Activity 7.2 - Feedback and Motivation

Task:  When sharing and commenting on resources in OpenStudio take note of the ‘My participation’ image. How does it change? Reflect and make notes on this feedback and consider whether it impacts on your usage of the tool in a positive or negative way.

Here is the 'My Participation' image from Open Studio:

And if I open up the +

How does it change?

Open Studio has been updated since we started using it. Originally there was a 'sad face' between 'My participation and the progress bar in the first image. It seemed to remain as a sad face indefinitely. I had posted several things on 'My Pinboard' and had responded to other posts but the sad face remained. Then, one day, I decided to post something in 'My Project' and suddenly I had a smiley face. Otherwise not a lot changed.

In the second image, the number of comments made keeps going up but I don't comment in order to gain points, so I don't tend to look at this. In fact, today is the first time I have consciously taken note that I have made 94 comments.


The 'My Project' area had two slots already created for us to populate: work in progress and EMA. Well, until we start on the EMA, that final slot won't get filled. Does that mean my participation is only 50%? I don't think so.

In the second image, the '1 empty slots' sounds like negative feedback but really it's just that we haven't got to the EMA yet.

I would have preferred more control over the slots and sets in the 'My Project' area. I would have liked to separate it into more slots for each TMA, the poster and work towards my artefact. I will probably use the 'My Pinboard' section more over the next few weeks because that can be used however we like.

Regarding feedback requests, I switch this on and off so that my colleagues know when I want feedback and when I'm sharing something just for interest. That's not to say they can't feed back on interesting posts but at busy times, it might help them prioritise. I find it impossible at times to look at everything but if someone is requesting feedback, I'm more likely to have a look. I think the '0 feedback requests' is inaccurate because it doesn't keep count of the number of times I have requested feedback. When I switch the request off, it goes back to zero.

A newish feature in Open Studio is that it now tells us about new activity - comments and feedback on our posts. That can be helpful but it only works for individual sets, not slots. So on the image to the left, I would have to open the folder to see if there is new activity.

If I'm honest, the feedback panel at the top has absolutely no impact on my participation at all. I find it quite negative and not accurate, so I no longer even look at it. I like Open Studio as a concept but at the moment it still seems to be in its infancy and needs a lot of work to make it fully functional. You can't even edit your posts, which is really irritating!