Feedback: Concept 5- This really is a great way to develop deeper and lasting relationships with the faculty at Owen. The outcome outlined by the figure above is acceptable at the Postgraduate level. My only objection to this initiative is my perception that the faculty is skewed predominantly male and this will render unequal opportunities to overstep professional boundaries for different constituents in the class.
I love this idea. If the professors had some type of technology that could recognize students' voices, then that would help professors identify individual student's names as well as assign participation points. The set-up would be my only concern. I would assume that you could get the students to give voice samples during orientation. Would microphones have to be installed in class rooms or would a single handheld device be able to pick-up a student's voice all the way across the room?
Concept #4: Is the concept to eliminate participation for all Owen classes or just those held in room 230. I'm guessing the former...in which case...I would consider whether "introvert friendly" is a favorable feature or not - learning from out classmates is important - even if they aren't always the type to talk.
Concept #5: I think this concept has a lot of upside in terms how building deeper relationships between profs & students. The concept has the potential to facilitate learning beyond the classroom and would be very valuable to students.
My one concern would be that this concept puts the pressure on the professors to learn students names. While most could do so within a few weeks, it would be difficult for profs to no each of their students on a first name basis in the first few weeks of class (especially for 1st year classes).
I think this is an interesting idea. Would the technology be something that the students used on their existing mobile devices (or tablets)? If there was some application that could be downloaded and, assuming that most students have an iphone, Android or blackberry, worked on each platform, accomplishing this goal would be easier.
I think the school could very easily adopt an small program to incentivize the students to download and use the application (this would help solve adoption issues). Or classes could just make it mandatory.
One concern I do have is, if such an application doesn't exist, and students would have to acquire, or at the very least, carry around another electronic device, you could run into some adoption/cost issues. Investigating what options currently exist in the market would be a useful step.
Concept 5: Personal/social learning of names is a very good idea since it will encourage people to know each other more. It is not only benefit the classroom but also Owen community in overall. Some professors are already remember the name of all the students even before the class start, it also give a good impression. Owen might consider organizing more activities or games for people to learn each other name in first year and before each class. For example, the first homework before class is to remember other student in class and have a little game on name before class start. However, each person has a different level of skill in remember names.
Concept #3: This is one of the most unique ideas that I've seen! I really like it but worry about the set up. While I'm not sure if this idea is easily implementable within the time constraints of this class, I think it's a great idea for the future. One question I would have is how the system would actually work- when someone has a cold, voices often sound different. Would it still recognize student's voices? Also, would students be responsible for an initial part of the set up via a mobile device or laptop?
Concept 4: No Class Participation is a good idea. Since some of the classes do not have participation as part of the grade anyway so Owen can arrange the class without participation requirement to room 230. With this solution, no one have to change anything except classroom scheduling.
Concept 4: Like Rufus, I agree with the whole idea that participation grading is frankly a bit of a joke for some classes where professors truly aren't assessing this critically, so why the need for nametags. On that merit, I'm in.
However, I think this concept is short-sighted as it relates to two stakeholder groups: professors and the Academic Programs office. To allow this to happen, you either have to force professors teaching in Room 230 to not do a participation grade, or force Academic Programs to only schedule classes in Room 230 that don't have participation grades. Either way, you are creating reworking for one of those two groups, and I suspect that they will be unhappy with this change.
I also wonder if this runs counter to the "we work hard and we are small and collaborative" brand that Owen has been trying to embrace over the last few years.
Concept 4: Although cutting out the participation factor of the classes held in this room could be detrimental to students' overall learning, I think that this is actually an acceptable option. Some of the more technical courses could be held in this room, such as spreadsheets or some more quantitative courses. Courses such as innovation, ethics, HOP and marketing-related classes should not be held in this class if participation is cut out, in that so much of the learning comes from others' perspectives and experiences.
Concept 3: One aspect of this I really like is the real time participation and evaluation for the professor. I'm always curious as to how professors evaluate participation in class after discussing a concept for a half an hour and having 30 people speak 1 or 2 times throughout class. This would give students an actual grade half way through the course and at the end making the grade more scientific and accurate. If we could incorporate this into other classes I believe it could be very valuable to students and the professor.
Concept 5: Interesting idea, this could work. Maybe they could consider only having classes that were very specific to a certain concentration where it would be beneficial for both students and professors to develop a relationship. This may not work for most "core" classes but could encourage participation on both ends for function specific classes and professors.
Concept 5: This solution brings a lot to the table. I agree with Emily that it would be great for smaller classes that rely a lot on discussion to drive learning. It would also push professors and students to interact more and get to know each other. The concern is that it's more than either party wants to engage in, but having classes in this room be forced to move in this direction could be a good thing.
Concept 5: This idea seems very expensive to implement and both professors and students are already pressed for time. It would be great if professors just made a point to study the name cards for a few hours prior to the beginning of class, as some of the professors seem to already know everyone's name before class.
Concept 3: I like the creativity of this idea; however, my hesitancy lies within the disruptive nature of this option. Would the recognition piece be verbal, so everyone would hear the name of the speaker? Or would the professor simply see the name of the speaker on his/her own respective device? All in all, it could stem the flow of discussion usually inherent in Owen classes.
Concept#3: this idea is very interesting, although I think the difficult part would be to develop the software or any other technical resources to implement it as well as to assure that it will have a nearly perfect level of individual recognition (i.e. won't happen to assign the same identity to two similar voices). On a side note, I just recalled the new system that CMC is using to register student attendance to its events (swipe ID card), and wonder if something similar might work for recording a student's class participation.
Feedback: Concept 5- This really is a great way to develop deeper and lasting relationships with the faculty at Owen. The outcome outlined by the figure above is acceptable at the Postgraduate level. My only objection to this initiative is my perception that the faculty is skewed predominantly male and this will render unequal opportunities to overstep professional boundaries for different constituents in the class.
