ncci national conference, chicago, july 2008. online support for personal development planning and...

NCCI National Conference, Chicago, July 2008



Online Support for Personal Development Planning and Work–Related Learning

Damian McGivern Colin Turner


Some others on the teamPDSystem Mr Damian McGivern

(Project Manager) Dr Gordon Crawford

(Principal Developer) Many students have

contributed to the project.

OPUS Dr Colin Turner

(Principal Developer) Mr Ron Laird

(Initial idea and leading practitioner)

Many students have contributed to the project.


Excellence, Innovation and Regional Engagement

Established by Royal Charter in 1984.

Strong local, national and international partnerships.


Multi-campus, but Unitary Institution


Over 23,500 students, 1000+ of whom study through distance learning.

International students from more than 80 countries.

127,000 alumni, 1,150 in USA.

3,400 staff, 1,200+ of whom are faculty.

17 Research Institutes.

6 Faculties.


Two Key Agendas Personal Development

Planning (PDP)

Work-Related Learning (WRL)


What is Personal Development Planning (PDP)? ‘A structured & supported

process undertaken by an individual to reflect upon their own learning and performance and/or achievement and to plan for their personal, educational and career development.’ (QAA 2001)


Policy IntentionsTo help students

Become more effective self-directed learners. Articulate their goals and evaluate progress

towards their achievement. Improve their general skill of study and career

management. Encourage a positive attitude to learning

throughout life.


PDP Implementation Strategy Embedding PDP into the curriculum - linked to

the learning outcomes at programme level.

Structured support for individual students to aid reflection.

System to record the outcomes of the PDP process.

1. Quality control processes in place to ensure the effectiveness of PDP.


Work-Related Learning WRL involves students learning about themselves and

the world of work in order to empower them to enter and succeed in the world of work and their wider lives. (Knight and Yorke 2004)

Students involved in 4 interrelated areas of learning:1. Learning about oneself2. Learning and practising skills and personal attributes of value in

the world of work3. Experience of world of work associated with subject of study4. Experiencing and learning how to learn and manage oneself in a

range of situations.


WRL at Ulster University seeks to offer co-terminous

qualification.

45% of Ulster students enrolled on programmes of study which include a year on placement compared with 8% in the UK as a whole.

Placement tutor appointed for each programme.

Reflection, Recording and Planning key aspects.


Challenges with PDP & WBL Recognition that no one model will fit all

programmes.

Ensure that PDP & WRL processes are coherent & explicit for all students & staff.

Linking PDP & WRL to the learning outcomes of programmes.

Developing an in-house online system to support both processes.


Software Solutions for Learning Good practice is not a fixed target, it varies from

subject area to subject area and from time to time. Therefore software tools should not enforce a

particular process, but should support a variety of existing, and anticipated practice.

Software should aid human interaction, not detract from it.

Software solutions may be like “cruise control”; someone still needs to steer.


An integrated software solution PDSystem

Provides support for recording the outcomes of PDP, and helping students and staff in providing more effective learning within the curriculum.

OPUSProvides support for the all the processes involved in finding appropriate WRL opportunities, and supporting students engaged in them, and afterwards.

Seen as one system by the students.


A repository for students to store artefacts (files) and other information related to their learning for the duration of their course (or longer).

A portfolio system that enables a student to generate secure, on-line portfolios, either dynamic or static in nature.

A system that talks to your Student Record System and Course Management System.

CV generation, based on a templating engine, providing a variety of CV structures.

A mechanism for staff and students to share resources, files, events and learning outcomes (skills) on a cohort by cohort basis.

PDSystem main features


PDSystem - myProfile Naturally you can tell the PDSystem all about

yourself. Contact details, Qualifications, Work Experience,

Extra curricular activity, Publications and Conferences.


PDSystem - myProgramme View the programme team, obtain resources they

have set up for you, and store meeting records. View your transcript.


PDSystem - myDevelopment Assess your skills, and file evidence against them. Set goals, create plans, understand your learning

style. Create Journals.


PDSystem - myCareer Build CVs from templates. Store customized

versions. Get advice on applying for jobs, track applications

and cover letters.


PDSystem - myPortfolios Create one or more e-Portfolios of any collection

of data within the system for presentation. Useful for on or off campus learners. Share it with other students, staff, prospective

employers etc. as you choose. Get feedback (summative or formative) from staff

on your work.


PDSystem/OPUS - myPlacement Actually this menu is OPUS for those students

who use it. More about that later. Other students are shown other resources for

finding a placement.


OPUS main features Students can apply for jobs with CVs and cover

letters, download resources, view assessments etc.

Companies and their HR staff can advertise jobs and recruit students.

Workplace supervisors can assess students and get information.

Academic staff get information for visiting and assessing students on placement.

Placement tutors and others can monitor the whole process, get reports, log important events and more.


