Creating a screen-cast to support students posting to a blog

By laurenmccann Comment Closed

Elisabeth Koenigshofer – School of Literature & Languages

Link back to case studies on the T and L Exchange website

Overview

As part of the Personal Capture Pilot Project, I had many ideas to create videos for my students to enhance their learning. Eventually, I created one video that students could refer to if they needed support when adding a post to a blog on Blackboard, which was one of their tasks in their first year German language course. 

Objectives

  • Help students understand class content more easily 
  • Provide reference material for students 
  • Help absent students to catch up with class content 
  • Provide a different format for content than usual, engaging a wider variety of learner types 
  • Use an audio-visual format to provide a multi-sensual learning experience (visual, aural, written text) 

Context

I thought that screen-casts would be a great idea to add another format to my teaching portfolio when teaching German language courses. I had the idea that students at all levels, but especially on lower levels (language levels A2-B1), would like to engage with videos and that this format would make it easier for students to understand and revise class content. Also, the combination of different aspects should help students; the added aural component helps students to familiarise themselves with spoken German which is part of their learning process. They can pause and replay and see how much they understand. 

Implementation

I recorded my video without student involvement because I wanted it to be a reference for students before they set out to create their blog posts. Before producing this video, I tried to create some trial videos to make sure that I was comfortable with the situation and that I had prepared what I was going to say to help stay clear and focused.  

We had a workshop at MERL about the museum and the tourists that are attracted to visit it. I put the blog support video online simultaneously to ensure that students who couldn’t attend the workshop would know what to do and that those who were at the MERL would be able to go back to the information, in case there were questions on how to complete the task.  

In the video, I went through the step-by-step process of creating a blog post in Blackboard. This way, it was very clear how the task should be completed and which options were available to the students (e.g. add a picture/audio file or a link). 

Impact

The video was made available to 27 students who were part of the course. Out of these 27, 7 viewed the video anonymously. The longest view time covered the video’s full view time while the shortest lasted for less than half a minute. The viewers were anonymous because I embedded the video into Blackboard and thus the viewer data was not retrieved. This might mean that 7 students watched parts of the video and it helped them with their tasks. Most students completed the task successfully but I cannot tell for sure whether or not that was due to the video as there was no feedback other than the statistics. I think that there might have been a chance to increase views of the video if I had pointed students more often in the direction of it. I made students aware of the video in class and I think that it would have increased views if I had also made one or several Blackboard announcements. 

Reflections

I really enjoyed creating my video and I think the format has a lot of potential. However, I think I would want to invest more time in creating a screen cast videos which I did not have this year due to circumstances. In general, I think the biggest challenges are to plan a video effectively and to record it in one go without too many glitches. The Mediasite tool is easy to use for recording and is capable of some editing, but in order to create a smooth video, I think that it is helpful to have it mapped it out properly beforehand and to dedicate more time to the video creation.  

Follow up

In the future, I will use the video format for preparatory tasks and prepare questions to accompany the videos so that students can engage better with them. Currently, I am preparing audio-only material for students that comes with specific listening tasks which are then part of the personal capture and should help students to improve their listening skills. 

Creating screen-casts to enable students to catch up

By laurenmccann Comment Closed

Jo Stringer – Henley Business School (Real Estate & Planning)

Link back to case studies on the T and L Exchange website

Overview

I created catch-up screen-casts for the first two live sessions of my postgraduate Law module. These enabled students to catch-up live sessions missed.  The screen-casts were accessed by 25% of the students and the feedback was very positive. Key finding: the students want more recorded versions of live sessions. They seem satisfied with simple, basic screen-casts plus audio.

Objectives

  • Create screen-casts of early module material;
  • Aim to create screen-casts that:
    • are concise and engaging;
    • enable the students to catch-up flexibly but efficiently;
    • do not just repeat the live lecture.  Create a different resource which takes advantage of the online environment.

Context

I teach on the REMF54 module: Property Law with 48 students. Attendance is problematic in the initial weeks of the module.  Students are invited to Employer Assessment Centres which clash with live sessions. Since important foundation concepts are covered in the early sessions, I wanted to create an engaging and effective resource to encourage the students to take responsibility for catching-up, in addition to the “static” materials already provided (lecture slides, workshop materials, supplementary course text reading etc.).  I also wanted the students to catch-up in “course-time”, rather than leaving it until the end of the module: screen-casts could be a less intimidating/more manageable route into achieving this.

Implementation

I began by editing the live session slides with the intention of creating bite-sized screen-casts.  This proved tricky since the material is complex and hard to prioritise. Ultimately, I decided to create 3 approx. 15 min. screen-casts, dealing with the learning outcomes independently, for each of 2 live sessions. I wrote a script to ensure I retained focus and clarity.

I introduced recap quizzes to keep learning active.  Whilst recording, I encouraged the students to pause the recording to write down answers to the quizzes.  I revealed the answers at the end of each recording.

