'Engaged learning' goes way beyond the words

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.'"

As a result, Spademan spent his first several months in interviews on and around campus. His idea, which stems from his background as a marketing specialist, was to speak with all sorts of people, on and off campus, and get a feel for what the University was all about. Essentially, Spademan called his work a "brand audit," and his biggest conclusion was that the "reality was better than the perception." What he means is that the real environment at Cleveland State was far better than what many people perceived it to be from the outside.

Conversations led to the discovery that there was "a spectrum of people who weren't really in tune with what was happening here [at Cleveland State]," according to Spademan. At the same time, others kept talking about the reality at Cleveland State, "and the close knit nature of the community to the University, or, in other words, that we were really engaged."

The city, Spademan says, is a huge advantage for Cleveland State, because it allows us to do so many things that cannot be done at rural Universities like Kent State University or Bowling Green. "As I went deeper and deeper with interviews that really became our strength," Spademan said, continuing "that we could offer programs and that we could offer relationships, commitments and experiences that others could not because we were so engaged and tightly knit with the community." This, Spademan felt, provided Cleveland State with a huge competitive advantage. Things like the "city is our campus" ticket program, downtown living, sporting events and the like provide students at Cleveland State with an experience that is very unique-especially in Ohio (as far as major cities go).

As for the new "engaged learning" concept, part of the reason Spademan liked it was because he did not want Cleveland State's motto to be a simple marketing slogan like those of so many other schools. "Most schools are like that," Spademan said, and cited the saying 'we transform lives,' pointing out that every college transforms lives and there is no unique quality or critical aspect to the idea.

Spademan also acknowledged that while every college is engaged, the notion of "engaged learning" is something that you have to think about-it does not just leave you at the door-and even more importantly, Spademan liked "engaged learning" because it was something that everyone could own. "I think that's why it's so strong and why it's really taken off is because people can grab a hold of it and really define it in their own context or in their own academic department or unit," Spademan said. More importantly, Spademan adds, "the slogan says 'hey, you don't just sit there and listen to a professor in a one way conversation for four years'…you actually get to engage with them."

"Engaged learning" also needed to be unique, Spademan said. To ensure that it was he was able to get a hold of a database of, "788 taglines from Universities around the country and only four of them, believe it or not, had the word 'engage' or 'engaging' in their line and nobody had 'engaged learning,' and that's when I got really excited."

The drivers of "engaged learning" are constantly adapting it to the changes within the University and the potential students who will come here. Part of that initiative is a recently started focus group, which will follow 12 freshmen through their four years of college and meet with them every semester. The other component is an annual effort to "re-evaluate with comparisons to other University campaigns," according to Spademan. The brand, he says, is like a garden. You are constantly pruning, cutting, harvesting. They have to always ensure that "engaged learning" lives up to what it really is all about-a hands on learning environment that connects, students, teachers and real world ideas. The annual exercise-the "engaged learning" masterminds meet in February to discuss the concept-is to "consider the future."