New year, new cohort, big Chinese contingent

My beloved MKT3017 module has grown this year. I have gone from around 60 students of mixed nationality to around 120, approximately 80 of whom are Chinese. The remainder are international

http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/detail/internationalisation/ISL_Lecturing

Learning from Mrs Sharma

Freya my 7 year old daughter has had a supply teacher (Mrs Sharma) for the last two weeks as her regular teacher is in hospital. They don't like Mrs Sharma. She is strict and 'shouty'.

On Wednesday Freya came home and was very excited to tell me about some praise she had received for a design she had done on the computer. She doesn't normally speak much about her work without prompting... but this time it was special - the praise had come from Mrs Sharma... and "she is REALLY hard to impress".

Today she had a sticker for a poem she had written. Mrs Sharma had given it to her. "And she is REALLY hard to impress, you know!!!"

Praise from Mrs Sharma, it seems is worth a lot more than praise from her usual teacher, because it is so hard won... the kids are not stupid.

So where does this leave the feedback loop? Is it advantageous to let students think you are 'hard to impress'? Does it make them try harder... or will it make some of them give up. I'm going to see if I can find anything about it in the texts.

Making the grade

I seem to have been grading solidly for about a month now so I guess it's about time I reflected upon the process. First observation is that since I haven't been blogging it's a clear indication that it's nothing I'm very excited about. Hard to get excited about the grades...but it's also a culmination of the work of the academic year so it's like an indictment or validation of the teaching.

Group research project

I was reasonably happy with this grading, but rather disappointed with the research produced. There is no one piece of work that I felt happy to send to the client. There is a candidate but I'd want some amendments.

The main frustration with the grading itself was around the groups that did not work well together, where I knew very well that some members had been passengers. There was a personal reflection element which I gave a value of 20% - this tended to make a half grade variance across the group.

I know there's a problem with students not picking up feedback at this time of year so I've offered to email the feedback sheets to them upon request - in addition to being available to collect hard copy. Let's see how many ask for it.

MKT1001 Exams

What a revelation. I helped to grade Grant's exam papers - did 50 and moderated another pile. By doing this I realised what an effective form of assessment this is. Grant did some helpful guidelines about what idea answers should include. Once I had marked a few it became really easy to sort the students who knew what they were talking about from the wafflers and inventors. No plagiarism or random internet sourced nonsense to worry about. It was also very time effective - 50 scripts in about 3 hours, and no expectation of individual feedback from the students. I can see why it's used on the big modules. Not a great learning experience for the students though I suppose. All for the convenience of the assessors.

Dissertations

Am less confident about the grading of these. The first one I looked at had some really complex data analysis which I didn't understand. It seemed really good. The student had been supervised by Kathy who is very experienced - it made me feel inferior as a dissertation supervisor. Most of my students ran out of supervision before they got to the data analysis stage anyway but even if they had, I wouldn't have been telling them to do T-tests or rotational analysis.

I feel quite responsible for the quality of the work my students did. Then I did a couple that were not so good - felt relieved!

Once I had second marked all of Kathy's, I marked the one of mine that I expected to be worst. This student had barely engaged and early drafts had been very poor - full of religious doctrine and personal opinion. I was pleasantly surprised - it still had major flaws but I think it's a pass. Also I noted that she had used sources and terminology that made it sound like she knew what she was talking about. Realised it's not all up to me.

Now I see my reflection...

...is a bit rubbish!

1. I have just marked 90 level 5 portfolios which included weekly reflection and an final 500 word reflection. I noticed that frequently they were unstructured, uncritical and ... unreflective. Often didn't deal with thoughts or feelings, usually no actions arising.
2. We had a PGCTHE session yesterday and Rachel Fitzgerald was talking about becoming a reflective practitioner.

The net result is that I realise this blog has moments of reflection, but most of the time is like a journal. I can see that it has value - some times I am introspective. It has the benefit, now that I've been doing it over 6 months, of giving me something of a longitudinal view which I would not have had if I had not started it. However, it falls short it terms of a true reflective blog.

I notice that I tend to blog about things that go well, or interest me. In the last few months I have had fewer 'critical incidents'. This in itself concerns me - as my confidence increases, I must not grow complacent. I will make an effort to seek out and document difficulties as well as successes.

I also make no reference to educational theory... because I don't know it. This needs to change. I have devised a reading schedule.

So am I going to change my blog? Well... I have decided that the main (only) beneficiary of this blog is me. I will not do it unless I enjoy it. But to extract maximum value I need to be a reflective practitioner.... so in summary... yes but only a little bit.

Students in their PJs and other delights...

Today Sally and I started grading a new item of assessment for MKT2020. This piece is described as a10 minute 'electronic presentation' of the student - something akin to an elevator pitch which we have worked on a lot in this module. We encouraged the students to use a range of media - prezis, video, websites etc.

