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I thought the tutors did well to try to keep discussions going but it felt like most of the time they just got ignored and most people reverted back to their usual type of postings (if any).  It was commented on by one of my peers that some of the required postings were very narrow in what was required and everyone was simply repeating themselves - therefore about 10 people posted and the rest didn't bother as it would have all been the same. There was no possibility/requirement/  need for a discussion if you see what I mean.

Myself and other student rep tried to do weekly informal discussions - for a while these went well and everyone enjoyed them, same time every week, though we did offer to try for different times, but it was the same people every week until it fizzled out and no one managed to make it so I gave up.
Making things the same time every week just isn't possible for most, but setting up for a specific day/week and having specific discussions is a good idea.
Kirstin

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Reply to Draft notes from 1st meeting 4th Dec

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Reply to Draft notes from 1st meeting 4th Dec

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This was my email reply to Penny in regards to the draft notes from the first meeting. Additions are in bold.

I agree with pretty much everything. In the first – on student engagement with the forums, I hear what someone said about students only engaging in the minimum if there is a certain amount of postings required, but honestly, it would be better than no involvement at all which happened with a lot of students in my cohort.

Would this engagement also focus on the group assignment and feedback week? Feedback week became ‘weeks’ with my group of 4 .. in fact feedback was expected from one or two the night before submission, pretty much every time. Should there be a cut off for feedback to make it fair for those who keep to the MCI timetable? The group assignment also saw half my group come in a few days before the final submission week. Maybe a little more tutor involvement (sorry tutors) throughout to ensure students are pulling their weight and being there for others, not just when it suits them? Or simply 'involvement/engagement met' awarded at end of weeks 2/4 etc... throughout the assignment.

I think any wording for this policy should be both direct and vague in the way that you are saying ongoing involvement and healthy debate of course work on the forums is expected each week, and will be monitored, yet the college decides from the forums the precise involvement of each student and whether this involvement is at expected levels for a student looking to be a professional teacher, and to pass the course. Keep people on their toes! And will help develop engagement with/support of others making professional teachers of us all ..  I'm very tired of 'teachers' seemingly in it for themselves.

I love the idea of mentoring but honestly, unless a mentor has finished the course, especially placement where the workload is huge, you will struggle to get anyone wanting to be a mentor. And how many would want to mentor once they have finished the course? I’ve gotten myself into a group of 4 (not my feedback group) and this has been really nice for us all. Feedback groups may work, but mine didn’t for me. The excuse was always that they were too busy. ... goes back to signing on for the course and not thinking through time and commitment required.

Ask a student forum could be the one and same for the ask a tutor forum – half the time students did answer on the ask a tutor forum as it was. Ask a question, monitored by tutors?

All the ideas re webinars/open access for online students is great, but do think of time issues for some students as it can be very isolating not being able to get to a lot of these things.

Kirstin

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Notes from Student Engagement Working Party Meeting

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Do you think that if there was more input/response from tutors to stimulate discussion it might help, we want to see people responding to posts and having discussions. We are planning to have live webinar sessions for each unit so that could be an opportunity to get the debates going!

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Hi kirstin,
Thanks for sharing this, I too agree that Forums could be used more for discussion. I feel they get used to post tasks from the online moodle sessions, but are not accessed much apart from this. Perhaps the session tasks that are to posted to the forum could be more centred around discussion? Or set up to be done during a specific day/week? therefore prompting discussion rather than just individual poting?

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Mick Healey

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Brighton Engaging Students as Partners Keynote

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Great to hear all this Kirstin and something we need to discuss, address and monitor as it's something we also feel strongly about. Your experience is very useful to the working party.

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Hi. I'm hoping to see something for online student engagement develop from this - referring to points 15,16, 18-20 from the draft. How engagement will be 'policed'/encouraged. E.g. it felt a lot like many students were simply submitting assignments and doing very little else - especially in using (or not) the forums/meeting feedback week. It started off well for our cohort (Sept, 16) on the forums/discussions, but seemed to peter out quite quickly.  Myself and other student rep got next to no input from fellow students when we asked, and it seemed to be a select 'few' who only ever, always, contributed to the forums, and then very little ongoing discussions. I know some tried, but like me, eventually gave up as what was the point? I also had a nightmare time with my peer feedback group as most were absent from the forums, and would come in at the very last minute, especially with the group assignment and peer feedback. I was forced to work to other's timetables, not that of MCI for these.
My thinking on student engagement, especially in a teaching profession, is that we should ALL be taking the time to discuss and learn from others. It is about collaboration, many heads together, as a student and as a teacher - it benefits all, especially the children. Everyone should be contributing - and this should start when you are a student. It was made very clear to me at the interview that I needed time put aside for the course. I was saddened that a lot of students didn't or couldn't engage in the forums, and for the duration of the course. I would like to see some way of making this engagement a requirement for passing the course.
I also think peer mentoring would be fantastic -  a student from a previous course being there for a feedback group of the next cohort (probably easier for the mentor to do once the theoretical part of the course is finished time wise).
Thoughts?

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You can write up anything here that you want to share, then everyone in the group will be able to see it. You can delete your own posts, but can't delete anything I put up!

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this is to discuss and work on

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Read this first!