How important is Feedback?

Feedback is the issue that students complain most about at a University. From my limited observation and experience, the students only get worried about their grades – either for individual assignments or final grades – if they haven’t received what they consider to be adequate and appropriate feedback during their studies. So what does this look like and will students ever be satisfied?

As a relative new academic, I started in August 2009, in my first semester of teaching I delivered as best as I could using Stephen Brookfield’s autobiographic lens approach (even though I didn’t know about Brookfield at the time!). I provided feedback as I had experienced as a student. Sadly with academia, often a new academic is given the keys to the office and that’s all the induction and training that’s offered. It’s a sink or swim approach – and as someone who swims between 1-2 kilometres a day, I was determined I would not sink! Not possible!

In this first semester of teaching, I offered feedback as best I could within an incredibly heavy teaching load, developing and teaching a unit that hadn’t been taught before and course convening (program coordinator) for the first time. By the end of the semester, reviewing the student feedback on my own performance, I realised I had a lot to learn. While I thought I had been giving students ongoing feedback – via emails, conversations, in-class discussions, etc, I realised that I hadn’t explained to students that this was feedback. They were so used to receiving written comments on an Assignment Coversheet believing this was the only type of feedback there was. While I was providing this approach to students, I realised I had to change my ways if I wanted to ‘educate’ them about other styles of feedback. This is something I have now been exploring since this time.

In an effort to educate students about the different approaches to feedback, I now include in the Unit Outline (Course or Subject Outline) the following:

Feedback can be given to students through a variety of ways, including individual, group, whole of class, self or peer feedback. This can be through written comments, student consultation, private discussions, email, phone conversation, before and after classes, through class discussion, by formal peer feedback, peer discussion, postings on Moodle, etc. For this assignment, feedback will be offered through these approaches and not through the traditional assignment feedback sheet (hand written comments). As assignments within this unit are formative, which means they build upon learning skills from one activity and assessment to the next, tutors may privately provide feedback to individual students to assist with ongoing skills development.

‘Feedback’ is an ongoing discussion within classes – and I now label Feedback as ‘Feedback’ on all appropriate communications – emails, Moodle posts, in class discussions, when students offer peer feedback in class, etc. I Call it, I name it, I label it as much as possible. It would be an interesting exercise to count the number of times I now use the word ‘feedback’ and then compare it to that first semester of teaching in 2009! There would be a dramatic increase.

As well, for individual and group assignments, I now provide detailed feedback via Moodle – it’s all electronic. This has proved to be a great time saver and enables me (and my tutors) to offer more detailed, lengthy feedback than the traditional approach of handwritten comments on the assignment sheets. All of us can type reasonably fast, so this is a much quicker approach than the laborious hand written comments – and it also means students can read my comments! (I often can’t read my own writing!).

It’s critical to find time saving approaches as the University (University of Canberra) has a policy that feedback on assessment tasks must be provided within 10 working days (essentially two weeks) of their submission. However, marking about 100 assignments makes this is almost impossible if I want to provide valuable feedback that will assist the student in their development. This is one of the many challenges for the academic: delivering against university operational requirements that have been introduced with the belief that it assists the students, but in reality it could be counter to what is trying to be achieved. I refuse to send back assignments with comments like ‘good work’ or ‘needs improving’. I try to offer feedback as I would want to receive it – which means that I need to consider the students work. I thought I did well getting feedback to all assignments back within three weeks. If I had continued to use the old approach of writing the feedback on the assignment cover sheet the students would not have received the feedback within this time period as I would have handed them back at the next class, wasting valuable time. However, due to Moodle and posting the feedback online, students receive the feedback and their grades as soon as it is posted; making it far more efficient for them and for me. This doesn’t mean I won’t consider continuous improvement. Something I now realise is a key role for any academic is to consider ways to save time: how to be effective, yet find efficiencies!!

Considering the reflections I have undertaken on the most effective ways to deliver feedback, it was disappointing to receive the feedback in my own studies for the Education Technology subject I have been undertaking for my Graduate Certificate in Tertiary Education. The reason I decided to undertake the GCTE was to learn, develop, improve and have the ability to effectively reflect on my teaching and learning. I want to be pushed and challenged.

The feedback on my Wiki Assignments as posted here on this blog, was as a Rubrics (refer Rubrics Feedback above) – but not what I considered to be an effective rubrics that would assist me to value add and reflect on my skills and abilities – and assist with my teaching. Sadly, it was the most amount of feedback I had received in this subject to date.