We had a bit of a Goldilocks experience with the first three submissions.

The first one didn't have enough in... a dull and uninspiring prezi with a link at the end which frustratingly lead to a beautiful web portfolio (not part of the submission)

The second one had too much in it - a huge archive of everything the student had ever done, at length! Even the video section included out-takes.

I'd like to say the third one was just right, but it memorably included a video clip which the student had failed to edit. It ended "and I am extremely professional" at which point she pulled a face and said to herself "I have no idea why I said that", and got up to turn the video camera off, revealing that in true Newsreader style, below her smart shirt and jumper she had pyjama bottoms on. Priceless. This will give us material for years to come!

Having viewed this, I got a bit of a crisis of confidence about the piece of assessment - had the technology swallowed up the learning objectives? Sally's experience paid off - too early to judge, we should stick to our guns. Then, to my immense relief, a beautiful piece of work from Aneta. A 3 minute video which served as a fantastic advert for her skills and potential. Buoyed up by this, the marking continues...

L&T Conference....Transnational, International, Global...

Went to the L&T Conference today, which was enjoyable.

So glad I carry crayons

Loads of ideas about working with international students... a brain dump:

• Need to create early opportunities for international students to make friends with British students

• They would really value field trips

• The extent of alienation international students feel is on every level - homesick, language, culture, society, study methods

• Confucian constructs DO have criticism but it's internal - we have external criticism - remember they do not even have freedom of speech!

• I really want to teach MKT3017 next year - I could do a lot more with them and the module now I understand their profile (recommendations already put into module review document)

Other highlights..

Also I spoke to Caroline Stainton about continuing research, found out there is a journal I can get an article into, also she will help me to work on a proposal for an HEA bid to further NILE.

URB@N: Charlotte did her poster presentation. Bit of a shambles as there wasn't enough space, but she seemed to be buzzing and did a good job.

Saw a thinly veiled sales pitch from QuestionMark - online testing software. I may have been a bit harsh. Software looks great, but since we don't have it and it's not free... but he did make a compelling argument for testing as a method of learning. I'd like to do it.

The Panda in the Room

Language differences...

The Conference & Twitter

Yesterday I presented the Sticky Content 'point of view' along with the first airing of the preliminary research results. I went up the day before and went to a few breakout sessions.

The delegates were primarily learning technologists from Universities around the UK and Europe, and hoard of Blackboard employees who flew in from the US.

I have to say, we pretty much nailed it! We were in the main theatre right after a keynote session which had all the delegates in it. Although there were 4 competing breakout sessions when ours was on, the room was half full which means we got the lion's share of the delegates - about 100 I'd say. Rob did a good job of promoting it - Tweeting them all in the break!

Everyone had used the Powerpoint template for their sessions - we had a sneaky Prezi - the first view looked like the title slide of the standard deck, and then we whizzed off. Rob did the intro and then I took over, spoke for around 20 minutes.

A new experience for me - the delgates were Tweeting about what I was saying while I was still presenting. The benefit of there being two of us was that Rob was monitoring the Tweets, and responded to them at the end of the presentation and before we went on to questions.

We got lots of very positive feedback, requests to see my research paper (better write one then), requests to get access to the sticky sites.

I was impressed by seeing Twitter in action - hadn't really seen the point before. Seriously considering setting up a #tag for my modules next year.... brave step to let them Tweet. Should I fight the tide or embrace the students' mobile technology & use it to my advantage instead?

So all in all, a very positive experience. We did a good job I think, and it reinforced the value of the research project which is exciting. Tweets below:

A Sticky day...

Staff training session

This morning I delivered my first staff training session together with Rob Howe on creating more engaging NILE sites. Attendance was very low but the reaction was positive.

We're going to change the running order next time - the IT skills were lower than I expected, as the tutors found even simple Powerpoint design tasks quite challenging and new. I'm starting to realise how much IT skill know how I take for granted. Consequently the task we started with (creating a site banner) was a bit daunting as a first activity.

This will be repeated and rolled out - now I understand that Caroline Stainton (Director of DeltaE - the department in charge of institutional learning & teaching) has taken an interest in the research project and our training initiative. This is likely to become more high profile as time goes on due to the 'Raising the Bar' strategy.

Also, I have been given 50 hours' remission next academic year to pursue/advocate/train this subject to staff in NBS which I'm really pleased about.

Conference Prep

I have just put the finishing touches to my prezi for conference next week. The early results of my research are so exciting we decided to add them in.

Meeting with Nada

Earlier in the week I asked Nada for a meeting to discuss the staff phd option. This was the first time I had met her properly and she was delightful.

I told her a bit about my URB@N project and she was very encouraging and felt it would merit a paper. She gave advice about how to set about getting papers published, suggested possible co-authors to get me started. She's going to send me a list of journals for consideration.

