Author: Linsey Duncan-Pitt, linsey.duncan-pitt@wlv.ac.uk
JISC e-Learning Activity Area: e-Portfolios
Higher Education Academy Subject Centre: Health Sciences and Practice
This case study illustrates...an effect on learning, an effect on student personal development, student satisfaction with e-learning, innovation in learning and teaching, staff personal development, a positive effect on recruitment, a positive effect on retention, an influence on policy, use of resources, modifications to learning spaces, management of learning assets, an effect on social equality
Background & Context
This case study examines the use of a personal learning space offered by an e-portfolio system in two undergraduate programmes: nursing and midwifery, and is authored by two teachers: one responsible for a nursing programme and the other responsible for a midwifery programme.
Why did you use this e-learning approach?
Following an in-house workshop in April 2005, the nurse teacher decided to pilot the use of an e-portfolio system offered by PebblePad to develop a community of learners and later a community of practice of teachers, practitioners and learners in a group of non-traditional nursing students undertaking a Diploma in Nursing route called the 'family-friendly programme'. At this time the University had not adopted the use of e-portfolio across the entire institution but was preparing to do so for the academic year 2005-6. One of the factors which influenced the nurse teacher's decision to adopt this approach was the need to be able to evidence managed off-site study time activity to meet the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) 'theory hours requirement'. The tutor was influenced in the choice of pedagogical approach by the increasing body of literature about online communities of practice. Experience also informed decision-making: students who follow unusual and minority programmes are often made to feel (overtly or covertly) that they are different and this has a negative impact on the student's self-esteem and confidence. It seemed important to ensure that these students felt part of a community that was supportive since approximately 60% would be non-traditional entrants and used to more intensive academic support in their FE colleges.
What was the context in which you used this e-learning approach?
The family-friendly route is a 4 year and 4 month programme (usual programme length is 3 years). It is aimed at those students with school-aged children wishing to study for a nursing career whilst taking advantage of all the major school holidays and shorter attendance times (10.00 - 14.00hrs) during theory blocks. This programme is located within a post-1992, 'widening-participation' University located in a densely-populated conurbation. Two cohorts of students have commenced on this programme since its inception. The average age of students on the programme is around 30 years (range 20 to 45). Entry qualifications include Access to HE, NVQ or BTEC Diploma. Fewer students have traditional qualifications obtained some time ago and have decided to change careers. The e-portfolio system has been used from the beginning with these cohorts. A full-time programme runs alongside and these students are not formally using the e-portfolio at this time. One of the main problems envisaged was that students applying for the programme would not have the requisite IT skills. Another was the need to work at encouraging student use by teacher engagement. In the early stages the numbers of teachers using this system were small and their experience of using e-portfolio and collaborative tools was limited. A small team was selected to work with these groups and training was offered to the personal teachers of these students.
What was the design?
Existing modules were adapted to accommodate the length of the students' programme i.e. 15 month academic year instead of 12 month. Existing VLE material ranging from PowerPoint presentations, streamed video and audio to self-assessment questions were repurposed to fit the alternative programme. This supported the timetabled theory and practical (skills lab) sessions and the remaining theoretical hours of study were supported by work located in the VLE.
The e-portfolio system was used to provide the backbone of the evidencing of Managed Off-Site Study Time (MOST) for three modules. One module required the students to summarise their additional study using an e-portfolio template called a 'thought' record. An applied physiology/nursing skills module required the students to present a variety of evidence: scores from a self-assessment test in the VLE, a completed workbook chapter or discussing the findings from monitoring pulse and respirations on friends and family.
A sample webfolio (see example) was developed by the module teacher and was then shared with the students with copy permissions so that they could develop their own version independently. This sample was seeded with suggested points at which they could hyperlink evidence of their study for the first 6 weeks of the module (seen in brackets here). The rest of the pages were then left blank to encourage the students to develop as they wished. The managed off-site study activities were identified in the module guide and the module material was located in the VLE. The e-portfolio materials were easy to construct and required little technical skill beyond being able to work with the e-portfolio templates, upload documents and create hypertext links to those documents. To support their clinical placement part of the course, the students were asked to start a web log using another tool in the e-portfolio system and were asked to share this with their personal teacher. They were asked to write a weekly account of their practice placement and it was suggested to them that they could use the 'thought' tool to construct reflective practice accounts which were required for their clinical assessment in practice documents. Because these could be printed off they provided a transitional piece of writing as it was not felt feasible at that point to use the e-portfolio for clinical practice records.
How did you implement and embed this e-learning approach?
Implementation: Staff involved in the programme had an initial workshop of two hours plus mentoring support from the course coordinator. The students had 4 sessions programmed into the induction 4 week programme. On day one the students began their course in the IT suite and were shown the MLE and the e-portfolio tool. There were off-site activities programmed using the collaboration tools in the e-portfolio. During the 4 weeks the three module teams launched the webfolios and shared them with copy permissions so that students could work on their own copies.
Evaluation: The staff and students were asked to evaluate the experience of using the e-portfolio subjectively. The coordinator was very present in the community and the dialogue of the participants provided a rich source of data about the processes and outcomes of using the system.
Issues and Problems: At least 50% of the first group did not have much experience of using the internet and 4 students did not have a computer. This was despite the fact that the programme was publicised as one which required 'good IT skills, possession of broadband facilities at home being an advantage.' However, because the students perceived the benefits of being in touch with their peers outside of the classroom, they quickly obtained computers and now these students are the most avid users. With the second cohort (a year later), access to IT facilities proved to be problematic in the induction programme and input on the e-portfolio system was much reduced. The emphasis switched from using webfolios to weblogs mainly because accessing the lab within the limitations of this cohort's attendance time proved difficult. Although supplementary material is available to these users, the ones who found IT difficult did not use this material and preferred face-to-face instruction in how to use the technology. Bringing on board some new staff as the group size increased was made easier having taken some steps to embed the use of e-portfolio across the School of Health. However, there are still some staff involved in the programme that rarely use the tools, mainly because they prefer not to engage in written frequent dialogue with students and instead use a model of occasional face-to-face tutorials.
