Hi All,
The AA Ms. Chandana has been kind enough to collect informal feedback from students regarding the course, compile it and send it in. I'm sharing the same on the blog alongwith thoughts on the way forward.
1. "Time management has been overly loose. The 10 minute break is stretching into 13-14 minutes. The quickfire questions time limit of 30 seconds needs to be more strictly maintained. Sometimes these stretch for much longer."
My response: Agreed. I'm of mind to cut short the break duration to 5 minutes. That way, we will be able to restart within 10 minutes as originally planned. Also, will take more care about keeping the quickfire Questions on time.
2. "Restrict Q&A time to <1 minute per question in the readings. Will help more people interact and raise questions. Currently some reading questions drag on for 1-2 minutes."
My response: Well, some reading questions have more substance than others and hence should get a little more time. That said, getting more folk to interact would be great. I'm consciously trying to have people yet to speak in a given session the first preference to raise or answer questions in that session.
3."4) No need to sign Submission sheet for every HW, eating lot of time before the class starts, causes a delay of 5 mins….Can it be cross checked without signing on daily basis."
My response: Good idea. I agree that HW submission at the class beginning is cumbersome, takes time, eats into a precious 1-2 classtime minutes and can be streamlined much more. Henceforth, I'll ask the AA to simply tickmark the PGID concerned at the time of homework submission. The check is needed to avoid confusions regarding lost or misplaced homeworks etc.
4. "Why insist the homeworks be handwritten? What is the point if the homeworks may never be graded?"
My response: There are two types of homework exercises in this course - that in the first 5 sessions and those in the second half of the course.
In the first 5 sessions, I want folks to merely give thought on how to approach to a big-picture problem such as 'Develop a research design for the Aakas tablet" or "Estimate market size for the Aakash". That's all. What would you do if you are confronted with such a task? How would you go about it? Would you let some reference, some structure, some logic and principles from MKTR guide you? That is all I want to emphasize in these first 5 sessions.
The second 5 sessions are SPSS analysis-tools based. Here, some basic practice with some datasets is key. The point here is to ensure familiarity, grounding and a bird's eye-view of the issues involved. That's all.
I insist on 'handwritten' for two reasons: One, the lack of easy editing in handwritten homeworks ensures people take seriously the task of managing scarce resources that are not renewable. First, make an outline of the solution and then construct the features of the solution in a more planned way.
Two, it also helps to know that handwritten implies nothing can be lifted off somewhere on the web etc without the student first assessing the content of the material and taking the trouble to adapt it to the problem at hand, by hand.
A third (bonus?) advantage is that within-group discussion allows groups to meet and bond more often. Will help when the stress of the project's phase III starts to show, I reckon.
Hope that helped clarify. Thanks again for the feedback.
Sudhir
The AA Ms. Chandana has been kind enough to collect informal feedback from students regarding the course, compile it and send it in. I'm sharing the same on the blog alongwith thoughts on the way forward.
1. "Time management has been overly loose. The 10 minute break is stretching into 13-14 minutes. The quickfire questions time limit of 30 seconds needs to be more strictly maintained. Sometimes these stretch for much longer."
My response: Agreed. I'm of mind to cut short the break duration to 5 minutes. That way, we will be able to restart within 10 minutes as originally planned. Also, will take more care about keeping the quickfire Questions on time.
2. "Restrict Q&A time to <1 minute per question in the readings. Will help more people interact and raise questions. Currently some reading questions drag on for 1-2 minutes."
My response: Well, some reading questions have more substance than others and hence should get a little more time. That said, getting more folk to interact would be great. I'm consciously trying to have people yet to speak in a given session the first preference to raise or answer questions in that session.
3."4) No need to sign Submission sheet for every HW, eating lot of time before the class starts, causes a delay of 5 mins….Can it be cross checked without signing on daily basis."
My response: Good idea. I agree that HW submission at the class beginning is cumbersome, takes time, eats into a precious 1-2 classtime minutes and can be streamlined much more. Henceforth, I'll ask the AA to simply tickmark the PGID concerned at the time of homework submission. The check is needed to avoid confusions regarding lost or misplaced homeworks etc.
4. "Why insist the homeworks be handwritten? What is the point if the homeworks may never be graded?"
My response: There are two types of homework exercises in this course - that in the first 5 sessions and those in the second half of the course.
In the first 5 sessions, I want folks to merely give thought on how to approach to a big-picture problem such as 'Develop a research design for the Aakas tablet" or "Estimate market size for the Aakash". That's all. What would you do if you are confronted with such a task? How would you go about it? Would you let some reference, some structure, some logic and principles from MKTR guide you? That is all I want to emphasize in these first 5 sessions.
The second 5 sessions are SPSS analysis-tools based. Here, some basic practice with some datasets is key. The point here is to ensure familiarity, grounding and a bird's eye-view of the issues involved. That's all.
I insist on 'handwritten' for two reasons: One, the lack of easy editing in handwritten homeworks ensures people take seriously the task of managing scarce resources that are not renewable. First, make an outline of the solution and then construct the features of the solution in a more planned way.
Two, it also helps to know that handwritten implies nothing can be lifted off somewhere on the web etc without the student first assessing the content of the material and taking the trouble to adapt it to the problem at hand, by hand.
A third (bonus?) advantage is that within-group discussion allows groups to meet and bond more often. Will help when the stress of the project's phase III starts to show, I reckon.
Hope that helped clarify. Thanks again for the feedback.
Sudhir
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