Having spoken to her, I'm pleased that actually the direction I've started on is not incompatible with the marketing field so I don't have to start over. This is good because I can already clearly see the next steps - I can see how this could gain momentum giving me both an area of specialism and, if it proves of any interest and can be published, the basis for my phd by publication. Failing that, it would be nice to get something published anyway.

Mentor observation - update

I sat down with Kathy and went through her peer observation yesterday.

I had been a little apprehensive as I know her lecture style to be so different to mine. Actually she was very supportive and complimentary. The areas for improvement were minor but helpful - things like noting that sometimes I was referring to the screens so had my head turned away which made it difficult to hear me. Also that the transition from the theory to the practical was a bit abrupt. All stuff I can work on.

Interestingly, Amanda has reviewed the same session, but by watching on Panopto rather than in person. Haven't had the chance to discuss it with her yet but got her written feedback through. Amanda's observations give a different perspective - more along the lines of how the learning objectives are expressed before and after the session.

Speedy video edits

Been doing loads of video editing this week. Getting quicker which is good.

The data collection phase of my research project is nearly completed although it's been really difficult to get enough respondents. Here's an edit of some exit interviews from some of the participants - they were even more emphatic than we expected:-

A surprising result was the emphasis on 'rate my lecture/seminar'. We identified 'rating/voting' as sticky content on commercial websites so I included a rate my lecture concept in the model sticky site. It got by far the most attention from the students.

Some of the lecturers I have spoken with are horrified at the thought and but I'd like to give it a try on my modules next academic year. Rob mentioned there was an outcry about the 'rate my professor' website but I think this is very different - don't see the difference between this and leaving post it notes for comments at the end of a session. It's not an open forum - just another means for a student to give feedback.

I was thinking this is like Customer Relationship Management.... Student Relationship Management?

Panopto / mentor observation

Having a little trouble getting my required observations for PGCTHE completed as my mentor is unfortunately ill at the moment. Decided to record a session on Panopto and give my mentor access so she could do her observations that way.

I was giving a guest lecture for Kathy's comms class - as it is in the big lecture theatre where the kit is, also the subject was quite interesting, I decided to use that one. I have also asked Kathy to do an observation on the same session. Actually I'm quite apprehensive about that as I think we have such different styles I'm expecting it to be quite critical. Not enough application of theory I expect.

I recorded another lecture the same day on Panopto just testing it - the subject was a bit dry - visualising data. Could use that I suppose but it wasn't very interactive. Got my feedback sheets done on that module and got all 4's and 5's and some lovely comments - will have to post some :)

I think I will also send the long version of the graze seminar video to my mentor for observation as it was a different type of session - a seminar.

Sadness

MKT1002 presentations again this week.

Only one group presented. They did a pretty poor job. They disregarded the repeated direction they had been given about using cue cards. Their analysis was so unclear I couldn't tell if it was past analysis or future proposal. The idea was unclear, had illogical objectives (which actually only became apparent at all in the questions session) and was uncreative. Even the presentation was awful with loads of words on each slide, video which had not relevance. Even in the Q&A they admitted that some of the things they had said they didn't know why they said them.

I gave them a D+

As I left the room I thought maybe since the grade was so poor I should explain myself. As it happens, I forgot a sheet of paper (with all the group grades so far... it wasn't a secret but probably fuelled the fire as they'd be able to tell theirs was second bottom so far).

I went back to the room. The group was in a huddle and clearly very pissed off. I offered to explain my grade. They felt I had been unfair. Their peers had given them generous grades (as usual).

I went through my reasons item by item to justify the grade. It meant I had to be very specific in my criticism so it was upsetting for individuals this time not just the group. Some team members had done a particularly poor job.

By the end, I still don't think they agreed with me. I reasoned that they had been through a stressful experience, felt disappointed, and maybe needed some time to reflect on the whole thing and my feedback. I offered to speak to them again in a week.

I also explained that my grade alone made only a small difference to their overall portfolio grade.

I have gone back over it and still feel that their presentation really was bad ... but the kind of bad where there's been quite a lot of effort put in. I'm wondering if I should have given a C- rather than a D+ which probably would have made all the difference to how they felt about it. Did I need to knock them down so far. Is there any way I can make sure I haven't ruined them for presenting forever!! Must discuss this with Sally.

Rude rude rude

On Thursday I arranged a guest speaker to come in from CACI and give a presentation to MKT2003 about Acorn geodemographic profiling. This group had asked for industry speakers on their feedback forms last term.

I wasn't sure how Mark would be in the lecture theatre (can be a bit intimidating) but actually he did really well. His talk was accessible and interesting I thought, and drew in a lot of the strands we had been talking about. He did an interactive session which got a fair amount of student participation.

