In this episode of Slate Strategy Sessions, Jon Rowand welcomes Sarah Kotlinski, Director of Enrollment Systems and Analytics at Gettysburg College. Sarah shares how she is transforming Slate training through empathy, creativity, and community-building. From the popular Slate Feature Friday series to launching the new Training group in the Slate Community Forums, Sarah offers actionable insights on meeting learners where they are, delivering bite-sized and judgment-free training, and making time for what matters.
📝 Transcript | 🤖 AI Expanded Summary
📺Watch this Episode on YouTube
💡Key Takeaways
✅ Training isn’t just about teaching tasks. It’s about introducing concepts that help people think critically about Slate.
✅ Bite-sized, context-specific trainings like Slate Feature Fridays help drive adoption without overwhelming users.
✅ Judgment-free zones foster psychological safety, encouraging users to ask questions and engage fully.
✅ Good documentation doesn't need to be perfect. It just needs to be mindful, consistent, and open to change.
✅ Community and collaboration are essential with recommendations for where to join the conversation.
🗣️Sound Bites
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"No matter what I think I'm doing, if they're perceiving that they're not feeling trained, then I have some work to do"
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"Slate is an ever-growing, ever-evolving entity, and so it's important to be continually training."
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“The perfect is the enemy of the good. (Voltaire)”
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“I think as humans, we make time for the things that we care about."
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“My challenge to people is as a trainer, you get to be that person for the next generation.”
📚Referenced
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TickTick (Sarah's go-to task management platform)
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🎫 Slate-Based Ticketing Systems (ReW ReSource Article)
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Training special interest group in the Slate Community Forum (🔐 requires Slate login)
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Ben Parsons' Conducting a Data Boot Camp Presentation Slides (🔐 requires Slate login)
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Ben Parsons on The ReWorkflow Podcast S1E10 - Slate Makes Aid Great (Or At Least Less Awful)
🔗Connect with Jon
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