'Engaged learning' goes way beyond the words
Reid May
Issue date: 2/8/10 Section: The Melting Pot
Several weeks ago, I spent a little time reading "Engage Magazine," which is published by Cleveland State University's marketing department and pitched as a "look inside life at CSU." The articles were interesting enough-one about a graduate assistant in the admissions office, another about a young man and what he keeps in his book bag (everything, apparently)-and it got me thinking:
Having been at Cleveland State since the fall semester of 2007, I was a witness to the gradual transformation from the era before "engaged learning" into our bright green-colored little piece of heaven, complete with new slogans, new signs and new everything else. That said, I have never known exactly why "engaged learning" came about.
I understand the concept, mind you, but the motives behind it were lost to me. I wondered, "is 'engaged learning' just a slogan that we created to draw new students to the campus before forgetting the purpose?" Admittedly, most of us have great professors, those who engage us left and right. Still other professors seem unaware of the intentions behind the credo, droning on before a class, words directed at the chalkboard, hardly acknowledging our existence. It is those types that made me question the idea, thinking maybe we had this great idea that only went as far as the admissions office and then got lost in the gears of a functioning University. After considering this for a time, I decided to track down the person responsible for the "engaged learning" concept and see exactly where the idea originated.
As it turns out, "engaged learning" was not simply devised as a ploy to attract students. In fact, according to Rob Spademan, the assistant vice president for university marketing and admissions, but more appropriately known as the man who coined the phrase "engaged learning," it was "a combination of things."
Spademan was hired on initially because the University saw need to step up their marketing game, especially considering things like "a difficult market, population decline and statistics that suggested that in 2010 high school graduation rates would be dropping." One of the things that Spademan felt very strongly about when he interviewed with CSU was that "the University needed a way to distinguish itself from the pack and taglines, slogans, mottos or branding campaigns can tend to be short lived and almost trendy. I felt that it was worth us taking a look at that in a serious matter to position the University in a way to say more about it than just 'Cleveland State University.'"
Having been at Cleveland State since the fall semester of 2007, I was a witness to the gradual transformation from the era before "engaged learning" into our bright green-colored little piece of heaven, complete with new slogans, new signs and new everything else. That said, I have never known exactly why "engaged learning" came about.
I understand the concept, mind you, but the motives behind it were lost to me. I wondered, "is 'engaged learning' just a slogan that we created to draw new students to the campus before forgetting the purpose?" Admittedly, most of us have great professors, those who engage us left and right. Still other professors seem unaware of the intentions behind the credo, droning on before a class, words directed at the chalkboard, hardly acknowledging our existence. It is those types that made me question the idea, thinking maybe we had this great idea that only went as far as the admissions office and then got lost in the gears of a functioning University. After considering this for a time, I decided to track down the person responsible for the "engaged learning" concept and see exactly where the idea originated.
As it turns out, "engaged learning" was not simply devised as a ploy to attract students. In fact, according to Rob Spademan, the assistant vice president for university marketing and admissions, but more appropriately known as the man who coined the phrase "engaged learning," it was "a combination of things."
Spademan was hired on initially because the University saw need to step up their marketing game, especially considering things like "a difficult market, population decline and statistics that suggested that in 2010 high school graduation rates would be dropping." One of the things that Spademan felt very strongly about when he interviewed with CSU was that "the University needed a way to distinguish itself from the pack and taglines, slogans, mottos or branding campaigns can tend to be short lived and almost trendy. I felt that it was worth us taking a look at that in a serious matter to position the University in a way to say more about it than just 'Cleveland State University.'"
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