What Is Higher Education?

Education = 'To draw out'

Learning - in the past four weeks we have become better at openly discussing our own work and sharing ideas and feedback with the rest of the group.

Informal learning - day-to-day situations such as life, during a meal, friends, exploring and travelling.

Formal learning - takes place within a tutor-student relationship such as in school, university or college.

Non-formal learning - you start to take control of your learning - effectively organising the glance between formal and informal learning time.

Feedback - information given in response to a product, performance or activity used as a basis for improvement.

Formative and summative feedback:
Assessment of individual learning, summarises development of the learner at a specified point in time. Usually after a period of work is submitted.

Formative feedback is more valuable for day-to-day teaching. It allows tutors to adapt their teaching to meet certain needs.

Personal Tutorial:
-personal achievement
-personal development
- clear action planning and time management
- discuss any issues

Studio based feedback - usually verbal critique through group feedback and teaching. This reflects industry practice ('the pitch')

Preparation for crits:
-bring design sheets, mockups and test pieces as well as resolved pieces of work. This helps colleagues to understand the direction your work is taking.
-Design practice and context blogs should be unto date.

Things to remember:
-students don't always understand the feedback.
-students can become disinterested in their ideas.
-students can sometimes feel that they are failing and they don't know why.
-feedback can be taken personally.
-feedback can be over formulaic and academic.
-one-to-one can overwhelm and become tutor-lead
-group discussions allow for hiding and lack of engagement
-critique can be perceived as personal attack.

"Feedback in higher education is teaching. When we ask you questions, our intent is to ensure you understand what you are doing. When you ask questions it affords you the opportunity to improve understanding. Feedback is an essential part of the education process."

"Good teaching makes you ask questions. Bad teaching gives you the answers."

What do I want feedback on so far?
-Have I been using my blog as effectively as possible?
-Is my work at a high enough standard?
-Suggestions for improvement?
-Advice on my good and bad ideas?
-Advice on my work ethic e.g time management?
-Is my contextual research useful in helping to understand my ideas?

Areas of feedback to consider:
-Use of blog:
Content
Organisation
Tagging
Quantity
Quality- Text+images
-Time management (per project)
-Academic/writing skills
-Critical evaluation (you and others)
-Quality of work
-Design decisions
-Understanding of design principles
-Individual progress/improvement
-Appropriate responses to briefs