Assessing Transferable Skills Personal Development Planning David Cole-Hamilton School of Chemistry University of St. Andrews

Transferable skills Embedded in the Curriculum Posters Oral presentations Essays Chemical Newspaper Miniproject All involve teamwork

Posters

Oral Presentations

Chemical Newspapers

The Problem Level 1000Level 2000Level 3000Level 4000Level 5000 Semester Oral Presentation xxxx Posterxxx Newspaperx Essayxx Mini projectx Semester 23 sets of posters3 sets of Oral presentations

The Solution Hold all poster sessions on the same afternoon with a reception for staff and all students (lectures the morning of the same day) Each activity marked by at least two staff members Markers selected from those not involved in teaching the module Only one assessment per staff member All staff members do one assessment Prizes judged by sponsor or other External person

Assessment of Group work (Miniproject) Assessed Components Individual Report Group Report Group presentation (each individual contributes)

Assessment of Group Report Peer Assessment Peer Assessment is used to moderate an overall mark given by two assessors

Personal Development Planning Dr. Fiona Gray FILTA

Personal Development Planning Maintaining a record of the skills developed during a University Degree Academic and non-academic Undergraduate Skills Record Royal Society of Chemistry

Why do Personal development Planning If I ask a student at interview – “Did you do any group work during your undergraduate degree?” and they think for a while before saying “I seem to remember putting a poster together with some other students in Second year” I am not impressed. If they can reply immediately with details of various activities, they are much more likely to get the job Recruitment Officer, Quintiles, Edinburgh

Undergraduate Skills Record Royal Society of Chemistry

Undergraduate skills record Student centred Regularly updated Read over before interviews etc. Covers academic and non-academic activities Paper, on-line and downloadable formats available

Introduction of USR Chemistry, St. Andrews Funding from FILTA (2002-3) Part time employment of Dr. Fiona Gray ( )

USR Level 3000 (3rd Year) Semester 1 Individual discussions Level 1000 (1 st Year) Semester 2 Individual discussions Mentoring Filled in retrospectively To enable mentoring Semester 2 Mentoring Training 22/30 58/64 Fiona Gray

Steady State Operation Level 3000 (3rd Year) Level 1000 (1 st Year) Fiona Gray Level 2000 (2 nd Year) Level 4/5000 (4 th /5 th Year) Semester 1 Introduce PDP Semester 2 Mentoring Semester 1 Encouraging Checking Semesters 1 and 2 Mentoring Semester 1 Training for mentoring

Nine Key Skills Planning and Organisation Study Skills Handling Information Communication Skills Teamwork Scientific / Practical Skills Improving Learning and Performance Information/Communication Technology Problem Solving

Communication Skills Rate yourself on your ability to: Ask for advice and help from fellow students, lecturers, supervisors Present ideas to a range of specialist and non- specialist audiences Maintain good lecture / laboratory notes Provide written reports on time and of an appropriate length Plan and present an oral presentation with appropriate visual aids

How it works Plan and present an oral presentation with appropriate visual aids Note Comments targets and Plans with evidence to support your scoring Went on a bit long; rather boring; two people fell asleep in the back row half way through Development Targets for Phase 2 Arrive on a unicycle, put a bit of juggling in the middle, make a loud noise every time someone looks like dropping off Colin Mason suggests cutting out most of the detail and concentrating on the key points AI can use this skill very well BI can use this skill well, but some improvements could be made CI need to improve this skill DI need to put in considerable work to develop this skill EI have not had the opportunity to develop this skill Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 D

Will students take the process seriously if it is not compulsory and not assessed? Some students have had very bad experiences of PDP at school (National Record of Achievement) To Assess or not to Assess… Students have said they would not fill in the record honestly if they were to be assessed or had to show the record to someone Staff are happy to help or look over what has been written and comment if invited For Against

Showing PDP is worthwhile Personal Development planning is for the benefit of the students They need to see it as worthwhile Senior students help because they can give practical examples of where it was important (Industrial Placement or job interviews) A staff member committed to the scheme makes the scheme work. She also picks up other problems early in first year (e. g. time management)

Conclusions Personal Development Planning helps students appreciate the skills they have learnt and why they have learnt them It allows them to check before an interview what they have done They will probably not keep a skills record without encouragement Mentoring of junior students by more senior ones helps show the importance of PDP A staff member to introduce and monitor PDP helps greatly.