Weeks 162 to 166 of 186 (BMAL887)

A quick update regarding the issues some of us are having with admin review at Task 7.

I am at the point of finishing up Task 7.2 lit review and then it will go to Admin Review–where a lot of us have been bogged down.

There was a lot of chatter here in the group over the last couple of weeks about the possible disconnect between the student, chair, and admin reviewer.

I sent an email to my chair yesterday voicing these concerns and almost immediately she called me and we had a really good chat.

I am a strong advocate for developing a relationship with your chair so that they are your ally in this whole process.

She has been very good thus far at communication and this was our third phone call together.

A couple of takeaways:

1. There are over 1000 doctorate students in the School of Business
2. There are 200 chairs
3. There are only 6 (!!) admin reviewers
4. My chair is also an admin reviewer and always looks at her student’s work using that hat. She said it is very rare that one of hers requires three revisions at the admin review level and mostly it is just one. She gives feedback on previous tasks to prepare for the admin reviews. For example on my Task 7 she said that I needed to add mitigations to each of the assumptions/limitations and I did so in a closing paragraph for that section. She then said I needed the mitigations after each assumption/limitation (rather than in a summary paragraph) because that is what the admin reviewer is looking for. She also said that the word “mitigation” is a word the admin is keying in on. A little tip like that is gold.
5. TurnItIn is a huge deal at the university and has ramped up its flags in the program because of AI writing by students. She said that AI is becoming a huge problem not only at Liberty but everywhere and they don’t know how to deal with it yet. She said that if the admin reviewer comes back with that has a reason she will go back and look at previous submissions and “fight” for the student that it is their work
6. Most of the reasons for multiple admin review submissions is the student is not following the guide.

I said my biggest concern is we have no idea what to expect from an admin review and there is no course of action. I said that this project is probably the biggest thing that any of us has done in our careers and many of us just want to be prepared.

There were several others and of course, these may be different for your process but it was good for us to talk and to see what are supposed to expect. I am sure many of us would agree that these points are helpful while others will say, that’s all great but my admin review had me write the entire section over.

My advice, take the time to reach out to your chair today. Send a quick email and say, hey let’s jump on a quick call and get on the same page. Even if you think everything is great it never hurts to build a stronger relationship with them.

I hope this all helps and I welcome any comments!