So today I had to supervise a group of Computer Arts students from years two to three with another fourth year student. We had a total of six students to get through in a two hour period.
The first thing I noticed is that it's sometimes hard to give feedback or even give a word in edge ways. People are often quite passionate and enthusiastic about their ideas, and perhaps may approach pitch as more of a presentation than a feedback session. It is also hard to encourage feedback from the group as a whole. Most ideas are presented, and although feedback is given at point throughout, there is little reflection.
Perhaps an error on my part, I also felt that I knew very little of the briefs they were presenting. This made it hard to judge and give critique as I wasn't sure what they should have achieved in a module. Next time, it may be best to check what the briefs are for each module so feedback can be given that is relevant.
Presentation format was another issue. While people mostly found it easier to present the work they had done straight from a sketchbook, I often found it difficult to keep track of the idea or even module with no visual or textual guide to what they were achieving. From a personal viewpoint, I felt that I might have been able to give more advice had they presented their modules in a structured format that made it a little easier for me to understand. Then again, I understand that presenting your own work is a very personal task and structuring it may for me - but not for the individuals themselves.
Honest feedback was very hard to give. In one instance I highly suspected that a student had not done the work required of them up for their course, and presented very little in the end. I should have enquired to why this was and perhaps offered feedback on the stop - but it was very difficult to single out a student in a group of eight and it felt like it would be an overall negative and embarrassing experience - perhaps putting them off their studies. This was not something I wanted to do.
Another case was where it was very obvious that a student was very focused on their personal work and had many sketches to present, but had not done any exploration or research and was missing out on vital experience the module offered and required. It was hard to approach a student and dissuade them from being so focused and to investigate other ideas or concepts.
At the beginning, I thought that time management would be an issue and closely watched the clock so that each student would get their allocated 20 minute slot. The first student had his ideas possibly cut short due to time constraints. In the end however, the session finished 30 minutes earlier than anticipated due to other students not presenting as much. This is a lesson on my part, but also on their so that they are able to focus their presentations and allow time for feedback. Perhaps approaching them beforehand and giving them 18 minutes to present and 2 minutes for feedback (or some similar structure) might have helped.
Overall, I did not feel that the students got enough advice on their own individual work, either due to time constraints, ignorance of their modules or fear of outting their work in front of peers. Advice that was offered was not immediate and more consideration of the future, although in some instances students were advised to scale back an idea for being too over ambitious. While I did not want to stunt the concepting stage, I wanted to make students aware that their ambitions DO have to be realised and having a small polished product is better than an ambitious unrealised project (in terms of portfolio and skillsets). I feel that I did succeed somewhat in some more generalist advice, regarding their projects.
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