No students were involved in the recordings but, as I created the screen-casts after the live delivery, I ensured I dealt with questions and areas of difficulty that arose from class.

I recorded the screen-casts using the slideshow plus audio option and made use of simple edit functions where necessary, mainly cutting and fading in/out before uploading to Blackboard.

Impact

The screen-casts were used by 25% of the cohort. Most of the students accessed the screen-casts for Sessions 1 and 2 at the same time, two weeks after Session 1 was delivered live.  This was unexpected as I had anticipated the students would have left catching-up until immediately prior to the assessment.  The Session 2 screen-casts attracted fewer views than Session 1 and there were drop-off points in the final two Session 2 screen-casts at the mid-point which are not evident for Session 1 (see screenshots below).  This may indicate “screen-cast fatigue” which could increase if more were produced.

Student views for the session 1 part 1 screen-cast

Image showing student views of session 1 part 1 screen-cast

Student views for the session 2 part 3 screen-cast

Image showing student views of session 2 part 3 screen-cast

Students’ feedback from evaluation survey – Statements about the screen-casts attracting strong agreement:

  • allowed students to catch up: 85%;
  • increased knowledge and understanding: 92%;
  • control of own learning: 100%.

Reflections

The feedback indicates that the screen-casts were valued and considered effective.  The screen-casts were, in my view, quite rough and ready: it was a challenge to create an engaging product in the time available.  I could have made greater use of the online environment by, for example, thinking more explicitly about how I was explaining things to a listener and developing the slides to make them more visual.  In any event, this does not appear to have filtered through into the feedback with 76% of students agreeing or strongly agreeing that the screen-casts were engaging.

Follow up

I have made a screen-cast on a particularly complex topic as an exam resource for my undergraduate module.  The question on this topic was the second most popular choice in the exam and the average mark was the second highest rising from 50% last year to 55% this year.  I have also used personal capture to record a Powtoon video I created.

Inter-Professional Practical Workshop: Registered Intermediaries & Advocates in a Mock Criminal Court

By edwardwhite Comment Closed

Amanda Millmore, Law, a.millmore@reading.ac.uk  Alison Cox, PCLS, a.cox@reading.ac.uk

Overview

This was a collaboration between 2 schools (Law & PCLS) to introduce students to the work of Registered Intermediaries in Court in a practical way by offering co-curricular training. Registered Intermediaries are communication specialists who work in criminal cases to assist vulnerable people with significant communication difficulties to communicate their answers more effectively during a criminal trial. 30 students from across the 2 schools attended.

Objectives

  • Finalist Speech and Language Therapy students gained a practical understanding of criminal Court practice and procedure and experienced hands-on how Registered Intermediaries work with witnesses.
  • LLB Law students learned about the work of intermediaries and gained practical advocacy experience, learning how to question witnesses successfully, and work effectively with intermediaries in a mock courtroom setting.

Context

This was a co-curricular week 6 activity designed to provide students with real-life experiences of their potential careers. It was an interactive workshop to enable the students from the 2 schools to come together to learn more about the work of each other in the context of a mock criminal case. They gained practical understanding  of the practice and procedure of the criminal courts and of the work of intermediaries. This is so important as the Courts are becoming increasingly aware of the communication difficulties experienced by witnesses and Defendants and the importance of mitigating those issues.

Implementation

We planned a day of workshop activities, starting with interactive lectures from Amanda about the practice and procedure in the criminal Courts, and how to question a witness, then hearing from Alison about the work of intermediaries and how they assist vulnerable witnesses. The students were given a mock trial brief, and worked collaboratively as advocates and intermediaries to prepare for a robbery trial. Amanda created the legal briefs, whilst Alison prepared intermediary reports about the various witnesses for the intermediaries to use. We then ran 2 mock trials simultaneously, giving every student an opportunity to participate as a lawyer, intermediary or witness. Intermediaries were encouraged to speak up to intervene in the trial proceedings to require the advocates to improve their questioning techniques.

Impact

Students worked collaboratively all day and acquired a range of key employability skills and an insight into real life practice. Law students have highlighted this work within their LinkedIn profiles and when applying for work experience and placements.

Feedback from questionnaires completed at the beginning and end of the day showed that all students felt the day contributed to understanding of the roles of advocates and intermediaries:

Qualitative feedback included many positive comments including:

‘the trial was a unique experience putting theory into practice’

‘would be great to see more joint sessions with different courses’

‘enjoyed meeting and working with law students’

‘enjoyed learning the challenges of questioning vulnerable people’

‘absolutely wonderful!’ ‘positive atmosphere’,

‘loved the detail of criminal practice’

Final year law student, Oyin Arikawe said, "We were able to put what we learned into action towards the end of the day when we had a mock trial in which I got to practice my advocacy skills. The workshop was very useful and insightful as it gave me the opportunity to see and experience how intermediaries and barristers work together in court. I enjoyed every part of it!"

