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Introducing ePortfolios into the Bachelor of Occupational Therapy (OT) Program

Learn how the Bachelor of Occupational Therapy program successfully incorporated ePortfolios to enhance reflective practice and competency development. Discover the benefits, challenges, and lessons learned in this innovative educational approach.

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Introducing ePortfolios into the Bachelor of Occupational Therapy (OT) Program

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  1. Introducing ePortfolios into the Bachelor of Occupational Therapy (OT) Program Christine Slade & Keith Murfin Centre for Support and Advancement of Learning and Teaching (C-SALT) Anita Hamilton Program Leader Occupational Therapy/OT ePortfolio Coordinator University of the Sunshine Coast

  2. Early Adoption 2013 • Bachelor of Occupational Therapy (OT) program were early adopters of PebblePad at USC • Initial cohort was 140 first-year students • The PLS was seen as the best place for developing reflective practice, storing evidence of meeting external standards, practitioner registration and career opportunities

  3. Mapping Implementation

  4. Reasons for Changing the Curriculum • Previously reflections were seen as one-off assignments and not kept for further use or review • Work was lost and therefore growth & development could not be tracked • When having to prepare a paper portfolio as fourth years, students regretted not keeping evidence towards competencies

  5. The Approach • A collaborative approach was taken in order to embed ePortfolios into the course curriculum • The OT course coordinators worked with the C~SALT team to design the implementation and build teaching staff awareness • The end goal being that the OT teaching staff would be the ones to up skill students

  6. Stakeholder - C~SALT Staff

  7. Stakeholder - OT Portfolio/course coordinator

  8. Stakeholder - Students

  9. Tasks for Students • ‘The Desk’ Template • Student Response (used with permission)

  10. Tasks for Students • Fieldwork Template - used to guide student reflection of the experience

  11. How did it go? • By the end of the early adopter phase students had been introduced to the main features and had submitted a reflective task to ATLAS. • “At this point I don’t feel that I have many ideas about where to improve what we have done in our first year. I feel that by only taking on a small challenge we were successful. If we had tried to achieve anything more I doubt that it would have gone as smoothly as I think it did.” (OT ePortfolio coordinator) • A similar gentle approach will be used in 2014 however with the addition of an assessment task to the curriculum. • Second-year students (2013 cohort) will regularly add further evidence of learning, graduate attribute attainment and competency development.

  12. The Benefits • Reinforcing the importance of developing critical reflective practice • Students being engaged in self-learning through pedagogical tools • The slow-start approach was easily adopted by both C~SALT and academic teaching staff

  13. Lessons Learned • It is vital to plan early the embedding of ePortfolios into the course curriculum, particularly assessment tasks • Be mindful that staff and students may struggle initially with learning the software within a context of multiple demands on time, energy and resources • Having training workshops engages some students early. Others will rely on later helps such as the ‘how to’ videos • The importance of all members of the ePortfolio implementation ‘team’ communicating and planning together regularly so support will be available when needed

  14. Anita Hamilton Occupational Therapy ePortfolio Coordinator (click image to play video)

  15. How is it now? • First and second-year cohorts in Semester 1 2014 • Student training sessions built into tutorial time • Assessment using ePortfolios is embedded in the curriculum

  16. Program Mapping • * theory • + fieldwork

  17. In Summary… It is difficult to “retrofit” a course with an ePortfolio, it needs to be slowly integrated into the course, the training needs to be part of the learning activities in the course and the students need to be continually reminded why it is being done.[OT ePortfolio coordinator]

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