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Slide Notes

Introductions.

Fiona Harvey and Colleagues...Fiona Harvey and Colleague...now just Colleague!

What do I do.
Media Development Team
Learning Design Team
Education Developer.
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Copy of Developing Digital Literacies: Using Portfolios and Badges for authentic learning and online presence

Published on May 29, 2016

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PRESENTATION OUTLINE

Developing Digital Literacies: Using Portfolios and Badges for authentic learning and online presence

Introductions.

Fiona Harvey and Colleagues...Fiona Harvey and Colleague...now just Colleague!

What do I do.
Media Development Team
Learning Design Team
Education Developer.

University of Southampton

Research led university
The University of Southampton is a research-led institution, based on the south coast of England, about 1 hour and 20 minutes from London. It has 24,500 students and comprises of 8 Faculties, from Engineering and Computer Science to Nursing, Business and Art.

With such a broad base of disciplines there is never going to be a 'one size fits all' tool to support the integration of technology to enhance learning.

However, through working with our Innovation and Digital Literacies Champions (iChamps) we have gone some way to bringing a consistent approach to developing digital literacies skills for both staff and students.

I think it's no secret that at Southampton education hasn't had the priority that research has, but it is changing, it has to - not just because of the TEF.

There are people at Southampton leading the TEL agenda, raising awareness, Fiona certainly is very good at this. Networks, projects, best practice, shared practice.

Digital Literacies is at the heart of everything we do, whether that's working with educators or turning ECR's into teachers.

Researcher's need the same skills that educators need, perhaps even more so.
Photo by sshreeves

Digital literacies skills:
What they are, why they are important?

Digital Literacies skills development is fundamental for any effective use of technology to enhance learning.

When we mention digital literacies we are referring to the skills to create content, be critical thinkers, citizenship, collaborate, communicate etc.

"Functional technical skills
+ critical thinking
+ social engagement
= digital literacy"
(Josie Fraser, TEDx Leicester, 2015)

Digital is everywhere
Developing digital literacies skills allow our students and staff to thrive in an modern society. Technology has infiltrated our lives through the consumerisation of devices, an almost ubiquitous use of smartphones (90% of students own a smartphone/cell) iPads, smart watches, wearables all contribute to our connected lives.

Digital literacies skills ensure or allow us to have the opportunity to take advantage of the affordances of these tools and therefore engage effectively in a global world.

DEVELOPING DIGITAL LITERACIES

ICHAMPS PROGRAMME
12-16 student champions working with academics on projects relating to:

The development of digital literacies skills
Discipline areas are Medicine; History; Modern Languages; Music; Chemistry; Biological Sciences; Social Enterprise, Social Sciences and Geography

All the projects are aligned to the discipline areas of the students and the academic chooses the student to work with. They are then supported to develop their own skills and become part of a network of students. We communicate via Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter and anything else that is appropriate for their work. The focus is on flexibility and enabling communication to suit their needs.

The projects that the students have been involved in are based around 'need' and not the technology. We always have a 'pedagogy first' approach. Their projects have included:

eBooks - for fieldwork
Blogging for assessment
Interactive video for revision sessions
Lab resources for Chemistry students
Working with apps such as RefMe and Nearpod
Developing Open badges

How do we recognise their contribution?

We looked at what they could be awarded as part of the co-curricular activities and our existing award was inappropriate, the Graduate Passport was paper-based and not suited to the types of media that the iChamps were using. In order to do this we looked at Open Badges which supported digital skills of the students and provided them with the recognition that was appropriate for the work that they were doing.
Photo by Pewari

open badges

how they have been used to define specific sets of skills  
We created open badges for the students to provide a framework for their work. There are three 'milestone' badges: The Digital Citizen Badge; The Workshop Badge and the Education Enhancer badge. Once all three have been awarded, then the iChamp badge is given. These then form part of their online presence and are displayed within their LinkedIn profiles, webpages or wherever they would feel was appropriate.

The Badges have been designed to fit with the work or projects that the students are involved in and as such provide a scaffold for both staff and students, as the academic staff have a structure within which to work, and can suggest projects that fit the remit of developing digital skills.

change in the way digital badges work, they use to for motivation, but now they're used to recognise competencies - Medicins sans frontiers.

BADGE ISSUING SYSTEMS

OPEN BADGE ACADEMY| OPEN BADGE FACTORY| CREDLY
We have been piloting the use of badge issuing systems. We need a tool that is easy to use, scalable and fits with existing systems.

This has been harder to find than we originally thought. The systems are all useful and have their own merits, however, we need to be able to issue at scale and this may need some support from our university IT systems department. The badge systems we have looked at are:

Open Badge Passport
Open Badge Academy
Credly
We have to ensure that we use a system the adheres to the Data Protection Act, currently Open Badge Passport and Open Badge Academy meets this but both have their advantages and disadvantages. We hope to complete the evaluation and work with both providers on the needs of our university.
Photo by Leo Reynolds

Innovation and Digital Literacies Champs projects:
Blogging for assessment
Interactive Video
Lab resources
RefMe - referencing/Library
Open Badges

Pathbrite

the bookshelf portfolio tool  
In homage to Katie Coleman and inspired by her work bringing Portfolios and Badges together, we wanted the iChamps to provide evidence and think about the work that they were doing (we don't use the word evaluation, it puts them off!) The work that they were doing is extremely valuable and provided an authentic evidence base of their skills and who they were. The Badges support their work and provide defined sets of skills with the evidence for these activities held within their portfolios. Each badge links back to the portfolio. The portfolios belong to the students and supports all their work, personal lives and interests. The portfolio is more than a badge, it is a collection of their successes and thoughts and becomes part of their managed identity.