Whilst Part 1 student Kiiti Opesanwo said, "It was truly a great learning experience and provided great clarity towards how court cases are run in the UK. I am now encouraged to sit in at one of the Crown court trials in Reading to witness a real one.”

We were commended on Twitter by The Secret Barrister who is an award winning author on the subject of the criminal justice system.

Reflections

The planning process was extensive, but led to a really interactive, practical workshop. We now have a set of materials which can be reused for further workshops.

The real success of the activity was the positive impact of mixing students from 2 very different schools, and giving them the opportunity to work together. This added a deeper dimension to their learning and raised awareness of the work of other aspiring professionals and how their paths may cross in future.

Mentimeter feedback from the end of the day:

Follow up

We are now looking to see if we can secure sufficient funding to run the workshop again. We could have filled the places at the workshop twice over, and have had significant interest from other students who did not sign up initially.

Links and References

http://www.reading.ac.uk/Psychology/News/word-is-law.aspx 

http://www.reading.ac.uk/law/News/law-news-and-events.aspx 

Piloting General Practice (GP) experiential learning for MPharm Year 3 students

By edwardwhite Comment Closed

Catherine Langran, Lecturer in Pharmacy Practice, School of Pharmacy

Daniel Mercer & Selen Morelle, MPharm Part 4 students, School of Pharmacy

Background

Throughout the Masters of Pharmacy degree (MPharm) students undertake experiential learning in hospital and community pharmacies. Experiential learning through placements is an important approach to teaching and learning; providing a safe learning environment for students, bridging the gap between theory and practice, and encouraging independent learning and reflective practice.

In 2016, the National Health Service (NHS) launched a programme “Building the General Practice Workforce” creating a new career pathway for pharmacists performing clinical tasks in a primary care setting. Over the past 3 years a steadily increasing number of pharmacists are pursuing this career option, and this is now a graduate opportunity for our MPharm students.  It is therefore crucial that Reading School of Pharmacy provides undergraduate students with an opportunity to experience this new role to give students more insight into their career options, encourage professional and personal development, and boost employability.

This collaborative partnership project piloted placements within GP practices for Part 3 pharmacy students to assess the students’ perceptions and evaluate the benefits and practicality of the placements.

Method

59 Part 3 students (46% of the cohort) attended a voluntary session in November 2018, prior to submitting the PLanT application. This session demonstrated a high level of student interest in this placement opportunity and also involved discussion of the practicalities (e.g. placement length, positioning within timetable, location) and perceived advantages of offering GP placements.

Following a successful bid to the PLanT fund, a second voluntary session was attended by 22 students who collaboratively worked with the project lead to determine the process of student recruitment and allocation to placements, define the placement learning outcomes, placement activities, evaluation methods and how to collect feedback. Subsequently, the two project lead students worked with the lead academic to construct an online application process, review student applications, finalise the student handbook and evaluate the student feedback.

The main objectives of this project were:

  • To evaluate the benefits of undertaking the GP placements for MPharm students.
  • To evaluate the placement provider’s feedback on the acceptability, practicality and scalability of providing placements for students.

Five GP practices were recruited to take part in the pilot, located in Reading and London. From April-June 2019, a total of 37 part 3 MPharm students completed a half to one day placement in one of five GP practices. Students predominately shadowed the GP Pharmacist within a clinic environment, and others had the opportunity to shadow GPs, nurses, physician associates and reception teams to provide a greater understanding on how General Practices function as a business.

Data was collected via student completion of online questionnaires pre and post GP placements to compare their:

  • Understanding of the role of GP pharmacists and how GP surgeries work (with 0=no knowledge to 10=complete knowledge)
  • Confidence building rapport and being empathetic when talking to patients (0=no confidence to 10=fully confident)

Students also decided that they would like to prepare and deliver a short 5-minute verbal presentation to their peers and the project group to share experiences and insights from their GP placement.

We also collected feedback from placement providers after completion of the placements.

Results

37 students completed the pre-placement questionnaire, and 30 students completed the post-placement questionnaire. Analysis of the data shows that the students who undertook the placement displayed a significant improvement in their understanding of the GP pharmacist role and the structure and running of a GP practice. A moderate increase in empathy and building rapport was also seen.

Students’ evaluation of the GP placements were overwhelmingly positive, highlighting improved knowledge of the role of GP pharmacists and having gained insight into their potential career choices:

 

In their peer presentations, students described key learning points:

–  An understanding of how different health care professionals skills can work together to offer best care to patients

– The value of observing pharmacist consultations with patients, and reflecting on how treatment decisions are made

– An increased understanding of the options available to them after graduation, enabling them to make a more informed career choice.

Feedback from placement providers showed they found hosting the placement enjoyable/rewarding, they felt the students were enthusiastic, and the organisation/communication from the university was excellent.

Limitations

Whilst the cohort of students who attended the placement days appear to have improved their understanding of GP pharmacy, we are aware that the students undertook the placements voluntarily. These students had a desire to explore the role of GP pharmacists and this implies that they had an interest in the area prior to undertaking the placement. Therefore, opinions may be favoured towards the role.

