Use of a learning platform to enable periodic assessment of Personal, Learning and Thinking Skills

James Harris

Walton-le-Dale Arts College and High School

Summary

Learning platform (Moodle and Mahara)

Personal, Learning and Thinking Skills (PLTS) mapped onto Opening Minds curriculum.

Periodic self, peer and teacher assessment of the PLTS via assessment tools on Moodle, learning logs and e-portfolios in Mahara.

Modifications of medium term planning

Walton-le-Dale Arts College

Small 11-16 comprehensive school on the southern edge of Preston, Lancashire.

Mission statement - “Learning for Life”

Seeks to recognise the uniqueness of every child and to support and challenge them as individuals.

Curriculum

Concerned about the core skills of students on entry to the school.

Introduced the Opening Minds curriculum into Years 7 & 8.

PLTS mapped onto the Opening Minds competences.

Assessment

Periodic assessment of competences/PLTS

Competences/PLTS to be assessed through the development of learning logs and e-portfolios.

Self, peer and teacher assessment to inform medium-term planning and student target setting.

Key priority in the school development plan is to raise achievement, particularly at Key Stage 3, through Assessment for Learning (AfL).

Learning Platform

Significant development of Moodle in several areas of the school (for example supporting the OCR Nationals in ICT).

Moodle hosted by CLEO (Cumbria and Lancashire Education Online).

Mahara e-portfolio system locally installed initially.

Mahara install by CLEO during the second half of the project overcame access problems.

Students

Initially self-assessment with all Year 7 students.

Then worked in detail with one mixed-ability group of 25 students creating e-portfolios, modifying teaching and re-assessing the competences/PLTS.

Self-assessment

5 statements from the competences/PLTS were selected.

Students assessed themselves using Red/Amber/Green traffic lights (see following slides).

Self-assessment

Self-assessment

Learning logs

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Students created these logs to comment on how they felt that they were doing in the particular competence.

There were issues around the ability of students to be reflective and about the need to structure learning logs appropriately.

Low levels of literacy in some students were tackled by the use of video logs.

Creating e-portfolios

Use of Mahara, initially locally installed

Creating evidence linked to the competence.

Fairly intuitive, but some students required considerable assistance to create effective portfolios.

Creating e-portfolios

Creating e-portfolios

Peer-assessment

Students then commented on each other's learning logs and portfolios.

This proved much easier in Mahara where comments can be left on “views”.

In Moodle, the only way in which peer comments could be made on learning logs was for the student to physically go to the computer where the student to be assessed was logged on and add to their learning log.

Teacher assessment

The teacher of the focus group then added comments to the learning logs assessing the student's level of competence.

Modification of planning

The overall self-assessment data for particular competences were exported from Moodle and analysed.

Changes were made to medium term planning to address areas of the PLTS where students were less confident.

The students were then reassessed after a period of time – 2 months in the case of this project.

Student feedback

Students were highly motivated and engaged...

Adam: “The traffic lights help other people understand what you have done during lessons and what you’ve been working on”

Makhala: “I love using Moodle because it is easy to use and it is on the computer” “To show people my work on the internet in different ways. We created views and I think that is easy to use and I enjoy visiting the site”

Abbie: “I love using Mahara because it is an easy way to show your friends what you have done in O M and they can give you feedback on your work and what you need to improve”

Teacher perspective

Highly motivational method of assessment

The amount of training that the students require should not be underestimated.

The amount of time required to create good e-portfolios and learning logs is considerable.

The cycle of self, peer and teacher assessment, coupled with evidence gathering, now needs to be embedded into the teaching and learning process.

Staff training

In order for this method of assessment to be used effectively across the year group other members of staff need to be fully trained.

This is being addressed through the use of lead lessons, individual coaching and group training.

Future developments

This method of assessment is being rolled out into Year 8.

Further consideration is being given to guidance on the content and format of learning logs and portfolios.

Mahara “champions” are being developed from amongst the students to assist in training other students and staff.