Fail this!

My second cousin, Kelly, is an thoughtful young academic.  She inspired me this morning with a Facebook post of David Damberger's TEDtalk on failure.   David is a member of Les Ingénieurs Sans Frontières (Engineers Without Borders).  He discusses how problems are clarified when we embrace, analyze, and leverage our failures.  I love that the organization went so far as to publish a failure report and website (http://www.admittingfailure.com/).



It's ironic that in a time of celebration that we, Kelly and I, should find inspiration in failure.  However, failure is so often hidden or brushed aside when it should be celebrated!  It should be celebrated as an opportunity to improve and learn.  In this spirit, I am publishing my own "failure report."

@GVS
In my September post, I set a some goals:

• 80% passing rate
•  Students to take Le Grand Concourse through AATF
• Use TPRS in one synchronous session
• Enhance the WL department website

As a teacher, I feel that I was successful this semester.  Out of 78 students, 27 students failed.   This is a 65% pass rate.  However, This is well below my 80% goal.  Thus, I failed to reach my goal of an 80% pass rate. 

I also noticed that the mean grade was slightly above a 70%.  In looking at the scores, students either were very successful (roughly 18% earned an "A") or very poorly.

Frankly, even one student failing is just as much my failure as it is the student's lapse. I want to expand student's global view. I want to challenge them to think and struggle to a new level of understanding.

In the spirit of Dan's TedTalk, I need to embrace and analyze why I failed.  I conducted a voluntary survey of my students.  21 students rated different aspects of the course and provided details to support their responses.  Some of the feedback was enlightening
I think there are two problems: 

• students are confused about what is due and when it is due.
• students are frustrated by lengthy directions that are sometimes confusing.

Therefore, my challenge is to provide detailed instruction on the schedule through multiple channels:  news announcements, e-mails, texts (???), tweets, and phone calls.  Also, I need to find a way to clarify the directions on some of the assignments, particularly the conversations and the writing assignments.

In the upcoming semester, I'd like to focus on these issues. I'm going to spend the holiday break pondering other possible solutions to these challenges. Some ideas include using info graphics for directions, screencast of bi-weekly assignments personalized by student pace group (there are four: 12, 14, 16, and 18 week schedules), a
text campaign of schedule alerts (any one have a tool for this?), etc. please post suggestions!