Feedback from Students and Mentors
Background
First iteration of classroom implementation. Three mentors were used in
Junior Design Seminar during the blimp project Fall semester 2002. The blimp
project was a design competition with six, student teams given one month to
create a remote control blimp that could complete a course. (Summary paper
January 2003)
This is a summary of free writes from students and mentors at project
completion 12/02/02.
Student Feedback
Mentors assisted my learning, design, teaming
because:
| They were there to answer questions about the project |
| They helped us find supplies |
| Helped focus on goals |
| Encourage our group for our performance |
| Helped communication, more people to ask questions of, more
approachable, more available, peers, new what we were going through, in
touch with our schedules and conflicts |
| Set a standard of how to work as a team |
| Experienced at solving similar problems with similar knowledge level |
| It was helpful to get there feedback during review |
| Drew out design questions and goals that were overlooked |
| Made sure we understood concepts in components to help avoid
mistakes in later designs |
| Encouraged social teaming, peer to peer, class as a team |
| Helped solve simple problems so we could concentrate efforts on the
larger issues, expedited the process this way |
| Will to answer all questions, Answered any questions we had |
| Gave us positive support that we were on the right track, helped
regroup when all seemed lost |
| Posed answers in the forms of questions to help us learn more |
| Understood material/supplies so we did not waste time on other
problems, avoid pitfalls, smooth out the process, avoided fatal errors |
| Helped with techniques that were project specific, technical
assistance |
| Gave us test equipment to benchmark our project and help debug it,
helped in fine tuning |
| Directed our team to resources needed |
| Helped keep energy high and on task, asking us project status,
helped avoided stuck teams |
| Did not interfere with our design |
| Valuable Blue sky ideas |
| Offered outside perspective to problems |
| Supplied materials, offered a large option of materials, low out of
pocket expense to students |
| Brought some structure to a messy problem, helped focus |
| Mediating conflicts between team members |
| Walked us through hands on applications |
| Encouraged KISS |
| Never spoke negatively about a design or something they new would
not work, pointed out strong areas of performance |
| Let us bounce ideas off of them |
| Suggesting formats and directions to go technically (Reports,
documentation, testing) |
| Provided an environment in which I can build and design without
distractions or fuss |
| Reviewing work and discussing performance |
| Having a weekly sit down meeting with a team, daily, prescheduled |
| More interaction between students and mentors |
| More mentors |
| More involvement early on in the project |
| Organize the distribution of materials, divide resources |
| Give more input on past experience |
| Make available at more times |
| Encourage blue sky ideas |
| Suggest direction more often, i.e. “next I would iterate this…” |
| Have a better division of the work, give mentors specific roles |
| Have better contact info for the mentors on the assignment so we can
better communicate with them and know what they are supposed to be doing
|
| Make them available at weird hours (mornings and Saturdays) |
| More scheduled time for mentors rather than them just being around |
| Have them work more with a team so they can understand how the team
works and give suggestions |
| More involvement with the Math modeling |
| Give more examples (referenced to documentation) |
| Having final competition posted earlier |
| Do not hesitate to be honest or give feedback, be outspoken “are you
sure that works” |
| Promoting “friendly-style” assistance |
| Interaction should come off as a guide, avoid being the “taskmaster” |
| Equal help available to all teams; Resources: Mentors, material,
professor |
| Asking questions outside of class |
| Coming to me for information both technical and conceptual |
| Bringing me into there teams |
| Requesting feedback for design ideas and proposals |
| Giving me info on there progress |
| Giving me info on my progress and suggestions on how to better help
and work with them |
| Raising project concerns |
| Being professional and casual at appropriate times |
| Letting me bounce my ideas for the project off of them |
| Giving forward focused feedback, plus/delta |
| Remembering that I am a peer and not an expert, understanding that
this a learning process for me too |
| Were open to input and suggestions |
| Became a friend, socialized, had fun |
| Did their own work and did not ask us to do there work for them |
| Worked hard |
| Preformed to high standards making me look good |
| Teaching me how to work with different types of teams |
| Assign a mentor to a design team or a direct connection time between
a mentor and a team |
| Mentor/Professor meeting or email that gets everyone on the same
page for the current short term goals (today’s objective) |
| Have specific goals for mentors to achieve, have mentors provide
evidence of performance |
| Involve mentors early in semester during team bonding exercises |
| Learn every students name and make a personal connection |
| Give more real time feedback |
| Review more often |
| Give mentors executive power |
| Facilities that enhance performance |
| Time line kept upfront and on track |