TMA 1, What was Different?

TMA 1 was the first experience of putting together an assessed academic document in my new 'e-portfolio' era. I want to step back here and think about what was different, compared to my previous H802 and H804 experiences of TMAs.


The TMA 1 fell into two parts, one of which was a reflective summary, and the other of which was a more traditional critical reflection on the main learning of Blocks 1-4 of the course. 


What was noticeable to me was that, as I had gradually cottoned on to the discipline of recording, organising and tagging my course work, the orderliness of my TMA reflections improved. So the least well organised thinking was from blocks 1 and 2 of H808, when I had really failed to grasp the full significance of what the modules were meant to be teaching me. This was a point that I had picked up in a couple of earlier blogs.


The reflective summary felt a great deal easier to complete than the normal academic assignment, as I had kept a pretty good record of my thoughts using my blog right from the very start. I suspect the other reason that it was easier was that I was working with material that had come from my own head, rather than having to describe material that is presented by others. 


A second piece of learning, picked up from previous H80X experience, was that in my planning for the TMA, I outlined the main sections of the assignment, and limited myself to the right general proportion of words per section, in order to meet the TMA requirements. Although there then had to be some editing and reshaping of the final version, I am convinced that I wasted much less time than previously on too many words.


Another discipline that was new was that, having outlined the main sections of the assignment, I left the sections that I thought were the easiest (usually the introductory sections!) until the end, beginning with those where there were the most significant 'gaps' in my thinking. This had the emotional effect of me feeling relieved the closer I got to the finishing line - rather than the opposite effect of feeling like the steepest hills were still left to climb!


One slight confusion was that I have material stored in a few different places. I am tending to gravitate towards Google apps as the main organising centre for my thoughts, as it is such a ubiquitous application, and is incredibly easy to access. However, the formats and range of files types supported do make its use a bit limited. And the fact that the labelling of documents across the Google apps family is not identical is a bit frustrating. But I suspect the main issue for me to come to terms with is the need to be orderly right from the outset - not a natural mind set for me, as I have reflected previously.


So the mental notes to carry forward for the rest of H808 (and maybe my life?!) are;

1. When reading and studying, store and oraganise new material with future use in mind (TMA/EC/work projects)
2. At the outset of every piece of academic work, be clear what I want to get from the activity
3. Where word limits apply to a piece of work, set these limits at the "organising of thoughts" stage
4. Where possible, convert outside inputs (academic or otherwise) into a blog posting, so that these thoughts can begin to be incorporated into my own more fully.

In conclusion, I suspect that the big breakthrough on TMA1 was that being more organised makes the compilation of thinking for TMAs much more efficient. It remains to be seen whether the quality of what was produced is as good as, or better than, previous attempts;-)

My Mental Block around E-Portfolios

The first six weeks of H808 have been a period in which I have felt extremely confused. I have had these same emotions on previous H80X programmes, and I have found that if I can trust the expertise of the Open University's course designers, the fog will eventually clear. Or perhaps to be a bit more theoretical about the description of this process, I will find a way to integrate the new knowledge into my existing knowledge bank.

My confusion has largely been around the use of the e-portfolio. The idea of having an electronic place to store, organise and retrieve pieces of work or pieces of interesting research or information is a straightforward enough idea, particularly in the era of Web 2.0. My confusion has arisen around how an established professional, with many years of experience and insights, and with a multitude of uses for an e-portfolio, would begin to set up and organise one.

On reflection, maybe the root of my problem is that I am not someone who thinks in a linear way. My first degree was in Music, and my Belbin team role is Plant; I have always considered myself to have a more creative than scientific mind. Organising thoughts at a meta level is not my strength, and I am lucky to have a business partner for whom this comes naturally. This may therefore have let me off the hook with this discipline in a work context.

My H808 confusion has arisen because I did not grasp quickly enough that to use tools like My Stuff, de-licious, and Google apps (these latter two highly recommended by H808 colleague Eugene), I must first decide how to sort and store my data. When I went back into My Stuff after 5 weeks of collecting, the tags were chaotic, to say the least.

So, I decided to become intensely practical, and to organise my thoughts around the immediate challenge; H808 activities. With that in mind, I was able to organise the My Stuff tags, which meant renaming a few tags, housekeeping the tags I had set up to avoid duplication, and revisiting those artifacts already stored there to include as many tags as are relevant. I then moved on to my Google Docs Application, and carried over as many of the My Stuff tags as are relevant to this (work based) project. Some additional tags were needed to reflect the H808 Skills and Competencies requirements of the EC. And lastly, I revisited the tags I had set up on De-licious, and discovered similar chaos to the other two repositories. Again, I have done an editing and clearing out job here, and have tried to maintain tag consistency with Google and My Stuff.

This all feels as if I have managed to clear out a cluttered kitchen drawer;-)

It will be most interesting to discover whether I am able to hold myself to the discipline of organising my thoughts, my work and my reading beyond H808. I suspect that I will, as my unease with the early clutter of H808 mirrors my general unease with the amount of data that is available in the world today. The explosion of information over the last 10 or so years that the internet and the other publishing media are generating has felt, at times, overwhelming. Having a way of categorising and then storing information which adds value to my practice and my hobbies is beginning to feel like a watershed in my cognitive mapping process.

