Category Archives: Adaptive Skills

Expectations

As we begin to transition from one semester to the next, my mind is teeming with things I want to change, improve, and do differently in my courses.

Our Quality Teaching webinar on Developing Clear Expectations couldn’t have come at a better time, as I’m in the midst of compiling lists and resources for how to improve the way I communicate my expectations to students in the coming semester.

While I love the gadgety-ness of teaching online, I still can’t resist writing out my lists. I can’t give up the satisfying feeling of ticking off the items with a highlighter and filling a whole page with completed tasks. As such, my work notebook (complete with a cover of space-exploring cats) is filling up with notes to myself on how to improve the way I convey my expectations and instructions to students in the future.

 

Some of the things I’ve been thinking about are how I communicate my expectations in Digital Imaging–grading art is always subjective and tricky, and it’s so important that the student knows what you’re looking for. I want to stress, this coming semester, that as the course progresses one thing I’m looking for is a polished, finished, and professional looking image.

But I also know that even that isn’t very clear. What makes something polished?

I’ve begun compiling examples of student work, examples I’ve created, and (the most fun) youtube tutorials.

While this semester I shared youtube tutorials weekly as a sort of inspiration/jumping-off point for portfolio work, I want to use them next semester to challenge the student and force them to think about what makes that image look “finished.” I also want to stress the importance of “visual research” in art practice: for example, in ourĀ  magazine mock cover project, about 40% of students turn in a square or landscape oriented image. I have an oft-used comment in my feedback repository asking them to imagine a physical magazine in this shape: is it easy to read? is it easy to mail? is it recognizably a magazine?

I want to bridge these gaps by communicating better with students about the artistic process. After all, I know that the first step in creating a mock magazine cover should be to google image magazine covers–I may think I know what they look like, but until I’ve looked at them critically, I’ll never be able to make one that looks convincing. I need to communicate that process with students, rather than assuming that they’ll go through those currently unspoken steps.

Another area I’ve been working on communicating these expectations is in improving and overhauling my welcome letter–moving it from a static pdf file to a Google Slide that includes links, gifs, and a full page of in-depth instructions for completing that pesky course contract that had so many students hung up this semester.

My teaching style and the way I communicate with students has historically been to be frank and honest. I want them to know that we’re on the same team, and we’re working together. I value open and honest communication very highly, and I know that the easiest way for a teacher to alienate me was by speaking down to me, so I work hard never to do that.

It’s a little harder for me to implement that in the online context, because I’m also chronically long-winded, and I’m afraid that students will stop reading or watching anything I post after a certain length–unlike face to face, where they have to just sit through it. In a video I recently made, my first attempt was 6 minutes: I tried to cut it down to 3, and ended up recording a second attempt that went over 7 minutes.

This is something I’m continuing to work on. I want to be open with my students and explain the reasoning behind my expectations: if I can’t, then it must not be a great expectation. I feel that if they understand why they should do something, they’ll have the knowledge to do it to the best of their ability–and the context to do it in a creative and original way that I haven’t even thought of.

I know that I’m a work in progress, as is the way I communicate with students–but I’m excited for a new semester where I implement what I’ve learned, and where I learn more to put towards the future.