Week 23 Activity 9

Table 3: Comparing ‘Ann Other’ Bales’s analysis by hand and by OpenMentor

Bales’s categories	Total number of comments categorised by hand	Total number of comments categorised by OpenMentor
Positive reactions A1 Shows solidarity A2 Shows tension release A3 Shows agreement
Attempted answers B1 Gives suggestion B2 Gives opinion B3 Gives information	12	7
Questions C1 Asks for information C2 Asks for opinion C3 Asks for suggestion	1	0
Negative reactions D1 Shows disagreement D2 Shows tension D3 Shows antagonism	6	1

Both Open Mentor and myself have no Category A categorisations.

OM only seems to pick up some of the comments.

Each category, B, C, and D, shows differences between OM and myself – quite material.

I think OM is fine as a quick piece of broad feedback to give a tutor a sense of the type and number of comments being made, but its use as a tool presupposes that the tutor already has good feedback skills – so I wouldn’t use OM as a tool for teaching tutors how to give better feedback. OM’s categorisations are not necessarily the same as a tutor’s would be, and a tutor’s view of the right balance of A,B,C and D comments for a specific student could be very different from OM’s.