{ STOP. START. CONTINUE } ~ Feedback

I set up a Padlet to get  quick snapshot from my students in a Bachelor Program /University level course called Visual Communication.  This is a diagnostic that helps meet The Professor of the 21st Century competency {3 -1, 3-3, 3-4} "Assessing selecting and using the teaching/learning strategy appropriate to the learning activity and the learners involved; Leveling: 7+ Years {Identify the influence of recognized learning theories {such as Behaviourism, Humanism, and Cognitive Science, and Constructivism}."
The Padlet asked the question of the students to identify what I should Stop doing {because it does not help them learn the material}; what I should Start doing {because that will help them learn the material better; and what I should Continue doing {because that has been effective in their learning}
Here is the link to that Padlet 

The feedback was interesting and helpful.
It's always hard to get the measure of these students sometimes and the efficacy of their interest.  So this was refreshing.   This is also a relatively new course {only second time teaching this within this program} so it still is being tweaked and refined. The students are University- level students which I've found are a bit more 'reserved' than other learners at the College and much more self-directed in their learning and study habits.

Only six students responded on the padlet out of class of  25-ish
Overall, very positive!
The only negatives seemed to center on accessibility of lecture materials and the posting of grading: many wish me to use Carleton's operating system to allow them to submit and also to upload their rubrics/grading.

These negatives are not completely surprising; they are deliberate choices on my part and I have my reasons.

I used to post all my notes on the Operating System {Blackboard, Canvas at OCADU}early in my career and then I discovered something.  Attendance dropped.  In what would be textbook Behaviorist theory, I was actually encouraging a bad habit.  This is an 8:00am class.  During Winter.  VERY difficult to get students to attend.  I found when I made all the information easily accessible I also made it easy for my students to skip.  Now, I issue the course lecture material via a usb key which I pass out during class.  There are folders with the Weekly class listed.  This is a 'reward' to those who make the effort and attend class.  I also handle marking the same.  My Chair, Peter Larock, had given me a tip.  I used to email my rubrics directly to the students.  He suggested instead that the students come to me during Studio and get their rubrics from me.  Since I made the switch I've found - 1. I get to know the students better; 2. I can modify their perception of me by directly giving them their mark in a friendly courteous manner whereas an email is 'cold' and the receiver can transfer whatever mood or motive they are feeling on to that email.  In person, harder to do. 3. It forces them to come to class.
I've also stopped marking Tutorials and Studio inclass assignments individually.  In other words, I don't set up a rubric for each activity but instead tell them the Rubric is an organic entity that changes with each submission.  They are welcome to come during any time in the course and request a 'snapshot' of their progress at that particular moment but the grade can/will change with each submission.  A 'bad' performance can be absorbed with better performances.  Conversely, you can't 'coast' on a good performance, you can actually squander those grades with weak work.  In the end, it is only 'averaging' all the individual rubrics which I created in the past but Perception is key.  There is no 'final' mark on the Tutorials/learning until the last one is submitted.   For the Main Assignments of course, rubrics are provided.  With such a system, posting rubrics for every inclass/tutorial exercise would be counter-productive.  The downside is students do not know how they are doing in these areas.  In order to find out, they have to contact me.  That is something I wish to encourage.  So the 'negative' becomes a 'positive'.

'Stop. Start. Continue.'  is a great exercise.  But it is also is proof that Education can, frequently is, more complex and frequently counter-intuitive {which was actually a lecture within our Focus on Learning}.  The 'negatives' can sometimes be 'positives' and the 'positives' frequently can be 'negatives'.