PAT to PDP (the missing link)

October 30, 2009 at 12:16 am (1st Year Experience, PG-Cert, Student Support, learning)
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After considerable reflection on how to make stronger links between the Personal Academic Tutorial (PAT) system in the Academy and Personal Development Planning (PDP) framework (as identified in my Lighting a Fire post) I have suggested a solution to my colleagues. By extending our PAT student group support to include mentoring indivduals in reflection and evidence gathering (using Mahara) we add a further layer to thier learning experience.  PAT then becomes interwoven with PDP, using ePortfolio’s as the tool to accomplish this. An equal distribution of  1st year students amongst the lecturing staff from the outset would ensure that every student recieves learning support and each member of staff shares an equal workload.

We have decided to trial this method using a current assignment that I have set the first year cohort (see An Introduction to ePortfolio post). I have assigned a lecturer to a group of 5 or 6 individuals and have asked them to make comment on the views that the students have posted. It is hoped that, by the assignments submission deadline, every student will have a few lines of formative feedback to support them. This may only act as an encouragement to continue, but at this stage, may be enough. Providing this early scaffolding is essential in embedding reflective processes as well as orientating the students in using new tools, which they can use to manage and deepen their learning.

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An Introduction to ePortfolios

October 20, 2009 at 8:59 pm (1st Year Experience, PG-Cert, Student Support, learning)
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It felt good to get the class size back down to something nearing manageable. I had half the cohort in two repeated sessions. This class was designed to introduce Mahara to the year group and to set a small assignment for next week, which would start the reflective ball rolling. First of all came the task of familiarising the learners with the relevant tools. The TPA lecturing team had met earlier that morning and I proposed that we use Mahara as the exclusive tool for evidence gathering and reflection with this new cohort of first years. We didn’t want to make it completely compulsory as that could disadvantage some students, I knew there was at least one who was inexperienced (and hence uncomfortable) with the concept of using digital tools. We opted to ’strongly encourage’ the cohort to adopt Mahara for the duration of their 1st Year. After which, they could either continue or opt for a different set of tools e.g. another ePortfolio or paper based solution. We had all been encouraging the students to gather digital evidence since the module began and today was a chance to consolidate these artefacts and offer a place to store, reflect and present them.

I must take a moment to thank my colleagues for openly collaborating with me on this project, without their continual encouragement through reminding the students to collect these artefacts, I wouldn’t have been able to progress as far as I have done so far. We have now purchased a further 2 flip camera’s (4 in total) to assist the students in this process, but most have used their own mobile phones and recording devices.Furthermore, they have done so with enthusiasm. As one of them stated to me today, “It’s much better than doing an essay!” as he slunk off, video camera in hand. It occurred to me at that moment, how these tools could be motivational in nature. I felt we had, at last, found the tools which were exactly right for the generation.

The class itself was short, but I made another modest discovery; as there weren’t enough Mac’s for everyone and some had to share, I was reminded of a theory that I had heard at the Handheld Learning conference earlier this month. It stated that you should never supply a pupil with a computer each, instead one between two was a much better solution. The students collaborated much better in this way, working out problems together by sharing knowledge. Though the original quote referred to primary school children, it would seem that the same was true of young adults. The result was that there were much less questions asked of me and the session merged into an exploratory workshop, which suited the purposes of learning much better.

I had converted a series of short video clips, taken by the students during an earlier introduction to Stage Management session in preparation for this session. These were taken on the flip camera’s and uploaded into a files repository on Moodle for the specific purpose of providing artefacts for the students to use.

Once the main features of Mahara had been explored, each student set up a view entitled “Introduction to TPA” (the current module) and they then started to befriend each other on Mahara in much the same way you would do on Facebook or Bebo. Invites were sent out to each other and the lecturing staff, allowing everyone access to see their first views. I then set them a small assignment for the following week, which was:

Introduction to ePortfolios
For Wednesday 28th October please upload any relevant media that you have gathered into your Introduction to TPA view. Choose an aspect of the module so far that you wish to reflect on and write a short blog, considering the following:

  • What you did well?
  • What you didn’t do well?
  • What you will do next?

Please make sure that you have invited the following to see your view:

  • All TPA 1 Students
  • All TPA Lecturers

Your reflections should be supported by the media that you have uploaded.

Use this guide to remind you how to set up a view.

This assignment was designed to set up next weeks session which is based around reflection. To get them started with the process I uploaded and asked them to read a short 3 page paper by the HEA. It was written in a non-academic tone and summed up the process of reflective practice both simply and coherently, ideal for new adopters of this learning process.

What did I do well?

I felt that the session took on a life an purpose of it’s own. The students took control of their own learning and drove the pedagogy forward themselves. They were enthusiastic and determined, finding value in what they were learning. I wanted the session to be light and uncomplicated, with the minimum amount of input from myself. This approach seemed to work and with few exceptions the session had a flow and real purpose. I didn’t rely on fancy graphical slides as a backdrop to my delivery, instead (and probably for the first time) I relaxed and allowed the students to learn in their own time.

What didn’t I do well?

I got a few basics wrong during this session. Firstly, I didn’t achieve all that I wanted to, I felt that the time I had was too short to effectively embed the principles of ePortfolio’s effectively. The lack of computer’s, though it turned out to be advantageous in one respect was detrimental in an other. The students who couldn’t log into their profiles and were simply commenting on their partners efforts, where unable to familiarise themselves as effectively as those actually ‘doing it’. In this respect I left a number of important e-Portfolio functions to the students to work out for themselves. Perhaps this isn’t such a bad thing on reflection, at the time I wondered if this was going to be detrimental to some of them.

What will I do next?