I was sitting in the audience at the front on the left had side of the theatre. At around the half way mark I noticed two students sitting in the middle of the seating. One, Inderdeep was texting or emailing on his phone. Irenose sitting next to him was leaning on his shoulder and appeared to be asleep. I was horrified. I continued to observe them, and they both continued their sleeping/texting right to the end of the lecture. I was hoping to catch Inderdeep's eye so I could glare at him and get him to wake Irenose. Unfortunately he didn't look up from his phone at any point. I figured that getting up and dealing with them would be more disturbance / embarrassment for the speaker. By the end, other students had noticed and were giggling about it.

I was very angry. At the end of the lecture I got up quickly and marched the two students out of the lecture theatre. I didn't have much time as there was a class waiting to go into the lecture theatre and my guest needed escorting out. All of the rooms down the corridor were full (I had hoped to speak to them in private). In the end this wasn't possible so I had to speak to them with the class filing past. I spoke in a low voice and told them how embarrassed and angry I was about their rude behaviour when our guest had given up his afternoon to come and speak to them. They muttered apologies and Irenose said that she had a headache. I told her that in that case she shouldn't have come and then stomped off to sort out the guest & lecture theatre.

Luckily Mark (observant as ever) appeared not to have noticed - I find this rather hard to believe but he may have been focusing on his presentation.

Sally told me Inderdeep didn't go to his afternoon seminar on MKT2020 (which I sometimes teach). I discussed it with some colleagues, all of whom agreed the students' behaviour was appalling and they deserved the bollocking.

All the same I was a bit upset as my relationship with both of these students was previously good. They both have their exhibition on Monday for MKT2020. I will be assessing them. They are likely to be apprehensive about this. I don't want to let them off the hook - ideally they should be thinking about apologising for their behaviour. However I don't want it to screw up their assessment. I have to film them for a video while they are setting up their exhibitions - will be friendly and break the ice with them. See if they mention it.

Peer Assessment Pressure

This week I've been watching the group presentations for MKT1002. Have watched 6 so far and interestingly, so far each time there has been one good one, and one poor one.

The 3pm session on Tuesday was most interesting. The group who went first did an excellent job - I scored them an A grade. The second one was pretty bad (one individual in particular, who had come panicking to me an hour before his presentation begging to be allowed to use cue cards). We had specified no cue cards - but actually it wouldn't have helped him - not only did he not know his material, also you could tell from the bullet points that he also hadn't covered the right material. I graded that group a C-.

The students were asked to grade each other, and grade themselves. It was fascinating. First of all, they were in pieces having to grade the group who hadn't done well. "But they'll see it!" one girl wailed. Others I caught sight of gave the group a B.... It was astonishing. Even though one group's presentation was so emphatically worse than the other, they could not bring themselves to mark the group down.

The student who had been worst asked if he could give a split grade - A for his group, F for himself. Clearly some level of understanding there then - I doubt he'll want to be in that position again. He's normally quite talkative, turns up but doesn't seem to study or take it very seriously. He will have had a confidence knock. Need to try and get him on his own and discuss it with him - important that he's had a sharp shock not been put off for life!

I'm looking forward to seeing this written up in their portfolios. What will they make of their peer assessment I wonder?

One student, who rarely shows up and is frequently challenging (but not in a good way) turned up late and noisily. Also started talking during one of the presentations - until I stared at him daggers - and had to be told to put his phone away. He came up and asked when his presentation session is. At this stage not to know when you're presenting... does not bode well. Impending doom on that one.

BA Advertising Validation

While I think about it I should make some notes about my involvement in the BA validation last week as it's part of our quality assurance.

I wasn't involved in the whole event, but was called in with some of my colleagues part way through to defend both the inclusion of two of my research modules as compulsory elements in the BA Advertising course. I am also potentially part of the team teaching on the new 40 credit modules which will provide 3 hour teaching blocks. These will give greater opportunities and also challenges in terms of teaching content.

In the end the panel had no questions about the necessity of including my module, nor about the differentiation between the first and second years which I had prepared for.

There were two main ways in which I contributed; we provided each member of the panel with a sample graze box at the start of the day (providing an element of intrigue - they had been anticipating us talking about it the whole time I gather). I described how we deconstructed the boxes using the theories the students had studied, and went on to look at the viral and online content and the entrepreneurial story. I also talked about how the sessions were videoed and fed back to the industry contact with a view to further entanglement. This was an example of what a 3 hour teaching block could accomplish in the new module (we had to do it over two weeks).

The second thing I talked about was in the area of employability - talking about the MKT2020 work we did over a period of weeks with Gratterpalm (see earlier posts). This was a bit controversial as one of the panel members was from Leeds Met, and Gratterpalm are based in Leeds and some of her students are currently there on placement.... I also spoke about the adoption of visual cvs - and one of the panel members who teaches Law asked to meet with me to discuss the concept for application in her school which was gratifying.

