Reflections

Joint reflection based on our four blog posts

The following are some extracts from the individual blog posts each of us wrote to reflect upon the completion of our project.

Anna observed: “At the start of this project we didn’t know each other, having only met via the module forums in Blocks 1 and 2. We had to gauge each other’s vision and strengths from our early discussions via the forum and our WhatsApp group before our first online meeting on 13 May. As a group of 4, smaller than the other groups, we were also faced with proportionally more work per person than others. We were all at different stages in the module at that point, with some not officially ready to start block 3, an added complication. Therefore, we began with more of a mountain to climb than was ideal, however with great determination and hope to progress as far as possible with the project and get to know each other a bit in the process.” (Page, 2021)

Paul noted that “Overall Anna's leadership was a facilitative style (Kaimal, Metzl & Millrod, 2017). This was the perfect style for our group as everyone had their strengths and were all very competent students so there was no need to be authoritarian but a laissez faire style would have been too hands off, most likely resulting in us missing certain tasks.” (Hindle, 2021)

Ken made a similar observation that “what made our team unique (compared to other teams that I’ve worked with in the past), is that while we had all our own areas, we also all chipped in to help when needed without any issues. Looking back, I believe that was down to the fact that everyone in our team had the same end goal: Finishing this project with the best marks that we could get while developing our skills and knowledge.” (Wagner, 2021)

Potenza drew attention to how we communicated with each other “As a small group, the communication tools that we chose to use were very effective: WhatsApp for daily communications and touching base and the student forum and Google sites as advised for the website. The regular evening meetings ensured we could bond as a group and progress and agree on the distribution of tasks.” (Atiogbe, 2021a)

Paul commented that “WhatsApp became a useful medium not only in terms of communicating ideas, but also as a prompt to me motivation wise. As I saw the number of messages build up, it would make me feel guilty about not doing enough work and push me to make more time for the tasks. This acted as a form of social belonging peer pressure (Moldes et al., 2019).” (Hindle, 2021)

Ken went on to explain how each team member contributed: “Looking back at the work that our group has produced, I believe that the work and what was achieved was evenly done by every single one of the team. That is not to say that everyone did exactly the same amount per section, but everyone did do the same amount overall. For instance, one team member didn’t do as much on the “Theoretical framework” section but made up for it on the “System of Forces” section. Or another example was that one team member didn’t do as much on the “Design Principle” section but made up for it on the “Prototyping” section. This was one of the reasons why there was no bitterness or internal conflict within the team. And this is where each individual team member's specialism came into play. Which all contributed to the, imo, success of our project which seemed just too massive to deal with at the start.” (Wagner, 2021)

Potenza, who was doing block 2 and block 3 concurrently, explained what happened in our synchronous meetings: “I offered to take the notes because I felt it would help me to feel more connected to Block three and take any actions to help to progress the project. It was a small way that I could contribute to not being the weakest link but also juggle TMA 02/Block 2 and Block 3 work.” (Atiogbe, 2021a)

Not that Potenza was in any way a weak link(!) as she made effective contributions throughout the project, with her suggestion being the basis for our project: “It was lovely that my original inspiration for selecting this project was chosen by the team (Atiogbe, 2021b). I felt it helped a lot that both Paul and I come from a healthcare background to make the project as true to real NHS life as possible.” (Atiogbe, 2021a)

Paul, as Research Manager, delved deep into investigating the theories and practices underpinning our proposed idea though we all made useful research contributions. Potenza observed the impact this had on our project: “Looking at the theory to support practice, using the Design Inquiry of Learning approach which is adapted from the studio-based instructional format enabled us to have an evidence based approach. This approach included not only technical aspects, but accessibility aspects and also the pedagogical aspects as outlined by Mor and Mogilevsky (2013). A good example is our choice of Design Patterns which covered the technical aspects but also looked at pedagogical aspects. Our Media Manager Ken and Anna, our Team Leader, were always highlighting and including accessibility features to both the prototype and also the website. Having the website as a scaffold was brilliant, learning from all team members' contributions and seeing the website develop from a basic structure to what it is today.” (Atiogbe, 2021)

As Anna noted, the prototyping activity was a good example of each of us contributing our complementary skills and strengths, with Potenza commenting that “developing the prototype using both low and high technology e.g. paper, PowerPoint, Word and higher technology the InvisionApp showcased how as a team we embraced all forms of creativity and technology.” (Atiogbe, 2021a)

Paul critically reflected on his own practice and contribution to group work: “Looking ahead to future group work and things I would do better I think the main thing would be to use a written sheet of my personal tasks to be done, taken and updated at every meeting. I started to do this at the last two meetings and it really helped me to be more time efficient. We even spoke about the benefits of checklists in part of our assignment (Thomassen et al., 2011).” (Hindle, 2021)

We are all relieved that we completed the project, with Anna commenting “I’m proud we have succeeded in getting through all the tasks and have produced a project website (https://sites.google.com/view/h817-blue-group/home) which we think presents our ideas and evidence well.” (Page, 2021) Potenza reported at our final meeting that the Patient Experience Team at her NHS Trust have been sent on a Digital Storytelling training course to facilitate the telling of patient stories. Therefore, with Potenza’s involvement in education at her Trust, perhaps our small project may help inform how the Trust uses digital stories for staff CPD, an exciting prospect, as Anna commented, potentially turning “our group assignment into a reusable assignment with practical benefit for a real situation”. (Page, 2021)

References

Atiogbe, P. (2021a) ‘H817 Weeks 18-19 Activity 19 Reflecting on your project’, Potenza Atiogbe’s blog [blog] 22 June. Available at https://learn1.open.ac.uk/mod/oublog/viewpost.php?post=238314 (accessed 23 June 2021)

Atiogbe, P. (2021b) H817-21B: Blue Team Activity 2: My Vision, tutor group forum message to H817, [online] Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/forumng/discuss.php?d=3663043#p25896229

Hindle, P. (2021) ‘Reflections on TMA03 project’, Paul Hindle’s blog [blog] 20 June. Available at https://learn1.open.ac.uk/mod/oublog/view.php?user=590600 (accessed 23 June 2021)

Kaimal Girija, Metzl Einat, Millrod Eri, (2017) Facilitative Leadership: A Framework for the Creative Arts Therapies. Art Therapy, 34(3), 146–151.

Moldes, VM. Biton, CLL. Gonzaga, DJ. Moneva, JC. (2019) Students, peer pressure and their academic performance in school. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, Volume 9, Issue 1, January 2019.

Mor, Y. and Mogilevsky, O. (2013) The learning design studio: collaborative design inquiry as teachers’ professional development, Research in Learning Technology, 21, pp. 1–15, [online] Available at: https://journal.alt.ac.uk/index.php/rlt/article/view/1469 Accessed 18 June 2021).

Page, A. (2021) ‘H817 Weeks 18-19 Activity 19 Reflecting on your project’, Anna Page’s Blog [blog] 20 June. Available at https://learn1.open.ac.uk/mod/oublog/viewpost.php?post=238295 (accessed 23 June 2021)

Thomassen et al., (2011) Implementation of checklists in health care; learning from high-reliability organisations. Scandinavian Journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine 19, article number 53. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1186/1757-7241-19-53 (Accessed 20/6/2021).

Wagner, K. (2021) ‘eTMA03 - Activity 19 Reflecting on your project’, The H817 and I [blog] 20 June. Available at https://kitkatninja78.wixsite.com/h817/post/etma03-activity-19-reflecting-on-your-project (accessed 23 June 2021)

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