ATLAS for assessment & feedback

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BSc (Hons) Clinical Language Sciences (Speech and Language Therapy) http://www.flickr.com/photos/miikas/109321013/in/set-72057594077845609

The course

• • • • BSc Clinical Language Sciences (Speech and Language Therapy) 3 year course; 150 students E-portfolio embedded across all three years; Pebblepad3 used at levels 4 and 5 so far.

Assessment sits within a ‘Practice and skills’ module at each level but draws on all learning from within and beyond the course

Rob Shaw, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences learning Technologist. Responsible for: Advising course team Creating templates Staff and student training Sarah James, Professional/Staff Lead, SLT. Responsible for: Writing E-portfolios into course structure for 2009-10.

Developing assessment strategy linked to Health and Care professions Council Standards of proficiency.

Jenny Landells, Module tutor, CPS1. Responsible for PebblePad at level 4: Observational placement and associated procedures and templates Naomi de Graff, Module tutor, CPS2. Responsible for PebblePad at level 5 Assessment design and criteria for SOPs assignment Tracey marsh, Module tutor, TPP. Responsible for PebblePad at level 6: Assessment protocols and criteria for Presentation and Viva assessment

Year 1 Placements: 2 x 8-week experiential placements “Child development” and “conversation partner” Students reflect on skills development Weekly reflections and action plans using course templates and uploaded to ATLAS for tutors to view Staff provide regular feedback Focusing on reflective skills and using PebblePad …and training at key points Focus on linking, organising and tagging to build skills for later use of e-portfolio Workshop at the end of the year on:

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Reflective writing

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Professional Standards of Proficiency

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Evidencing development Year 2 students input into this

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Year 1 workspace – Tutor view of student blogs

A student’s blog – links to weekly reflection and on going action planning templates

Reflective template and action planning table

Feedback

Workshop at end of year 1

Year 2: Developing and evidencing competencies Clinical placements begin. Students continue to reflect with regular feedback Students begin evidencing their progress towards HCPC Standards of Proficiency (SOPs) - This is presented as a 2-year ‘project’ They rate their progress towards achievement of SOPs, create action plans and attach evidence in support of their ratings At the end of level 5 they are assessed on their progress towards a subset of SOPs

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Year 2 SOPs form

Evidence record with justification

Rating history visible to tutors to see engagement over time

Action plan linked to a particular SOP

Marking criteria and feedback form

Year 3:

Demonstrating Readiness for The profession Students continue to rate and evidence their progress towards SOPs Their final assessment is of the e-portfolio itself, along with a presentation and viva focused on readiness for practice This includes self awareness and evaluation, reflection, and integration of professional knowledge and experience Each component must be passed; the assessment process takes 2 hours per student

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Viva protocol for use by interviewing team

Marking criteria and feedback form completed by interviewers immediately following Viva

Evaluation

• • • • • Students were invited to complete an online questionnaire carried out through ATLAS Focus was on attitudes to using PebblePad, impact on the course, training and support, recommendations Likert item questions and open responses Response rates adequate for Level 4 (68%) Level 5 and 6 still a work in progress – currently 12%

All but two would recommend continued use:

Definitely, it is a great system that allows all your skills, reflections and achievements relevant to SLT and professionalism to be documented as evidence for future jobs.

Yeah because of the type of course it is you need somewhere to put all of your evidence and reflections.

Yes, although it seems like a bit of a task, it is useful to help your personal development Yes, as it is very organised and simple to use.

Yes for definite because its so encouraging to look back and track our progress, you can also draw from other experiences and i think it encourages you to research and be an independent learner.

Pebble Plus point 1: Accessibility and convenience of use. Ability to organise varied materials ‘in one space’, searchable...

It keeps all my reflections in the same place for future reference and is an easy way to note down what has happened on placement without forgetting anything.

tags to help find things in future Allowing all your reflections and evidence to be usefully located in one place/system and found easily.

Simple to learn how to use, even for people who are not as computer-literate.

It is a good way to keep a record of what you have done. Evidence is organised so it can be found easily and can be used for applications/interviews. It is very easy to use.

Pebble Plus point 2: Structure and feedback for reflection, self-assessment and learning

receiving tutor feedback and being able to refer back to previous experiences in reflections easily.

As it provided a structure to record my experiences of placement and learning from the degree I could look back over previous reflections and see what progress I had made.

An opportunity to reflect and put down into words, our experiences of placement and provides a way of linking topics and experiences together.

PebblePad has helped me to focus on my own abilities and allowed me to assess myself. This has helped me make huge progress this year as I have never done anything like this before and being able to look back and make improvements has been a huge bonus to my progress and in my own belief.

the action plan helped me look forward to what I needed to do in next sessions

Negatives: Getting used to the system and issues with reflection...

There is a lot to it and sometimes it can get a little confusing e.g. when first using the tagging and filtering systems.

Trying to organise reflections and sending them to the right workspace I found the platform itself incredibly frustrating to use (and this comes from an experienced blogger and technophile!) - the navigation was overcomplicated, and as the platform opens in a new window there are no 'back' or 'forward' navigation buttons in my browser.

It could be very slow at times, and it felt like it could take a while to complete a task.

forgetting to do my reflection and having to do two in one go Having to be near a computer to reflect made my reflections falter. I used to always reflect in a note book at the end of observations and plan to do that again, and then transfer it in to PebblePad.

But to end on a positive note...

I think PebblePad has hugely enhanced my learning this year. It has helped me develop a reflective attitude which is valuable in all of my learning. Furthermore, it has helped me create a record of my experiences which I would otherwise have been without and thus forgotten or lost some very valuable learning elements.

Lessons learned

• • • • Integrating PebblePad properly and providing the right levels of structure and guidance takes time and effort.

But each year is getting better (sorry third years!) A ‘whole-course’ approach seems to work best It is adding clear value to the course but it remains to be seen whether the students will continue to use it after graduation

Future plans

• • • Increase cross-module integration Make it easier for students and practice educators to integrate learning and evidence from clinical placements Continue to evaluate post-qualification