Structure for my H808 E-Portfolio

Structure for H808 E-Portfolio: Madeleine McGrath

H808 is designed to help students to develop their understanding of what it means to be an e-learning professional in a period in which this medium is in its relative infancy. A major element of the module is for students to create an e-portfolio as a record of their learning and development during H808. This document outlines how I intend to organise my e-portfolio artifacts in order to meet that course objective.

Structure for Storing Artifacts

The H808 Course Guide provides us with a Personal and Professional Development Template, and we have also been required (activity 3 part 2) to conduct a Needs Analysis of the areas in which we require development. These two frameworks will guide the structure of the collection of my e-portfolio artifacts.

The tagging structure I will use to label artifacts will be as follows:

Areas of Practice

H808EP Skills

H808EP Reflection

H808EP Critique

H808EP Proactivity

Competencies

H808EP Practice

H808EP Communication

H808EP Technology

H808EP Research

These tags may combine both areas of practice and competencies in the following format (H808EP Skills/Practice).

I plan to use the same tagging structure in 2 e-portfolio repositories. The OU's My Stuff Repository will be used to collect artifacts related to the H808 learning, and Google Apps will be used for artifacts relating to my Work Based learning. This division is to enable me to continue to use an e-portfolio after my OU incumbency, assuming that the experience of using one proves valuable in the long term.

Connecting PDP with H808 Personal and Professional Development Template (PPDT)

My PDP has highlighted 8 meta skill categories (Prefixed below with MS) and 17 individual skills (Prefixed below with S) that will benefit from attention during H808 and beyond. Some of these fall into more than one area of competency.

Here is how they can be plotted against the PPDT areas of competency:

Practice

MS 1a-c. Awareness of students and their learning needs

MS 5a-c Student assessment

S 4a Transform teaching material for the online environment

MS 6a Steps taken to improve my teaching

Communication

MS 2a-c Creating the right online atmosphere

MS 3a Generating 'stickability" (Learner persistence)

S 4d Developing an online community

MS 8a Collaboration with teaching colleagues

Technology

MS 3a Generating 'stickability' (Learner persistence)

MS 4 a-d Ability to use IT appropriately

Research

MS 6a Steps taken to improve my teaching

MS 7 Organisation and record keeping

Each area of competency may have evidence of skills, reflection, critique and/or proactivity development.

Sources of Artifacts

Evidence of my development/performance against the PPDT elements will be drawn from:

• Forum postings from H808
• Selected H808 activities
• Relevant academic research
• Www sources
• Previous H80X ECs and TMAs
• Specially created documents to chronicle relevant aspects of my work based Distance Learning Project
• Audio and other AV records from my work based DL Project

