Celine Kingman , Senior Lecturer, Film & TV Production,

1. Celine Kingman, Senior Lecturer, Film & TV Production, Faculty of Arts Technology Enhanced Learning Representative ‘Challenging the Apparatus: Supporting and Enhancing both Student Learning and Career Aspirations using E-Portfolios’ 16th October 2012

2. Why we moved from paper-based portfolios? • University Strategies and Aims – • E-Learning and Assessment, Employability and Enterprise – three years and beyond... • Fear of being outdated and seen as dinosaurs by our students • Further engagement with social technologies which are in increasing use in the Film & TV Industries The lines between the personal and the professional are already becoming blurred in the way students communicate, in acknowledging them we can set proper boundaries.

3. Advantages of E-Portfolios • Challenge a fetishist attachment to technology through developing an understanding of how it communicates • More creative and expansive ways for students to express their learning • Opportunities for students to evidence their learning and contribution to projects more effectively • Encourage and demonstrate the value of independent learning and the ongoing development of skills (creative, technical, academic, professional)

4. A different way of approaching learning Improve student learning and engagement - aiding students’ research, evidencing their individual learning, contribution to projects and collaborative work, supportingacademic, creative and career development (formative and summative)

5. What we hoped to achieve • dialogue, partnership in student • better understanding of what was being asked or expected • ‘with you not against you’

6. Initial Challenges • Understanding possibilities and limitations of software and the supporting IT system. • Training Staff • Training Students • Developing appropriate supporting materials and instructions • No examples of Mahara work in subject area

7. Making the Familiar Strange – ITC Literacy • Experience from FTV shows us that students are diverse in terms of confidence and expertise in using new technologies • Some uses of technology are inappropriate in an academic and professional context – i.e. modes of address, text speak, requires stripping back and a process of re-education – ‘re-seeing’

8. Training Development • Four 1¼ hour sessions tied in to module work: • Intro – why an E-Portfolio, overview of Mahara, and creating a profile • Review profiles, creating new pages and collections • Review research on favourite film, sharing pages with others, groups • Using and embedding audio, video and still images

9. Interim challenges • Developing and maintaining confidence with students embarking on a new form of assessment - • Inheritance of school assessment culture • Struggling with the basics • Technology not sophisticated enough • Student not experienced or skilled enough to meet their ambitions • Difficulty deciding what to include as content as this is defined by their choices not the tutor, a journey with an unknown outcome

10. Defining the Portfolio Wardrobe of clothes chosen to fit the individual, by the individual – • different pages/sections have different outfits (FTV crew roles, projects, research etc.) • must decide what outfit to hang on them • in charge of creating/ projecting/ designing their ‘character’ • as with any film/programme they must understand how what they are communicating may be received by an audience

11. Process and Progress Distinct students, varying needs, different interests, divergent goals, diversity of outputs... • Reflects the mutable nature of the portfolio – every one is different • uncertainty • understanding • application • appreciation Similar experiences of learning development e.g. Staffordshire University Blended Learning Diagram

12. Dialogue and Feeding Forward • Review of work mid-Semester - individual one to one contact with supervising module tutor of: • module pages e.g. preparation in their role on a project, group preparation • professional development pages e.g. profile page with CV, attributes and examples of work

13. Advantages of Formative Feedback • all students effectively have a tutorial whether they seek one or not • students’ ongoing work is validated • tutor has a real window into ongoing progress • students’ individual career/developmental issues addressed and responded to in a more personal way • offers chance for real improvement ahead of summative submission

14. Feeding Forward • staff can advise more directly and seen to respond more effectively (rather than generic advice to large groups) • student and staff may more easily be able to raise or address performance, participation and attendance issues observed on module (particularly an issue on FTV with group work) • can highlight assumptions made by staff or students • flags up problems in time for students to make changes

15. Leading by Example – Tutor’s Guidelines EXAMPLE OF TUTOR MATERIALS

16. Potential • Promotion of selves and work, aid gaining of work experience • Internships – supports distance learning and teaching • Capturing student aspirations at key stages throughout their degree • Guiding and supporting students module choices Safe platform to try out and experiment (closed system)

17. Continuing challenges? • Understanding the software’s limitations, preparing for future developments • Understanding staff limitations (constraints) and supporting development • Understanding students limitations and providing appropriate and timely training. • Involving all tutors in training students - content linked directly linked the content to modules – endorses the use of the software, feeding back on students progress earlier helps embed the use of the E-Portfolio, students prepared for the following week.

18. Structures of the Apparatus – mind over matter • continue to develop appropriate communication between/within academic and support services, or some needs may not be met • continue improving the capabilities of the software both in terms of presentation and flexibility to support more innovative learning and assessment, in accordance with quality and academic standard issue • sharing of work continued • debate and reflect on established assessment practices

19. Structures of the Apparatus – mind over matter • staff are the model, the challenge is to be as creative as we expect the students to be, this may mean changing our approach and challenging our assumptions about assessment • embark with an open mind and accept diverse outcomes, the technology is a framework for content, we decide how it could be used and confident that we can deal with the unusual and surprising in our students’ work • maintain the understanding that we have control over the technology not vice versa, the technology should not determine the content

20. Final Thoughts Keep thinking of the long term – 3 Year + model Slowly does it – remember students develop at different rates Quick wins – face to face feedback can mean significant advances Transferrable skills – once the process is gone through the first time, it can be built upon and students can branch out to other software Further exploration – learn from experiences of other programmes engaging in professional practice attempting something similar….