Christine Slade & Keith Murfin Introducing ePortfolios into the Bachelor of Occupational Therapy (OT) Program Christine Slade & Keith Murfin Centre for Support and Advancement of Learning and Teaching (C-SALT) Anita Hamilton Program Leader Occupational Therapy/OT ePortfolio Coordinator University of the Sunshine Coast

Early Adoption 2013 Bachelor of Occupational Therapy (OT) program were early adopters of PebblePad at USC Initial cohort was 140 first-year students The PLS was seen as the best place for developing reflective practice, storing evidence of meeting external standards, practitioner registration and career opportunities

Mapping Implementation Year Statement Reflection Evidence of Learning Graduate Attributes OTAust Competencies CV CPD Plan CPD Review 1 ✓ 2 3 4 5

Reasons for Changing the Curriculum Previously reflections were seen as one-off assignments and not kept for further use or review Work was lost and therefore growth & development could not be tracked When having to prepare a paper portfolio as fourth years, students regretted not keeping evidence towards competencies

The Approach A collaborative approach was taken in order to embed ePortfolios into the course curriculum The OT course coordinators worked with the C~SALT team to design the implementation and build teaching staff awareness The end goal being that the OT teaching staff would be the ones to up skill students

Stakeholder - C~SALT Staff Timeframe Activities Semester 1 Planning Session (building ePortfolios into the course) Introduction to ePortfolios and PebblePad for academic teaching staff Development of research partnership between C-SALT and course coordinator Training session with academic teaching staff One-to-one support creation of templates with course coordinators Pre-usage surveys facilitated by C-SALT staff with students Semester 2 One-to-one support creation of templates and making videos Online post-usage surveys facilitated by C-SALT staff with students Debrief session with OT ePortfolio/course coordinator at end of 2013

Stakeholder - OT Portfolio/course coordinator Timeframe Activities Semester 1 Attend first year class to present to students what ePortfolios are and why we are introducing them at USC In consultation with course coordinator select activities that will be included in ePortfolio Create templates for students to use to upload work to ePortfolio Arrange training for academic staff on scope of ePortfolio tool (PebblePad) One-to-one support creation of templates with course coordinators Arrange training for students on how to use ePortfolio tool Semester 2 Arrange training for academic staff on scope of ePortfolio tool Check templates and create additional ones for semester 2 ePortfolio tasks Make instructional videos with C~SALT team members about ePortfolio tool so students can upload information for assessment task.

Stakeholder - Students Timeframe Activities Semester 1 Hear about ePortfolios generally in class Choose to attend optional face-to-face training sessions to learn how to use the ePortfolio Semester 2 Some students ‘played’ with the PebblePad software to explore how it worked Watch videos about how to upload work to the ePortfolio Upload a selection of work to the ePortfolio

Student Response (used with permission) Tasks for Students ‘The Desk’ Template Student Response (used with permission)

Tasks for Students Fieldwork Template - used to guide student reflection of the experience

How did it go? By the end of the early adopter phase students had been introduced to the main features and had submitted a reflective task to ATLAS. “At this point I don’t feel that I have many ideas about where to improve what we have done in our first year. I feel that by only taking on a small challenge we were successful. If we had tried to achieve anything more I doubt that it would have gone as smoothly as I think it did.” (OT ePortfolio coordinator) A similar gentle approach will be used in 2014 however with the addition of an assessment task to the curriculum. Second-year students (2013 cohort) will regularly add further evidence of learning, graduate attribute attainment and competency development.

The Benefits Reinforcing the importance of developing critical reflective practice Students being engaged in self-learning through pedagogical tools The slow-start approach was easily adopted by both C~SALT and academic teaching staff

Lessons Learned It is vital to plan early the embedding of ePortfolios into the course curriculum, particularly assessment tasks Be mindful that staff and students may struggle initially with learning the software within a context of multiple demands on time, energy and resources Having training workshops engages some students early. Others will rely on later helps such as the ‘how to’ videos The importance of all members of the ePortfolio implementation ‘team’ communicating and planning together regularly so support will be available when needed

Anita Hamilton Occupational Therapy ePortfolio Coordinator (click image to play video)

How is it now? First and second-year cohorts in Semester 1 2014 Student training sessions built into tutorial time Assessment using ePortfolios is embedded in the curriculum

Program Mapping * theory + fieldwork

In Summary… It is difficult to “retrofit” a course with an ePortfolio, it needs to be slowly integrated into the course, the training needs to be part of the learning activities in the course and the students need to be continually reminded why it is being done. [OT ePortfolio coordinator]