Learning Forum London and ePortfolio 2009

http://events.eife-l.org/lfl2009

This year's event main theme is "Innovation, Creativity and Accountability." It will be addressed over three days and three conferences:

• ePortfolio 2009 (7th international conference)
• Key Competencies—Skills for Life 2009 (3rd international conference)
• Learning Networks and Communities (4th international conference—previously Learning Regions & Cities)

Essay on the benefits of ePortfolios

Saw this peice on ePortfolios which looks at the way learning takes place and how portfolios are essential to this process:

“In an essay in the current issue of Academic Commons, three researchers write that “ePortfolios may be the most likely vehicle to help us make the transition to an academy of the future that is both relevant and authoritative.”

The article recognises the diversity and flexibility of ePortfolios and lists four main features:

• The ability to incorporate multimedia elements to support learning
• Linking together different areas of their learning in one environment
• Higher levels of engagement and immersion, retention and grades compared to those not using eportfolios
• Tracking progress of students over the duration of the course

http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/3668/electronic-portfolios-a-path-to-the-future-of-learning

Telling Stories Conference

JISC have announced this years ePortfolio Telling stories conference:

http://www.wlv.ac.uk/default.aspx?page=16960

10^th and 11^th June 2009 @ Wolverhampton University.

Last years conference was quite informative which also saw Shane from PebblePad speaking. It'll be interesting to see how the overall ePortfolio usage has progressed since then.

Guidance on reflection

A great informative guidance sheet for students at Hull University (Chris Pinder) on reflection. Although it's geared towards a paper based portfolio the underlying principles are still the same. This may prove useful when developing our own guidance. It's simple and concise:

http://www.hull.ac.uk/studyadvice/LearningResources/StudyGuidesPDFs/reflectlr.pdf

Pre-Induction

Last year I was involved with a pre-induction group which looked at preparing students for university life. One of the outputs from the group was Gale's Skills4Uni development kit. Essentially it consisted of a programme of mini tasks/tests, each focusing on different areas of learning such as research, note taking, report writing etc.

The application is made available before the students start university but have accepted their offers. In much the same way as students in Engineering were given an assignment before they started their first term.

I had initial ideas of developing a pre-induction activity for the current first year MBChB cohort which we discussed in the team. We developed an idea of students being prepared for their first personal mentor meeting by doing a pre-induction activity which involved using PebblePad to create a profile of the students intentions, interests in medicine and motivations where. However, due to unforeseen circumstances we were unable to deliver this activity.

I think it would be very beneficial to ensure that this activity is delivered for the new cohort in Autumn.

Reflective learning video

Just found a really good video about reflective learning from a students perspective. It seems quite creative and gets the message across in 3mins! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWVte5Iwr28

Teaching & Learning

After my the second IP session with Glenn's group I had time to discuss portfolios with Glenn. We had an interesting discussion about the aim of ePoftfolios and difficulties I may encounter with teaching and learning aspect of reflection. The conversation addressed the priority of teaching and learning within a research led institution, and whether the current climate of economic uncertainty and reduction of research funding would lead to trend towards a focus teaching and learning.

One of interesting points made was that a lot academics have no formal teaching qualifications. This raises the question of formal teaching qualifications/training are required in order to teach a subject in HE; one could argue that being a specialist in a field is sufficient to teach it. Should academics be informed about teaching practises? Is the role of the academic in HE to teach or to deliver information and support the learning process?

I need to look at ways in reflective learning can be taught or supported. Essentially, this is what is required for ePortfolio use.

Student reflections

Started recieving reflections back from first year students over the weekend, and to say that I'm impressed is quite an understatement. At present about half the group have shared reflections which are suprisingly good, given the fact they had very little guidance.

Students effectively reflected on their learning process, some in more depth than others. However, only one student included reflections on what they had actually learnt. I'm still waiting for the rest of the reflections to come through to get a better snap shot of the group.

First year IP session

Attended a first year IP session on Thursday. The session difference from the second year sessions in the fact that all work concerning the case study is carried out in a single day, where as second year students have two weeks to research and present.

I was told to expect the first year students to be quite timid. However, they seems fairly involved and really eager to learn. The facillitator, Clare, instructed the students at the end of the session to reflect on their learning using PebblePad. She spoke about the benefits of recording their learning and suggested that it would be a useful as revision material for the end of year/module exam, overall she had a very positive attitude and has opted for her own account. I gave brief instructions (refresher) to the students, explaining how to get to the Webfolio tool in PebblePad and to use their paper based portfolio form a guideline. They were asked to share their reflections with both Clare and myself.