Skype Session 15 Recap

Jumped a bunch of session recaps in the middle but I just feel this one is important to recap and reflect upon since it was all about the midpoint review which is coming up next week. *gulp*

When Jonathan emailed, I felt a bit sick with nervousness. I guess just the idea of compressing all that work and thought so succinctly seemed daunting. While the session didn’t remove all of my anxiety, it did help me understand the mid point review a whole lot better.

We were all reconnecting after a long break during the low residency so there was a lot of friendly bantering, but the major portion of the discussion was on the mid point review. Steph had put together a good summary of what we needed to do.

That pretty much sums it all up. But what Jonathan said clarified things even more: “so the MPR might sound a little scary but it shouldn’t be as it is simply telling the story of your first 20 weeks in a short 5 minute video”.

Telling a story–that’s a really good way of looking at it. It also helped ease my anxiety about how I would put something so vast together so briefly. I mean, it is difficult to decide what information to include and what not to include, but if you think of it as a short telling of your journey over the past 20 weeks, then it seems a lot simpler.

Jonathan also mentioned that this assessment was not simply for the sake of assessing. The mid point review was timed at 1/3rd of this course so that we get an opportunity for critique and subsequent reflection. The video part of it was simply to ensure that everybody sticks to the 5 minute time limit.

At this point Steph shared a very useful link: Adobe Spark, which may be helpful in creating the presentation. I have to check this out tonight. Jonathan suggested we use quicktime to record a voice over (have to explore this option too). Ultimately the important thing is the content, NOT the video itself. The only thing we have to ensure is that the video is clearly heard and clearly seen.

Jonathan sent us the Unit 1 assessment brief once again, which is as follows:

These points will be useful to keep in mind while writing down notes for the mid point review.

He also reminded us that the reason it is a ‘midpoint’ review is because we should be free to discuss the challenges, expectations, next steps etc openly so that we can receive feedback on them.

Here’s an important thing Jonathan said,

the important thing with the MPR is that you are showing the key points over the first part of the course – that you are reflecting on it, even the problems and the challenges, often we learn most from these and that you indicate where you are going next — so a TOP TIP for the MPR video is to finish it with some questions, the things you are thinking about and the areas it would be useful to get some feedback on remember when we actually watch and discuss your work you will NOT be allowed to comment – you have to be silent and only listen!

So yes, when your MPR is being presented you are not allowed to speak! Which means you better have explained yourself perfectly in your presentation! 😮

Interesting thing: our assessment will be based not solely on how we prepare our own presentation but how eagerly we review and comment on the presentations of others! And what constructive feedback we give them. Debate and discussion make up an important part of this module.

We concluded with this:

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