I was interested to observe that one of the main areas for debate while I was in the room was about the assessment methods. In particular the use of group assessment, and the near absence of examinations. It seems that exams are still seen as desirable and more rigorous in some areas - although I had always seen the opinion from colleagues that we should strive to be more inventive and inclusive in our assessment methods. Maybe we are more progressive than we realise...

On the whole it was a very positive experience, the panel were very supportive and complimentary about the plans, and the degree got it's validation with only a minor recommendation about clarity on the use of the word 'creative' which it was felt was being used too liberally in the course materials when in the advertising industry it has a very narrow meaning.

Reflecting on reflection

PCGTHE core session today. It was good to see everyone, but as usual it had that 'one step forward, two steps back' effect on me.

We discussed reflection at length - in particular the use of various models for reflection. Oh no - I've been doing it all wrong! Well actually I think I've been using the key components and managing to achieve a fair depth of reflection albeit accidentally.

For the portfolio it will be necessary to both choose and argue the case for my choice of a particular model.

Interestingly it seems that specific models are quite embedded in the practice of some of the other schools - e.g. School of Health uses Gibbs Model of Reflection (1988) - in fact this also features in the NUPAD area for personal development. Weird because we do reflection in the portfolios on MKT1002 but have not given the students any theoretical model to follow.

So here's Gibbs' model - looks very straightforward and would fit well with what I've been doing organically.

Other models to compare with seem to be Johns' Model of Reflection (1994), Kolb's Learning Cycle (1984) and Atkins & Murphy's Model of Reflection (1994), Greenaway's Do-Plan-Review, Baud's Model and Schon's Reflection-in-action and Reflection-on-action.

The other key message today in this area was something that I already realised but have not done yet - basically the reflection won't get good grades without direct reference to the academic theory. This I will need to reverse engineer as I know I can't commit to starting my reading until May at the earliest.

We also had a look at some portfolio exemplars - what a variety! It was reassuring actually. The key thing I derived from this was the importance of very clear signposting of content. I'll have to pay even more attention to this with the e-portfolio. With a physical file, you start at one end and work your way to the back. How can I make sure my reader visits every page I want them to... or does that matter - do they navigate using quick links to the assessment items? Food for thought. Di has also given my name to some contacts in the School of Health to talk about E-Portfolios.... so I'd better make it good.

More graze news...

... got an email today from Ben at graze. He said that the comments in the video had given him a couple of ideas for developing the communications...

Fed it back to the seminar group this afternoon and it had quite an impact. Just need to watch out to see if I can spot where the manifest themselves. My guess is it's something to do with picnics, more little notes in boxes, or increasing interest in the design on the base....

Well worth the effort of doing the video. I will reel graze in...

Video from the Graze session

I finally got around to editing that video down the goldfish bowl seminars a couple of weeks ago. God I hate how I sound and look on video... but anyway.

Watching back the footage was helpful. I realised I didn't push them hard enough on the theory they were meant to be using, and I didn't make them use the right language - let them get away with dumbing down too much.

On the flip side, everyone contributed in a thoughtful way and they did have some great ideas in the deconstruction of the piece. There was also a good rapport in the seminar I think, and I had everyone's full attention (this group has a gang of lads in it, they can be a bit of a handful).

This video will be sent to graze, to thank them and hopefully keep them engaged in the relationship with us. I will also give it to some of the students who missed the seminar (so they can still do 2 portfolio entries even if they failed to attend). I am also considering giving the uncut footage to a colleague to get her to do an observation.

I'm really pleased to be involved with this - I got hold of the materials and wrote the case study, but Sally really ran with the idea and proposed the goldfish bowl method. This methodology was a bit alien to Gary and Kathy who also delivered some of these seminars. It's the validation for the BA in Advertising tomorrow and one of the materials they will be showcasing is this 2 week graze deconstruction. Kathy is running the validation proposal so I'm really pleased she liked it enough to want to put it in the validation.

The dreaded SPSSsssssssssssss

5 weeks of teaching SPSS have been looming since the start of term. Since I had never even heard of it or seen it, I was a bit apprehensive. Gil went on maternity leave just as this section arrived in the timetable... so not only did I need to figure it out without her, I also had to brief her maternity cover, Jason, who also did not know SPSS.

Happily it has gone really well so far. The exercises are good, and although the tutor's notes are missing, so far I have found that if I work through them myself, I have found I can figure it out and write it up in time to brief Jason.

I was really pleased with the class today - since last week they were complete novices, today they worked with a big data file, found and corrected errors, did some charts, and even cross-tabulations. I think we all had a sense of achievement.

I also think I understand what Chi-Squared test means!!! Don't know how to do it yet but this is a big step.....

