 E-learning forum Thursday 12 th May 2011

Introductions Daniel Clark University Learning Technologist Louise Frith Curriculum and Educational Developer Mick Norman Faculty Learning Technologist (Social Sciences)

In this afternoon’s forum:  PDP in the curriculum at Kent.  The rationale of the e-portfolio and its increasing use in education.  A demonstration of MyFolio  The pilot  Questions, comments and feedback

 PDP in the curriculum Louise Frith

What is Personal Development Planning?  ‘A structured and supported process to develop students' capacity to reflect on their learning and achievement’ (Dearing, 1997) Learning activities to enable students to track and account for their transformation during their degree programme as well as plan their next steps according to their overall objectives for academic study and beyond.

What skills can be transformed at University?  Communication  IT and numeracy  Teamwork  Leadership  Research  Planning and organisation  Project management  Enterprise  Problem solving  Reflection Consider the modules you teach: Which of these skills do your modules enable students to practice? Do other modules within that programme of study address other skills? Are there any of these skills that your programme of study doesn't address at all? How else can students gain these skills?

What are regarded as PDP activities? ActivitiesExamples at Kent Learning from feedback History students must submit a cover sheet detailing the points from their last feedback that they have addressed in their current assignment Developing Learning journals – blogs Social Sciences students keep a blog on their learning development detailing what they have found challenging in the lectures, seminars and literature and posing questions about this with their tutor Participating in group work Architecture students work on group projects to do a site survey Physics students work in groups on lab work Compiling portfolios Architecture students build a portfolio of their work detailing the process of their design development Action planningPrimary Dental Care students write action plans to direct their professional development Writing reflective reports Social Work students write reflective reports on their work based placements Law students reflect on their first year of studying Law English Language students reflect on their social integration at Kent

How can I highlight existing PDP activities?  A principle reason behind adopting an e-portfolio system is to facilitate and highlight Personal Development Planning (PDP).  e-Portfolios provide a tool in which students can review, select, collate, plan, reflect, showcase and share their achievements and challenges whilst at University.  e-Portfolios enable learners to record and reflect upon both positive and negative learning experiences.

Research and Evidence Research suggests that learners undertaking PDP are:  more aware of how they are learning and what different teaching and learning strategies are trying to achieve.  more effective in monitoring and reviewing their own progress.  able to recognise and discuss their own strengths and weaknesses.  better prepared for seeking employment or self-employment and be more able to relate what they have learnt to the requirements of employers.  better prepared for the demands of continuing professional or vocational development when they enter employment.

 MyFolio demonstration Daniel Clark

Why MyFolio?  Built from the Open Source program Mahara.  Based on the findings of the three-year PebblePad pilot at the University.  Mahara is used in other HE institutions with high success levels.  Existing support and development community.

 The pilot Mick Norman

The participants  Users of PebblePad were approached in the summer of  Numbers capped at 300 users.  Largest user was Architecture – around 140 users.  Participants also included Event & Experience Design, Biosciences and SSPSSR.  We inducted each group of users and maintained regular contact with the academic point of contact for each group.

Independent PDP  As a second strand to the pilot, we invited additional stakeholders onto the pilot in order to see how users would engage with MyFolio and PDP outside of a School-driven format.  Independent users included Kent Union (Volunteering Scheme, Stand Out Group and Union Reps), Kent Innovation & Enterprise (Employability Points Scheme) and the Graduate School.  Users used and explored different features to School-driven users.

Evaluation  For the School-driven group of users, the academic point of contact was issued with a set of written questions after they had been inducted and engaged with MyFolio. These evaluated how well MyFolio facilitated PDP within their modules.  For the independent group of users, initial user feedback was collated verbally and then transferred to a preliminary user feedback form. This provided very useful data on ‘first impressions’ of MyFolio, how it functioned and whether students intended to continue using it.  In late February 2011, all student users on the MyFolio pilot were issued with an electronic exit questionnaire.

Feedback The feedback we received helped us to:  Better understand the needs and requirements of PDP users.  Better understand how MyFolio can facilitate PDP for academic staff.  Generate remedial measures for technical problems as the pilot progressed.

What people said  “A good way to remember thoughts and record ideas”  “It is very flexible and easy to use”  “Made me be more aware of what I was doing. It made me want to do more research, as when I reflected I got new ideas”  “It helps you think about and reflect on work you are in the process of doing or have completed”  “It helped me to easily reflect on my development”

What next?  September rollout across the University  Integrate with the University’s Employability Points Scheme  Monitor usage  Investigate integration with current Kent systems

 Any questions?

Further information myfolio.kent.ac.uk