Collaborative Notetaking as Universal Design for Learning

by Jacob Rivkin

After taking CEL’s Universal Design for Learning course, I wanted to take time to reflect on one of the practices in my classes that provides multiple means of engagement, action & expression for students.

I teach studio classes in Animated Arts courses within the Art & Design major, and one of the core components of these courses is the critique. This is the culmination of a project, when students will present their work to the class for review. In a class that focuses on animation pre-production, the students' work might be a storyboard for a unique narrative, a detailed environmental painting, or a detailed character design. In these digital studio courses, the critique often takes the format of the student coming up to the teaching station, projecting their work on a screen. The student briefly describes their project and then receives feedback from their peers. This is a vulnerable position, to present work to others that the students are (hopefully, and often are) proud of making. I believe the critique format in Art & Design courses is one of the best places to learn, not just from the students’ personal feedback, but also about how to talk about one’s ideas. This can mean speaking about a conceptual framework for the project, establishing a practice of professionalism, and learning to receive both positive and constructive feedback from what others might see in the work.

Sometimes the critique is successful and sometimes it is not. Like in many college classrooms, public participation in classrooms can be dependent on factors like the class community, the quality of the work, how comfortable the students are with sharing their opinions, and if the students are hungry or need coffee, and even the time of day (hello, my 8 AM courses). One of the additional challenging qualities of most critiques is that they are verbal. Students receive feedback from listening to others. This feedback can be both hard to remember after the critique, and not all students feel comfortable participating verbally. 

As a result, I’ve established a practice of using a Collaborative Notetaking Document to bring more engagement to the classroom during critiques. Before each critique, I set up a Google Document or OneDrive Document with open editing privileges and share it with students via the course CMS, like D2L or a bit.ly link. I then pre-populate with a space for each person’s name, bullet points below for both direct feedback and audience feedback. I ask the students to have this document open during the entirety of the critique, so they may type in their own unique feedback during the critique. During each critique, students take turns writing down the feedback that I or other students say verbally. The rest of the students in the class have the opportunity to write specific feedback during this time, and I request that they write their initials after their statement to help with tracking participation. Additionally, once the critique is over, students have the opportunity to go back and revisit the feedback and make further edits to their projects. 

Previously, students might not have been fully engaged in the critique because they were sitting in front of a desktop computer, and they would have had easy access to digitally wander online. But, by asking them to have this collaborative document open on the desktop computers or iPads, I often see students either writing or finding resources that they would want the other students to see that connect to their work, and linking directly in the document. Rather than naming an inspiring artist, a related animation, or a helpful reference photograph, the students in the class can directly show the student who is presenting the work what they are describing. During my own critique experience, peers or instructors would mention artists, and I would try to write them down with the hope of looking at them later, only to sometimes spell the name wrong or forget to look them up later. And my hope with this method of the Collaborative Notetaking Document, is that students have a more direct connection to the art direction their peers and instructor are giving them. 

Some examples of comments on reviews of different Environmental Visual Development Design include:

• This environment is really interesting! Just about everything pulls together nicely, but the clouds are sticking out to me. The shading is very harsh and does not seem to match up with the rest of the environment; it is making where the sun lands less believable. 

• The water reflection on the ship looks really good. I love your use of color; it really makes the water look realistic. Kind of wish there was more visible sand to show how the ship is beached rather than just floating in the water.

• I feel like, given the perspective of everything else, the leftmost pillar is a LITTLE too far forward, but it’s such a complexly designed structure that I can’t really blame you for that. Other than that, incredible work

• I said the stone material looks really good before, but I also think your perspective in this piece is really strong! And it’s nice that the lighting in the background is more blurred, it shows depth of field really well! I remember seeing your front view, and this piece feels very tied to those, but it’s great to see how much you’ve developed it since then

What stands out to me as an instructor is that students are using the technical and conceptual design language we have covered in class, are giving both constructive technical feedback, and are direct and compassionate in the way it’s written. Students are more engaged, they have closer bonds with their peers, and the quality of their work has improved. This small change from thinking about how to address the different participation needs within the classroom has made an intimidating aspect of the class more approachable for students, and I believe, has had a lasting effect.