The portfolio project

PARTNERS AND THEIR ACTIVITIES 
University wide portfolio project
Working on the model of the iChamps the university funded a two year project to extend the concepts identified within the iChamps activities to scale up across the university

Led by Dr Eleanor Quince with Fiona Harvey, Charlotte Medland, Stephan Caspar, Dr Sally Hayward and Alistair McDonald we were successful in securing about £30,000 (around $43, 389) to bring the portfolio into the curriculum in and also to introduce open digital badges where appropriate. The project is still live and will be completed next year (July 2017).

The mini-projects within the overarching Univeristy Portfolio Projects cover:

a predicted 600 students across the Humanities Faculty. The focus was on The HumsEmployable project where groups of students are invited to attend lectures and seminars where employability skills are the focus. These would then be included in their portfolios

University project
- extending the concepts
- internal funding

Professional Skills for Geographers
Competences for Audiology
Engineering Design project
Evaluation of the Student Champions

The mini-projects within the overarching Univeristy Portfolio Projects cover:

a predicted 600 students across the Humanities Faculty. The focus was on The HumsEmployable project where groups of students are invited to attend lectures and seminars where employability skills are the focus. These would then be included in their portfolios
Photo by Drift Words

Case study 1

Professional Skills for Geographers 
GEOG1010 - Geographical, Quantitative and Field Skills (Professional Skills for Geographers) was adapted to address the need for students to benefit from developmental work to enhance their employability. The module was for 250 students, all very reluctant to engage in a module that they felt was irrelevant. Previous to the project it was based on exams and coursework. The module has been adapted to demonstrate value to the students so that they capture evidence of their professional skills which can then be displayed as part of their online presence.

Three badges of 'Creativity' 'Communication' 'Curiosity' each offering the opportunity to gather evidence to demonstrate their personal interpretation of these topics. The criteria for the evidence is held within their portfolio which can be publicly viewed. The best portfolio will be judged by an external organsation who will award an prize. If this is successful (motivating, valuable) to the students then it us hoped it will be extended to the second and third years.

Successes so far have been that the students are more engaged, attendance is up from 20% to 80% and staff on the course feel that they can offer more support to the students.

Case study 2

AUDIOLOGY
Student Audiologists attend a series of placements across their programme.

At a Programme Validation, Scrutiny Committee Stephan Caspar was asked to work with the dept to address the quality of the reflective journal that the students kept. It was really interesting listening to Niall's talk yesterday, so many of the same challenges. I introduced the team to Pathbrite and started working to create the rubrik. I suggested that we create an exemplar from the the best log books and reflective journals but the team said they would rather start from scratch.

There are 120 students currently building portfolios, it's been an interesting exercise, of course I will feedback into the pilot but as Niall showed, there's still a predominance in text (I've even had screenshots of word docs - or photos of computer screens) - we started to get scans and test readouts, much to the supervisor's frustration. I'm trying to talk to the students about what an artefact means, rather, what meaning can be extracted. Waiting Room magazines, short video diaries...
Photo by Dick Sijtsma

Comprehensive evaluation

Promising engagement so far  
Comprehensive Evaluation
There has been a positive response across the projects from both staff and students. Students are really pleased with their portfolios and staff can also benefit as they feel that the feedback they provide has more value. There are more opportunities to provide comments and support progress, something that they could not do through end of semester exams and coursework. The students are adding to their portfolios, including personal activities as well as co-curricular.
Photo by billsoPHOTO

Challenges:
issuing badges at scale
>24,000 students
Portfolios: One size does not fit all

Within any large institution there will always be challenges and not everything will fit each discipline area.

How do we scale this up for all students? It is not a seamless process and some tools fit better than others (issuing systems for example)
One size does not fit all - needs of portfolios can differ between professional standards and general use
Photo by kugel

Positive benefits:
Students can see their online presence develop/articulate/confidence

Students can see that they have 'managed' their online presence.
When the students started their portfolios they were unware of how 'random' their postings were. By bringing together badges and portfolios they have been able to manage their online presence with a sense of purpose. Students have also reported that they feel more confident and are able to articulate more clearly what skills they have and where they applied them.
Photo by michael.heiss

Staff can feel more motivated and satisfied better student engagement

Staff feel more motivated, more satisfied and feel that they have been able to engage effectively with their students. Their own skills have been developed and some academic staff are interested in developing their own portfolios for their own CPD.
Photo by JefferyTurner

Project ends July

full evaluation and results analysed to progress 2017 
Project end: July with a successful review to progress to 2017.
Photo by c_ambler

Questions?

Photo by Derek Bridges

Thank you

@DOTSANDSPACES @FIONAJHARVEY 
These slides are on twitter and I'm sure will be available to you all.

thank you