The story of it is different

I've reported on the facts of my experiences so far with postgraduate students from many different countries and professional backgrounds, enrolled in a course I teach called Communicating in Organisations. The facts of it are not the story. As I've been curating a portfolio of work, I've thought about this year's group and how I can replicate it next time. It won't be replicable because it wasn't set up as an experiment as such, but many of the conditions can be recreated. while that may be so, this was a unique group, as all classes of students are.

I've been thinking about why all of the sixteen students seemed to bloom over the course of the semester. They did so in different ways and coming from different foundations (banking, nursing, television, journalism), but in the end when we (the "client" personnel, Catherine Kemp and Travis Logan, and I) held one-on-one reflective discussions with them, they each had a powerful story to tell. From the quiet one with a nursing background in India who appeared to have been hurt when other team members deleted her contributions in a Google doc, but whose disposition made her resolve to "take it all in a positive manner" and "be professional" (which I thought sad), to the humble student from an IT background in Colombia who stayed quiet initially because of a lack of confidence in English but who blossomed and made a strong leadership contribution, the examples of deep personal reflection and growth were a revelation.

What is replicable is the assessment from a range of perspectives, all contributing to the outcome - an outcome that is not only the final grade but the student's inner sense of having conquered something, learned about themselves, and possessing a new energy, motivation and confidence to take into their next professional challenge. Yes there was my assessment of their written work (including the learning curve of a literature review) and online collaboration, but also the client's assessment of their project plan and presentations, and input into their professional development, the self-awareness generated by guest experts in teamwork and personal resilience, and the students' own self-assessment.