However, there have been lots of positives from receiving this limited, somewhat vacant feedback. As a result of my own disappointment and concern that this is a standard offered to academics eager to learn about best practice teaching and learning approaches, I have further reflected on feedback approaches and considered how best to offer and shape it for students. As a result, it was a key discussion that my sessional tutors and I had in our regular end of semester working dinner catch up. We have decided that a suitable feedback approach would be to use a rubrics as well as incorporating detailed, individual, personalised feedback in the comment section – not just three sentences that could be applicable to anyone. We will continue to post this electronically as we all agreed this was a great time saver and gets to the students quickly. We feel that by introducing a rubrics – and including this in the Unit Outline (subject guide), this will assist students further to understand what they will be achieving against. While I have always included detailed Marking Criteria and Expectations of Grade Standards, we believe that with a rubrics it can add another dimension that will further support the student. Our goal is to provide more detailed feedback, and more quickly. Fingers crossed we will achieve this!

Reference:
Brookefield, S. (1995) Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Message in (online) Bottle

Due to my extensive professional experience in marketing communications throughout the past 20 years, and my passion to share this knowledge along with my industry contacts with my students, I am frequently asked by my students ‘what can I do to get ahead in the industry?’

My goal is to guide students so they can achieve and be successful creative leaders in the industry, not as Harley (1993) suggests how ‘in many university courses, the teacher’s role is a didactic one, “telling” students what they need to know rather than a coaching role.’

I have the strong belief that if we learn and inquire about others and everything we are in a better position to understand each other, demonstrate respect and be willing to share ideas. I aim to lead by example and encourage my students to be a sponge: to question, consider and create ideas through their learning (as supported by Light and Cox, 2005).

I also reflect on my teaching and consider a range of approaches that will assist me to be an effective teacher who engages with students and peers. I support the leading academic writer and critical thinker, Stephen Brookfield’s concepts of the four ‘lenses’ (1995). These being: theoretical, student, peer, and autobiographical lenses.

In one of the subjects that I convene at University of Canberra, Client Relationship Management 8137, I use as a textbook, ‘The Art of Client Service’ by Robert Solomon (2008). This ‘text’ is symbolic of the way I teach as it is the furthest thing from a text book. It is an advertising industry professional’s honest and at times brutal account of the industry. It achieves what Herrington and Herrington (2006) explain provides a ‘multitude of perspectives to enable students to examine problems from the point of view of a variety of stakeholders (and this) is more conducive to sustained and deep exploration of any issue or problems’ (page 6).

Last year I contacted Solomon in an effort to establish a relationship between this leading industry professional and my students. Even though he is based in New York, Solomon has demonstrated tireless ongoing support and encouragement to my students. He wrote to them suggesting one thing that they could do to get ahead in the industry is to ‘be voracious consumers of everything, and I mean everything, in both old and new media. Ideas can come from anywhere, and you will find inspiration in the most unlikely of connections. Be open to this, and pursue this, with passion and dedication.’ (personal communication, 2010).

At the beginning of each semester I provide students with an information sheet on ‘Useful Advertising-Marketing Communications Resources and Websites’. I do this as I encourage and support my students to be ‘sponges’. Included on this list is the Australian industry’s e:bulletins Mumbrella http://mumbrella.com.au/ and AdNews http://www.adnews.com.au/ These online resources offer free daily e:bulletins that can be delivered direct to an email in-box featuring up-to-date information and news on the advertising-marketing communications industry. Anyone and everyone in the industry subscribe to these bulletins, and industry also makes itself available to be interviewed or showcased – as it is acknowledged that both these online resources are influential and can influence.

I know my teaching challenges students as I place high demands and expectations on them, including being aware of industry trends and current affairs issues, but I want them to be the future leaders of our industry. Students appear to respect this approach and applaud it. This is demonstrated through the strong results I receive in the University’s Unit Satisfaction Surveys on which academics performances are measured. Comments from my Advertising Strategy 6809 2011 anonymous student survey include:

‘Sally Webster has so far made Advertising Strategy a good experience. Her strengths include knowing exactly what she expects of herself and her students. for example, she often critiques professionals in the field of advertising and explains why she does this. I appreciate that she emphasises the fact that advertising is constantly changing, that the consumer and customer will not respond positively to the same tactics they were exposed to years ago.’

‘I have never had a tutor who knew so much about everything, Sally seems to be one of those people that is always on the ball - something extremely rare to find these days, she is the best tutor I've ever had.’

