Non-traditional assessment in traditional subjects

Work Placement, Employability and ePortfolios

Context

• Since the 1980s there have been consistent governmental drives to increase the effectiveness of HE in preparing students for working life

• Role of internships increasingly seen as critical in marketplace – improving candidates skills, widening access to professional networks and developing social capital

Work placement modules and humanities

• Hawkins and Woolf in Lavender ed. (2011) estimate that currently 32% of depts have wk placement provision

• Predominately those in the post-92 sector

• Assessments tended towards reflective essays and placement journals/diaries

• Hawkins and Woolf (2011)- ‘little use was made of any form of e-assessment’; ‘portfolios…involved students submitting a collection of items assessed individually, rather than…holistic portfolio[s]’

ePortfolios and employability

• ePortfolios have been seen for some time as a valuable extension of PDP

• Valued for developing goal-setting and reflecting skills, improving language and communication skills, and independent planning/initiative

• HEFCE e-learning objective (2005) – "encouraging e-based systems of describing learning achievement and personal development planning"

Why do we want to do it?

• To correct perceptions that humanities subjects do not develop transferable skills

• To improve the employability of our humanities students

• To encourage students to develop their career plans

Humanities Work Placement @ Roehampton

• Work placement originally assessed via essay alone

• Revised by Dr. Kathryn Tempest to include portfolio– Improve engagement

with placement– Greater integration of

academic subject and placement opportunity

• 2 & 3yr UG Students from TRS, Philosophy, History and Classical Civilisations

• Students secure their own placement

• Assessed via 25% eportfolio and 75% essay on subject related to placement

THEThe ePortfolio at Roehampton

Requirements

• The ePortfolio is posted as a Mahara ‘view’• It must contain:

– A reflective journal– A copy of the student’s CV both before and after

placement– A description of the host institution– Other potential items – covering letter; references

from placement institution• But many of our students do an awful lot more…

Potential

• ePortfolios allow students greater flexibility in recording the placement experience (video, photographs, links as well as text)

• Gives students the freedom to create a very rich resources (so rich that some material ‘borrowed’ by placement institutions)

• Potential for peer-to-peer learning via Mahara group

References

• R. Hawkins and H. Woolf, ‘The Assessment of Work Placement Learning in UK Undergraduate History Programmes’ in L. Lavender ed., History Graduates with Impact (HEA, 2011), 37-43

• JISC myWorld case study

Questions for discussion

• Do ePortfolios deliver on the skills they are designed to foster (reflection, independence, language/communication)?

• How can employability be enhanced further?• Should ePortfolios be given more weighting in

module assessment?• Should we move towards outward-facing portfolios

for work placement modules (portfolios that can be shared with future employers)?