When you think about RA or other student staff training, what do you imagine? Long days split into 60-minute increments, each with a traditional slideshow and ubiquitous lecture-style presentation? A few standard 15-minute breaks where staff wander aimlessly, eyes glassy, as they search for energy drinks or meaning in life? Even two or three consecutive days of this style of training can be utterly exhausting for both facilitators and trainees. But there is another way! Over the past few years, our professional staff have been working hard to vary how we present training topics to our student staffs. We’ve been trying to limit lengthy presentation formats and opt for interactive and hands-on learning instead. Here are several ways we’ve found success keeping RA and Peer Mentor staff on their toes through long training days.
Topic: Residential Curriculum for New RAs
Interactive Strategy: Small group discussion around Learning Goals and strategies
We introduce our residential curriculum to new RAs first before bringing them together with returners for an in-depth session. In this session, we aim to help students understand what a residential curriculum is, define and explore our learning goals, and take a high-level look at how our frequently-used strategies tie back to these goals. To add some movement to this session, we have staff get up and organize into small groups, which are then each assigned a learning goal. Then staff discuss how they might work toward those goals in their roles as RAs or Mentors. Add a little fun! Have staff get into small groups by lining themselves up in birthday order. Then split into groups from there.
Topic: Roompact Deep Dive
Interactive Strategy: Faux Events and On-the-spot Questions
Training staff on administrative platforms can get dry and boring *very* quickly. “Ok, first you’re going to go to this menu, then click on this link, then you’ll get to this page…” Snoozefest. If you ask staff to bring their computers and follow along, you’re starting to move in the right direction. If you have them actually create fake events, form submissions, or attendance rosters in the moment, then they’re practicing the tasks they’ll need to complete in real life. We’ve also added a lot of back-and-forth with the audience in this session. We pepper in questions to check understanding and have staff try to be the first to answer—with a high energy group like RAs, this strategy works like a dream. Sweeten the deal! Bring a bag of candy and throw a piece to whoever answers your questions. Soon enough candy is flying around the room and students are motivated to get in on the action!
Topic: Intentional Interactions and How to Log them
Interactive Strategy: “Goldilocks” Quiz and Time to Practice
Having an intentional conversation feels like the most natural thing in the world to some folks. To others, the prospect is like staring into the black abyss: terrifying. We start training on this topic by overviewing key principles, connecting back to curriculum and learning goals, and sharing tracking expectations. To get students actively involved, we show several examples of interaction summaries and ask students to vote whether the summaries are “too vague,” “too personal,” or “just perf.” Then we move to holding mini one-on-ones with a partner and practicing how they would write up the conversation. At the end of the day ,we need to let students sit with other students and get comfortable with guiding a conversation that feels authentic and organic. We simply cannot teach students how to build relationships and hold meaningful, human conversations by exclusively lecturing from a podium. Integrate a tech tool! Try using tools like Kahoot, Poll Everywhere, Mentimeter, or others for this kind of interaction. Asking students to use their hands and brains in a different way can draw back any wandering minds.
Topic: Emergency Procedures
Interactive Strategy: Role Play, Table Top, Speed Quiz
No training topic feels riper for interactivity than emergency procedures. There’s a million directions you could go with this content: from role playing emergency situations to bringing in your campus police officers for a meet-and-greet to working through tabletop exercises on hypothetical scenarios. This year, our staff created a speed quiz on the platform Blooket to test RA knowledge of emergency procedures. This fast-paced tool allows point-stealing, which is a fun way to bring an extra level of competition to the atmosphere. Get on your feet! Online platforms are a great resource, but you can also retool the same concept into a physical movement activity. Identify corners of the room as A, B, C, D for your multiple choices and have students run, walk, or roll to their chosen answer!
More and more, I see incredible ideas for evolving student training away from traditional presentation formats. I’m observing similar shifts among our faculty partners, many of whom are well aware that straight lecturing can lead to seriously tuned-out students. Resources are abundant for bringing play, gamification, and interactivity into your next training session. Here are a few bunny trails to explore pulled from the academic side of the house:
- Professors at Play, including the “Playbook” with real-world strategies for incorporating play and games into education settings
- University of San Diego’s Professional and Continuing Education department gives strong justification for and examples of gamification
- Harvard’s Project Zero offers dozens of thinking routines and activities to encourage learning (Project Zero started with an arts education foundation, but has an incredibly interdisciplinary approach!)
- In this “Tea for Teaching” podcast, Cathy N. Davidson and Christina Katopodis discuss their book, The New College Classroom, which is about designing inclusive, interactive, and democratic educational settings.
