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Mike
Posted 15. April 2009, 15:46 by Mike Molesworth comments (19)
Category : Home   Learning & teaching developments

In previous years when I have posted this students have suggested that if you are a ‘worrier’ then it might be best to wait until you have your work back before you read this post. All the work is marked (except one extension). Subject to 2nd marking you should be able to collect your work on Monday 20th.
I obviously marked the work as one group of 123 students (BAAMC/BAM/BAIM/BAPR), applying the same criteria to all work. Overall the quality of work was very high I thought. The mean mark was 63%. There were 29 1sts and 57 2:2s. That’s 70% of the work in the higher classifications. There was only one third and no fails. 28 students applied for and got the bonus. That is only 23% and to be honest I thought it would be higher than this. There was obviously a significant correlation between the higher marks and the student who went for the bonus. I wonder if that percentage tells us something about the overall engagement with the unit over the year. I think many students didn’t engage enough. I think a lot more should have got that bonus.

I was especially impressed with the group work. Although there were some great individual projects and essays as well, some of the group work demonstrated real complexity and ambition. I also noted that there was greater confidence in work that was based on a substantial project. The projects seemed to give students something concrete to write about that they ‘believed in’. I do think some people under-exploited the project work they undertook however, reducing it to just a small part of their portfolio when there was more to write about.

Overall I think the application to examples was also very good. I was pleased to see the high levels of practical and industry understanding across the group. This was of course one of my core aims in taking the approach that I did. I think that bit paid off. Many students really grasped the idea of applying ideas to live sites and this tended to improve analysis. I felt that if asked, many could talk with confidence about various sites, the cultures they support, and their significance for marketing and managed communications.

There was some ambitious theoretical work, although perhaps not surprisingly this was probably the weakest area overall. There was still too much ‘bolting on’ of theory and too little critical analysis of ideas from studies cited. Some students simply tried to cover too many diverse theoretical perspectives in short pieces of work.

Less impressive was the level of reflection. Here I’m into some of the generic weaknesses then. Rather than reflect on their work and experiences most students simply provided a summary or an overview of their portfolio. So they would tell me what they were submitting and often claim originality, etc but there was no real analysis of the experience in most cases. Only a few students dealt with issues such as gaining confidence, or dealing with groups, or coming to understand online cultures through participation, or understanding of learning styles and approaches.

Some students also spread themselves rather thin. They submitted lots of little bits and often this meant that depth was absent. And in a number of cases the work was better at raising questions/issues that at addressing them in a meaningful way.
The better essays dealt with a topic in some depth and were based on a well-considered conceptual framework. However there were a few essays that simply described theory – often in a rather generic and dull way – and then failed to apply these ideas in any meaningful way either. The worst essays really did seem rushed at the last minute to me. This was a shame and a lost opportunity for some students I think.

Finally, here was less ambition in presentation that I might have hoped for. Some students really went for a multimedia approach and exploited video and podcasts, but most simply presented in a standard format. Some failed to properly introduce the portfolio so I got confused by what I was looking at, and some forgot to include the self-assessment altogether. Only one person went significantly over the word count. A lot of you didn’t use Harvard every effectively however (where appropriate).

So that’s the assignment over. In the last three weeks I’ve read the equivalent of 300,000 words (equivalent to about 50 journal articles) and written about 18,000 (a dissertation and a couple of essays). It has taken me over 70 hours. That’s a lot of work! I was impressed overall, but also frustrated that there were not more original projects (I note that there were only a few projects outside the ideas that I presented at the end of the first term, for example). It would have been good to see more ad campaigns, more viral work, more activist campaigns, more attempts at persuasive communication, more external blog projects, etc. And again, it would have been good to see more people go for the bonus, and far fewer leave things to the very last minute. I think this means that one rather negative reading of my approach this year is that it has been a complicated and time consuming way to simply increase the number of student complaints! I’m pretty sure that for some the experience has been enlightening. I read that several had never posted on a forum before, or written a blog, or edited a wiki, and now find they have the confidence to do these things. I also note than some have developed good skills in using log files or online ad programmes, or in managing online conversations. That is good. But for others I suspect they have not got much from this approach. They have been frustrated by it and never really got involved in the way I intended. For some I think this means that they have preferred to concentrate on their other courses and have therefore largely neglected this unit and the CEMP site. I think That’s a shame and I’m sorry that some of you have found the unit so difficult and unsatisfactory.

I plan to make one more post here – a final review of the site. I note however that as many of us expected, the site is already largely abandoned. I think that’s a bit of a sad end to the unit and to the CEMP community project.

Comments
Posted by: Nic - 15. April 2009, 17:56

Thank you very much for the feeback Mike, I found that really useful and will re-read once I’ve got my portfolio back to pick up on anything I could have improved on.

Good to see lots of people did well too.

Posted by: AmyWal - 15. April 2009, 18:04

Can’t decide whether reading this has made me more nervous or less! Not sure I should have looked at it but couldn’t help myself! Oops! I agree with Nic, thank you for the general feedback and for spending so much time going through our work!

Posted by: Kat - 15. April 2009, 19:01

I’d like to take a bit more of an optimistic approach and suggest that maybe there is a percentage of students that have learnt more than they were able to show in their portfolio or essays (myself included)… I don’t envy you having to read them all, though!

Posted by: TB - 15. April 2009, 20:06

This is quite useful in getting a feel for how people did and good to hear no-one failed and only one 3rd! (looking at somethig positive here).

The same goes for me, I shall re-read this feedback once I have picked up my portfolio and read individual comments. Thanks though for this overall feedback Mike

Good luck to all :)

Posted by: NV - 15. April 2009, 20:24

I am a worrier but then i couldn’t resist having a read of this. I have mixed feelings about this and to be honest glad i didn’t fail but nervous about my result. I am not going to be in uni until the following week. is it actually possible to email the admin people to get your results or do you have to physically be there to get them back?

i too wish everyone luck, we all worked very hard on this!

