Closing the module

1. Revisit their hopes and fears

Present their original hopes and fears. Which ones have been met and how? Which ones are outstanding and why? Are there any new ones?

Example: Nadiya has previously used post-its in on-campus workshops where she asks people to write their fears about role play, one per post-it. She then asks them to stick them on the wall. At the end of the workshop she asks students which ones can now be removed. She emulated this using Padlet[1].

[1] Padlet allows the tutor to create an online bulletin board where the tutor and students can add notes, images, links and videos, also adding comments on each other’s posts. The size of the board increases as more posts are added https://en-gb.padlet.com/

2. Encourage completion of evaluation

Ask learners to get together and agree a list of suggestions to you about the next delivery. What worked well and why? What is needed that wasn’t on offer to them? What was provided but seemed ineffective and so should be discarded? What would you suggest should be added to the plan for delivery and support? Ask them to try to explain why each piece of advice seems important to them.

Quickly respond to each suggestion, acknowledging and valuing their efforts by telling them how you plan to respond. By mentioning previous evaluation and how you responded to it, highlights the importance of evaluation. Also the next students can be aware that they are introduced to a programme where their voice is listened to, a key part of SoB.

Example

Rachel is keen to collect information on the module, not only what works and what doesn’t, but also why the learners feel this is the case, and any suggestions they have for doing things differently. Students are able to feedback on these through an asynchronous discussion board kept open for 1 month after the module. This is used by the module team to make amendments to the next version. She then creates a list of ‘you said we did’ and ‘you said we didn’t’ where she includes rationale for each decision, and shares this with the students.

3. Commission short videos recorded by learners further along the course

Ask learners to take part in a focus group, online or face-to-face. Their remit should be to produce a bullet point list of advice to learners who are new to this online experience. Ask one or two of the group to chat on video or in an asynchronous session, informally offering the new cohort advice.

Example: David asks his learners from a previous cohort to create a bullet point list for the next cohort with tips and comments. He then asks them to create a short video of these points that he can include at the start of the next delivery of that module.

4. Ask students to post tips for next cohort