Situation:
An MBA Negotiations class in Singapore with three sections of 50 students each. The students are tasked with six roleplay assignments throughout the course to practice and learn the skills of negotiation.
Challenge:
Create a platform to support the learning, as well as the evaluation of the students.
Preparing the platform:
- Determining access: We created a platform that is organised by assignment and allows each participant to only see their own negotiation roleplay exercises.
- Setting the questions: The professor identified the questions for debrief – some that were reflection questions just for the participant to share with the grader; some that were feedback questions that would be shared with their negotiation counterpart(s). He also wanted the students to indicate the timestamps from the video that illustrated their answers.
- Using the platform for evaluation: The professor wanted the graders to be able to comment directly on the student debriefs and to give them each a grade that would be revealed to each student privately.
- Managing reporting: The administrator needed to be able to see a list of all the participants and the groups per assignment, know who had submitted, by when; who had already uploaded videos; when the graders had completed their evaluations.
The user-experience:
When the students log in to the unique URL for the course platform, they only see their own assignments listed (pre-loaded in the system with their negotiation partners and deadlines)
- The students video their roleplays with webcams/phone/camera. They go on the site, click on their assignment and upload the video.
- They have their list of questions for reflection, as well as for giving feedback to their counterparts.
- When they click to submit, their debriefs are timestamped. The system automatically submits and shuts out the students at the deadline.
- The graders, who are based at a distance, access the platform, review the debriefs of the students, add their comments and give them a grade.
- The students are invited to log back onto the system where they can still see their video and debrief, as well as feedback from their negotiation counterpart(s) and the grader
Impact:
150 students, seeing themselves negotiate with different partners 7 times, giving feedback and getting feedback every time – significant learning