Impact

The student co-design element ensured this pilot delivered an authentic and valuable experience, with high levels of student engagement.

As a result of this pilot, funding has been secured from our Head of Department to implement GP placements for all part 3 students (cohort size 106) from December 2019. Working partnerships have been established with the 5 GP practices and this has now been expanded to 16 GP practices for 2019/2020. Embedding GP placements for our students will have a positive impact on the MPharm re-accreditation by our regulators the General Pharmaceutical council in March 2020.

There is the potential for this project to have a long term impact on NSS and employability which will be explore in June 2020. Offering these placement sets us apart from other Schools of Pharmacies, and is a key selling point in our new UCAS brochure.

Clinical skills development: using controlled condition assessment to develop behavioural competence aligned to Miller’s pyramid

By edwardwhite Comment Closed

Kat Hall,  School of Chemistry, Food and Pharmacy, k.a.hall@reading.ac.uk

Overview

The Centre for Inter-Professional Postgraduate Education and Training (CIPPET) provide PGT training for healthcare professionals through a flexible Masters programme built around blended learning modules alongside workplace-based learning and assessment.  This project aimed to evolve the department’s approach to delivering one of our clinical skills workshops which sits within a larger 60 credit module.  The impact was shown via positive student and staff feedback, as well as interest to develop a standalone module for continuing further learning in advanced clinical skills.

Objectives

The aim of this project was to use controlled condition assessment approaches to develop behavioural competence at the higher levels of Miller’s pyramid of clinical competence 1.

Miller’s Pyramid of Clinical Competence

The objectives included:

  1. engage students in enquiry by promoting competence at higher levels of Miller’s pyramid
  2. develop highly employable graduates by identifying appropriate skills to teach
  3. evolve the workshop design by using innovative methods
  4. recruit expert clinical practitioners to support academic staff

Context

Health Education England are promoting a national strategy to increase the clinical skills training provided to pharmacists, therefore this project aimed to evolve the department’s approach to delivering this workshop.  The current module design contained a workshop on clinical skills, but it was loosely designed as a large group exercise which was delivered slightly differently for each cohort.  This prevented students from fully embedding their learning through opportunities to practise skills in alongside controlled formative assessment.

Implementation

Equipment purchase: As part of this project matched funding was received from the School to support the purchase of simulation equipment which meant a range a clinical skills teaching tools could be utilised in the workshops.  This step was undertaking collaboratively with the physician associate programme to share learning and support meeting objective 2 across the School.

Workshop design: the workshops were redesigned by the module convenor, Sue Slade, to focus on specific aspects of clinical skills that small groups could focus on with a facilitator.  The facilitators were supported to embed the clinical skills equipment within the activities therefore promoting students in active learning activities.  The equipment allowed students the opportunity to simulate the skills test to identify if they could demonstrate competence at the Knows How and Shows How level of Miller’s Pyramid of Clinical Competence.  Where possible the workshop stations were facilitated by practising clinical practitioners.  This step was focused on meeting objectives 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Workbook design: a workbook was produced that students could use to identify core clinical skills they required in their scope of practice and thus needed to practise in the workshop and further in their workplace-based learning.  This scaffolding supported their transition to the Does level of Miller’s Pyramid of Clinical Competence.  This step was focused on meeting objectives 1 and 3.

Impact

All four objectives were met and have since been mapped to the principles of Curriculum Framework to provide evidence of their impact.

Mastery of the discipline / discipline based / contextual: this project has supported the academic team to redesign the workshop around the evolving baseline core knowledge and skills required of students.  Doing this collaboratively between programme teams ensures it is fit for purpose.

Personal effectiveness and self-awareness / diverse and inclusive: the positive staff and student feedback received reflects that the workshop provides a better environment for student learning, enabling them to reflect on their experiences and take their learning back to their workplace more easily.

Learning cycle: the student feedback has shown that they want more of this type of training and so the team have designed a new stand-alone module to facilitate extending the impact of increasingly advanced clinical skills training to a wider student cohort.

Reflections

What went well? The purchase of the equipment and redesigning the workshop was a relatively simple task for an engaged team, and low effort for the potential return in improved experience.  By having one lead for the workshop, whilst another wrote the workbook and purchased the equipment, this ensured that staff across the team could contribute as change champions.  Recruitment for an advanced nurse practitioner to support the team more broadly was completed quickly and provided support and guidance across the year.

What did not go as well?  Whilst the purchase of the equipment and workshop redesign was relatively simple, encouraging clinical practitioners to engage with the workshop proved much harder.  We were unable to recruit consistent clinical support which made it harder to fully embed the project aims in a routine approach to teaching the workshop.  We considered using the expertise of the physician associate programme team but, as anticipated, timetabling made it impossible to coordinate the staffing needs.

