting in the in my office yesterday trying to pound out a PowerPoint deck because I’ve got an assignment that’s due due before midnight last night.
11:57
You know, my, my wife is trying to figure it out.
Hey, you’re, you’re just an adjunct.
Why are you having to do all this stuff?
Well, it’s, it’s part of the life learning, lifelong learning process.
It’s, it’s what we do as professionals.
All, it all pays dividends.
So be diligent about it.
All right, that’s all I got for today.
12:13
Hopefully maybe this was helpful.
We’ll, we’ll talk to you soon.
Peace.
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