Sticky Research

Realised I haven't really talked about my research project yet, and since it's gaining some momentum there's a bit of catching up to do in the story:-

The origins of sticky stuff

Last summer I developed the whole 'sticky stuff' concept around NILE site content and was asked to present it to our divisional away day. That went well and to differing degrees, colleagues had adopted some of the ideas. I was aware of a hardcore of objection though - which bubbled up in of all places the dress rehearsal for the Periodic Subject Review when a colleague stated that 'students had complained about how the NILE sites were all starting to look different'.

I considered the motive of this remark and took it initially as a criticism of my initiative to make NILE sites more distinctive. After some reflection I decided that the motive was actually immaterial. What was more important was to find out what students actually thought about NILE site content. And only if students believed it to be important was there any chance of getting lecturers to make the investment in change.

Getting URB@N

Shortly afterwards, I found myself the only delgate in a presentation on URB@N - an scheme whereby bursaries are granted to students to carry out research projects. I didn't know what it was about and had accepted the invitation out of idle curiosity. What a stroke of luck. Since there were two presenters and only me, they told me about the programme and I speculated whether research into NILE might be suitable. Luckily the application process was very easy and within a few weeks I found I had been awarded a bursary - which meant I would get a student researcher to work with me to do my project.

I encouraged my Marketing Research second years to apply for the bursaries and to my delight, 3 of them were successful in their applications, one of them, Charlotte, for my project. So now we are in the planning stages of the experiment which will take place in 33 days' time to be exact. We will be presenting our findings together at the Learning & Teaching conference at the University in July - in a poster presentation format which I'm looking forward to.

Bidding for more ££££££££££

In the meantime, with Mark and Amanda's encouragement I have also put in an application to extend the same piece of research - this time bidding for £2K of funding from the Higher Education Academy... will find out if that is successful in a couple of weeks.

Conference début

Furthermore, Rob Howe who heads up the Learning Technology team suggested that we put in a joint paper on the sticky stuff idea to the Blackboard Learning & Teaching Conference in Leeds.... and we have been accepted. So that will be just in time to present the preliminary research findings in Leeds in April.

Just need to find out what the students actually think now....

I should also add that all of this is getting noticed in a high profile way, but I am acutely aware that my colleagues are sick of hearing about it and I am becoming public enemy No. 1. Helpful to talk to Jacky yesterday - she's had similar experiences - just goes with the territory. Be a grown-up.

graze & video

Have been meaning to use graze.com as a case study since I started. It's a fantastic entrepreneurship story and the comms materials and brand are so interesting. I was also keen to maintain contact with Ben, one of the founders that I did business with at Esporta.

Sally wanted some DM materials to use for a MKT1002 marketing communications seminar. I suggested graze, showed her a box and the website and she was keen. Between us we ordered enough boxes to

use (4 tutors teach the module).

I also got in touch with Ben and asked for more boxes. I also asked him to send us some of the Christmas pieces - some Reindeers and gift vouchers. He was fantastic - sent us 5 boxes and a big pack of DM materials as well as a link to a Flicker account that showed us how the materials had been turned into viral content.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/reindeergallery/pool/with/5300818162/

After discussion, we decided to run the seminars using a Goldfish Bowl method - pulling out 3 students at once and getting them to interact with and deconstruct the marketing messages. Then Sally suggested videoing the session. She's thinking of using the video to illustrate to prospective students the sort of activities we may be involved with.

I had already run 3 seminars by this time, but was still in time to video the final one. I also realised this would give me material to cut into a small video to send back to graze by way of a thank you (they will love video content).

Word had already spread that Sally had been videoing. I decided to get the students to take it in turns to shoot the video - this being less intrusive, allowing me to manage the session and would give me lots of camera angles.

In spite of initial apprehension about the camera, this session went really well. This group is lively anyway but they really did raise their game - there was a lot of banter but every single person participated and contributed, and with some excellent contributions. Can't wait to see the footage.

Give students the vote?

Reading some of the literature on Sticky Stuff for the research project today and found the view that in commercial sites, getting visitors to vote, rate or give opinions is really 'sticky'.

Considering how this could translate with the students? Will test this by giving my MKT3017 students a choice of seminar activity - one topic, 3 choices of activity. Majority vote wins.

Will attempt to repeat 3 times. Measurement by feedback after 3rd vote. Also by number of votes.

Anger Management

MKT2020 and Sally and I were working with the groups on their exhibition plans. Sally was talking to them about process and research, I was doing customer experience, creativity and impact. I got to Tash/Jack/Naj (Corbyn was missing as usual).

Tash and Jack were having a heated debate as I arrived, and continued their argument as I sat down ready to discuss their plan and give feedback. This was not unusual. They know each other very well, and Tash has a quite forceful communication style. Jack can be similarly stubborn. They did not stop and I indicated to Naj jokingly about their continuing row. He looked resigned and said 'this always happens'. In the end I interrupted them and asked them to explain their exhibition concept.