Reflections: The success of the project lay in having the School engaged in supporting the objectives and the programme team invested in improving the workshop.  Focusing this project on a small part of the module meant it remained achievable to complete one cycle of change to deliver initial positive outcomes whilst planning for the following cycles of change needed to fully embed the objectives into routine practice.

Follow up

In planning the next series of workshops, we plan to draw more widely on the University alumni from the physician associate programme to continue the collaborative approach and attract clinical practitioners more willing to support us who are less constrained by timetables and clinical activities.

Based on student and staff feedback there is clearly a desire for more teaching and learning of this approach and being able to launch a new standalone module in 2020 is a successful output of this project.

Links and References

Miller, G.E. (1990). The assessment of clinical skills/competence/performance. Acad Med, 65(9):S63-7.

Developing Diversity and Inclusion teaching: The importance of D&I and Ethical Practice

By edwardwhite Comment Closed

Dr Allán Laville, Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, a.laville@reading.ac.uk

Overview

In the training of Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners (PWPs), teaching must include a focus on Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) as well how this relates to ethical practice. Therefore, I created a 15-minute screencast that tied key D&I principles to clinical practice, with a particular focus on ethical practice within this area.

Objectives

  1. To support students in being aware of key D&I and ethical principles and how these principles relate to their clinical practice.
  2. To support students in writing a 500-word reflective piece on the importance of considering D&I in their ethically-sound, clinical practice.

Context

PWP programmes include D&I training within the final module of the clinical programme, but to meet the British Psychological Society (BPS) programme standards, D&I training needs to be incorporated throughout. Furthermore, this training should be tied to the BPS programme standard on Ethical Practice teaching (Module PY3EAA1/PYMEAA).

Implementation

The first step was to identify the key sources to include within the screencast. These were wide ranging from legislation (Equality Act, 2010), positive practice guides (Improving Access to Psychological Therapies) and ethical practice guidelines (British Psychological Society) and reference to the University’s Fitness to Practise policy.

The second step was to think about how students could engage with the screencast in a meaningful way. Based on an earlier T&L Exchange project report of mine (https://sites.reading.ac.uk/t-and-l-exchange/2019/07/23/developing-innovative-teaching-the-importance-of-reflective-practice/), I wanted to include an element of reflective practice. Students were asked to write a 500-word reflective piece on their own take-home points from the screencast and preferably, following the Rolfe, Freshwater, and Jasper (2001) reflective model of: a) what is being considered, b)  so what, which I say to my students is the ‘why care?’ part! And c) now what i.e. from reviewing what and so what, detailing your SMART action plan for future clinical practice.

Example by Will Warley, Part 3 MSci Applied Psychology (Clinical) student.

Impact

The student feedback about the screencast and completing the reflective piece has been very positive. This has been across both the MSci in Applied Psychology (Clinical) as well as the Charlie Waller Institute (CWI), PG (Cert) in Evidence-Based Psychological Treatments (IAPT Pathway). The training materials have also been shared with members of the SPCLS Board of Studies for CWI training programmes.

In regard to national level impact, I have presented this innovative approach to D&I teaching at the BPS Programme Liaison Day, which included the BPS PWP Training Committee and Programme Directors from across the UK. The presentation was received very well including requests to disseminate the materials that we use in the teaching at UoR. Therefore, these materials have now been circulated to all PWP training providers in the UK to inform their D&I provision.

Reflections

One core reason for the success of this activity was the commitment and creativity of our students! Some students used software to create excellent mind maps, interactive presentations or a YouTube video! There was even an Instagram account used to illustrate the main take-home points from the screencast, which I thought was particularly innovative. Overall, I was absolutely delighted to see such high levels of student engagement with topics that are so important – both personally and professionally.

In regard to better implementation, it is possible that slightly more guidance could have been provided regarding how to approach the reflective task, but the brief of ‘be as creative as possible!’ worked very well indeed!

Follow up

I will be following up with the BPS PWP Training Committee in 2020 to see how this activity has developed within other PWP training providers! We will then create a summary of all innovative approaches to including D&I in PWP programmes and how these meet the programme standards.

Links

https://my.cumbria.ac.uk/media/MyCumbria/Documents/ReflectiveModelRolfe.pdf

Student YouTube video as submission on reflective task: https://youtu.be/hMU6F_dknP4

Electronic Management of Assessment: Creation of an e-Portfolio for PWP training programmes

By laurenmccann Comment Closed

Tamara Wiehe, Charlotte Allard & Hayley Scott (PWP Clinical Educators)

Charlie Waller Institute; School of Psychology and Clinical Language

Overview

In line with the University’s transition to Electronic Management of Assessment (EMA), we set out to create an electronic Portfolio (e-Portfolio) for use on our Psychological Well-being Practitioner (PWP) training programmes to replace an existing hard-copy format. The project spanned almost 1 year (October 2018- September 2019) as we took the time to consider the implications on students, supervisors in our IAPT NHS services, University administrators and markers. Working closely with the Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) team led us to a viable solution that has been launched with our new cohorts from September 2019.

