Introducing students to a physical space digitally
Date
2021-07-22
Authors
Advisors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
ISSN
DOI
Volume Title
Publisher
Type
Conference
Peer reviewed
No
Abstract
This presentation was given to the ALN, Action Learning Network and was a summary of multiple initiatives taken in and around 2020 / 21 to allow students to remotely engage with digital spaces physically.
Description
Why this idea?
‘It is not Failure itself that holds you back; it is fear of failure that paralyses you’ Brian Tracy. Isolated, alone and only engaging through screens many of our learners worried that the work they were producing was ‘wrong’ so chose to disengage through fear of being seen to fail. This is not unusual, this happens in ‘normal’ years as well, but was far more pronounced throughout the pandemic. Students would rather produce no work than develop the wrong work. But;
The Journey is the destination. The process you’re in is the goal. Success is never defined by the outcome but by the process’ Paul Young, and by failing to engage in the process, student are doing their educational journey a disservice.
This idea was presented, because of all the ideas tested during the COVID pandemic; MS Teams spaces, Padlets, Wikis, YouTube videos, this idea gained the most traction and organically grew to engage more students each session. This idea did not captivate all our students, but for those who engaged, the ability to build and fail at a task in front of peers strengthened bonds and peer discussion.
So, the obvious question would be, why are these activities not built into the programmes? This was because even when they are, students still link prescribed work to marks and their degree, leading them back to a fear of failure. Many ‘fun’ activities have been proposed over the years and there is an inverse correlation between the student’s engagement and their academic level. By hosting these sessions outside of the curriculum we saw a marked increase in engagement for our Level 5 students and even a smaller number of Level 6 students.
How could others implement this idea?
This idea could be implemented through a social or project club; collaboration was essential during the COVID pandemic to keep students engaged with each other, but the benefits of this increased engagement we hope to carry over into the coming academic session.
Our most successful session was ‘who could come up with the most creative pancake topping’ on Shrove Tuesday. Students were asked to cook pancakes on camera together, top their pancakes and eat them. This led to collaboration on the cooking process and ‘tips’ on flipping, outlandish topping proposals and hilarity when some students had to eat their creations. Although not project related the ability to fail safely in front of peers is a vital skill for a collaborative field.
There was no coloration found between the relevance of the activity to the students core subject and the success of the session, judged by participation in the session. In fact, some of the least relevant sessions drew the highest engagement from the students and forged friendships across programmes.
Another successful session was out Monster Bash session – link to the teaching content below.
Transferability to different contexts –
The idea of a voluntary shared community, where members can contribute as much or as little as they want is infinitely transferrable to different contexts. However, there can be challenges with sustaining the sessions particularly at busy periods. Utilising other academic peers at these times can help sustain the momentum through these periods and the benefits of the collaboration can be seen in the taught academic sessions.
Further reading [not included in word count]
In addition to Shrove Tuesday another extremely interesting session was when we emulated the ‘Monster Bash’ popularised by art channels on YouTube. All the resources can be downloaded from the following link.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqCIF0esycc&list=PLiWIXKdHWWrttB8sTsHdc3ClLe0A5pMRz
References - A list of academic references referred to in the body of the text (please use APA conventions).
Micari, M., & Pazos, P. (2014). Worrying about what others think: A social-comparison concern intervention in small learning groups. Active Learning in Higher Education, 15(3), 249–262. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469787414544874
Keywords
Pedagogy, Digital integration
Citation
Rowan, N. (2021) Introducing students to a physical space digitally. Action Learning Network
Rights
Research Institute
Institute of Arts, Design and Performance