MM Personal Development Plan.rtf

H808 PDP: Madeleine McGrath

	Overview
	I am currently leading a team who are running a 5 week Distance Learning Programme for consultants to train them in the use of my company’s Organisation Development model. Successful consultants will be granted a license to use this product with their own clients. The programme has been developed in the light of my experience of designing and facilitating an online module as part of my H804 studies, and following my occasional use of webinar technology to make presentations to dispersed audiences. I plan to use the experience of running this programme to develop my skills as an e-learning professional. I judge the following skill areas to be the most promising places to make improvements.
	Skills and Competences	Existing competence level		Improvement Actions/Goals
1.	Awareness of Students and their learning needs	Memo: this was an area that was judged lacking in my H804 EC.
1a	Understanding of students’ knowledge base	The current process uncovers the students knowledge base from student cvs and registration documents		Experiment with ways systematically to find out the existing levels of knowledge of my learners in future programmes.
1b	Knowledge of students and their backgrounds	The registration process asks questions about the professional, academic and personal backgrounds of learners		The existing process will be reviewed, and more searching questions included in future if necessary.
1c	Awareness of individual and special needs	This information is currently derived from the current registration process.		Identify specific learning needs based on findings from 1a and 1b, and the experience of the first programme. Introduce a more searching inquiry process if necessary.
2	Creating the right online atmosphere
2a	Use of voice and gesture	We currently have both voice and online communication with learners.		Monitor the online/telephone responses of learners to my and my colleagues inputs.
2b	Ability to include all students in discussion	The telephone conference format makes it difficult to ensure everyone can participate. A number of strategies to support this have been introduced on this programme. The success of these strategies will be reviewed at the end of the programme.		Monitor participation of learners in telephone and online conferences, and investigate any disappointing participation levels. Identify strategies to encourage optimum participation in the learner’s circumstances.
2c	Ability to create a suitable atmosphere in groups	The various learning arenas (blogsite, webinar, Linkedin) I have chosen give my colleagues and I a variety of ways of judging whether we have been able to generate a group dynamic.		I will monitor participation in group sessions/arenas, to decide on any improvements for future events. The long term test of success in this factor will be whether learners choose to remain active members of our online community after the end of the programme.
3	Generating stickability	Memo: this was an aspect of my H804 project that I found most disappointing.
3a	Ability to engage students	Persistence levels of learners have been variable in past programmes of mine – from not even participating though to erratic, unreliable participation up to enthusiastic and energetic participation. Participation is important to this programme, as it gives us visibility of learners who will be representing our products in the market place and assists in our assessment of their capabilities.		Though observing any differences in participation levels of learners, identify the factors that do/will motivate learners to participate in our programme, and incorporate as many as possible into future programmes.
4	Ability to use IT appropriately
4a	Understanding of online course design: how to write online teaching material, how to design online activities, how to transform teaching or training material for the online environment.	Our current programme has a blog, an audio webinar platform, participant guide book and a mentored assignment as its learning methodology.		In order to turn this programme into one that can deliver high quality training to larger numbers of geographically dispersed students, it is vital that our basic programme includes a much greater proportion of asynchronous activities. The experience of the first programme will provide insights into the activities and discussions that are essential in our learning process. This learning can be incorporated into the next design of the programme. The fact that we have chosen technologies for the first programme which give us visibility of the process learners are going through will provide valuable insights into the actual learning process that is taking place.
4b	Experience of audio and visual facilities of the web; for example, Netmeeting, Skype, digital photos, webcasting, podcasting	The current programme uses webcasting (which is called webinar in my field).		In future programmes, I envisage much greater use of podcasts to replace some of the webinar inputs, and will be very interested to experiment with the use of Skype and its video conferencing capabilities.
4c	Understanding of the different text-based communication systems: computer conferencing, bulletin boards, listserves etc	The current programme uses a webinar platform for synchronous communication and a blogsite for asynchronous communication.		It is my aim to migrate the programme gradually to incorporate a greater proportion of asynchronous communication. This will make the programme more time efficient for tutors and learners, and will give us much greater scalability of numbers of learners.
4d	Skill in developing online community: what works and what doesn’t; providing focus, animating online groups, developing collaborative activities	We are using two online community platforms; blogger and linkedin..		Monitoring the community dynamics of the first programme will give us data to assess our community building capabilities and identify areas for improvement. The ultimate test of this competence will be the extent to which learners stay active in this learning community after the programme has finished.
5	Student Assessment
5a	Ability to mark to the department’s standards	No previous experience	This is the first programme that we have developed in this field. I will work with colleagues, and research best academic practice to establish the criteria against which we will judge the performance of our learners.
5b	Consistency and reliability in marking standards	No previous experience.	I will engage my colleagues in the assessment process, which will give me a benchmark to judge my own assessment competences.
5c	Written feedback on assignments	At present I am not required to provide written feedback to learners. This programme will therefore provide my first experience of this.	The experience of providing feedback for the first time will be a valuable learning experience for me. I shall reflect on that experience and ask for feedback from colleagues to help me to hone my skills in this area.
6a	Steps taken to improve your teaching	This programme was created based on my previous H80X experience and in particular the experience of designing and facilitating three online modules in H804.	The items in this Action/Goals column provide a template against which I will develop my e-learning skills for the future.
7	Organisation and record-keeping	Since this has been a prototype programme, the documents and records have been created using our best instincts and prior experience, which is largely of face to face training.	In the light of our experience, I will analyse the documents and course materials that we have used, and streamline their use and storage.
8	Collaboration with teaching colleagues	On the programme to date, my colleagues have collaborated in supporting the delivery of my course design, although this has largely been rather passive collaboration.	I will involve colleagues in the end of programme review, and encourage them to take part in the design of future programmes. This will improve the quality of future programmes, and will increase their ownership of the programme in the future.

Adapted from Source: H851 Practice Guide 7, Reviewing and Improving your Teaching, The Open University, 1998, p.31. and Technology related skills and competences for e-learning professionals, Robin Mason.

Activity 3.2 Second Attempt

In my business, my colleagues and I have embarked recently on a new venture which uses Distance Learning as its methodology. Since they are novices at e-learning, my colleagues are very cautious about the use of technology, and since our learners come from disparate backgrounds, and have varying capabilities, again caution seems a wise mindset.


Our Distance Learning programme is designed to train already competent consultants in our Organisation model. Weller (2005), quoting a recent JISC report, states that an e-portfolio is “‘a collection (or archive) of reflective writing and associated evidence, which documents learning and which a learner may draw upon to present her/his learning and achievements. Incorporating an e-portfolio dimension on this programme would, in my view, improve the learning experience during the programme, and give learners valuable material for incorporating the model into their practice. It would also give my colleagues much greate visibility of how learners are engaging with the material.


From my colleagues’ point of view, several factors about an e-portfolio system will matter:
• Ease of use
• Integration with other technological packages, such as Powerpoint, Word and Blogging
• Enhancing the group dimension
• Assessing the performance of the learners
• Technical support
• Costs


Learners, in addition, are likely to value features that allow them to present their finished material professionally.


I have chosen Google Apps and Open Source r/Smart to consider as options for an e-portfolio platform.


Easy of Use/Accessibility
Google is likely to be a system that is very familiar to my audience. However, the e-portfolio functions will be supplied by using various Google Apps Tools, ie. Documents, Reader, Groups and Blogging, which may make the system feel cumbersome to users


Opensource has an integrated portfolio of tools and templates which we can customise. Users are able to select from a number of preset options to customise the look and feel of their portfolio, and can set up their own templates for collecting artifacts.


Interoperability
Both systems offer equivalent interoperability with popular software packages.


Group
Google Apps have a group forum for discussions and sharing of documents and the Documents Application can be used by a group to produce documents collaboratively. The Blog is also a forum in which the group can communicate and collaborate. Opensource has much less functionality in this arena, with neither a groups forum or a blog facility. However, documents can be shared amongst a group.


Assessment
Opensource has a function which enables tutors to prompts to mark progress. There is a template which enables tutors to monitor the progress being made by learners to their learning goals. There is also a review tool for the tutor's evaluation of the e-portfolio. No such features are available on Google.