ReplyDeleteConcept 3:
ReplyDeleteI love this idea. If the professors had some type of technology that could recognize students' voices, then that would help professors identify individual student's names as well as assign participation points. The set-up would be my only concern. I would assume that you could get the students to give voice samples during orientation. Would microphones have to be installed in class rooms or would a single handheld device be able to pick-up a student's voice all the way across the room?
Concept #4:
ReplyDeleteIs the concept to eliminate participation for all Owen classes or just those held in room 230. I'm guessing the former...in which case...I would consider whether "introvert friendly" is a favorable feature or not - learning from out classmates is important - even if they aren't always the type to talk.
Concept #5:
ReplyDeleteI think this concept has a lot of upside in terms how building deeper relationships between profs & students. The concept has the potential to facilitate learning beyond the classroom and would be very valuable to students.
My one concern would be that this concept puts the pressure on the professors to learn students names. While most could do so within a few weeks, it would be difficult for profs to no each of their students on a first name basis in the first few weeks of class (especially for 1st year classes).
Concept 3 -
ReplyDeleteI think this is an interesting idea. Would the technology be something that the students used on their existing mobile devices (or tablets)? If there was some application that could be downloaded and, assuming that most students have an iphone, Android or blackberry, worked on each platform, accomplishing this goal would be easier.
I think the school could very easily adopt an small program to incentivize the students to download and use the application (this would help solve adoption issues). Or classes could just make it mandatory.
One concern I do have is, if such an application doesn't exist, and students would have to acquire, or at the very least, carry around another electronic device, you could run into some adoption/cost issues. Investigating what options currently exist in the market would be a useful step.
Concept 5: Personal/social learning of names is a very good idea since it will encourage people to know each other more. It is not only benefit the classroom but also Owen community in overall. Some professors are already remember the name of all the students even before the class start, it also give a good impression. Owen might consider organizing more activities or games for people to learn each other name in first year and before each class. For example, the first homework before class is to remember other student in class and have a little game on name before class start. However, each person has a different level of skill in remember names.
ReplyDeleteConcept #3: This is one of the most unique ideas that I've seen! I really like it but worry about the set up. While I'm not sure if this idea is easily implementable within the time constraints of this class, I think it's a great idea for the future. One question I would have is how the system would actually work- when someone has a cold, voices often sound different. Would it still recognize student's voices? Also, would students be responsible for an initial part of the set up via a mobile device or laptop?
ReplyDeleteConcept 4: No Class Participation is a good idea. Since some of the classes do not have participation as part of the grade anyway so Owen can arrange the class without participation requirement to room 230. With this solution, no one have to change anything except classroom scheduling.
ReplyDeleteConcept 4: Like Rufus, I agree with the whole idea that participation grading is frankly a bit of a joke for some classes where professors truly aren't assessing this critically, so why the need for nametags. On that merit, I'm in.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I think this concept is short-sighted as it relates to two stakeholder groups: professors and the Academic Programs office. To allow this to happen, you either have to force professors teaching in Room 230 to not do a participation grade, or force Academic Programs to only schedule classes in Room 230 that don't have participation grades. Either way, you are creating reworking for one of those two groups, and I suspect that they will be unhappy with this change.
I also wonder if this runs counter to the "we work hard and we are small and collaborative" brand that Owen has been trying to embrace over the last few years.
Concept 4: Although cutting out the participation factor of the classes held in this room could be detrimental to students' overall learning, I think that this is actually an acceptable option. Some of the more technical courses could be held in this room, such as spreadsheets or some more quantitative courses. Courses such as innovation, ethics, HOP and marketing-related classes should not be held in this class if participation is cut out, in that so much of the learning comes from others' perspectives and experiences.
ReplyDeleteConcept 3:
ReplyDeleteOne aspect of this I really like is the real time participation and evaluation for the professor. I'm always curious as to how professors evaluate participation in class after discussing a concept for a half an hour and having 30 people speak 1 or 2 times throughout class. This would give students an actual grade half way through the course and at the end making the grade more scientific and accurate. If we could incorporate this into other classes I believe it could be very valuable to students and the professor.
Concept 5: Interesting idea, this could work. Maybe they could consider only having classes that were very specific to a certain concentration where it would be beneficial for both students and professors to develop a relationship. This may not work for most "core" classes but could encourage participation on both ends for function specific classes and professors.
ReplyDeleteConcept 5: This solution brings a lot to the table. I agree with Emily that it would be great for smaller classes that rely a lot on discussion to drive learning. It would also push professors and students to interact more and get to know each other. The concern is that it's more than either party wants to engage in, but having classes in this room be forced to move in this direction could be a good thing.
ReplyDeleteConcept 5: This idea seems very expensive to implement and both professors and students are already pressed for time. It would be great if professors just made a point to study the name cards for a few hours prior to the beginning of class, as some of the professors seem to already know everyone's name before class.
ReplyDeleteConcept 3: I like the creativity of this idea; however, my hesitancy lies within the disruptive nature of this option. Would the recognition piece be verbal, so everyone would hear the name of the speaker? Or would the professor simply see the name of the speaker on his/her own respective device? All in all, it could stem the flow of discussion usually inherent in Owen classes.
ReplyDeleteConcept#3: this idea is very interesting, although I think the difficult part would be to develop the software or any other technical resources to implement it as well as to assure that it will have a nearly perfect level of individual recognition (i.e. won't happen to assign the same identity to two similar voices). On a side note, I just recalled the new system that CMC is using to register student attendance to its events (swipe ID card), and wonder if something similar might work for recording a student's class participation.
ReplyDelete