OPUS - Companies Staff add companies to OPUS after vetting them. Companies can now edit their own information,

upload presentations and present their case directly to the students.


OPUS - Students Students regularly log in to read announcements

and search for vacancies, from anywhere, 24-7, 365 days a year (and they do).

They can get information from both staff and companies on-line.

For non competitive placement they can complete forms to help staff make choices of placements.

For competitive models, and while they are indicated as requiring placement they apply for vacancies, using a CV from the PDSystem and a cover letter.


OPUS - Companies revisited Companies review application list and invite short

listed students to interview. They inform us which students they would like to

accept.


OPUS - Placement Staff We (provided there is no problem) mark the

student as placed with the company. We now have a record of this placement. There can be multiple placements for each student.

We allocate an academic visitor, the company provides a workplace supervisor, the student completes an online health and safety record and the placement begins.

Sometimes a non competitive method is used for determining placements, in this case, all the other functionality from here is still available.


OPUS – when on placement Support continues during placement. More

relevant information is easily available when the student is off site.

All the stakeholders can see who else is involved, workplace supervisors, academic tutors, and students, with contact details and sometimes photos.

Students can see how they will be assessed during the placement, and can view the feedback immediately when it is available.


OPUS – What else does it do? It provides sophisticated tools to allow staff to

monitor the placement process, obtain reports and audit data.


OPUS – what else does it do? Assessment, and reflection on learning is a vital

part of the process. OPUS supports speedy and transparent feedback, customized for the programme of study.


Evaluation To better serve all stakeholders evaluation is a

vital part of the process. This has ranged from informal channels, through

formal consultation with students and staff. Each year a new major version has been released

that tries to address the feedback from the users. Most feedback is very positive, with all evaluated

features rated as at least moderately useful, and most is very useful.


This is all Free & Open Source Software (FOSS) “Free” here refers to

freedom not price, but usually this is costless too.

Free software and Open Source software are similar ideas with subtle differences in nuance.

FOSS is less ambiguous.

0.Freedom to run for any purpose;1.Freedom to study and modify the code;2.Freedom to distribute the original version;3.Freedom to distribute the final version.(Paraphrased from Free Software Foundation)


Open Sourcing, Why? In sharing our practice with others we had many

requests about the software, was it available? Would it be sold?

It is a low risk exploitation method, requiring much less initial resourcing than traditional business models.

Our software has been built upon the open source software of others.

Consultancy can be offered at a volume of our choosing.


Open Sourcing, Why? As academics we share ideas, concepts, practice.

Why should we not share software? This lets our colleagues improve practice, rather

than concentrating on the technology. Use by external practitioners can open us up to

new ideas and possible functionality. We hope to grow a community of interest who can

help with sustainable future development and continuous improvement of the products.

The “gift culture” encourages higher quality in material that can be openly inspected.


Adaptability and Sustainability In preparing our software for easy use by others,

we have had to consider future proofing it from change in our own institution.

In particular, we had to consider flexible ways to allow authentication methods to change with the times, as well as means of accessing other university infrastructure.

This brings huge internal benefits and makes the project sustainable if the original developers become unavailable.


Challenges Cultural & political difficulties, particularly with

PDP No one model will fit all programmes Linking PDP & WRL to the learning outcomes of

programmes Ensuring that PDP & WRL processes are

coherent & explicit for all students & staff Student participation Satisfying diverse stakeholders Providing staff development activities Providing highly scalable solutions


Meeting the Challenges Buy in from senior management Stakeholder engagement – bottom up approach Rigorous evaluation and responsive to feedback. Aligning developments with the different

pedagogical approaches Building on existing good practice Comprehensive staff development activities at

each stage of the process.


Future Developments We have two mature, acclaimed products, which

are the subject of international interest, and which embody our practice and technical expertise in these areas.

We have rewritten them to use consistent underlying technology.

We have broadened the community to other institutions, and plan to build a network of practitioners, developers and other contributors.

We still listen to our stakeholders for problems, and suggestions of how things can be improved.


Future Developments We are not just using open source, but an open

development approach. All our bug / support / task trackers, and our

mailing lists are completely public, open to both internal and external users.

This allows a consistent, transparent approach to dealing with requests for changes where the stakeholders are always included.


Two Example Areas of Interest The PDSystem has been and continues to be

adapted to allow it to better support trainee teachers in monitoring their development during their studies and in presenting their portfolios. (TePNI)

There is interest in a global OPUS network that allows certain job opportunities to be shared with international partners, helping to support the ease of exchange programmes.


Obtaining OPUS and PDSystemor finding out more Our software can be downloaded from

http://foss.ulster.ac.uk The site provides much more: news, support /

bug / task trackers, mailing lists and information on how to try the systems for yourself.

Subscribe to the “announce” mailing lists for news. Read the FAQs and INSTALL guides for more

information. Contact us if you have queries.


Questions?

http://foss.ulster.ac.uk

Thanks for your attention.

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