Image of portfolio template cover sheet

Objectives

  • Create an electronic Portfolio in line with EMA that overcomes existing issues and improves the experience for students, NHS supervisors, administrators and markers.
  • Work collaboratively with our all key stakeholders to ensure that the new format satisfies their various needs.

Context

A national requirement for PWPs is to complete a competency-based assessment in the form of a Portfolio that spans across their three modules of their training. Our students are employed by NHS services across the South of England and many live close to their service rather than the University.

The issue? The previous hard-copy format meant that students spent time and money printing their work and travelling to the University to submit/re-submit it. University administrators and markers reported issues with transporting the folders to markers and storing them, especially with the larger cohorts.

The solution… To resolve these issues by transitioning to an electronic version of the Portfolio.

Implementation

  1. October 2018: An initial meeting with TEL was held in order to discuss the practicalities of an online Portfolio submission.
  2. October 2018 – March 2019: TEL created several prototypes of options for submission via Blackboard including the use of the journal tool and a zip file. Due to practicalities, the course team decided on a single-file word document template.
  3. April – May 2019: Student focus groups were conducted with both programmes (undergraduate and postgraduate) where the same assessment sits to gain their feedback with the potential solution we had created. Using the outcomes of the focus groups and staff meetings, it was unanimously agreed that the proposed solution was a viable option for use with our future cohorts.
  4. June 2019: TEL delivered a training session for staff and admin to become familiar with the process from both student and staff perspective. TEL also created a guidance document for administrators on how to set up the assignment on Blackboard.
  5. July – August 2019: Materials including the template and rubrics were amended and formatted in order to meet requirements for online submission for both MSci and PWP courses. Resources were also created for students to access on Blackboard such as screen casts on how to access, utilise and submit the Portfolio using the electronic format; the aim of this is to improve accessibility for all students participating on the course.
  6. September 2019: Our IAPT services were notified of the changes as the supervisors there are responsible for reviewing and ‘signing off’ on the student’s performance before the Portfolio is submitted to the University for a final check.

Image of 'how to' screen cast resources on Blackboard

Impact

Thus far, the project has achieved the objectives it set out to. The template for submission is now available for students to complete throughout their training course. This will modernise the submission process and be less burdensome for the students, supervisors, administrators and markers.

Image of the new portfolio process

The students in the focus group reported that this would significantly simplify the process and relieve the barriers they often reported with completing and submitting the Portfolio. Currently, there have not been any unexpected outcomes with the development of the Portfolio. However, we aim to review the process with the first online Portfolio submission in June 2020.

Reflections

Upon reflection, the development of the online Portfolio has so far been a success. Following student feedback, we listened to what would improve their experience of completing the Portfolio. From this we developed an online Portfolio, meeting the requirements across two BPS accredited courses which will be used for future cohorts of students.

Additionally, the collaboration between staff, students and the TEL team, has led to improved communication across teams with new ideas shared; this is something we have continued to incorporate into our teaching and learning projects.

An area to develop for the future, would be to utilise a specific Portfolio software. Initially, we wanted to use a journal tool on Blackboard, however, it was not suitable to meet the needs of the course (most notably exporting the submission and mark sheet to external parties). We will continue to review these options and will continue to gain feedback from future cohorts.

 

Universally Speaking: crossing cultural & generational boundaries – a seminar series

By edwardwhite Comment Closed

Dan Jones, School of Psychology & Clinical Language Sciences, d.jones6@reading.ac.uk

 

Overview

The ‘Universally Speaking’ series provides a platform for students, staff and community members to exchange ideas on culture, heritage, customs, values and traditions, via a seminar presentation. Each seminar is followed by an informal drinks reception to facilitate further discussion and interactions between the different communities.

Objectives

  • To offer an outstanding holistic student learning experience by promoting extra-curricular activities in the School.
  • To celebrate and promote the diverse School: lends on the diverse experiences of our staff, students and local communities to help students become global citizens and directly experience the benefits of a diverse and multinational learning environment.
  • To equip students with the aspirations, confidence and skills: opportunity to present and talk to a range of different people.

Context

The School of Psychology & Clinical Language Sciences is a wonderfully diverse School – this series was launched to promote and celebrate this diversity. The series provides an opportunity for members of the School to reflect upon different experiences and perspectives of the world, and to take a moment to discuss these with others. Ultimately, it is a tool to promote and explore difference, leading to greater tolerance and acceptance of it.

Implementation

Once funding was gained, along with the student partner, we formed a student committee to help support the different aspects of the series: promotion, advertisement, organisation, and invitations to community members. The committee was made up of five students, and two members of staff (myself included). The seminars were run on a monthly basis, starting in February 2019 and running until June 2019. Talks were delivered by a range of volunteers: UG students, PGR students, PCLS staff and other University members (including the University Chaplain, who is hopefully going to repeat their highly interesting session).

