Project Spotlight: The Programming Exchange -- admin | January 20, 2012

I caught up with Kyle Lethbridge, Assistant Residence Life Manager at the University of Guelph, to talk about the recent Programming Exchange day he organized and facilitated. Here’s how our conversation unfolded:

Kate: What is the Residence Life Programming Exchange?
Kyle: The Programming Exchange was a workshop for residence life staff that revolved around programming and was intended to ignite new ideas and initiatives for staff members to bring back to their residence communities. The workshop provided an opportunity for student staff members from a variety of schools to come and “exchange” ideas about programming.

Kate: Why did you organize this day?
Kyle: Programming is a fun and exciting part of living in residence and it should be something that the staff are excited to organize. I wanted this day to focus on collaborative education and boost motivation for new programming initiatives. Additionally, residence life advertising and marketing strategies can often rely on posters as a crutch. I wanted part of the day to focus on new advertising strategies for residence life.

Kate: What was involved in the day?
Kyle: The day was broken up into four stages: team building, sharing, learning and application. Residence Life Staff from Wilfrid Laurier University, Western, McMaster and The University of Guelph participated in the exchange. When staff first arrived they had an opportunity to get to know other participants and chat over food. The delegates were then put into mixed groups, had an opportunity to get to know each other and then engaged in a series of team building challenges including The Marshmallow Challenge and Worlds Greatest Product.

Following the team building challenges, each institution had an opportunity to share some unique programming initiatives from their own university with the rest of the group. This was a great opportunity for staff members to see how things are done differently at other schools and spark some new ideas to bring back to their own school. The sharing portion continued through lunch during the Programming Showcase. Each delegate had an opportunity to prepare a display of a successful program they had run this year in their residence community. The displays were shown during lunch and gave the staff an opportunity to walk around and see some great programs that have been a success this year and gather some ideas they can bring back to their own communities.

After lunch there was a keynote presentation from Michael Hills of Square Crop Studios which works to provide student focused advertising. The presentation focused on poster blindness and offered examples of new and creative ways to reach students. Michael discussed a variety of strategies that can be used to boost engagement and participation in programs.

The final part of the day was a series of case studies where the staff members had an opportunity to apply what they had learned throughout the day. There were four case studies and each group had an opportunity earlier in the day to sign up for two they wished to complete: 1) Planning Alcohol Awareness Week, 2) Natural Disaster Response, 3) Alternative Weekend Programming, 4) Mental Health Awareness Programming.

Kate: What are some of the benefits & take-aways from the Residence Life Programming Exchange?
Kyle: Based on the feedback I received, the staff members really enjoyed the opportunity to interact with colleagues from other institutions. It really helped broaden their perspectives on programming and provided them with a lot of tools and new ideas to bring back to their communities. The case studies were also a great opportunity for the staff members to not only interact with other RLS, but to actually work together on a task with staff members who have different models, expectations and experiences with programming. A focus of the day was to “keep the conversation going.” A blackberry messenger group was formed, a twitter hashtag was used (which was quite active throughout the day), and following the workshop, a Facebook page was formed to allow members to continue to share their ideas.

Kate: What advice/words of wisdom do you have for other schools looking to host a day such as the Residence Life Programming Exchange?
Kyle: Definitely go for it. The programming exchange was just a small idea I had back in September and it turned into a great opportunity for student staff members to come together and exchange ideas on a topic they are all enthusiastic about. If you are looking for a speaker on this topic, Michael Hills did a great job. The presentation went a little long and there could have been a bit more interaction, but the content was very applicable to residence life and the feedback on his presentation was still well received. The staff really enjoyed meeting and sharing ideas with other residence life staff. The Programming Exchange ran from 9am until about 5pm and staff commented how the time flew by and they wished they had more time to interact with other staff members.

Kate: Anything else you’d like to add?
Kyle: I would love to see the programming exchange, or an exchange on any topic, continue into the future. The residence experience of all students is valuable and I think the best way to meet the needs of ALL students is through collaborative education. The collaboration between staff members at the Programming Exchange was great to see. Each institution is doing amazing things already, but having the opportunity to share ideas from one to another provides an opportunity to spark new ideas and creative initiatives for our residence communities.

I would like to thank Kyle for taking the time to share this knowledge with OACUHO.  I hope this inspires you to consider implementing something similar on your campus! Share your thoughts and ideas for an “ideas exchange” in the comment box below, or tweet it out!