Session/artefact to be observed/reviewed: Teaching session

Size of student group: Class size is 36, attendance is variable, anywhere from 25 – 33ish.

Observer: Jonathan Flint

Observee: Emma Charleston

Part One (completed by Emma)

Observee to complete in brief and send to observer prior to the observation or review:

What is the context of this session/artefact within the curriculum?

This is the first session of our new ‘Human Centred Design’ unit, which will run from now until the end of the academic year. This is their second unit (of two) in the first year of the User Experience Design BA course. They will receive a brief after easter, the sessions until then are designed to consist of quickfire exercises introducing various human centred design concepts and methodologies.

How long have you been working with this group and in what capacity

I have been working with this group since September 2023, as ‘Year 1 Lead’ (i.e. their main point of contact for year 1)

What are the intended or expected learning outcomes?

To develop their understanding of human centred design methodologies and concepts in readiness to apply to a brief they’ll receive after easter. In this session specifically, to introduce the concept generally.

What are the anticipated outputs (anything students will make/do)?

During this session, students will (hopefully) show some homework examples, as well as show the results of some exercises we run during the session

Are there potential difficulties or specific areas of concern?

This is our first session back after a 3 week break! So they may be a little discombobulated (as might I!) Some of the students have low language levels and at times struggle during sessions, which I try to mitigate with clear communication, but it can sometimes be hard to communicate tasks and concepts.

How will students be informed of the observation/review?

I will mention it to them in an email before they return for our first session.

What would you particularly like feedback on?

Any thoughts on maintaining students focus, and catering for students with lower language levels very welcome. These is also a totally new session I have not delivered before, so any thoughts on the exercises are very welcome!

How will feedback be exchanged?

Informally verbally after the session, as well as written for the purposes of the PGCert.

Part Two (Completed by Jon)

Observer to note down observations, suggestions and questions:

Engagement, Communication, and Focus

Great level of motivation and enthusiasm from you, your body language is dynamic, and you explain things with gestures as well as walking around the room to the different groups to engage with them. It is good that you also ask a lot of questions and reiterate some of the thing’s students explained so that everyone in the room can hear. You made an excellent effort to make everyone feel welcomed and involved, even the student who was new to the course and taking the unit. You respond well and are intuitive such as the example of the sketching and how you mentioned this was a great activity to practise and develop.

Be careful as sometimes you speak too quickly, which is understandable as we often try to fit a lot of content into such tight sessions. Remember to slow down a bit and pause to allow for the students to digest and take in the information. I noticed a few students using live translation apps on their phones, this might benefit them. In the show and tell activity some of the responses felt more one to one, but you did try to respond and engage with everyone by asking if they had been to place or done that activity before.

Don’t forget to reflect and engage on the student experience, draw parallels to your own experience as a student and learner, what motivated you? what challenges did you face? On some occasions it might be useful to talk to the class on their level, so they feel part of the program and will be more motivated to take part.  A lot of your students have been proactive and done a lot of great things such as internships and are starting their journeys as practitioners and it is great that you are highlighting this but continue to do so.

The part of the session I observed was well structured and delivering your sessions jointly with a colleague was a great way to offer a sense of variety for the students to help keep them engaged. Also, the exchange worked well and was natural which helped give the students a sense of being part of it as well. It will be good to see how you structure and develop your joint sessions in the future.

Teaching aids/ Room layout

The choice of teaching aids you used to deliver your session worked well. Padlet worked for the show and tell activity you gave; everyone could quickly access it and I noticed a lot of students with it up on their screens.

Your slides were put together well, and you have important parts that are highlighted and stand out. Be careful as some of the slides were a text heavy (a lot were referring to text readings of course) but more images, visual aids or diagrams could work here. Such as in the examples of bad services having some pictures of the recycling bin or apple mouse could quickly help students navigate what you were explaining more easily. But overall lots of good diverse examples were chosen, again do choose things they will be able to relate to more easily.

The studio space is clean and bright it has the essence of a studio workplace which helps a lot if you want students to attend (our studio is very dark and not very welcoming!). The layout is a bit narrow though and because of this and the placement of the screens, you do tend to face away from the class when changing slides, positioning yourself on the side of the lectern might help here so that you are facing everyone. Also, you naturally tend to look at the screen to the left of the room and at the middle of the room, try to look at the back of the room as well to keep the students there included and try to walk over there a bit more as well.

The Exercise and Activities

For the show and tell a lot of students uploaded content which was positive to see, and it was a great peer exchange activity so that they could see each other’s interests and influences. Because of the nature of Padlet you were scrolling through each of the pieces of content so didn’t realise how much had been uploaded, this part did go on a bit longer than I think you expected at about 30 mins. What might be helpful could be to stretch the peer learning exchange a bit more and allow for groups to present to each other and choosing say three or four people from each group to present to the class, you could even make it a bit more engaging by pinning things to the wall in an exhibition type context to get the students walking around the space and leaving it there for the day so they can read and look at things later.

Other Notes:

Overall, you show a good level of enthusiasm and planning and have a variety of activities for students to take part in. It was great to see you recapping and reminding students what happened in previous sessions, and I like that in the beginning you present events around London they can visit this is a great way to build up community and the culture of your program.

Part Three (completed by Emma)

Observee to reflect on the observer’s comments and describe how they will act on the feedback exchanged:

I found the experience of having Jon come to this session and observe really rewarding, and extremely useful to reflect on which elements of my teaching which are within my control, and which are not. (The answer is invariably that you can change more than you think!)

Jon offered some valuable thoughts on the layout of the room I teach in, which is sub-optimal. I have been well aware of this for the entire time I have delivered sessions there — it is a narrow rectangular room with not quite enough room for the number of students it needs to contain, and awkward bays of computers and equipment which limit the use of some edges of the room. Jon was encouraging about how I move around the room in a proactive way (attempting to engage all students no matter where they are sat), but he did note that the placement of the screens means I have to turn away from students when changing slides, or when more directly gesturing at slides.

I am not sure I have much power to change the placement of the screens, but I may be able to position my laptop with slides on in such a way that I can remain facing the room, rather than having to turn. As a team we do also continue to tinker with the layout of tables in the room to try and reach a more optimal layout.

As this was the first hour of the first session of a new unit, there was much more of my voice than I would have liked. I prefer to centre my sessions around activities, and can see how much more engaged students are when this is the case, but very occasionally it’s hard to avoid more prolonged sections of exposition, as in this observed session. The show and tell activity at the start of the session ran on unexpectedly long, and, in part because I was being observed, I was reluctant to pivot format midway through. Being flexible during sessions when activities aren’t running according to timings or to plan is something I usually pride myself on, and Jon’s comments further highlighted this need to be flexible.

Perhaps the most useful piece of feedback for me was Jon’s comment that my slides could have had more imagery. In the previous unit (Visual Communication), my slides did contain plenty of imagery, but in this more theoretical, methodology based unit, I had strayed too far into text only slides. It was a good reminder to me that all sorts of different aspects of a slide can be illustrated with an image and it can offer a valuable ‘way in’ for all students, particularly those with lower language levels. I will aim to be more proactive in adding more images to my slides going forwards!

It was great to hear Jon’s positive feedback on the good energy between me and my teaching partner Patrick. Sharing delivery in this way has been a positive thing for me and Patrick, and as Patrick has recently gained more hours, we will be even more empowered to split the delivery of sessions more evenly between us, which brings a greater energy to the room and helps keep students engaged. I know that I can be quite a dominant voice, so it is important that I allow space for Patrick to contribute to my sections, as he so generously allows me to do during his.