It was the big day – well, the mini big day, but it was a big day – sort of.
We had met up early in the morning (too early for my tastes) and went to a small briefing for our big day ahead – Jaz had informed us we were to do exactly what our previous tute had instructed us to do – create an experience catered to orientation and the first few weeks at Uni. We quickly split up into groups and with our small time limit, decided to think of our idea quickly, brainstorming our ideas in a small group.
We came up with the idea of a universal website that could do it all – a new and improved QUTVirtual. We had decided that when you first get in, you were quite confused about close to everything – classes, friends, tutorials, assessment. You name it – you were probably confused about it. There were also way too many things to figure out all at once – and check continuously too.
So we had decided to make a more informal sort of setting, called “QUT:I”.
The idea was basically a website and app that would link all your major things into one place, saving you the hassle of checking 5 or 6 different things regularly – even sometimes daily. Essentially, the website would have tabs – Home (where all links to Blackboard and our Email will be, if needed), Study & Events (where your calendar and events will be), Announcements (where your Unit Co-ordinators would post messages, as well as your tutors) and Forums (where people would message one another).
This website would be directly linked to your Facebook (or similar SNS) account, but could also be created with an existing email. This way, the website could offer you notifications through your Facebook (or equivalent), allowing you to be updated regularly on your account and what’s happening, instead of checking and checking on 5 different websites what’s on, only to find out you’ve spent half an hour wasting your time.
The website would also have an added feature of forums, which would be an area where students in the same tutes may talk about their tutorial – and is a place where they can also ask questions to their tutor, and although it is called a forum, it will almost be like an instant messaging sort of function. The Forum tab is also where you may message other friends and keep track of work shared between people and you.
In the announcements tab, not only will students receive the same announcements they get on BB, but it will also be a place where tutors and mentors can post messages, announcing that they will be free if anyone were to need help. This was an initiative to create more of a bond between students and their tutors, and have a more community reliant and hands on experience. Having these will not only allow the student be more comfortable, but also have more connection to their subjects, and feel much more stable and safe in what they’re learning. An example would be; “I’m free between 2-3, so if anyone wants to get a coffee in front of D-Block come on over! I’m free for both conversations and questions, feel free to drop by and say hi J”
The atmosphere created is a casual one, and hopefully, will create more of a connection between the students and tutors, and allow for them to ask questions freely as peers.
If I’m honest, I did feel as though our Website was a rather huge ask, and that we didn’t go and take any risks and fell back onto a safety net. I would have quite enjoyed having a risky idea and doing terribly then what we did – which I considered wasn’t too bad.
We had focused a lot on our research, and presented it well – but I felt like it was so much that sure, our backup and back story was rich and made our idea that much stronger, however it left us not much time at all to describe our idea, leaving it falling sadly on its own.
I feel like we could have definitely improved out idea – because honestly, it just seemed like yet another option that might not even work that well in the end. It also seemed like a tall order – an order than seems almost inconceivable.
I think in our teamwork itself, it was definitely more positive than negative. I felt like we have pretty good communication, but I feel as if our time management probably wasn’t the best, as well as our distribution of work. We all had jobs, don’t get me wrong, but one person in our group was in charge of the presentation, and we left it quite late, leaving all of us a little out of the loop when it came to our presentation.
Our presentation was mostly dominated by one person, and although that wasn’t too bad, it wasn’t too good either. We were all so confused that we had let him take the reins and in the end, I feel like that had left us looking not consistent or united as a group in our presentation.
Due to our lack of time management, we had also not left enough time to make the pitch video, which was a minute long. We had shown a video, but it wasn’t the most spectacular, and I felt that we could have done a better job if we had spent less time discussing the idea and talking of the finer details we actually had not been able to include in our presentation – again, because of the vast amount of backup research we had done.
Overall, I think the Mini was a fun activity and definitely helped me feel like what the major Charrette would be like, and it certainly allowed me to recognise the problems my group had the first round. However, we may have different groups the second time round, so the same rules may not apply. But, this mini Charrette did help me at least identify some of the problems I had faced along with my group, so I felt at least I had something to start with for the Major one that would be worth quite a bit of our final grade.
Although I feel unprepared, I feel slightly confident with what we’ve been prepared with, and I hope to do my best in the next Charrette, and with some luck, I won’t be hindered by similar problems or a hitch in the group.
One can only hope, but so far I’ve only had the best – so it must, hopefully, be a sign for more.