"We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has powerful muscles, but no personality."

The title of this post is a quote from Albert Einstein.  I actually felt that is summed up what we are hoping to achieve by the extension the feed of a 'Deliverer' field.

Students in the Art and Design community are inspired and driven by their tutors as we discovered in Stage 1, not just their qualifications.  So now it was time to address the lecturers in our college and sell them on this concept.

We were extremely lucky as when our Principal heard of what we were doing, he was enthusiastic and volunteered to be project champion; so we were already on the right path!  This meant that when we arranged our staff workshop we had a mock up of what the staff Mahara profile would like with the principal as a guideline.  Within this we were able to call up examples of best practice using http://workflow.arts.ac.uk/ as an example of best practice.  Some of the University of the Arts students had a real grasp on how to make Mahara work for them and will be a good foundation for inspiration with our staff.

It was good to use this workshop as an opportunity to feedback on the extremely positive comments made by the students, whilst evidencing that this is a concept that has sprung from student feedback, and educational institutions should be about the student - our customer.

To engage our staff further and ensure that images on tutor profiles were both creative and professional, we recruited a photography student (Joanne Cookney) to take staff portraits.  Also, in response to the Stage 1 findings, where students talked about the intangible elements of the college such as atmosphere being so much more than they expected, Jo would also be capturing teaching sessions, examples of work and college life.  We have a set format in terms of lighting and style, but we have said for tutors to be as creative as possible in their photos to capture their personality.  Staff are incredibly excited about this aspect of the project.

On reflection the session went very well and although we hoped to have a working version of our bespoke Mahara system, the staff got a feel of what we hope to achieve and why.

A few concerns were raised about having information about them in a public place, due to identity fraud and security.  This issue will be addressed as it is a fine balance between keeping staff information secure and publicising what makes out tutors so unique.

We also discussed our Moodle Block project with staff, and they are looking forward to seeing how this will work in practice.  

Next steps....

1.  Take all academic portrait photos
2.  Arrange a workshop for staff once PCA Mahara system is developed
3.  Have a good sample of staff profiles and any feedback on the system


Our Staff Mahara Workshop slides can be seen here, although some of the slides have not translated very well to slideshare.