I have already offered two students extra tutorial time as they were struggling to grasp the software and the principals behind e-Portfolio’s. Though they appeared keen to learn I felt that it was only fair to offer an extra session and perhaps scaffold them at their pace. I am also looking into getting access to more computer’s, perhaps in the Student IT suite instead, in order for each student to participate more fully. I don’t want to loose the collaboratory nature of the session, so perhaps I could find a solution that does both?

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Lighting a Fire

October 19, 2009 at 8:03 pm (1st Year Experience, PG-Cert, Student Support, employability, learning)
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It’s been a while since I have reflected in this manner and I must confess that it has been difficult to restart, especially since I have only just returned to teaching. This in itself is a point I will return to in a later blog i.e. How to encourage my students to reflect outwith term time?

“Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)

As part of my final assignment on the PG-Cert course I decided to take on the challenge (opportunity?) of embedding Personal Development Planning (PDP) within the School of Drama. Most undergraduate and post-graduate courses within the school have some degree of PDP already in existence, the methods were somewhat fragmented and scattered. I chose to introduce the concept of ePortfolio learning to the whole school first, by redesigning an already existing introduction session hosted by two of my colleagues (Jamie McKay & Christine Murphy). Thankfully they were both open to the suggestion and based on student feedback from last year, we went about developing the session. It was agreed that the length of the session had to be re-assessed so we moved from one three hour session to four consecutive sessions, each lasting 1.5 hours. These shorter sessions were more manageable, especially as the School of Drama intake had almost doubled, with several new courses coming online this year. We decided on 4 main themes that we wished to cover, these were:

  • Evidence Gathering
  • Reflection
  • Goal Setting
  • Employability

However, we wanted to allow the students to explore what PDP meant to them. They were to be reorganised into four groups and given the question “What is PDP?” We were aware that some secondary schools and certain employers had instigated PDP frameworks in their respective environments already, we wanted to ascertain if the students had been exposed to these processes already. The students were then asked to write down keywords that captured the essence of their understanding. The results were surprising, nearly all 16 groups, throughout the day, had a grasp of the concept already and few required prompting. A few of the groups had no experience of PDP but still managed to find most of the keywords. Most encouraging was the fact that all of the groups seemed to understand the link between PDP and reflection.

We then presented the QAA definition of PDP:

“a structured and supported process undertaken by an individual to reflect upon their own learning, performance and/or achievement and to plan for their personal , educational and career development.”  QAA (2002)

As expected we were met with blank stares, so we launched into our own interpretation of this sentence. I had ’spiced’ up the old PowerPoint slides with bright and colourful graphical animations, which were designed to catch the eye and hopefully be retained in the memory. Feedback from the session seemed to support this. I then presented another quote, which specifically summarised the process of reflection:

“Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From quiet reflection will come even more effective action.” (Drucker, 1909)

This allowed me to outline reflective practice in it’s simplest terms and lead me to suggest 3 simple reflective questions that the students should consider as a starting point for their own reflective learning. These were:

  1. What did I do well?
  2. What didn’t I do well?
  3. What will I do next?

The next slide outlined learning progression and the transition points that the cohort may have encountered on their way to the Academy. I emphasised these points as being both goals and barriers that had to be overcome before they could progress. I also pointed out that the students would have had to exercise elements of PDP in order to break down these barriers and achieve their goal. The slide also served to emphasise that learning (through PDP) doesn’t stop after graduation from HE, but continues through a framework of CPD, during employment.

PDP.007

To further impress upon the cohort the importance of reflection and how it relates to three main aspects of their lives (Personal, Academic & Career), Jamie showed how these three can come together and where the overlap happens between any two, we suggested questions to reflect upon. Where all three converge, reflection through self review becomes central to the learning process.

PDP.009

The following slide simply showed where the individual fits into the learning process i.e. student centred with a Personal Academic Tutorial system acting as the next immediate framework for support which in turn is embedded in PDP. Finally the students chosen subject forms the underlying foundation on which to base their learning.

PDP.009

It was at this point that I took over and explained the advantages of using an ePortfolio as a tool to drive PDP. I had already delivered this content before to my PG-Cert class as a Pecha Kucha, so I knew it all inside-out. This time, I slowed it down by taking out the timings and any irrelevant slides. The result was encouraging, there was a host of interest from the students, with lots of questions to answer after each session. The critical incident form I posted on Moodle seemed to back this up.








Christine then went on to explain the PAT system within the Academy. This was probably the least thought-through aspect of the sessions and I felt that we lost the momentum that had been built up until now. We had no supporting images, but most importantly, hadn’t adequately linked PAT with PDP. Much more work needs done on this for next year. We need to work more closely on how to marry PAT to PDP, this year it became an afterthought. I think this was due to the fact that PAT had already become fairly established, so we neglected it, leaving it to languish unsupported. The result was a muddied, confused  experience for the students. Again, the CIQ feedback supported this. Most of the criticism of the session was aimed at this portion of it. The responsibility for addressing this must be shared between the three of us and learned from for next year.

To further compound the problem, we then asked the students to fill in a PAT form without much guidance on how to. The reason for this was to a) give the students a first try at completing one, b) provide a base-line for the PAT process to build from and c) begin the process of PDP. It wasn’t until the final session that we tried to change the format and provide guidance for each section of the form, prior to cohort filling them in. This seemed to help the students a little. Further reflection is required on how to deliver this more effectively in future.

We had decided to print business cards with both the Mahara & Moodle URL’s on them, along with the number to call for absence reporting. This was in an attempt to help the students remember these important bits of information and perhaps also remind them to at least try Mahara. Moodle is all but useless to them if their courses don’t provide content, the absence number in mandatory, the only aspect of the card that the students have any control of is the Mahara address. A faint spark, but a spark nonetheless.

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