Technical Support
Google Apps offers technical support through Help Functions, FAQs and user forums. Open Sources offers full technical support.


Costs
Google Apps is available for use at no/minimal charge, whereas Opensource Portfolio r/Smart is provided via a certified license on an annual subscription.


Presentation
Google Apps does not offer any facility to create presentations. Open Source, on the other hand, has choices of templates that learners can use to create professional presentations.




If I were purely taking an educational point of view, I would recommend Open Source r/smart with its Assessment, Technical Support and Presentational features being most attractive. However the familiarity of the Google system, along with the lesser cost and the group features is likely to make Google Apps an easier first step for my colleagues to take. On balance, although this might offer fewer educational benefits in the short term, encouraging colleagues to take a step into using e-portfolios will familiarise them with this technology. Persuading them to upgrade to a better system will be easier once that first step is taken.


Ref:

Weller, M (2005), ePortfolios report

Reflections on Unit 3 Activities

In researching unit 3, part 1, I came across the work of  Bisovsky and Schaffert (2009), on the subject of Learning and Teaching with e-Porfolios.They identify the most important processes in working with e-portfolios as:
" to clarify the target and context of the digital portfolio work, to collect, select and connect artifacts with a learning target, to reflect and manage the learning process, to present the e-portfolio artifacts, and to assess and evaluate the learning processes, development of competencies" (p13)

They use the European Commission definition of adult learning, which is  "all forms of learning undertaken by adults after having left initial education and training, however far this process may have gone [3]. Adult learning includes learning for personal, civic and social purposes as well as for employment-related purposes."

They also observe that the adult learners come with very different skills, experience and background and that these differences can be capitalized upon to create what they describe as connected learning. This connected learning dimension makes a most compelling case for the adoption of e-portfolios.

[ Personal note for future reference: In my own case, I am introducing a diverse group of seasoned professionals to a new organisation model. This model will only be adopted if they are able to make the connections with their previous learning on organisations. The e-portfolio functionality of being able to incorporate artifacts that reflect the broad range of experience of these learners should certainly facilitate the integration of the new knowledge with their existing knowledge. Being able to incorporate input from their diverse colleagues into their e-portfolio will also add value to their learning experience. Finally, the functionality in an e-portfolio of being able to collect, select, and then present relevant material from their connected learning, must be a valuable additional tool in their professional practice.]

This paper has provided me with some helpful guidance around the selection of the 6 features that I use to compare e-porfolio systems. Using Bisovsky and Schaffert's findings, there is a good argument for incorporating the five processes identified above as key to the use of e-porfolios into my 6 features. As a 6th feature, I would like to explore further one of my H808 Unit 2 reflections on learner reluctance as an obstacle to the adoption of e-portfolios.

I have decided to take the viewpoint of the educator in this analysis. What would be the features of an e-portfolio system that would matter to someone engaged in adult education, such as myself? I hope to be able to incorporate my findings into Activity 3.2 in which I have to make the case for the use of an e-porfolio system.

So, to re-frame these points to fit into the activity 3.1, the six evaluation features of e-portfolio systems might be:
the functionality to target and contextualize the digital portfolio work,
the functionality to collect, select and connect artifacts with a learning target,
the functionality to reflect and manage the learning process,
the functionality to present the e-portfolio artifacts,
the functionality to assess and evaluate the learning processes, development of competencies, and
the functionality that makes the system easy to use by the learners



Ref: Bisovsky, G. and Schaffert. S., (2009), Learning and Teaching With E-Portfolios: Experiences in and Challenges for Adult Education,  International Journal: emerging technologies in learning, Vol 4, No.1,
http://online-journals.org/i-jet/article/view/822/839 (accessed 10th October 2009)

Purpose of Unit 3

Having had a rather disorientating experience in Unit 2 of H808, one of my learning resolutions was as follows:

"with every new activity I must ask myself, why am I doing this, what do I need to get as a personal learning outcome and how will it contribute to my H808 studies?"


Here's how I think the activities of unit 3 will help me to make progress.

TMA1 has two parts, the first of which focuses on the pros and cons of using of e-portfolio systems in PDP and assessment, and the second of which requires me to provide a reflective commentary on my own PDP on H808.

As I see it, the activities in unit 3 help in both of these elements of TMA1. Core activities 3.1 and 3.2 will encourage a deeper understanding of the functionality of a number of e-portfolio systems and will enable me to consider the various arguments (from the literature and from colleagues) for and against the use of these systems. This should supplement the learning from Units 1 and 2.

The three parts of core activity 3.4 will give me a framework for mapping out my PDP needs, and should then give me the chance to incorporate the H808 reflections on my development that have been recorded to date. I am hoping that if I can get H808 colleagues to critique this work, I can avoid the trap of 'sterilized selection' that was flagged by Hazel Beadle in her 17th September posting on the Activity 2.5 forum. These studies should build on the work done on Learning and Reflection in Unit 2.

Core Activity 2.5 Criteria for Reflective Writing

Hazel has focused on one of the aspects of the PENNState Reflect: Providing Insight website pages that gave me pause for thought, namely the selection of the subject for reflection. Hazel wondered whether this advice would lead to what she called 'sterilised selection', and I am inclined to agree.


On the very first page of the website, they describe what reflection can help learners to do; understanding yourself, reflecting on experiences, reflecting on yourself as a learner by discovering what kind of a learner you are, are three of those outcomes. The four stage Reflection process they describe in the Reflective Writing Steps section mirrors precisely the four stages in the Kolb Learning Cycle, referenced by Moon (2001), and whilst Moon observes that this process has proved very popular with teachers, I wonder if, for professional self development, there is enough emphasis on critical reflection. For my taste, the tone of all of the Reflect pages is rather introspective, and I wonder whether this introspection might focus the learner too heavily on what is already known or experienced - 'sterilised reflection' to extend Hazel's point;-)

Moon (2001) also considers Schon's work on professional learning. Schon's research has concluded that professional practice is not derived from theory, but rather develops when the professional adapts their theoretical learning to apply in the practice area in which they are engaged. This practice over time become what Schon calls tacit knowledge, and professionals can be unaware of the personal mental models upon which they are basing their professional practice. As I reflected in my blog on activity 2.4, "Making this 'knowing in action' explicit in order to reflect on it critically is seen as an essential trigger to professional development." On that basis, a model which focuses unduly on what has happened and what can therefore be concluded about the learner may make the learning process 'sterilised' (to use Hazel's term). My favourite writer on the subject of Transformative Learning in Adults is Jack Mezirow. His research (1991) highlights the predisposition in adults to develop a set of assumptions which, over time, become strongly held, and are rarely open to question. Yet if, as professionals we are to make our 'knowing in action' explicit, as Schon recommends, the subjects that we choose for reflection are surely vital. To make our tacit knowledge explicit, we must surely reflect on experiences which were, for us, routine, and which we handled instinctively?
Having made that selection, the Penn State advice does not cover how learners go on critically to reflect on that experience to surface an assumption. Mezirow's (1991) model includes a reflective stage in which an assumption is critically reviewed, "to re-establish its validity or to correct distortions"(p15). Moon's (2001) input-output model of refection imagines a number of possible outcomes of reflecting on an experience, two of which are; critical review and material for further reflection. Looking outside of the experience for material that challenges the assumptions, and brings an alternative perspective to supplement the existing mental models would seem to me to be important stimulus to engender transformational learning.

That said, the basic structure of the PENNState Reflection advice seems solid and logical, and gives learners an understandable structure which, for many, may de-mystify the process of reflection. In particular, I found the Rubric in the section Description vs Reflection gives valuable questions that learners can use to critique the extent to which their reflective writing has progressed beyond the purely descriptive to the sharing of meaning. The advice about writing style in the Reflective writing steps is most practical and makes what could be a most challenging task seem eminently do-able.



Madeleine


Note: this blog duplicates my posting on the H808 website, and is included on my personal blog for completeness of records.



Mezirow, J. (1991) 'Transformative Dimensions of Adult Learning', Jossey Bass, San Francisco.

Moon, J. (2001) ‘PDP working paper 4: reflection in higher education learning’ (online), The Higher Education Academy. Available from: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/York/documents/resources/resourcedatabase/id72_Reflection_in_Higher_Education_Learning.rtf (accessed 29 June 2007).

Penn State University (2006) REFLECT: providing insight, http://portfolio.psu.edu/reflect (accessed 10 July 2009).

Reflection and Learning Core Activity 2.4

Moon's (2001) paper takes a practical view of reflection and the role it can play in higher education. There are several helpful pointers for H808. And, whilst I am currently engaged in higher education as part of H808, my professional life involves me providing learning experiences for professionals who are in employment, rather than in education. I will therefore be very keenly looking out for lessons that can carry over to my professional practice.

Moon quotes Schon on the subject of Professional Knowledge. His research has demonstrated that espoused theory does not guide professional practice, rather a professional's expertise in practice is based on their reflections of the experience of being a professional. The professional over time develops tacit theories, of which they may be unaware. Making this 'knowing in action' explicit in order to reflect on it critically is seen as an essential trigger to professional development. This may very well be a start point that H808 participants should assume, myself included.

Mezirow (1991) similarly contends that adult judgements are based on assumptions, many of them very deeply held, and that these assumptions are open to question. Reflection on assumptions is therefore vital if the learner is to incorporate new knowledge into their view of the world. He describes reflection as the "intentional assessment of prior learning in order to re-establish its validity or to correct distortions"(p15).

It seems to me that both of these descriptions of the professional mindset demonstrate why we ought to take seriously the development of our reflective capabilities as learning professionals. If we wish to set an example for our learners of good learning practice, we must consider the extent to which we actively look for input that challenges our own view of the world, and that we demonstrate that we can use this input critically to examine our own assumptions. The more experienced we are, the more difficult that may prove to be, especially in the event that we do not have sufficient awareness of our own metacognitive processes.

The cohort on H808 contains a highly experienced group of professionals, who undoubtedly have strong assumptions and opinions, myself included. Since we are all required to use a reflective journal of our personal and professional development, I believe we must be willing to engage in Deep Learning. Moon, quoting Marton, Hounsell and Entwistle (1997), believes that reflection is required if learners are to move into the deeper levels of learning; making meaning, working with meaning and transformative learning.

In my own personal practice, there is an immediate parallel for the application of this learning, as we are running a Distance Learning Programme for a group of experienced professionals: these individuals have signed up to learn our consulting methodology and are considering incorporating it into their own practices. The three higher level learning processes I described above are very relevant for this group, who must be encouraged and supported to engage in deep learning, and hence, reflection. It may be possible for me to use the observation of the levels of reflection I am able to engender in my business students in parallel with our H808 reflections.

Moon recommends a number of methods for capturing reflective activity, including blogs, portfolios, reflecting on work experience, and peer and self assessment. These are all being encouraged on H808, and blogs, work experience and peer assessment will be used on my work project. Moon also recommends reflective exercises for learners who find reflective thinking difficult. These may have a place in my work based programme.

One benefit of a blog for reflection is that it is a medium in which creating the learning journal is very adaptable and correctible. In addition, the fact that the blog can then be viewed and commented on by others provides the chance to get feedback. The opportunity that a blog offers of keeping an ongoing record of reflections also sets the data in a context that enables the tracking learning development over time. Finally, the fact the the blog is published lends weight to its significance; were you just keeping personal private journal, there may be less thought given to its construction.





Mezirow, J. (1991) 'Transformative Dimensions of Adult Learning', Jossey Bass, San Francisco.
Moon, J. (2001) 'PDP working paper 4: reflection in higher education learning' online, The Higher
Education Academy. Available from: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/York/documents/resources/resourcedatabase/id69_guide_for_busy_academics_no4.doc (accessed 2 July 2008)

My e-portfolio project

As part of my H808 studies, I am required build my own professional development portfolio; an e-portfolio. In this portfolio I must evidence my progress in each of four areas of competency; practice related, communication related, technology related and research related. Each area of competency involves skills, reflection, critique and pro-activity.

At the outset of H808, I was determined to devote my time to subject matter that will be directly relevant to my work life; I am looking for more than knowledge, I want demonstrable improvement in my skills! For this reason, my initial plan for this e-portfolio is that I will focus my reflections on a distance learning project at work, for which I have managed to attract 8 paying delegates. This project is being run between 5th October and 2nd November and the 8 participants live in 5 different countries. This project is a completely new departure for my company, and one that could open up significant new markets for us, not just for this Distance Learning training, but also the additional products and services that delegates may then wish to buy from my company. This is indeed what our company founder, Tom Peters, calls 'Work that Matters'.

I plan to use the portfolio initially, to use Barrett's (2009) distinction, as a workspace rather than a showcase. And having focused largely on formative reflections, my hope is that by the end of the 6 month period, I will be in a position to focus on what she calls prospective reflection, creating new goals for the next iteration of the programme. There may be a role for showcasing my learning, as this may be a piece of work that will have PR or marketing applications for my company.

As an initial piece of work in this portfolio, I will analyse my previous experience of running a distance learning project, working out how I fared on each of the four practice areas.

My next reflection piece will be to describe the decisions we have made about this latest distance learning project, with my rationale for the these decisions. Again, I will use the H808 Professional Development Framework to structure my thinking.

I hope then to be in a position in 6 weeks time to reflect on the actual experience of running this latest course, to critique how it has progressed, and make resolutions for the next iteration of this programme, always assuming I am able to assemble a second group.

Not only does this seem to be an interesting porfolio, it also has very practical applications for me and my business. Win, win, I would say!

Ref: Barrett, HC, (work in progress, last update 23rd April 2009), Balancing the Two Faces of ePortfolios, (online) http://electronicportfolios.org/balance/index.html (Accessed 25th September 2009)
Peters, TJ, (1999), Re-inventing Work, Professional Service Firm 50, Alfred A Knopf Inc, New York. See Chaper 4a.

What is it I am meant to be doing?

A re-reading of the H808 Course Guide and Assignment Guide has led to a bit more fog lifting for me;-)

A big 'AHA' moment came when I re-read the Diagram with the Framework for Personal and Professional Development on H808. I know I had seen the chart before, but I didn't really take it in the first time around. But now I am beginning to discover what some of the organising principles of my H808 e-portfolio need to be. I need to be providing evidence of my (and maybe other peoples'?) Skills, Reflection, Critique and Proactivity in my Research, Technology, Communication and Practice Competencies. It seems to me that I would do well to get my head around my level of competency in each of these areas before I set off on the H808 Journey.

I am, however, quite excited about one thing; the distance learning project that I am embarking on as part of my job is going to be an excellent artefact for my e-portfolio, as it is a real prototype, and I am deliberately keeping the technology to the minimum. I want to get to the bottom of what the learning issues are that can be supported by e-learning before getting too caught up in whizzy features. I guess the course itself will be a chance to use such skills as I already have.The reflection and critique I will have to do as the course progresses and completes will be essential for me to be able to be pro-active in designing programme number 2.

So I am still not sure I have quite got my head around H808, but I'm feeling relieved I can see a way through the fog!

Task 2.1 My first summary - phew!

I offered to review one of the supplementary resources (The Centre for Recording Achievement) to identify what will be some of the drivers that will lead to a greater adoption of the use of e-portfolios.

The study that I focused on (rather selfishly, I have to admit) was a review that looked at the use of e-portfolios in supporting employer engagement and workforce development.
The 68 page report looked at evidence (both literature and practice) from a very wide range of Higher Education and Professional institutions of the relevance of e-portfolios to adult learners who are in employment. There is also a fairly cursory review of evidence from outside of the UK.

If I had to sum up the findings of this report, I would say that e-portfolio practice has not yet demonstrated relevance to adult, employment based learners. The report admits in its executive summary that although there is a great deal of evidence about work based learning, “literature about existing e-portfolio practice implemented with work based learners is sparse!”

There was evidence in the report of a number drivers that, in theory, ought to stimulate the adoption of e-portfolios. I would group them into four categories; government and higher education policy and practice, employer policy and practice, professional institution policy and practice and learner practice.

Successive UK and EU governments have identified the critical importance of developing a highly skilled workforce that can maintain the competitiveness of European business. The constantly changing economic landscape and relentless global competition mean that citizens of the EU must be encouraged to see lifelong learning as a condition to embrace. Hence, the UK government has targeted the Higher Education sector to engage more actively with employers, supporting them in developing programmes that are relevant to employers and employees alike. This has led to HE establishments finding ways to give academic accreditation to work based learning, and to the adoption of the use of Personal Learning Plans for many vocational learners. But whilst these are helpful developments for employees and employers alike, they have not yet stimulated the adoption of e-portfolios as common practice.

Professional Institutions such as the Institute of Physics, and the Institute for Learning report more positive attitudes to e-portfolios. Such Institutes demand that members demonstrate ongoing professional development and apply professional standards to their work. E-portfolio platforms offered by the institutes enable members to create a personalized record of their professional development that can be used in their work life, as well as validating their membership of the institution. Since there is clearly a benefit to professionals for maintaining and submitting their e-portfolio to their professional institution, this would seem to be amongst the most promising drivers for workplace learners to adopt the use of e-portfolios.

Employers, who have been on the receiving end of the Government’s encouragement to invest in employee training and development, are driven predominantly by strategic and operational demands, and these demands can be at odds with the priorities of employees and/or the Higher Education Institutions. For those employers who do see the value of recruiting the best people and then deploying and developing their careers, the e-portfolio certainly offers a valuable tool, but few to date have embraced the opportunity. We can only speculate as to why this would be, but a lack of awareness of the potency of this medium must play a part in this lack of take up. Another important factor is that the creation and maintenance of an e-portfolio is totally driven by the employee, and requires their willing engagement for success. So, whilst the information available in an employee’s e-portfolio would undoubtedly be useful to an employer, it may be difficult for them to mandate its use.

Finally, the learners themselves could become key drivers in the adoption of e-portfolios. An e-portfolio is an excellent way of demonstrating to potential employers the broad range of professional and personal skills that have been developed over an individual’s career. Work based skills can be more effectively recognized and it can be a tool to help to develop personal aspirations. The fact that e-portfolios are as yet little used in work based learning situations probably reflects the fact that the digital technologies are constantly developing and employees may have had no awareness of their existence, let alone their usefulness. As the e-generation of young people join the active workforce, their facility with web based interactions will increase the acceptability of e-portfolios as a part of working life.

Here is my sense of how e-portfolios may eventually become mainstream learning tools;

1. Government policy will continue to emphasize personal development/lifelong learning as a priority for the country.
2. The HE sector will continue to model the way and develop best practice in e-portfolio platforms and practice and any learners taking part in HE programmes will be exposed to the methodologies
3. Professional Institutions will progressively enrich their common practice of using portfolios for professional ongoing assessment by shifting to e-portfolio platforms and providing their members with advice, guidance and space for their storage and use.
4. Employees who graduate from HE programmes and who are members of professional institutes will begin to submit e-portfolios for interviews and assessments with their employers. Their employers will be impressed!
5. Employers will discover the benefits of e-portfolios and will encourage all employees to adopt this practice.

E-Portfolio thoughts

I have been feeling rather overwhelmed at the prospect of compiling an e-portfolio, but in the last few days, my H808 colleagues have added some balance to this perspective.

Perhaps what was concerning me was the technology of managing an e-portfolio, such as My Stuff on the OU website. And although this technology can be a lot to take in, as I look at the way I presently organise my professional learning, I have to admit it is a bit of a shambles ;-)

When I read something of professional or personal interest in the press, I often cut out the article, or store the URL. I wish I could say that I have an orderly way of storing this information, but I can't! When I read a new book of interest, I mark up the points that seem relevant and make notes in the book; when it seems important enough, I write a summary and action list. My professional activities are stored on our work server, but are filed by customer. When I make a public contribution; press article, blog, facebook, twitter etc, these are stored on the site/journal that published the item.

When I think back to my two previous years of Masters study, the process I used to collect my thoughts was essentially manual; hand drawn mind maps, printed out articles and journals, key themes on post-it notes, word documents summarising key quotes and themes......it makes me wonder how I ever got my act together!

My photographs, professional and personal, are stored in several different places. My hobbies are almost totally unreported, even though my choral performances are regularly broadcast publicly, and receive critical acclaim. I save the programmes and sometimes cut out newspaper reviews, but not in any systematic way. Isn't it a pity I don't keep track of this?

An e-portfolio approach to my life's documentation and learning would enable me to link various learning streams together, and better still, to be able to search and find information that has influenced my thinking. It would also be excellent to have a focus for summarising key learning points and for cataloguing my development as a professional, rounded human being.

I am not sure that I have ever aspired to be an E-Learning Professional. Rather I want to be an excellent learning professional, who helps people get the most out of their lives, not just their work. Having a good grasp of how E-Learning can contribute to that ambition is, in today's world, essential, as technology is a major enabler of learning, particularly for younger generations. For this to be a meaningful exercise, I am inclined to think it needs to be focused on me as a professional human being, not just on me as a professional educator.

