DCO Co-op Project Innovation & Inquiry Co-op Experience

Action Phase & Feedback Cycle

Module 6

The Parts of this Module Include

Responsibilities in Action Phase

Feedback Cycle

Weekly Reflections

Preparing for Action

Now that you’re starting the Action Phase of your project, you’ll be more independent.

Before this, you were guided step by step, with your notebook to track progress and instructions on when to check in.

From now on, follow your Strategic Plan from Module 5B. It should tell you what to do, when to do it, and how to know when a step is finished. Your plan will guide your check-ins and testing so you can finish your project by the end of the semester.

The goal is to complete your Action for your Lens and get ready to make your presentation at the end of the course.

Keep on top of things and work to achieve your goals!

Part 1: Responsibilities During Action Phase

During this time (usually half of the course) you are working along your own plans and timelines. During this time you have some responsibilities to maintain. If at any point any of these responsibilities are not being maintained, or you are struggling with them then meet with your co-op teacher to discuss.

Keep Communication

During this time it is critical you keep communication with both your co-op teacher and your mentor. This can be through email, in person meetings, or sharing documents. However, they need to know what is going on.

Regular Check-ins

Within your strategic plan you should structure check-ins just like the first half of the course. It is suggested this is happening at least once a week with your co-op teacher. If you need to still go add specific check in points into your plan you should do that now.

Follow Your Plan

Your strategic plan is your timeline and tasks. You will begin to see very quickly if your plan is not detailed enough or if you have missed steps. This is a working document, adjusted as needed but hopefully you can stick to what you have set out to achieve.

Put In the Effort

Reminder, this is your show! if you are putting in 50% of the effort needed to make things happen you will get 50% of the output. Take pride in your work and invest in it. If you are struggling with getting motivated, talk to your co-op teacher about building in strategies like reminders or calendar events to set small milestones to work towards.

Complete Weekly progress Reflections

Each week during this process you will be required to complete Weekly progress Reflections. You will find 7 reflections (the usual timeframe for this stage) with a variety of topics you can choose from. It is your responsibility to complete these and let your co-op teacher know when they are done.

Ask for Help

If you get stuck, reach out. If you are struggling, reach out. If you are getting frustrated or falling behind, reach out. Your co-op teacher and your mentor are there to help you but you have to advocate for it. If we do not know you need help, we cannot help you.

Part 2: Feedback Cycle

Obtaining Feedback

As part of your Strategic Plan, you should include steps to get feedback. This is really important for your project’s success.

The best way is to test parts of your plan with your target audience, but it’s also okay to get feedback from anyone who understands your idea.

To get useful feedback, share your idea or prototype with different people—like family, friends, or others in your network. Give them a short explanation of what you’re trying to do, show what you’ve created, and let them give their thoughts on next steps.

This could look like one or more of the following strategies:

Create a brief 'script' and share your Concept/Prototype in person and ask a set of standard questions you develop to gather feedback.
Email a brief write up of your Concept/Prototype to people of your choice and provide Google form for them to complete
Create a brief script and share your Concept/Prototype in a google meet/phone call and then provide a google form for them to complete
Post quick video with a description of your Concept/Prototype to your Social Media Accounts and then ask if select people are interested in giving feedback so you can DM them the Google Form

Duration: 2:51

Duration: 4:30

Please note: This feedback will be an important part of your project pitch presentation at the end of the semester (this is your FPT for the co-op). The feedback will show that you not only have developed a way to address your challenges but received insight from others on how you did it. In addition, you will have been able to implement or create responses to the challenges/suggestions that are on the table.

Considerations for Gathering Feedback

Below are some things to consider when getting ready to collect feedback:

Who are you going to gather feedback from?
What stage of your action or solution is when getting this feedback?
Are you doing multiple feedback sessions or just one?
Are you gathering feedback on your whole solution or a section
- - (e.g. types of activities in a workshop you are developing) or (e.g. testing a tool with fellow students to see its effectiveness for its chosen job) or (e.g. doing a test run on a technology you have coded to see if it has any glitches)
What type of questions are you asking? (Open ended, scales, Y/N, etc.)
What questions do you explicitly want to ask them?
What questions do you think they will ask of you?
What tools are you going to use to capture their feedback effectively?
- - (e.g. Google form, voice notes, sticky notes, comment cards, etc.)
How are you going to organize the feedback or data you have received for immediate or future use?
- - Reminder you will need to include this in your final presentation

Implementing Feedback

Do I need to implement all the feedback I receive? That is up to you.

The feedback you received was hopefully insightful and useful. The intention of getting feedback during a ‘testing’ or ‘prototyping’ stage is to then implement it but this does not always have to be the case. You may take some suggested changes and leave others. However, you should have a good understanding of why the feedback was not implemented when discussing your project at the end of the term.

Workbook Entry

Head to your workbook to plan and track your feedback cycle

Module 6: Activity 1

Workbook Review

Head to your workbook to ensure you understand and know where to find the Weekly Reflection Options moving forward.

If you have questions about this please ask your teacher ASAP

Module 6 Complete

Before Moving on to your Check Point please ensure you have the following items completed in your workbook:

Module 6: Activity 1 (Feedback Cycle)
Module 6: Activity 2 (Review of Weekly Reflections)

Lets Move onto Module 7 - Click Here!

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