Friday 20 March 2009

Meeting Life Sciences Module Teams - Scene Setting

So, after much behind the scenes activity we recently met with the module teams from the School of Life Sciences. We are engaging in Appreciative Inquiry (as an Evaluation Framework) and before we enter the Inquire Phase (with them) we wanted to set the scene and help get them on board with our work. They, like other Schools, are very busy and I have no desire to draw on their time unnecessarily. We set aside 2.5 hours for a meeting where we could outline the project and get them interacting. The time flew by - for me anyway. Dominic did a great job introducing the project - I simply made up numbers and responded to some of their concerns.

Naturally (given it was a 2.5 hour session), we built in stuff for them to do and feedback - I thought (and I did say that I hoped I had not misread the mood of the room) that they were very positive.

Helen Barefoot came along too since this is her School and she spans across the Learning and Teaching Institute and also the School. Helen was a great advocate and could help relate our ideas to their context.

We asked for their immediate thoughts - which are now being collated and will be fed back here.

At the end of the session we also gave them Flip Cameras and asked them to introduce themselves and talk very briefly about a positive assessment experience. The room was lively and vibrant and although it was late and at the end of the 2.5 hours we got some great clips. This will now start to set a very positive picture when we start the Inquire Phase.

Thanks LIfe Sciences - Great start!

1 comment:

Rachel said...

Hi Mark and Dominic
This sounds like it went really well. Great! I caught up with Rhona Sharpe last week at the JISC conference. From her work using AI with Emerge, she emphasised the importance of surfacing positive experiences. Sounds like the flip cameras do the job. Did you ask attendees to interview each other with the cameras, or did one of you do it? Look forward to hearing more.
Rachel