Tash had planned something out on her PC and launched into a huge speech. I tried to ask questions along the way but she talked over the top of me for some time - her point was about their planned use of 2 laptops - she was concerned that since there were 4 in the team, only 2 laptops would leave the other 2 with no visual aid.

When I could finally get a word in I said the same as I had said to the other groups; they needed to remember that the most compelling thing on the stand was themselves and they should all prepare to speak without over-reliance on props.

Tash went into a big huff. She didn't say anything, but closed her laptop, folded her arms and turned her body away from the group, looking furious. I carried on asking questions and discussing the idea, addressing all 3 of them. Tash refused to look at me or join in the discussion. After a few minutes I touched her arm and asked her what was wrong. She said 'I'm stewing. What you just said is exactly what I have been trying to say!!!'. (Bizarrely she was AGREEING with me!) . She and Jack then resumed their argument, but more angrily than before. I judged their (her) behaviour unreasonable and said I wasn't going to continue and they needed to sort themselves out so I got up and moved away to talk to another group.

I then went back to talk to the group about 15 minutes later and was able to have a sensible conversation this time.

I am left wondering whether I need to have a discussion with Tash. I am her personal tutor and am worried about her confrontational style. When she goes out to work this behaviour will not work in her favour.

I spoke to Sally afterwards and she felt I handled it correctly. Still not sure whether to take it further with Tash though. Or let sleeping dogs lie.

No more Mrs Nice

MKT1002 seminars today; Guinness sponsorship case study - which students are to write up for their portfolio (assessed work).

First seminar. Attendance approx 25. 6 students had failed to print off or read the case study. I gave them copies and carried on. A lively, engaging debate which went well.

Second seminar. Attendance approx 25, 7 students who had not printed or read the case. I had a go at them, went off and got more photocopies. The group was really hard work - for ages I tried to engage them in conversation - only about 4 were speaking to me.

After about 20 minutes, I challenged their silences - asked if they didn't understand, was there a problem... did they understand the nature of seminars and what their contribution was meant to be. In the end I said OK if you won't talk to me, discuss it in small groups and see if you can work it out. A couple of minutes in, I was extremely irritated to find 3 of them texting on their phones. Two of them found me looking at them and stopped. A third had his back to me and carried on. I had some papers in my hand which I flapped on his head (made him jump) and I told them to put their phones away. I was angry and exasperated with them. I told them that if they weren't going to participate, they may as well work through the case study on their own.

I went to the pc and left the class working in their groups for 5 minutes while I found a clip to show them. This allowed them to consider what I had said. I then showed the clip and changed the subject. The students started to engage more. One girl said she didn't understand part of the question - I praised her for speaking up and went on to give detailed help on the question - which they probably wouldn't have been able to answer on their own. I had the attention of the class, and I felt, the respect.

Third seminar. Attendance approx 25. There was friendly banter at the start of the seminar and I briefed them on the next week's activities. Then we got on to the case study and it transpired that only 4 students had prepared. I was appalled. I calculated that by the time I had gone and done photocopies and brought them back to class and given them time to read it (10 minutes at least) the seminar would be over half way through.

I distributed the 6 copies I had and went out of the room, ostensibly to get copies. But I went and checked with the module leader. I had decided that I wanted to make a point and dismiss those who had not prepared. She agreed wholeheartedly so I went back to the room and told them that it was not acceptable and they were to leave. They were clearly shocked. The 4 remaining students I gave as much help as possible on the case study.

In retrospect, this was empowering. I know I have a friendly manner and wondered whether this had lead the students to think they could get away with things.... but think that the rebuke today will have surprised many. I wonder whether I should have done this sooner for effect. Wonder what attendance/participation/preparation will be like next week.

Field Trip - with knobs on

On Saturday I fly off to New York with 40-odd students, two colleagues and my husband on a study tour.

I'm really looking forward to it as I love the US, have never been to New York and will be going on some great behind-the-scenes tours.

Not sure how it will change my relationship with the students - if at all. I'll certainly get to know them better and vice versa....

I'm hoping to get some really good promo film and photography while I'm there, as the images I've seen before leave a bit to be desired.

Back to basics... why are we here?

A teacher friend tipped me off about this one - it's pretty mind-blowing. Put me right off my marking, but has also challenged me to consider whether we reward/encourage creativity in any sense at all in the marketing division. Answer: no. Conclusion: bonkers.

All rise! Standing Seminar

I took my 5pm foundations of marketing seminar group today. The room we were to use was smelly, hot and stuffy so I opened all of the windows when I got there, but it was still quite horrible 10 mins later.