Overall, the series was a success, with positive feedback received and a consistent attendance, including up to eight members of the public attending the final session of the academic year. Due to the positive reception, we are hoping to make this a permanent fixture on the PCLS calendar.

Impact

The feedback on the series has been overwhelmingly positive. Quotes from attendees nicely summarise the benefits that have been gained from the series so far:

“The ability to increase my knowledge on other countries education and research style/system. Learn about peoples’ experience – first-hand experience. Love it!”

“Hearing about the differences from personal perspectives. Helping people embracing the differences.”

“Really interesting to hear about cultures and customs in other countries and how one should consider them when assessing actions and situations.”

Many of the quotes reflect on learning about and understanding difference; skills that lead to more tolerance and acceptance of difference – ultimately, this is what the series contributes to the PCLS community.

Reflections

The only negative of the series was attendance: considering the size of PCLS, we only averaged around 40 attendees across the series. There were several reasons why this may have been the case, including the timing, exam periods and advertising. We are aiming to address these issues if the series is to continue. One step that we have taken is to utilise the skills of the School marketing officer to help with promotion and advertising.

Follow up

The launch of the seminar series was made possible with PLANT funding – this funding ended in July 2019. To maintain the series over the course of the next academic year, and to enable collaboration with other groups across the University, additional funding has been sought from the School of PCLS. We already have the next seminar planned for January 2020, in collaboration with the UoR Islamic Society.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rev Dr Mark Laynesmith, Anglican Chaplain at the University, reports on a project set up with the University’s Institute of Education to explore increasing knowledge diversity among school children.

‘How did I do?’ Finding new ways to describe the standards of foreign language performance. A follow-up project on the redesign of two marking schemes (DLC)

By edwardwhite Comment Closed

Rita Balestrini and Elisabeth Koenigshofer, School of Literature and Languages, r.balestrini@reading; e.koenigshofer@reading.ac.uk

Overview

Working in collaboration with two Final Year students, we designed two ‘flexible’, ‘minimalist’ rubric templates usable and adaptable across different languages and levels, to provide a basis for the creation of level specific, and potentially task specific, marking schemes where sub-dimensions can be added to the main dimensions. The two marking templates are being piloted this year in the DLC. The project will feature in this year’s TEF submission.

Objectives

Design, in partnership with two students, rubric templates for the evaluation and feedback of writing tasks and oral presentations in foreign languages which:

  • were adaptable across languages and levels of proficiency
  • provided a more inclusive and engaging form of feedback
  • responded to the analysis of student focus group discussions carried out for a previous TLDF-funded project

Context

As a follow-up to a teacher-learner collaborative appraisal of rubrics used in MLES, now DLC, we designed two marking templates in partnership with two Final Year students, who had participated in the focus groups from a previous project and were employed through Campus Jobs. ‘Acknowledgement of effort’, ‘encouragement’, ‘use of non-evaluative language’, ‘need for and, at the same time, distrust of, objective marking’ were recurrent themes that had emerged from the analysis of the focus group discussions and clearly appeared to cause anxiety for students.

Implementation

We organised a preliminary session to discuss these findings with the two student partners. We suggested some articles about ‘complexity theory’ as applied to second language learning, (Kramsch, 2012; Larsen-Freeman, 2012; 2015a; 2015b; 2017) with the aim of making our theoretical perspective explicit and transparent to them. A second meeting was devoted to planning collaboratively the structure of two marking schemes for writing and presentations. The two students worked independently to produce examples of standard descriptors which avoided the use of evaluative language and emphasised achievement rather than shortcomings. At a third meeting they presented and discussed their proposals with us. At the last meetings, we continued working to finalise the templates and the two visual learning charts they had suggested. Finally, the two students wrote a blog post to recount their experience of this collaborative work.

The two students appreciated our theoretical approach, felt that it was in tune with their own point of view and that it could support the enhancement of the assessment and marking process. They also found resources on their own, which they shared with us – including rubrics from other universities. They made valuable suggestions, gave us feedback on our ideas and helped us to find alternative terms when we were struggling to avoid the use of non-evaluative language for our descriptors. They also suggested making use of some visual elements in the marking and feedback schemes in order to increase immediateness and effectiveness.

Impact

The two marking templates are being piloted this year in the DLC. They were presented to colleagues over four sessions during which the ideas behind their design were explained and discussed. Further internal meetings are planned. These conversations, already begun with the previous TLDF-funded project on assessment and feedback, are contributing to the development of a shared discourse on assessment, which is informed by research and scholarship. The two templates have been designed in partnership with students to ensure accessibility and engagement with the assessment and feedback process. This is regarded as an outstanding practice in the ‘Assessment and feedback benchmarking tool’ produced by the National Union of Students and is likely to feature positively in this year’s TEF submission.