‘Sally is very informed about the material and tries to get us as the students involved and uses a lot of examples to show us and link that to the \"theory\"’

‘Sally is very enthusiastic and passionate about advertising. She's concise and clear in the strategies and theories she teaches us and provides examples we can relate to which makes it fun and easy to pay attention.’

As Race and Pickford (2007) explain: ‘Possibly the most pleasant feedback that any teacher can be given is that their enthusiasm was inspirational to students’ (p15).

Race and Pickford highlight how satisfying this is, however they do not focus on how students and peers can inspire and motivate teachers, which also relates to the Brookfield ‘Student and Peer Lenses’(1995). For me, this inspiration from my students and my peers supports and motivates me to be an even more informed, effective and innovative teacher.

References:
AdNews http://www.adnews.com.au/ accessed 7 May 2011.

Brookefield, S. (1995) Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Harley, S. (1993). Situated learning and classroom instruction. Educational Technology, 33(3), 46-51.

Herrington, A. and Herrington, J. (2006) What is an Authentic Learning Environment? Idea Group Inc.

Light, G. & Cox, R. Learning & Teaching in Higher Education: The Reflective Professional. Sage Publications, London, 2005.

Mumbrella http://mumbrella.com.au/ accessed 7 May 2011.

Race, P. & Pickford, R. Making Teaching Work: ‘Teaching Smarter’ in Post-Compulsory Education. Sage Publications, London, 2007.

Solomon, R. (2008), The Art of Client Service, 58 things every advertising & marketing professional should know. New York, NY: Kaplan

You want evidence...you get research...

It is interesting how many incoming students about to embark on their Advertising-Marketing Communications course are surprised by the amount of research and evidence-based material that is used in developing successful creative campaigns.

As a teacher of Advertising-Marketing Communication I have a mantra that I encourage my students to chant back to me.
I ask: “What is advertising all about?”
The correct answer my students are encouraged to enthusiastically shout back is: “research”.
I continue: ‘And, what are you researching…?”
I want my students to bellow out so it can be heard down the corridor: “the target audience and getting as much evidence on our target audience so we can persuade them to buy or change behaviour.”

Those who answer correctly get a Cadbury Freddo. So, when it is the whole class that responds, there’s a lot of Cadbury chocolate going around. But, most importantly the message and importance of research gets through.

Why do I offer Cadbury? One of the most effective evaluation and research briefs of any communications campaign is that of the Cadbury Gorilla (Barreyat-Baron and Barrie, 2008). This case study, which is available on WARC (formerly known as the Worldwide Advertising Research Centre), won an Institute of Practitioners in Advertising Award in 2008. This case study sets out all the elements that need to be considered and undertaken when developing an advertising strategy. It demonstrates the research, evaluation, and strategic analysis required for a successful creative campaign – in the implementation phases, pre-development of the creative and post-campaign evaluation - all critical learning for advertising-marketing communication students. It is an ideal case study to show students and encourage them to analyse, reflect and compare with their own campaign research briefs.

As discussed in the post ‘It’s all about you…YouTube!’ my goal is teach students so they can be creative, job ready graduates that will be leaders in the industry and be recognised for delivering the highest of professional standards. I do this by focusing on Work Integrated Learning and by combining approaches of practice-led and research-led teaching.

Having access to websites and resources such as WARC assist students to achieve and importantly to identify, recognise and understand what cutting-edge, professional industry standards are.

University of Canberra students have the opportunity to access WARC through the public pathway www.warc.com or if they access the website through the UC Library it provides students with member access, which means access to all case studies, industry analysis, forecasting, and other data.

WARC is a London, based marketing trend research and forecasting agency that was established more than 25 years ago (source: WARC, 2011). The agency is recognised globally for its high research standards and influential industry reports. Due to my efforts to encourage students to review and study WARC case studies, many have produced very high professional standard Campaign Research Briefs. Therefore, I contacted WARC to consider accepting some of my students Research Briefs for its website. WARC has considered this favourably and are currently working with some of my students. If accepted, it will be the first time any report prepared by a student has been published by WARC.

The approach I have adopted supports the University of Canberra’s mission to encourage students to develop high level research skills and techniques, and encourage them to engage in broad discussions about research in their field. My teaching approach also advocates the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research ‘Guidelines for the 2011 Higher Education Research Data Collections (2010) that details: ‘Research is defined as the creation of new knowledge and/or the use of existing knowledge in a new and creative way so as to generate new concepts, methodologies and understandings.’