There was a larger than usual turnout and everyone was lounging around on the comfy chairs area outside the room. I needed to do an activity with the students using the Smartboard before breaking into smaller discussion groups. I proposed they leave their stuff on the comfy chairs, but just come briefly into the room to see the board.

I showed them the model (perception maps) and they had to plot supermarkets on price/quality axes. This 5pm session can be low-energy, and the students would normally sit around the edges of the room. On this occasion, as they were standing, they were closer to me, and closer to the board than they would normally be. I noticed that the students engaged more readily, and more energetically in the exercise. There were no 'non-participants'.

I let them go into groups back in the comfy, area, then after 15 minutes come back into the room and plot their activities on the board again. This time they sat down, but had to get up and write answers on the SmartBoard. Altogether this was a much more successful session than usual - I wondered if it was physical the changes that made a difference - standing, moving between rooms, getting up and writing on the board.

I plan to experiment with physical movement in seminar sessions.

Live Client for Marketing Research Undergrads. [Press Release]

In January, second year students of Marketing Information & Research were briefed by Dr Askari Townshend, Medical Director of SK:N Northampton.

SK:N is a high profile chain of 36 private skin clinics, specialising in laser hair removal and rejuvenation treatments.

Dr Townshend delivered a background briefing and outlined a research challenge for the students, inviting them to investigate attitudes towards rejuvenation treatments among SK:N’s target market.

“The most important element of the brief for me, was the trust that the client had in us to uphold the professionalism and image of his business during the research stage.” said Ben, a student on the module; “Following Market Research Society codes of conduct could not be more important - to ensure that we don't breach the clients trust, but also to uphold the professionalism of the University. I had my doubts as to whether externals would take a student led research project seriously, but these concerns were put to bed after Dr Townshend’s presentation.”

“There was so much information!” said another student, Jodie “Dr Townshend was very professional, but also relaxed as he spoke. I’m really looking forward to the research project – it’s very interesting. It will give us a chance to put our skills into action in a practical setting.”

Students on the module will be working on the research during the Spring term and the best reports will be fed back to SK:N with a view to using them to influence local marketing strategy.

Moderation - am I Darth Vader?

I just finished marking the last of the MKT1002 essays. What a sense of relief.

A good illustration of the importance of moderation today. Gil cross-marked my first year research papers. Two of my four fails she felt would pass. Three of my other grades she increased by 1/2 - 1 grade. I know Gil is a tough marker, so after discussion I took the decision to raise the grade of the whole cohort by half a grade. Actually after this, the spread of grades averaged on a B- rather than a C+. It didn't ultimately make much difference to the number of high grades. There were a few very excellent pieces of work. Gil was surprised by the standard of the work. I was proud of them.

The doctor will see you now...

Dr Townshend came in to deliver the live client briefing to my MKT2003 students today.

He did a great job and they have responded very well to his project. In seminar they were still buzzing and we had a good debate. I had a go at recording his lecture using Panopto. Gutted because it all seemed to work and then there was no sound :( - seems the mic was turned off or something. Well, next time.

I got the seminar session to put themselves in groups. 2/3 of the class were happy bunnies. The last group is going to be tricky. There's a girl in it who is self confessedly 'bossy and organised' who was clearly reluctant to have two of the team members. These last two looked like the last ones to be picked for the team in a games lesson and resented it for the rest of the session. There's also a student from Denmark who is doing quite well, and very goal oriented. He looked unenthusiastic at the prospect of working in a team - he's likely to be worried that it will drag his average down. Fireworks likely... but how to/whether to intervene....

Grading: Light at the end of the tunnel

Up to my eyes

Forgive me Father, haven't blogged since before Christmas... so a return to the confessional

Have been a bit overwhelmed with the marking - around 200 each of 2,000 word assignments over 3 pieces of work. I'm now nearing the end and dare break off to blog. So what do I deduce from the process.

• First of all, I have written 'please used Harvard Referencing' about 150 times.
• I have also written 'develop your academic language' and 'use theories and models to substantiate these statements' a lot as well. Also 'please make sure you answer the question'
• I have so far referred 4 students for plagiarism but this is likely to rise - now I have got my 'eye in' it's remarkably easy to spot - was pleasantly surprised when my suspicions were vindicated by Turnitin. Had a good session with GW and now understand the difference between misconduct and poor academic practice. This is an art!
• The first 10 or so of each assignment are kind of tricky, but then it gets a lot easier and quicker. I sometimes worry about thoroughness and balance.
• I think the home students on the module with lots of international students tended to shine by comparison and do better than they really deserve.
• Sometimes it's tricky to say something positive...
• There were some good pieces, and they are a joy.

Anticipation

The students are eagerly awaiting their grades and keep accosting me in the corridors. It's frustrating trying to get the second marking and photocopying done - it drags out the process by days.

Now to go and do some Hail Marys