Reflections

Rubrics have become mainstream, especially within certain university subjects like Foreign Languages. They have been introduced to ensure accountability and transparency in marking practices, but they have also created new problems of their own by promoting a false sense of objectivity in marking and grading. The openness and unpredictability of complex performance in foreign languages and of the dynamic language learning process itself are not adequately reflected in the detailed descriptors of the marking and feedback schemes commonly used for the objective numerical evaluation of performance-based assessment in foreign languages. As emerged from the analysis of focus group discussions conducted in the department in 2017, the lack of understanding and engagement with the feedback provided by this type of rubrics can generate frustration in students. Working in partnership with them, rather than simply listening to their voices or seeing them as evaluators of their own experience, helped us to design minimalist and flexible marking templates, which make use of sensible and sensitive language, introduce visual elements to increase immediateness and effectiveness, leave a considerable amount of space for assessors to comment on different aspects of an individual performance and provide ‘feeding forward’ feedback. This type of ‘partnership’ can be challenging because it requires remaining open to unexpected outcomes. Whether it can bring about real change depends on how its outcomes are going to interact with the educational ecosystems in which it is embedded.

Follow up

The next stage of the project will involve colleagues in the DLC who will be using the two templates to contribute to the creation of a ‘bank’ of descriptors by sharing the ones they will develop to tailor the templates for specific stages of language development, language objectives, language tasks, or dimensions of student performance. We also intend to encourage colleagues teaching culture modules to consider using the basic structure of the templates to start designing marking schemes for the assessment of student performance in their modules.

Links

An account written by the two students partners involved in the project can be found here:

Working in partnership with our lecturers to redesign language marking schemes

The first stages of this ongoing project to enhance the process of assessing writing and speaking skills in the Department of Languages and Cultures (DLC, previously MLES) are described in the following blog entries:

National Union of Students 2017. The ‘Assessment and feedback benchmarking tool’ is available at:

http://tsep.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Assessment-and-feedback-benchmarking-tool.pdf

References

Bloxham, S. 2013. Building ‘standard’ frameworks. The role of guidance and feedback in supporting the achievement of learners. In S. Merry et al. (eds.) 2013. Reconceptualising feedback in Higher Education. Abingdon: Routledge.

Bloxham, S. and Boyd, P. 2007. Developing effective assessment in Higher Education. A practical guide. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill International.

Bloxham, S., Boyd, P. and Orr, S. 2011. Mark my words: the role of assessment criteria in UK higher education grading practices. Studies in Higher Education 36 (6): 655-670.

Bloxham, S., den-Outer, B., Hudson J. and Price M. 2016. Let’s stop the pretence of consistent marking: exploring the multiple limitations of assessment criteria. Assessment in Higher Education 41 (3): 466-481.

Brooks, V. 2012. Marking as judgement. Research Papers in Education. 27 (1): 63-80.

Gottlieb, D. and Moroye, C. M. 2016. The perceptive imperative: Connoisseurship and the temptation of rubrics. Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy 13 (2): 104-120.

HEA 2012. A Marked Improvement. Transforming assessment in HE. York: The Higher Education Academy.

Healey, M., Flint, A. and Harrington K. 2014. Engagement through partnership: students as partners in learning and teaching in higher education. York: The Higher Education Academy.

Kramsch, C. 2012. Why is everyone so excited about complexity theory in applied linguistics? Mélanges 33: 9-24.

Larsen-Freeman, D. 2012. The emancipation of the language learner. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching. 2(3): 297-309.

Larsen-Freeman, D. 2015a. Saying what we mean: Making a case for ‘language acquisition’ to become ‘language development’. Language Teaching 48 (4): 491-505.

Larsen-Freeman, L. 2015b. Complexity Theory. In VanPatten, B. and Williams, J. (eds.) 2015. Theories in Second Language Acquisition. An Introduction. New York: Routledge: 227-244.

Larsen-Freeman, D. 2017. Just learning. Language Teaching 50 (3): 425-437.

Merry, S., Price, M., Carless, D. and Taras, M. (eds.) 2013. Reconceptualising feedback in Higher Education. Abingdon: Routledge.

O’Donovan, B., Price, M. and Rust, C. 2004. Know what I mean? Enhancing student understanding of assessment standards and criteria. Teaching in Higher Education 9 (3): 325-335.

Price, M. 2005. Assessment standards: the role of communities of practice and the scholarship of assessment. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 30 (3): 215-230.

Sadler, D. R. 2009. Indeterminacy in the use of preset criteria for assessment and grading. Assessment and evaluation in Higher Education 34 (2): 159-179.

Sadler, D. R. 2013. The futility of attempting to codify academic achievement standards. Higher Education 67 (3): 273-288.

Torrance, H. 2007. Assessment as learning? How the use of explicit learning objectives, assessment criteria and feedback in post-secondary education and training can come to dominate learning. Assessment in Education 14 (3): 281-294.

VanPatten & J. Williams (Eds.) 2015. Theories in Second Language Acquisition, 2nd edition. Routledge: 227-244.

Yorke, M. 2011. Summative assessment dealing. Dealing with the ‘Measurement Fallacy’. Studies in Higher Education 36 (3): 251-273.