1. E-portfolios & Assessment: Supporting Development in a Professional Setting Case study 2
Judith Lane,
Programme Leader
MSc (pre-registration) Physiotherapy,
Queen Margaret University,
Edinburgh
My case study will focus on the types of assessment that we use and how these support a students development throughout their two year programme.

2. Programme
Semester 1 & 2 – QMU + 1 x 2 week practice-based learning placement
Semester 3 – 2 x 6 week practice-based learning placements
Semester 4 & 5 – QMU
Semester 6 – Practice-based learning – 2 x 6 week + 1 x 4 week, practice based learning placements
Before I go on, I just want to give you some back ground information on these students. The MSc (pre-registration) Physiotherapy is a 2 year M-level programme for graduates of any discipline. Upon successful completion, graduates are eligible to apply for registration with the HPC as a Physiotherapist and are also eligible to join the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy.
The programme is basically university based for the traditional academic year with placements undertaken mainly during the summer period.

3. Why (E)portfolio?
a record of your professional development and experience
specific to your work practices and roles
reflective and evaluative content, not just a record
confidential documentation
useful as an historic, current and future learning tool
Dynamic document which can be tailored to specific needs
The Health Professions Council now consider it mandatory for registrants to maintain a record of their professional development. Furthermore the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy consider that a professional development portfolio is not only an important record of activities and achievements undertaken during ones professional working life, they consider that professional development occurs through reflection and evaluation of those activities. In order to make the most of the opportunities portfolios offers, it is crucial that students become familiar with such activities early in their professional journey. Of course traditional paper based portfolios also offer these kinds of opportunities but the eportfolio allows the student to develop a very dynamic document which can be easily shared, updated, assessed and used in a range of different ways depending on the individuals requirements.

4. E-portfolio activities
Intro to eportfolios
Summative assignment
QMU
Eportfolio activities
Formative assignment
Clinical
Advanced eportfolio
Formative eportfolio activities
Therefore, we introduce eportfolios right at the start of the programme. Maintaining a record of professional development is a habit that needs to be nurtured. Students need to become familiar with the varying tools offered by the eportfolio and thus a range of activities are encouraged. When we first introduced the eportfolio, I had hoped that the students would engage with activities and see their intrinsic value. However, as with many students, if it ain’t assessed, they don’t value it. I didn’t want to place an additional assessment burden on students so a range of both formative and summative assessments were developed.
Each QMU based year contains a professional module which considers what it means to be a professional and what it means to be a physiotherapist. A summative reflective assignment submitted via the eportfolio gateway introduces the student to the software and starts them on their journey of gathering evidence for a portfolio.
During the clinical placement that are undertaken at the end of year 1, the student has the opportunity to undertake two formative actvities via the eportfolio which involve ‘sharing’ content.
When the students return to university, they undergo a refresher and update on their eportfolio skills.
During the year 2 clinical placements, they again have the opportunity to undertake formative eportfolio activities which culminates in a summative PDP assignment.
I’ll now go on to describe these activities in a but more detail

5. Formative activities
Placement 1: Critical incident report – shared with QMU tutor via the eportfolio.
Placement 2: Submission of formative reflective account of learning over placements 1 & 2
Placement 3: SWOT analysis – shared with peers via the eportfolio
Placement 4: Development review – shared with QMU tutor via the eportfolio.
There are a number of activities that the students undertake during the placements which give them an opportunity to develop their reflective skills and also encourages students to collect evidence for their portfolio through the use of different tools.

6. Placement 1 activity critical incident form
In placement 1, students complete a critical incident report. This report is based on the forms that the CSP encourage physiotherapists to use for personal development. Recording critical incidents is one way to encourage this. In placement 1, QMU tutors will provide feedback on the form, encouraging students to reflect upon the event.
The purpose of this activity is to 1) get the student to think about gathering evidence for a professional portfolio, 2) given them another opportunity to gain feedback on their professional development, 3) to foster good practice in reflection.
The activity is entirely formative which gives the students an opportunity to see how their reflections could be strengthened and what aspect are already strong without the stress of the mark contributing to a final degree classification.

7. Placement 2 Formative eportfolio assignment
At the end of year 1 a formative eportfolio assignment gives the student the opportunity to gain feedback on developing their skills in developing a professional development portfolio. The assignment asks students to reflect on their learning in relation to the placement learning outcomes. They are encouraged to add evidence by providing links to references, blogs, forms etc. This assignment is similar to the summative assignment that they undertake during year 2 so provides a good opportunity to get useful feedback.
Students in the past have often given the feedback that they feel unsure about reflective writing so formative activities are an ideal opportunity to develop skills with the security that what they say ‘doesn’t count’.

8. Placement 3 SWOT Analysis
Shared with peers
A review of wider functionality of the eportfolio is provided during year 2 and a further two formative activities are undertaken during the year 2 placements.
In year 1, students ‘shared’ their critical incident report with their QMU tutor however eportfolio activities are not only shared with tutors, or developed into a larger assignment for feedback, students are also encouraged to undertake activities which they share with their peers. Our students although highly competitive, highly motivated and high achieving, generally tend to lack confidence when faced with clinical educators and patients. Hopefully, by sharing their thoughts about their strengths and weaknesses, they can gain confidence in what they do well but gain support from seeing what others believe to be their weaknesses.

9. Placement 4 Development Review
Review of individual’s
work against post outline
Jointly produce Personal
Development Plan
- identify needs
& agree goals
Supported
learning & development
Evaluation
of applied
learning and
development
By the end of placement 4, the students are 6 weeks away from completing their pre-registration Physiotherapy education. In preparation for the world of work, students are encouraged to complete a development review form.
This development review form is similar to the ones used as part of the Knowledge and Skills Framework. It encourages students to consider what they have learnt and where they wish to develop their skills. This is a formative piece of work, again shred with a QMU tutor and provides a useful basis for the final summative eportfolio assignment.

10. Summative assignment Personal Development Plan
Stage 1: Identifying learning needs from gaps in skills, knowledge and abilities.
3 dimensions of a Band 5 post outline
Stage 2: Define needs by writing learning outcomes
First year of employment
SMART outcomes
Stage 3: Match activities and undertake learning
Identify action plan
Finally all the work that students have undertaken is brought together to develop a personal development plan.

11. And finally…….
By the end of the programme, the student should have built up a portfolio of activities that they have undertaken and have demonstrated an ability to reflect upon their learning. Importantly, they will also have a learning plan for their first year of employment which they can take to prospective employers. One of the most useful benefits of beginning this journey with Pebblepad as an eportfolio is that the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy have adopted Pebblepad as their eportfolio software and students can transfer their portfolio seamlessly to the CSP system. Even if they do not go on to join the professional body, they can access their portfolio as a QMU alumni for up to one year following graduation.

12. Summary
Website:
Hopefully this short presentation has given you some ideas of how the eportfolio can be used to develop formative activities as well as summative assignments which can be submitted through the eportfolio gateway. The eportfolio activities are continuously present throughout the programme, encouraging students to develop good practice in recording and reflecting upon their personal development.