As the summer semester rapidly slips away, I am preparing for fall when I’ll hire a small cohort of undergraduate student employees for the Makerspace. With increased responsibilities in September, I need to leverage and empower my Team Leads to train and support the cohort while maximizing my time and impact. Some of the less complex training modules are good candidates to shift to more autonomous learning.
The phone system is a prime candidate
With the last cohort I prioritized complex topics up front, leaving students to the figure-it-out method for the phone. However, when students face a phone call and are not prepared, one mistake can develop into stress and anxiety for future calls (apologies to the spring 26’ cohort.) Thinking of Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development (1978), it’s like when challenge exceeds competence which can have a negative impact on learning.
For the next iteration of onboarding and training, phones will be taught up front with more support than ever before – and I’m eager to observe the results!
Playing with assessment design
For a course I am taking this summer on digital assessment, I was prompted to design a pop quiz, with a written format, using Mural (a collaborative digital whiteboard) and providing feedback in the TAG format (Tell a compliment, Ask a question, Give a suggestion).
While creating multiple choice questions, I realized most phone functions don’t require memorization and a quick reference guide will always be available right next to the phone. Rather than an easy to assess multiple choice quiz, I opted for open-ended questions on questions and situations with no single right answer. Since I’ll be providing feedback, I want to use that time to support students in learning to provide the kind and helpful support that we are known for.
What does Mural do that a stack of paper sticky notes doesn’t?
The digital nature allows for asynchronous participation across the cohort’s schedule and for me to quickly engage as I bounce between resource fairs, events, tours, and classes. Prompt engagement helps me to foster these new relationships while I’m not physically present. By modeling collective knowledge building and collaboration, this assessment can foster the community of practice I seek to cultivate, aligning with theories on knowledge management and communities of practice (Wenger et al., 2002).
Mural also allows freedom in responses – unlike multiple choice questions that limit conversation and reduce learning to numbers. Unlike a set of selectable choices, Mural helps me facilitate conversations around the complex scenarios a student might encounter rather than scenarios that can be reduced to a single right answer. After all, grades wouldn’t have helped achieve the goals anyways (Kohn, 2011).
The initial phase of the assessment features 8 questions with sticky note responses, modeling collaboration instead of competition. Following the cohort’s answers, I or a Team Lead, provide supportive feedback using one of each: star for a compliment, callout for a question, and bubble for a suggestion.
After each member of the cohort reviews their feedback, there are 4 final questions that capture crucial data for me.
These open-ended questions provide me with actionable insights like identifying comprehension gaps, assessing content and activity efficacy, and gauging confidence levels. The data allows me to quickly identify if I need to intervene, tailor the next training to this unique cohort, and improve future training.
Why I won’t be using Mural this fall.
While new technology can be engaging, Mural offers no unique tools beyond the existing tools we use like Miro (similar digital whiteboard), Draw.io (diagraming and flow chart tool), or even Google Slides (slide style presentations).
Since student employees need to learn a myriad of softwares, introducing multiple digital tools that have significantly overlapping functions can create frustration and confusion, additional cognitive load, and add unnecessary hurdles. Technology must be added intentionally and thoughtfully, and minimize distractions from the content.
Although the Mural interface seemed very intuitive to me and has a lot of positive features, it doesn’t solve some of the challenges in teaching that would convince me to fill out another information technology use form. Perhaps if Mural also helped me to track progress without relying on the learners to report that they have completed the activity, provided more customizable notifications, or automated reminders, I might feel inclined to make a switch.
However, switching tools or adding a new tool requires time to learn it’s features, understand the data policies and potential privacy risks, create and test permissions and share abilities, and to help learners with the new tool. Although its privacy policy and data security are transparent and relatively secure, policies may change, and any data left and forgotten in lingering Mural boards could be used in a different way under future policies.
The risk of adding new technologies doesn’t always outweigh the risk, but I’d never know what possibilities it may hold until I can experiment with it. Knowing which tools are truly beneficial requires a critical lens, having the learning objectives in mind, and focusing on the learner first.
References
Kohn, A. (2011). The case against grades. Alfie Kohn. https://www.alfiekohn.org/article/case-grades/.
Mural (2023). Data protection & privacy. Mural. https://support.mural.co/s/article/data-protection-privacy
Wenger, E., McDermott, R., & Snyder, W. (2002). Cultivating communities of practice: A guide to managing knowledge. Harvard Business Review Press.
Vygotsky, L. S., & Cole, M. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press.
Image credits
MESA My Emotional Support Animal. (2026). Meeting stop calling GIF by MESA [Animated gif]. Giphy. https://giphy.com/gifs/myemotionalsupportanimal-corporate-life-phone-anxiety-send-an-email-fGgAH0BnWFi9mcCO17
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