By analysing and reviewing award winning case studies that are available on WARC such as the Cadbury Gorilla campaign case study, it assists students to achieve professional standards and develop a greater understanding of the importance of research and evidence-based creative ideas in a global context.

References:
Barreyat-Baron, M. and Barrie, R. (2008). ‘Cadbury – How a drumming gorilla beat a path back to profitable growth: a real-time effectiveness case study’. Advertising Works 17. IPA Effectiveness Awards 2008. London. Retrieved from: http://www.warc.com.ezproxy1.canberra.edu.au/ or http://learnonline.canberra.edu.au/file.php/5277/IPA_Case_Study_Cadbury_Gorilla.pdf

‘Cadbury Gorilla’ (2007). Creative Agency: Fallon. Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnzFRV1LwIo accessed 25 April 2011.
Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research ‘Guidelines for the 2011 Higher Education Research Data Collections (2010). Australian Government.

WARC (formerly Worldwide Advertising Research Centre). www.warc.com accessed: 25 April 2011.

It’s all about You…YouTube!

At the University of Canberra I convene and teach into a range of Advertising-Marketing Communications subjects at both the postgraduate and undergraduate level. The core units that I have designed and convene are Client Relationship Management, Advertising Strategy and Marketing Communication Management.

I am relatively new to academia having joined University of Canberra in August 2009 as Course Convenor and Lecturer of Advertising-Marketing Communication. Prior to this I worked for more than 20 years in marketing communications in the Government sector, in creative agencies, and for multinational organisations.

Coming from a strong vocational background, it was fundamental to me that I develop learning programs that support students in offering them ‘authentic activities (that) have real world relevance’ (Herrington, Oliver and Reeves, 2003). I believe it is critical that students are able to use their time at university to learn and grow in confidence by understanding the theory, how this relates to professional practice, and have every opportunity possible to put this learning into practice so they are delivering the highest of professional standards – and can be job ready graduates. This means supporting Work Integrated Learning (WIL) objectives and incorporating WIL elements, such as ‘Authentic Assessment or Performance Assessment’ (Moss, 1992), as these ‘approaches ‘encourage(s) students to develop professional, industry skills by undertaking assignments that are based on professional practice approaches.’ (Donnan, 2010).

Each semester I teach about 200 students. My goal is to develop curriculum that presents ideas, challenges thinking, and encourages discussion and debate. Therefore my aim is to design learning activities that are informative, interactive, innovative, engaging and creative (as supported by James, McInnis and Devlin, 2002)

By using a blended learning approach that incorporates the online platform Moodle with face to face teaching, it enables me to deliver on my WIL objectives and my personal objectives of challenging students to investigate, share and discuss ideas, and consider strategic options.

While it may appear basic, the key tool that is fundamental to achieving these goals is YouTube. Developed in 2005, YouTube is a global, video sharing network that enables anyone to post a video clip as long as it is no more than 15 minutes in length (source: Wikipedia, 2011). This policy is ideal for teaching as most clips can range from an advertisement of 30 seconds to an industry piece of a few minutes to an interview of a leading industry figure discussing key insights of around 10 minutes. All ideal times to capture a young, energetic audience that can easily be distracted when learning materials are lengthy, non-dimensional or repetitive.

YouTube clips are used in every lecture, in every class and in the majority of student discussion posts. Students will often raise a query in class that relates to something they have seen on YouTube clip which means sourcing and showing the clip impromptu to engender reflection, ideas and debate.

YouTube provides a global information source that can assist and support teaching and learning to be dynamic and engaging. It is an online network where consumers talk to consumers; where ideas and creativity can be shared globally. This demonstrates to students first hand practice of the power of advertising, brand equity and consumer behaviour. Where else could you discover an angry, determined Panda that could successfully persuade consumers to buy Panda Cheese http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X21mJh6j9i4&feature=popt17us0e or listen to a song by a disgruntled consumer of United Airlines http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QDkR-Z-69Y&feature=related that as a result of the YouTube clip and its viral reach does impact on the airlines’ sales. These clips, along with many more, were all analysed in my Advertising-Marketing Communication units to demonstrate in an interactive and dynamic way a range of issues, concepts and trends that are current within the industry.

References:
Advantage Advertising and Marketing for Arab Dairy / Alibaba Foods. Panda Cheese. Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X21mJh6j9i4&feature=popt17us0e accessed: 5 February 2011.
Donnan, P. (2010) Assessment and Evaluation in Tertiary Teaching. Teaching and Learning Centre. University of Canberra.Herrington, J. Oliver, R. and Reeves, T C. (2003). Patterns of engagement in authentic online learning environments. Australian Journal of Educational Technology, 19 (10), p 59-71 http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet19/herrington.html as sourced from: Tertiary Teaching and Learning 8191 (2010) Session 8: Professional Education: Integrating Work and Learning. Unit Convenor Peter Donnan, University of Canberra.
James, R. McInnis, C, & Devlin, M. Assessing Learning in Australian Universities. Centre for the Study of Higher Education, Melbourne University & The Australian Universities Teaching Committee, Canberra, 2002.
Moss, P. A. (1992). Shifting conceptions of validity in educational measurement: implications for performance assessment. Review of Educational Research. 62: pp229-58.
United Breaks Guitar. Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QDkR-Z-69Y&feature=related accessed: 12 March 2011.
Wikipedia (2011). Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Tube accessed: 22 April 2011.
YouTube http://www.youtube.com/

What the Wiki…

In creating a series of wikis in order to reflect on and discuss a range of web tools that can be incorporated into teaching and learning at the tertiary level, I believe it is first critical to consider the continued effectiveness of wikis.

The wiki of all wikis that easily spread this social networking phenomena across the globe, is Wikipedia (source www.wikipedia.org ) Wikipedia explains the first open source online forums were created between 1993 and 1999 (source: History of Wikipedia, 2011). Wikipedia, which has become a global information tool, was established in 2001 as a free, online encyclopaedia. Originally, it was created as a public information forum where anyone could post material and add to or edit existing posts. This became the definition of a wiki as the Oxford English Dictionary Online states: (March 2011): 'A type of web page designed so that its content can be edited by anyone who accesses it, using a simplified markup language.'

As it might be expected, most publicly accessible wikis encountered challenges because anyone had the opportunity to make changes to published material. For sites, such as Wikipedia, that purported to be a ‘free online encyclopaedia’, for it to have a level of accuracy of the information it featured, it meant that it had to review its open access policy so as to ensure credibility of its brand. In 2005, due to a number of incidences where inaccurate information was posted, Wikipedia adopted a more stringent submission process whereby posts are peer reviewed and vetted (History of Wikipedia, 2011). Being the most famous global wiki and the one perhaps with the most influence on how a wiki is defined, this action meant that Wikipedia changed the definition of ‘wikis’. We now have other similarly controlled ‘wikis’ that are about providing accessible information in a public platform, however it is not possible for internet users to adapt this content. The most infamous is Wikileaks: which has a detailed submission policy on its website that explains all material is scrutinised, verified and it is only possible to submit material at certain times. This approach contradicts the Oxford English Dictionary Online wiki definition of March 2011.

It is worthwhile explaining this context in relation to the following discussions on the various websites and web tools that I incorporate into units (subjects) I convene and manage within the University of Canberra Advertising and Marketing Communication program (for both postgraduate and undergraduate levels).

The use and the ever changing approaches of online media was recently discussed at the Australian Association of National Advertisers 2011 Congress. Areas that were discussed included the constantly changing nature of social networking and digital work. What was produced yesterday, will likely to be out of date by tomorrow. The online, digital world is a fast moving, fast paced environment. Therefore, it is no surprise that wikis have evolved and have morphed into the style and approach of a controlled and managed blog.

The reinvention of wikis into a blog style platform is also supported by my advertising-marketing communication students who at the beginning of this year (2011)requested that their wiki discussions sites, on the online Moodle tool, all be converted to blogs. They asked for this change because they no longer felt wikis, as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary Online, were useful. They claimed they no longer served the purpose for an open discussion, and while they believed it was critical to feature comments and material that could be commented upon, they did not support open access so material could be altered or edited by another user. (personal communication, 2011).


References:

Australian Association of National Advertisers. (February 2011) AANA Congress: Window on 2011. Retrieved from: http://www.aana.com.au/Congress2011.htm accessed 20 April 2011.
History of Wikipedia. (2011). Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_History accessed 17 April 2011.
Oxford English Dictionary Online. Retrieved from: wiki, n. Third edition, December 2006; online version March 2011. http://www.oed.com:80/Entry/267577 accessed 17 April 2011.
Wikileaks. (2011) http://wikileaks.ch/ accessed 17 April 2011.
Wikipedia www.wikipedia.org accessed 17 April 2011.