In one of the courses I teach, (COM 201: Applied Communication Design), I was really interested in improving student experiences so that they led more directly into some of our upper level courses. As an instructor of the advertising specialization's Practicum (capstone experience), I realized that we had expectations that students would know certain things (obviously).
As a sidenote, our Practicum has been set up as an advertising agency, where students apply for positions within the agency and work with real clients in the univerisity. In previous semesters, clients included the university choir, the Crescent Players (a university theater group), the Catholic Campus Ministry, the Career Services office, and the Office for Study Skills Enrichment. Work produced for these clients was always professional and everyone was satisfied with the results. However...from an instructional standpoint, we found that the students were doing a lot of backfilling for skills and concepts that should have been learned earlier in their program of study. In some cases the students were completely unaware of what it meant to work in an agency setting and what it might mean to work with a client. Other specific process issues, like conducting background research to inform their planning or writing a clear statement of the client's needs, were not handled as well as we might have hoped.
So...jumping back to COM 201, I realized that I might be able to emphasize and "skill build" a bit more carefully in this foundational course so that, when faced with a Practicum (or internship) experience they would be well prepared. The students would need to know a bit more about how agencies work. What it means to cultivate and foster a client relationship. The repercussions of making misreading client expectations. At the same time, I realized that what I had been doing wasn't necessarily working as well as it could. Student projects were becoming drudgery for me...which must have made them dreadful for students. It wasn't that I didn't like the projects, it's just that the excitement and spark they had originally was fading. So I was faced with two tasks...strengthening core concepts and skills while also providing students with interesting and engaging opportunities.
Considering the name of this blog, and my first post, I suppose you might expect my approach to include a Wiki. Well...it didn't. What I did come up with was an approach that I think is entirely consistent with a Web 2.0 sensibility. Technology is central...but I think what makes it work more than anything else is an emphasis on student interaction and control. Let me explain...
In this course, students are faced with learning about communication design processes and concepts. A big part of the class involves students learning how to use Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator (and to some extent InDesign). Initially, assignments involve building familiarity with the programs and testing out basic concpets. Assignments are submitted electronically (I use WebCT/VISTA for this) and the class votes for the "best" projects (based on criteria we discuss in class). The student who receives the highest score (based on a weighted ranking by the class) receives "Tokens" that can be used to trade for various perks in the class. For instance, Tokens can be traded for extra points on an assignment, extended project deadlines, or even changes in the class schedule. This incentive system works surprisingly well. Students can very quickly see the results of their efforts...and feedback is frequently more rich (well received) than it would be if I were routinely grading assignments.
As the semester progresses, the opportunities for earning Tokens becomes more complex. By the third week of class, are required to put together a rudimentary portfolio of their work so far in the semester. The students with the highest Token totals become "Agency Managers" (effectively group leaders) who use the portfolios to "hire" members of their agencies. Once hired, students participate in agency projects. These projects have to do with fictitous clients (derived from class discussion). The agencies compete to land the client and a class vote determines which agency wins the account. The vote also determines the strength of the client relationship, which in turn relates to a weekly Token "pay" that the agency receives from the client. Once a client is landed, the agency then needs to nurture the relationship with the client by either spending Tokens or submitting an extra credit project related to the client's needs. Failure to do so makes it possible for the agency to lose the client or for one of the other agencies to take the client away. The result is a vibrant learning context where students are not only considering the core content of the course (designing effective messages), but also building an appreciation for larger dynamics of the marketplace. Ultimately, the students are highly invested in their projects (they're having fun) and I am more an arbiter or coach that helps resolve disputes and helps them to strategize their project planning. In the end, the students wind up with a portfolio that is much more personal, with more diverse examples of work, that what I had in previous iterations of the course. Below are a few links to some of the things that came out of the course last semester.
Business Index - This is a compilation of the various fictitious companies the student agencies worked with throughout the semester. It shows some of the "extra" work students did to maintain client relationships. Basically clients would have an average relationship with an agency until some extra project was completed. Then the strength of the relationship would improve. If time passed (usually 2-3 weeks), without some extra project, the relationship would worsen. If it remained at "Weak" status for more than a week, the agency would lose the client and it would go up for bid again. This made competition for clients between the agencies quite real...and students took it quite seriously.
Agency Directory - This was the list of agencies student worked with during the semester. I should point out that agencies could do extra work (like creating an agency logo) that would give them an advantage in related Agency project votes (increasing the likelihood that they would win new clients).
Token Leader Board - From week to week we would track project results and accumulated tokens for individuals in class. Students would recieve tokens for voting, making submissions, and winning the vote. Each week the student with the most tokens would gain perks, like adding facts about client needs and additional vote power (their votes count slightly more than those of other students'). The projects listed here were optional and would allow students to earn tokens independent of their agency. This also made it possible for students to get fired from an agency (excluding them from group projects) and still have a means for earning Tokens. Ultimately, this became a straightforward way to track student participation in the course. Every "extra" thing they did, earned them Tokens.
This post does gloss some of the details, but I'm quite excited about the direction the course has taken.I'm working on refinements, but I think the overall structure is solid. If you contact me, I can provide more full details of how I make it work...and I'm always happy to talk this through with anyone that might be interested.
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