The URSS online portfolio: how we use online scaffolded portfolios to get all undergraduate research Home : Annual Conference 2014

Public Group Active 7 years, 10 months ago

Mon, Sep 1 2014, 12:05pm – 1:05pm

Description

Since 2001, over 1000 undergraduates have successfully completed academically rigorous, impactful, extracurricular research projects through the Undergraduate Research Support Scheme.

Since 2010, greater emphasis has been put on developing and articulating the participant’s transferrable skills in addition to their research-specific experiences. This has enhanced the employability of all, not just those wishing to pursue a career in academic research.

The URSS is about developing independent capabilities, without the student becoming over-dependent on the scheme. We want them to develop a specific approach to learning, in which reflective practice has a powerful role. In the past we have found that many students, especially scientists, are reluctant reflectors – isn’t this the case in all walks of life? How might online learning technologies and techniques help us to solve this design conundrum, not just for higher education, but in any learning environment?

In our presentation we will focus upon the benefits of using a series of “scaffolded” portfolio pages, the representation of the recording-reflecting workflow in the “ribbon” interface, the work of the mentors, and the project’s core design values: simplicity, flow, respect for and empathy with the “student as researcher”, appropriate cognitive load. We will consider how the current design might be enhanced further, e.g. by introducing a structured transition from scaffolded to free-form portfolio content.

We will also consider the Design Thinking methodology used to arrive at the successful design (Brown, 2009), and the technologies that have enabled its development (a generic web publishing tool, with a jQuery and HTML5 based javascript client-side application). This, and its ongoing development, is the responsibility of an extended collaboration between the URSS team (Student Development Unit), the Academic Technology team (IT Services), students, mentors and other academic departments using similar tools and approaches (History and French Studies).

The portfolio now works, for the student, their mentor and the support team, as the backbone of the whole skills development programme. The students do their reflective cycle (plan, act, record, reflect) in the pages of the portfolio, following the scaffolded process, and with personal support from their mentors. It also provides the student with an ongoing record of their actions and achievements.

In 2013, the URSS portfolio completion rate was 100%, including the scientists and those not based at the University during the project. Feedback from students indicates that this was primarily due to the scaffolded approach and consequent user-friendliness of the design. This follows the advice given on e-portfolios by John Biggs:

“…students need scaffolding to help them understand what reflection is and how to use it in order to improve their learning, otherwise they simply dump experiences and incidents in their portfolio and basically leave them there.” (Biggs, 2011: p61)

In addition to full completion, we saw an improvement in the quality and impact of student reflections. This will be demonstrated with examples from the ongoing analysis of portfolio content.

Biggs, John (2011) Teaching for Quality Learning at University (Fourth Edition), Open University Press.

Brown, Tim (2009), Change by Design, Harper Business.

Authors

Name	Robert O’Toole
URL	http://www.inspireslearning.com
Affiliation	University of Warwick, IT Services, Centre for Education Studies, Cultural Policy Studies
Country	United Kingdom