De Montfort University Louise Buckingham Richard Fynes Mark Simpson Hannah Swanston

This workshop will give you an opportunity to explore the process of developing a PDP support system introduced in the academic year 04/05 within a UK Higher Education Institution. With examples of the system’s use within personal tutoring and embedded in the curriculum. It will be informed by outcomes of initial evaluation. Staff, Developers, Students, a case study

Locations

Campus Views

De Montfort University 20,000 students 14,000 full time undergraduates 3,500 staff 6 faculties 400 courses 2 centres Leicester and Bedford (3,000 students) Associate College Network 34% ethnic minority compared to 24% average (UK institutions)

Begins with an opportunity for students to undertake a self assessment of their key skills Opportunity via one to one, group tutorial and embedded academic practice to reflect on their academic and personal experience, identify and plan areas for development, take action on these and review progress Maintain a personal development record (PDR), including a reflective statement at the end of each academic year The DMU Personal Development Planning (PDP) Context

Generic (levels and applications) Transparent Simple “Owned” by students Student led Minimal staff input What did we want to achieve from the PDP support system?

What did we do? Research of existing external systems Existing forum for faculty involvement and dissemination “Personal Development Planning Steering Group” Used outcomes of pilot work 2003/4 to design content and structure of system Produced a framework for implementation by faculties

Produced an on-line PDP support system accessed by students via the Managed Learning Environment operated via Personal Tutoring processes Available to year 1 students and staff November 2004 What did we do?

What next ? Mark Simpson Human Factors and System Interaction

PDP System at DMU Mark Simpson Human Factors and System Interaction ☺ Worked on a number of online systems at the university ☺ Part of the Managed Learning Environment team ☺ The MLE is the Student information system

Design of PDP ☺ Use the Managed Learning Environment because it is an existing proven system ☺ Single system, no tailoring to groups ☺ Accessible to all students and staff

Design of PDP ☺ Use the Managed Learning Environment because it is an existing proven system ☺ Single system, no tailoring to groups ☺ Accessible to all students and staff ☺ Uses existing systems and data ☺ And so can be auto-completed with name, course, tutor, previous records

Path through the PDP 1 Home page of the MLE All students and staff have username and password Login to the MLE P number and user name identify student / staff course, tutor, marks, timetable, previous PDR, meeting dates retrieved from database, Postgres sql open source, relational evidence, reflection, actions against p number Expand panel to full screen

Path through the PDP 2 Either write new PDR or edit previous record Can do any or all save record [stored in database] Then can make available to tutor print agreed - closes record review only Return to MLE

Data Storage The PDP system does not store any data Data is loaded MLE when a student logs in Same data is used in PDR The record is stored because it is personal information We store the following in a database User IDP numberName Faculty ProgrammeYear of StudyPersonal TutorCreated Date Modified dateAgreed dateVisible to tutor flag Evidence textReflection textActions text

Management Information Being digital and using a database for records makes doing statistics straight forward Number of students with PDR, completed and or agreed Number of staff with meetings arranged with students Tutors with meetings arranged All reports can be for faculty / campus / programme / year 45% 50% 87%

What next ? Richard FynesStaff perspective Hannah SwanstonStudent perspective

Tutor View of PDR

View Record Student I M Tutor

Student

Student Completion

Enter Actions

Save Completed Record

What next ? Louise Buckingham Staff and Student Feedback and further work

Evidence contributes to the Trainee Profile and Record of Achievement for Teacher Training Agency Standards Introduced to students as an expectation Introduced to personal tutors via presentation with on-line demo Evidence sub headings given to students to guide the content of the record Used by 88% of students PDP support system with Year 1 BEd Primary Students

System Word count, saving Writing text in word Timing out Alignment Outcomes of initial evaluation 1

Process -Introduction/purpose “It gives good guidelines for tutorial, my tutor uses it to help me set targets” “I was writing what the tutor wanted to hear, get in there, get it done” “I was doing this sort of thing every month at school, so as soon as I saw this I thought ‘oh no here we go again’ ” “Complete a trial one during an IT lesson” “There was a contradiction for me, as it could be used to write my reference therefore I’m not going to put my heart and soul into it!” Outcomes of initial evaluation 2

- Focuses agenda for meeting “Once my tutor had read it, it did speed up the initial, ‘how are you’ type of questions and then addresses the things that need addressing” - Provides an on-going record “At least you feel it is logged somewhere, otherwise it is just waffle and you’re out of there” - IT confidence and access “I’m in a shared house and have limited access to the internet” Outcomes of initial evaluation 3

Staff - System –group , opportunity to reply to students - Process –IT skills confidence “I think it depends on the tutor if they are IT literate enough to use the system” –Consistency “different tutors use it in different ways” Outcomes of initial evaluation 4

Further development Available to all first and second year students from start of academic year Briefer instructions Changes to on screen layout Students and Staff introduced in IT sessions

Summary We have talked about The purpose Why was the system designed for internet use? The data used for auto completion Staff and student interaction Feedback from evaluation Further development