Hvad var problemstillingen?
BA-MMC students have problems seeing two kinds of connections 1).among their courses, and 2). between the curriculum and their future career paths. The students often express their experience in the program in terms of intense competition and feeling insecure because they were used to being one of the best in their class in high school, and in the BA-MMC they find themselves as the average due to the high level of the program. Missing these connections related to the curriculum and the experience of intense competition can cause them to miss the opportunity to build pride in their education. Thus, the project was conceived to address these problems and offer a space for students to have both a good experience and build pride in the program to help us maintain and strengthen the existing BA-MMC Brand.
Hvad er der gjort?
We assembled 2 teams of students from 2nd and 3rd year to script and film videos expressing the connections 1) among the courses in their year and 2) between the courses and future career paths.
Each team produced a video. The first video included interviews with leadership perspectives from the head of the study, Anne Ellerup Nielsen, as well as student and faculty perspectives, showing faculty describe their courses and explain their experiences with and positive images of BA-MMC students. This video addressed both connections between the courses and an issue the students found important, which was a tendency for students to see faculty and courses in a negative light. The team who did the videos felt very energized by faculty responses to their questions, and their belief that the video will inspire students to feel more secure and supported when they are challenged in class. They believe the video will help first year students in 2013 maintain a positive attitude and feel more supported in the program because they can see faculty addressing both why courses are useful as a basis for future coursework and how faculty view the BA-MMC students in a positive way. Because the program is being redesigned, they faced thi schallenge focusing on the content rather than the course titles, and have a succeeded in producing a video that fits with the new structure of the BA-MMC.
The second video included interviews with faculty and alumni, and was target at second and third year students. This video focused not only on connecting the existing courses in 2nd and 3rd year, but also on hearing what BA-MMC alumni have to say about how the education has helped them in their careers. This group of students was also energized by the process and inspired by the alumni.
In addition, we created a manual about the process that could be used for other programs as well as future students (re)mixing videos for the BA-MMC program in future years, as a guide to get started in creating videos that can energize the students and faculty by making connections between courses and careers explicit, and addressing issues that can help students build pride in their program.
The link to the first year video is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xn20v1T1lTk
The link to the second year video is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gK2sh1YWins
The guide to creating the videos is attached as appendix A.
Har initiativet haft den ønskede virkning?
The process of creating the videos had a postive and energizing effect on both the students involved in the project and the faculty members. The videos also offer reasons to build pride in the BA-MMC program for both faculty and students perspectives. The students working on the videos expressed an interest and excitement in learning more about their program, and focused on asking questions to open up dialog between students and faculty. Faculty also found the experience an opportunity to reflect on their courses and how they fit into the big picture of the program.
The films are now produced and available privately on YouTube, meaning that the URL must be distributed to viewers. This gives us the ability to make the videos available to BA-MMC students and offers them a space to use the comment function on YouTube as well as access to the videos. The students were energized and excited to hear how the faculty enjoyed working with them, and many of the faculty comments set up a positive context for the students to feel appreciated by faculty, and a reflective context that helped the students making the videos develop a better understanding of the faculty’s view of both the courses and the students in the BA-MMC.
The students also learned about the history of the program and took the intiative to interview Anne Ellerup Nielsen, the founder and director of the program. Both Anne and the students found the interview a positive experience. Faculty also commented that it was fun and useful to take time to reflect more on the student’s questions and open up a dialog with students.
Finally, Alumni and the Alumni association were involved in making suggestions and expressing a desire to fund a ”Building Pride in the BA-MMC” event for sharing the videos and networking in September 2013. We are working with Corey Morris of the Alumni association to set up the event and to create a group to select a BA-MMC alumni of the Year to be honored at that event. To date, several students have volunteered to help with the event as well. We hope that these experiences can be ongoing, with students volunteering to continually recreate the videos in order to keep the dialog between students and faculty current and continually enage in the energizing process to maintain and grow more pride in the BA-MMC program for the current students, faculty and alumni.
Hvad er det fremtidige potentiale for projektet?
Key Performance indicators include:
Hvad kan universitetet lære af projektet?
The University can learn that enhancing student/teacher/alumni dialog at the program level, beyond the individual courses can be a useful tool for supporting students in taking on a long term perspective for their education, and building pride in their program. Because these videos are accessible on a continuous basis, students can refer to them to help build each other up, and approach interactions with their faculty from a more empathetic basis. The continual involvement of students in (re)creating the videos each year connects them into the agenda of building pride in their program, and hopefully will be sustainable as a volunteer experience in the future.
Motivation
In the BA-MMC, incoming students have high grades, and are often used to being the best in their class. When they are put in a program where they go from being the best to being average due to the high level of their cohort, they often feel insecure and experience a lot of competition and stress. This combination can prevent them from engaging with their peers in a way that helps them get the most out of their studies. In addition, a second layer of issues that can become problematic for students in that they don’t know how to use what they have outside the classroom. When they don’t see how courses are linked to their future career opportunities, BA-MMC students can miss the opportunity to build pride in their education. These traits – a good experience as part of their peer-group, and pride in the program – can help us maintain and strengthen the BA-MMC brand.
Goal
Using curriculum integration and video tools as a vehicle for creating the feeling of positive connection between current students, their understanding of the curriculum, and alumni who use skills gained in the program for their careers.
Project Scope
The project includes the following:
1) Creating one integration video per semester in the BA-MMC to help students see how the courses, they are currently working on, relate to their careers
2) Working with the Alumni Association to identify, recruit and honor a high achieving alumni (who would be event speaker)
3) Planning and marketing events to current BA-MMC students and MMC alumni
4) Energizing faculty to come and participate in the semester related to their courses
5) Making the videos available on the BA-MMC program website
Who it will benefit
Current students, alumni, Alumni Association, faculty and the BA-MMC program brand.
Budget
The project has been granted DKK 34,600 in 2012.