EMBEDDING A GENERIC E-PORTFOLIO/PDP TOOL IN A BASIC SKILLS MODULE FOR ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS STUDENTS – WHEN SAYS LAW DOESNT (NECESSARILY) HOLD DEE CONFERENCE – CAMBRIDGE, SEPTEMBER 2007 Paul L. Latreille

The agenda: impetus HEIs required to provide a means by which students can monitor, build and reflect upon their personal development Dearing (NCIHE, 1997); Burgess (UUK, 2004)

And response… The electronic portfolio (e-portfolio) is higher educations new got to have it tool – the show-and- tell platform of the millennium Cohn and Hibbitts (2004: 7)

Its true!! of UK HEIs had PDP processes supported by an electronic tool had one or more electronic resources… [they] would describe (separately or together) as e-portfolios 83% 56% Strivens, 2007: 4-5

So just what are they? Beetham (2005: 3): A collection of digital resources that provide evidence of an individuals progress and achievements drawn from both formal and informal learning activities that are personally managed and owned by the learner that can be used for review, reflection and personal development planning that can be selectively accessed by other interested parties e.g. teachers, peers, assessors, awarding bodies, prospective employers.

The literature – a pocket summary See reviews by Butler (2006) & Beetham (2005) –Putative benefits (esp. reflection) – evidence? –Evaluation in terms of: Practitioner/student experiences Technological perspectives –Focus on use in teaching & medical & nursing training/CPD

Motivation Little work exploring how these might be used & received specifically by Economics & Business students… Report findings from an EN Miniproject to embed a generic e-portfolio/PDP tool in module EBG102: ICT & Study Skills for Business and Economics at Swansea

All aboard! The Swansea platform Local installation of Elgg platform = Oremi …a learning landscape which supports users in their social and academic networking, personal and career development and lifelong learning. Oremi is a solution provided for all, it allows the user to create communities of friends that previously existed offline or not at all. It allows users to join communities of sports, recreation, work, study and every other community that one can conceive.

All aboard! The Swansea platform Local installation of Elgg platform = Oremi Apart from communities it allows users to develop their learning through social interactions with others through the sharing of resources, expressing of opinions, presentations, personal development planning, demonstrations, working collaboratively, podcasting, mobile blogging, customisation, personal reflection, and profile creation.

The Oremi timeline 09/06 Trial system (v0.6) Familiarisation/ development of materials Student rollout Feedback community 10/06 Induction lecture Skills audit/action plan assignment 11/06 CV assignment 12/06 – 03/07 Group portfolio assignment (qualifying criteria)

The Oremi timeline 01/07 Wiki plug-in introduced 03/07 Presentation tool introduced (v0.7) Deadline for group assignment 05/07 Evaluation questionnaire Pilot Main 08/07 Upgrade to v0.8

The early interface...

Methodological evaluation issues Issues/caveats –Conflation of pedagogy, design & platform (concept, use or system)? –Platform limitations (scope (cf. Brighton)) –Positivist vs. constructivist issues (ownership) If you build it, [t]he[y] will come

Results N=115 (32% response rate) –65% male –c. 80% UK (education/language) Chinese (7%), Welsh (3%) Mainly Business (85.5/25.5 FTEs) Sample selectivity? –Ubiquitous use of social networking tools (87% - almost half >3) cf. PDP tools (<6%)

Usage High usage (96%) – but compulsory –c. 20% used prior to requirement to do so –c. 60% used system only when required to do so for assignments –20% of those using the system indicated they did so more frequently than once a month –Almost 30% had used it since last requirement to do so

Perceived benefit of PDP assignments

Using Oremis features

Oremi and PDP processes

What students least liked about the system Layout is boring and basic. Don't like names given to some of features - some are confusing as to what they do. Also some features difficult to use which means I didn't use them…. The layout. Very hard to navigate The page itself was not appealing Not enough interaction with other members Unless everyone uses it, it will never work

What students least liked about the system Too similar to FACEBOOK and MYSPACE. This similarity made people not want to bother to use Oremi… Its not as good as other things like FACEBOOK. Its only good when you need it for work. (Eh, what!!) Not the most user- friendly site compared to others like Friendster and Facebook.

What students most liked about the system Its kinda like FACEBOOK. Its like BEBO. Its a social network. Ease of use.Easy to upload files for people to see. Easy, user-friendly. Appearance.

And theres more…! Communicating with friends (communities). Having specific communities and blogs. Private. It benefitted (sic) us greatly for the group project as we were able to communicate effectively. Fact that we can upload files and everyone can access it. It cuts out having to the files to everyone else. That I was able to upload files just for my group to see. Like blogs.

What lessons have been learned? Motivational issues (not unique) –Transparency of purpose (SAFs/adverts?) Badging – beyond Facebook! –Skills audit/action planning tool? Scaffolding (TiddlyWiki? CJC?) Benchmarking statements

What lessons have been learned? Using the new features... –Showcasing (WebFolios), wikis And the old ones better –Blogs, RSS, Communities Induction arrangements –Hands-on sessions & worksheets Getting them in – seeing how & why! –CamStudio how to clips

Conclusions My own (steep) learning curve Supply does not (necessarily) create its own demand –Compulsion vs. ownership For work and for them Moving the majority beyond the strategic/superficial So... Source: