Enhancing Student Engagement through Profile-based Learning Practices

1. Keele University Innovation Projects Day 22 May 2003 Student profiling Peter G. Knight School of Earth Sciences and Geography

2. Today’s Talk: • What was the problem? • How did we try to solve it? • How successful were we? • What are we going to do in the future?

3. Today’s Talk: • Background • Aims • Profiling • Evaluation • Recommendations

4. Background: what was our problem? • Students on auto-pilot: • Lacking engagement, motivation and self awareness. • Drifting through their courses without reflection. • Expecting to be spoon-fed. • Not knowing or caring why they’re doing stuff. • Not planning their option choices logically. • Not knowing what they’ve achieved at the end of the course. • Generally being dozy wombats.

5. Aim: what were we looking for? • The “always on” button in the student psyche. • A task or mission to force students to keep thinking about: • what they are doing, • why they are doing it, • what they are getting out of it, • what else they want, and • how they can achieve it within their course framework

6. Aim: what were we looking for? A way of helping students learn to “manage their own learning” (FHEQ)

7. A possible answer: Student profiling a career-long procedure whereby students develop and maintain a documentary record of their learning experiences

8. Profiling – the idea • Students: • Assume ownership of their own learning • Identify strengths, weaknesses and targets • Steer a course through curriculum options • Assemble a portfolio of documented experience

9. Profiling – the idea • Profiling Provides: • Motivation to engage with learning experience • Framework for structuring reflection/recording

10. Profiling – in practice • The profiling pack • An introductory lecture / tutorial • Recording, reflecting, planning (form filling) • Semesterly meetings with tutor check out the profiling pack….

11. Profiling – in practice • 5 principal courses • 2000-1 onwards • approx 150 students per cohort • approx 450 students “rolling” after 3 years

12. Profiling – project outcome A template for undergraduate student profiling that could be adapted for use in any Keele undergraduate programme, facilitating the adoption of profiling throughout the University.

13. Evaluation • Feedback from students : • Profiling meetings • Tutorial groups • SSLCs • Informal discussions • Feedback from colleagues: • Informal discussion • Course management committees • Learning and Teaching committee • L+T Away Day • Formal invitation at close of project • Feedback from external assessors: • Internal and external quality audits

14. Evaluation • Excellent in theory • external auditors love it • Sometimes excellent in practice • works well with high staff-student ratios • works well with committed students

15. Problems Too much form-filling, especially for dual-honours students Arranging individual tutorials with 450 students every semester Some students are hard to convince of its value if it “doesn’t count to my degree”

16. Solutions (discuss!) 1. • Too much form-filling, especially for dual-honours students • simplify and reduce forms • single profile to cover dual-honours program

17. Solutions (discuss!) 2. • Arranging individual tutorials with 450 students every semester • make serious staff time commitment • make profiling optional • meet less frequently (annually?) • peer profiling? • group profiling?

18. Solutions (discuss!) 3. • Some students are hard to convince of its value if it “doesn’t count to my degree” • add an element of assessment to the process • include profile in final-year portfolio

19. The way forward • integrate (skills) profile with curriculum outcome mapping. • streamline profiling: student-friendly, staff-feasible. • encourage better student take-up: stick or carrot?

20. Conclusion: This seems like a useful and workable idea. Let’s polish off the rough edges and get it working properly!