ZSRx Parents and Families: Deacon Development 101

The Parent Programs office has been working this summer on a project that we hope will be exciting and beneficial to Wake Forest families.  In partnership with the Z. Smith Reynolds Library, as well as a huge swath of our campus colleagues from many different offices, we are going to host a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) just for parents and family members.

Our course will be called ZSRx Parents and Families: Deacon Development 101, and we are describing the course as follows:

This four-week online course for parents and families of Wake Forest students seeks to bring participants to a fuller understanding of how this generation experiences their college years. The course will explore how parents can help their students develop crucial skills like resilience and self-advocacy, and how students might develop greater awareness of their own identities. Interact with student development experts on campus and hear from student support representatives as you learn about how students can reach their potential and find their niche on campus.

ZSRx Parents and Families came about due to the success of the original ZSRx MOOC.  The original ZSRx was about helping alumni, parents, and friends of Wake Forest learn to be a better consumer of web information and how to be more effective in searches and other things.  You can read some reflections from ZSRx guru Kyle Denlinger, our very talented e-learning librarian.  Because ZSRx had been such a success with its audience, we wanted to see if there was a way for us to help parents and family members who might want information on how their students are growing and changing while in college, how that might be different from their own time in college, and how to introduce the many support offices on campus who aid students in the journey.

We are still hard at work on the modules for ZSRx Parents and Families, but are really excited about what we are working on for you.  You’ll have the opportunity to go online with us, have access to resource articles and discussion questions, and can learn more about student development.  It’s been so much fun to work on, and we hope you’ll enjoy it.

The course will roll out in October.  Sign ups will be advertised via the Parents’ Page in mid-September, and there will be information at Family weekend.  We will also put notifications in the Wake Parents and Families e-newsletter that goes out once a month.  (As a reminder, that e-newsletter goes out to all parents and families for whom we have a valid email address.  If you are not receiving it, one of two things is happening:  1) the email was sent to your junk or spam folder, so check there, or 2) we do not have a valid email address for you.  You can provide your email on this form – which says Alumni but is valid for parents too!)

We hope you’ll join us for ZSRx Parents and Families.  This will be free, fun, and at your own pace.  And packed with information.