Posted by: Hannah - 15. April 2009, 21:44

I have mixed feelings so but I appreciate knowing nobody failed etc and I thought this feedback was really good – thanks Mike. Good luck everyone.

Posted by: Sophs - 15. April 2009, 22:33

I agree with Kat, that some people may not have been able to show everything they learnt within the word count of the assignment, I would say I was probably one of those people too!

It’s nice to know no-one failed though, so again, thanks Mike for taking the time to write this.

Good luck everybody – not long to go now!! :)

Posted by: Chris M - 15. April 2009, 22:56

I think the opening statement is a bit misleading – those results seem better than I would have expected!

As for the marking I think you’ve got a relatively good deal with what you’ve got to read! I feel sorry for those lecturers marking 120 papers about the business strategy of a coal company… Yeuch.

Posted by: Steph - 15. April 2009, 23:16

Cheers for this Mike, its good to actually get some decent feedback so we all know how to improve our skills in general. I will look at it in more detail on Monday though when I know my mark. Thanks again!

Posted by: Pandora - 15. April 2009, 23:19

Cheers for this Mike, it is a relief that no-one failed, and it will definitely have much more relevance when I have a look at the assignment.

It is a shame about people abandoning this site – its a really great resource, and even though I am supposed to be concentrating on other things, I still find myself thinking of topics to post in the forum, and no doubt I will continue to post things on here for a while yet.

Posted by: Mike - 16. April 2009, 08:34

Thank you all for this. I’ll pick up on one thing that I’ve said before. I know that assignments and their marks are not always a good indication of what a student has learnt. They are a ‘snapshot’, or at best a limited sample. they are therefore subject to some element of luck. I think that accepting that might lead to useful reflection on both ‘good’ and ‘not so good’ marks. This is also why I wanted to put emphasis on you doing a range of practical things all year. I wanted you to think more about what you have learnt than what mark you get. And I want you to be able to talk about and do online PR/marketing advertising, not just have a piece of paper with a score on it.

Of course that is also why I was disappointed that so few went for the bonus. I heard of students saying things like ‘it’s not worth doing all that for just 5%’. What they are saying then is that ‘I don’t really want to learn that stuff; I’m just not that interested’, or ‘I’ve got more important things to do with my time’.

But yes, we can contrast that with a significant group of students who really did some great stuff in the last 6 months and if they were honest in their reflections, seems to learn a lot form it. I also think this is a very good set of marks. All the work (and therefore all the blogs) have something worth reading in them. Many of them have originality and insight. And I’m quite confident that I will see a similar standard in the exam.
Posted by: Daan Jansonius - 16. April 2009, 14:03

Thanks for the analysis Mike.

I’m still very disappointed that the unit is gonna get a complete overhaul over the summer. Not only does this community provide a platform to learn from fellow students, it’s helped peopple connect across courses and get different angles from the various disciplines. The fact this opportunity is not available next year is regrettable.

Having said that, it’s great to see most of us have done so well and that the more involved students seem to have been rewarded appropriatly

Posted by: Nick Rogers - 17. April 2009, 08:42

Whoa mike thats alot of reading, thanks alot for the feedback.

Shame people are still not coming back to the site, it may be because of dissertation though and after the 27th it will be buzzzzzzing again.

Posted by: Lauren C - 17. April 2009, 12:22

I agree I have neglected the cemp site a bit but only because I am doing my dissertation but after that I will be back!
I am so pleased no-one failed definetly a relief when walking to the assignment room.
Thank you Mike for taking the time to write this blog, I think it will help a lot when the portfolios are handed back so we can see where we might of gone wrong or done well in.

I think the CEMP website has helped me a considerable amount throughout the year. As I have been able to chat to other students and get help from others which I might not of got if there wasnt CEMP.

Posted by: Cat - 18. April 2009, 00:32

Thanks for the feedback and the time you put into it.

Wasn’t expected but very much welcomed.

I must say I was one of those that found this unit rather frustrating but ultimately I have learnt more than I had originally thought and it makes me look at online differently than I did originally and I’m sure it will help me in the future.

So thanks again and now for the exam…..

Posted by: Sophie W - 18. April 2009, 11:11

Great feedback, thanks Mike! I think overall, the results look positive, although I was expecting more people to apply for the bonus.

Good luck everyone!

Posted by: Sophs R - 21. April 2009, 11:28

Thanks Mike

Posted by: Aneurin Barker Snook - 23. April 2009, 19:19

This may be a bit of a last word, but I’d like to add for anyone that sees it that CEMP has been pivotal this year in suddenly gaining an appreciation of my course; in understanding how the course has benefited me in ways I had previously taken for granted and thus overlooked. I think that in BAIMP I have learnt more about learning than about media itself (a comment meant in support!) I could say that interactive media has been a backdrop for the teaching of something more fundamental; independence, the pursuit of personal interests, whatever.

The online platform and interacting with tutors – in more meaningfully a way than I had done before – has been a real help with regards to developing self-reflexivity (reflectivity?) CEMP is not alone in this as the sudden rise of Twitter has given me a perfect channel through which to communicate with peers and tutors, a real problem for me before considering my deafness. Interacting with Joe, Mike and the (lovely) PR students here and on Twitter has crystallised a lot of what I’ve done these last few years, and over the last two months I’ve come to decide, in spite of my past furious outbursts about the value of the course, that it’s actually shaped me into a more capable practitioner than a technical course ever would have. So thanks.

Posted by: Kat - 10. May 2009, 14:53

Thanks Aneurin. I couldn’t have said it better.