Confidential Interview

From high school English teacher, to stay at home mom and day care provider, to an expert in program planning and adult education with a doctorate, this program planner not only ended up working in adult education, but also used it to advance her own career. Her accomplishments, however, were not the result of luck. Instead, this program planner began to exert her ambition to succeed during her high school years. Although she came from a lower middle class family, she was able to attend a private university through a scholarship. She decided to continue her education about fourteen years later through, pursuing her master’s degree in Adult Education at Penn State. In 1996, she graduated with a D.Ed. In Adult Education. Her post-graduate career did not encompass school alone, however. Instead, it also included work at the American Center of Distance Education as a publications editor. After working at this institution, she became the Director of Operations and Evaluation at the World Campus, as well as the Director of the American Center for the Study of Distance Education and the Director of Research. This educational and work history has given this professional the experience and exposure necessary to speak, first hand, about program planning and its role in adult education, as well as distance education.

That experience stems primarily from this program planner’s work at the World Campus, and her interaction with the Sloan Foundation. As the primary source of funding for the World Campus, the Sloan Foundation would need to be briefed about the various programs that the World Campus was planning. One of the programs that is freshest in this program planner’s memory is a program relating to online education, which most of the programs that this planner dealt with were. This program dealt with ways to improve online education at all primary, secondary, and post-secondary levels, grades. The program planner goes on to expound on this program, acknowledging that many in the educational field have theorized that primary and secondary education, that is k-12 education, is inherently linked with higher education. Thus, k-12 teachers and post-secondary educators at online and traditional campuses should work to further integrate the two types of education. One of the programs that this program planner was in charge of planning was a conference between those involved in k-12 education and higher education having to do with online activities.

In order to plan this program, the program planner needed to facilitate the Sloan Foundation, whose mission had to do with improving higher education, with a great deal of information. This information included a formal proposal, conference goals, themes, possible participants, and a budget, activities, and possible support or host, among other things. The program planner worked on the event, which was held at the corporate headquarters of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in Washington, D.C. Thirty-five members of the educational community attended the conference, which featured hosting by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, activities launched by the World Campus, and free accommodations and travel provided by the Sloan Foundation. The teachers used presentations, discussions, and brainstorming, and team decision-making to facilitate teaching and learning of the proposed goals, which were to share and explore the possibilities of further integration between k-12 and post-secondary education teachers, as well as the role of the Sloan foundation in this collaboration.

The accomplishment of these goals took the form of a structured lecture followed by problem-solving session. The program planner stated that the event was structured into morning and evening sessions. The morning sessions were composed of information sessions that included a vast degree of tangible information such as numbers pertaining to enrollment and programs, as well as specific examples. Following the presentations, the conference participants were invited to discuss the presentations. In the afternoon, however, an electronic team-decision center was used to identify successful models for collaberation, and ways in which the Sloan Foundation could become involved in the integration. In fact, it was the electronic team-decision center, which recorded the data and suggestions offered by the program participants, which was used to evaluate the program, which was evaluated by the Sloan Foundation, which funded the conference. Upon evaluation, the only problems that were identified included the size of the event, which was intended to host over 50, and length, which was originally intended to last over one day. The program planner identifies the sponsor’s need to cut budget for these two problems.

Thus, based on this program planning and others, this program planner, adult education expert, and consumer of adult education, has used adult education theories and principals into her work. In the aforementioned event, she used the principals of incorporating all the participants as both teachers and students. In the rest of her program planning endeavors, this program planner has used the models of Tyler, Houle, Knowles, Sork, Caffarella, Cervero, and Wolson in combination in order to plan effective programs. In addition, the program planner understands that her personal values must play a role in the programs she plans, and one of those values, building trust among stakeholders is of greatest importance.

Part 2

In this confidential interview, the program planner discusses two primary topics. First, the program planner discusses her personal life and a specific event that she has planned. A survey of both topics will allow readers to come to an understanding of the most interesting parts of her history.

In the first part of this interview, the program planner’s discussion of her education is incredibly interesting. Obviously an ambitious person who wanted to do something great with her life, this program planner was able to have it all. She went to a higher end college because of a scholarship, was able to spend time with her children as well as run her own business, and then achieved a high level of education and important positions in education. She truly represents the fact that a person determined can certainly achieve his or her goals. Furthermore, the fact that this program planner attained an esteemed position in adult education after receiving adult education herself is interesting, as one wonders if her background influenced her work in a positive way.

In the second part of this interview, the program planner discusses her role in planning a program at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting corporate headquarters in Washington, D.C. Two aspects stand out as most interesting about this event. First, the process through which the program planner managed to plan the event was interesting, as she discussed the profess from gathering information and finding a sponsor to evaluating the data. This allows readers to see the process of planning an event like many that they have attended from the program planners point-of-view. Second, the topic of this event is rather interesting, as it deals with the relevant discussion regarding the combination of k-12 and higher education. Thus, through both this program planner’s personal life and depiction of an event that she planned, readers can find interesting and intriguing information.