Participation Portfolio: Team Pitches suggestion
I was really challenged by this course and I greatly enjoyed the many avenues we were able to explore. Thank you to all of the teams that presented and the high quality of materials that were provided.
Two components that would help me, and possibly others participate more would revolve around communication and collaboration. In the course I found it very difficult to stay on top of the conversations. I tried using the RSS feed but that wasn’t a great solution. Having the discussions hosted and threaded on a forum, such as Vista is my preference. I say this because I know that when I log-in using Vista I can immediately see if I have any replies and I can expand the entire thread to make sure that I didn’t miss anything. Also, going from this site to the sites created by the various teams made the course material seem disjointed for me.
In terms of collaboration, I really enjoyed working with my team early in the term. I hope everyone had as great an experience as I did. I would like to see the Venture Pitch move to a collaborative project. This could be done with the same team as the Emerging Markets. From my reading and researching this term one thing that kept standing out with the ventures and the research we did on certain ed tech leaders was the importance of a strong team. I saw this over and over and then we were asked to work alone. To me it seems that we could have created our own corporate teams, selecting corporate roles and working on our venture ideas collaboratively. I think this would have benefited everyone as there were some individuals with a clear advantage in the business world and others that were better researches and those that are skilled in mutli-media productions. Drawing these talents together would help everyone gain from the knowledge and experience from their team members.
Thoughts?
Posted in: General
manny 1:59 pm on November 29, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I would agree with the discussion component of the course layout and its limitations. Upon beginning the MET program, vista was the platform for most courses and it worked like a charm. It was easy to log on and easily locate your discussion threads and respond to comments that colleagues have added. This blog roll format does work but makes finding and posting discussions and replies a tedious task. I noticed that complex threads didn’t really evolve within this format as they had in the past with courses offered through vista. The connect platform is not any better either. This is the interesting thing with technology, just because something is newer, doesn’t necessarily make it better. The old saying “If it aint broke, don’t fix it,” is something designers should keep in mind. Then again, if that was the case, they would be out of a job.
jenbarker 2:36 pm on November 29, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
As a note, I know that UBC is moving to a new system called Connect, instead of Vista. Having used both I find Connect much more cumbersome to navigate than Vista. It only shows one post at a time and you have to use arrows to click/scroll through conversations. At least through the blog I don’t have to click on each person’s post to read what they wrote. Just my two cents.
Peggy Lawson 6:02 pm on November 29, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Thanks for the post Ken. This is the 2nd course that has used a WordPress blog instead of Vista or Connect. I know it can take time to adjust to something new, but I’ve had some experience now and as you said trying to follow threads and new posts is almost impossible and consumes far too much time trying to locate new posts (I didn’t like the RSS method much, either). I’m sure I’ve missed replying to comments on my own posts which I hate to do. As Manny said, the rich and complex discussion threads that, to me, are the real heart of a MET course are very difficult and almost non-existent with WordPress blogs.
Collaboration on the venture project is an interesting idea.
Doug Connery 7:32 pm on November 29, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I also agree about using the Word Press Blog format, this is my second course as well, and the discussions have not been as rich as it is hard to keep track of them. These courses are all about learning from each other through the postings, so I believe we could have learned a lot more in this course if it was hosted in the normal Vista platform where the discussion threads are better managed.
The other comment that I would like to make which is even riskier as the final grades have not been posted, however it is a specific constructive suggestion, is we have been discouraged from continuing discussions once each group’s emerging market analysis week is complete. In other courses I have been in, continued discussions were allowed throughout the course, and I remember one where they were still going 7 days after the course was completed! I do not see a fault or danger in this, only positives as small groups of students are able to discuss topics to great detail and on a wide array of related topics.
Doug.
jameschen 11:06 pm on November 29, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Good suggestions, Ken. I would also really like to see future iterations of this course to have the venture pitch assignment structured as a collaborative project because I found it disengaged my learning experience from the collective while I worked through the assignment myself.
James
rebeccaharrison 6:49 pm on November 30, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
My other 3 classes are currently in Connect and I think there are benefits to both. I have one course where our discussions happen on connect and we do assignment posting through wordpress. I dislike going through the extended process of “clicking” and collecting on connect, but it is easier to tell what you have already read.
I think that you are right, Ken, that it would be great to collaborate on an idea, however, I can see that being a bit difficult to coordinate, particularly for those who want to work on a special project/venture that they are actually wanting to launch.