The Study

This report offers a reflection on findings from a one year evaluation study into the distributed open media classes at Coventry University. The study team comprises Lou McGill and Tim Gray of Lou McGill Consultancy Ltd. We would like to thank the Department of Media in the School of Art and Design for their input, openness and patience during the study. In particular we would like to acknowledge the following individuals: Shaun Hides, Jonathan Worth, Matt Johnston, Peter Woodbridge and Jonathan Shaw. We would also like to thank David Kernohan from Jisc who provided valuable support and information.

Approach and Stakeholders
activity triangleThe study adopted an iterative approach, working in partnership with the Coventry Team to consider past and current practice of key stakeholders in the open media classes. This approach utilised a framework (activity system triangle) to guide discussion around rules, roles, tools within the ‘system’ (in this case the various course stakeholders).

For a fuller description of the method and approach see the ‘Evaluation Approach‘ page and the ‘Evaluation Activities‘  page which lists the evaluation questions that shaped the study.

The study acknowledged that the whole story of the open media classes is made up of a series of different narratives from a variety of stakeholders and that we needed to reflect their diverse needs and approaches (recognising that boundaries between learner/teacher/curator/creator are blurred within this model.)  Evaluating the Open Media Classes is challenging as there are several stakeholders involved in these models. Stakeholders were viewed in this study as

  1. different groups of people with an interest in the questions we need to ask (audience/community)
  2. different groups of people who are experiencing the impact of open classes (subjects).

We identified the following groups of stakeholders which sometimes include sub- groups. Some stakeholders may belong to several groups, particularly as one of the key factors of the open media classes is that boundaries are blurred and roles are not predefined or static.

  • Academic team – Impact on academic practice
  • Support teams
  • Registered students – impact on learning, employability, professional networking
  • Open students
  • Open professionals
  • Institutional senior managers (dept/faculty level, strategic level, operational level)
  • Wider HE community (UK and global) Jisc, other HEIs