Innovation Insights: A Research Talk with Rodney Parks

The Center for Academic Innovation is excited to host Rodney Parks for an Innovation Insights research talk. Parks, university registrar, director of Elon’s Summer College and assistant vice president at Elon University, will discuss the importance of experiential learning and Elon’s effort to make it part of a student’s record. Elon University’s efforts to expand the student record to include experiential learning constitute significant strides towards a more transparent and informative exchange of information between students and employers. What began as a rarely used supplemental document later became an official expansion to the academic transcript and is now presented as data-enabled visuals. Employers have expressed a need for more comprehensive yet accessible information about college graduates, and preliminary research efforts indicate that the Visual EXP is a step in the right direction. With further iteration and innovation, complemented by open conversations between employers, institutions, and students, a co-curricular record may one day emerge that serves the needs of them all. A Zoom link will be provided after registering for this event.  

Innovation Insights

The Center for Academic Innovation brings together people who want to transform education, share knowledge, and increase learner success by hosting inspiring talks, collaborative problem-solving workshops, and discussions on the latest in educational research and practice. The Innovation Insights series features a diverse lineup of topics, delivered by leaders in academia and private industry, united by the common goals of delivering insights into how to further academic innovation and build the future of education.  

About Rodney Parks

Dr. Parks is the University Registrar, Director of Elon’s Summer College and Assistant Vice President at Elon University where he has served since 2013. Dr. Parks also serves as an Assistant Professor of Adventure Based Learning and teaches two to three core capstone courses annually. Parks earned his Ph.D. in Counseling and Student Personnel Services from the University of Georgia. Dr. Parks also served the last few years as Senior Consultant for AACRAO. Since joining Elon, Dr. Parks has been a prolific author, publishing more than 80 articles and book chapters. Some of his work appears in current AACRAO book publications including Helping Veterans Succeed: A Resource for Higher Education Administrators, Academic record Transcript Guide, The Displaced Student, Mentorship in Higher Education: Practical Advice and Leadership Theories and College Admissions: Recruiting and Retaining a Diverse Student Body. Dr. Parks is well known in higher education for his work to create a comprehensive learner record for all students. In 2015, he led Elon’s initiative to turn Elon’s co-curricular transcript into visual infographics, better illustrating the comprehensive 4-year Elon student experience. As a result of his early work to expand student records, Elon was part of the AACRAO/NASPA grant sponsored by the Lumina Foundation. As the director or Elon’s Summer College, Dr. Parks has used data driven marketing strategies to increase Elon’s summer revenue from 1.8 million to over five million in the last five years. This accomplishment is noteworthy given the decreases in summer revenues nationally. Course efficiencies during Elon Summer College routinely hit the 90th percentile. Having served in the field of registration and records for nearly two decades, Dr. Parks provides a unique perspective synthesizing knowledge of both student systems, policies, research, teaching and innovation.