So, here is my latest thinking on how to organise my e-portfolio. The organising concepts will be threefold; the professional skills that I feel are important to doing a good job today; the professional skills that I feel are important to my family, friends and hobbies; how my professional and personal skills must develop in future.

I am inclined to think that I should not spend too much time looking back to collect data for the e-portfolio, but if choose the right meta categories, and then begin to break them down into smaller organisational units, I can, if I choose, add historical information for posterity.

And the sooner I set up these organising themes, the more organised I can be about making H808 matter in my life, not just in order to gain a Masters Degree;-)

What is H808 about? First thoughts

As the E-Portfolio seems to be central to this course, here is a definition:

"The process of creating an eportfolio consists of collecting pieces of work, assessments, presentations, websites, blogs etc., explaining how the learning experiences relate to course content or learning objectives and documenting this with evidence from the pieces submitted. Students can share their eportfolio with staff and/or other students, who can add their comments."

(reference p44-45, Elearning, the Key Concepts, Robin Mason and Frank Rennie, 2006, Routledge, Taylor and Frances Group, London and New York.)

The first TMA has two parts.

1. To show understanding and awareness of what an eportfolio is and the functionality that they offer. I will need critically to examine the arguments for and against the use of such systems in my chosen context. I will need to read the background literature on these learning environments, to develop my knowledge of eportfolio teaching and learning practices, to describe the teaching context of my own situation.
2. To use the eportfolio system to reflect on the development of my own skills as an elearning practitioner; defining the skills I will need, reflecting on my own development, learning to critique the practice of others, identifying the kind of proactivity that is productive in the elearning environment.

It is beginning to dawn on me that one of my key pieces of professional learning will be to create a learning space in which I organise my thoughts in a completely different way. The way I understand it at the moment is that I will have to get much better at identifying meta concepts about which I want to collect my thoughts and develop my thinking. The eportfolio will be a place to organise and link material that illuminates the (new?) concepts and enables me to construct new meaning and argumentation.

First Impressions of H808

The experience of beginning a third module in my MA ODE holds mixed emotions for me. After a gap of almost 6 years since I completed my first two modules, I know that the course will be hard work, but it is wonderful to feel the energy and enthusiasm of my tutor group colleagues, and having done it twice before, I know I can do do it.

Since this module will be encouraging me to reflect on my own development as an e-learning practitioner, the early interactions on H808 have challenged me to consider the rather disappointing progress I have made to date at integrating e-learning into my own personal practice. Do I have any right to consider myself an e-learning practitioner?

My previous two years of MA ODE study were very interesting academically, and encouraged me to experiment with adding modules of online learning to supplement (and hopefully enrich) my face to face teaching practice in the world of business. I feel that understanding more about the disciplines of Distance Learning has helped me to be much more thoughtful about how I plan and structure my face to face work; taking better account of my students' needs, and being more structured in my learning design. But, being honest, the experience and the learning have done little to change the nature of my work - the vast majority of the training I offer is still face to face. If the final year of my studies is to result in a more fundamental change in my practice, I will do well to approach this year with the benefit of the legacy learning from years one and two.

In my previoua MA ODE experiments, I had convinced myself that if I could engage my face to face learners in an online dialogue around their application of the new ideas and skills we would be teaching them in our face to face sessions, we would create greater momentum around them putting these lessons into action. Success would come as a result of; more thoughtful reflection on the part of the students; the sustaining of the learning community beyond the face to face training; and a sense of peer pressure through seeing others being successful with the new ideas. Probably the most telling lesson that I learned was that it is the students' motivation to engage with the subject matter, not the ingenuity of the online interaction that really made the difference. Over the course of three experiments, which became more and more sophisticated in the technology and learning methodologies that I deployed, the engagement of my students became progressively lower. When I step back and ask why, I feel that the excitement of the first group at being part of something very different ignited their interest to participate, and made them feel like pioneers. To be honest, I had some of those same feelings myself. But by the time my more sophisticated third group came together, this 'new' medium was no longer so new or such an adventure and their participation was similarly lacklustre. Online participation became a chore like any other work task!

As I embark on module three, my mental note to myself is to guard against my own enthusiasm for a new approach and to consider what I can do to use distance (and e-) learning in situations where I can generate genuine engagement. The excitement and dialogue that my colleagues on H808 are showing for the intellectual ideas is infectious, but I must guard against getting carried away with best practice and stay focused on what will deliver results that my customers/students are looking for.

The really good news is that I now have a real Distance Learning project that has many motivational factors working in its favour. I have been able to assemble a small group of consultants who really want to learn about and use my company's newest consulting model. Since they are located literally all around the globe (from Costa Rica to New Zealand), the only practical option is to offer Distance Learning. This medium makes the learning process much more cost and time effective for delegates, and I have a strong sense that they will be 'model' learners. Likewise, their participation in the Distance Learning modules will be used to assess whether they will be granted a license to offer our consulting model in their market place. Finally, the participants have all had to pay for the training out of their own pockets, and so will be keen to get value for money, I'm sure.

But I must be very careful not to fall into the same trap of convincing myself I have the perfect solution once again. My personal resolution both for H808 and for my latest work DL project is to have the motivation of others (learners and work colleagues) very much in mind. Enthusiasm on my part may have made me blind to the realities of my situation in the past, and I now have a great opportunity to tune in to the feedback and any reluctance of others and to find other ways of responding to this feedback than simply to press on vigorously.