ePortfolios: Communities of Learning

Sense of community

Here are some examples of students expressing their feelings about their learning experience. They describe some of their frustrations, feelings of isolation, and tips for getting through the early days of the course.

Clip 1. Working with groups Maya describes how she prepared for seminars and worked with small groups

Clip 2. Building confidence Fatima reflects on how she learnt to overcome nerves and was able to ask for help and advice

Clip 3. A balancing act Simon talks about the need to find a balance between the social life and that of academic workloads

These clips convey a powerful message to other students, coming from their peers, speaking in their language and building a sense of community. The clips will be integrated into the guidance materials for students, used as stimuli to promote reflection prior to formal face-to-face learning interactions as described below.

Integration of PDP

The aim is to enhance the existing PDP guidance materials in conjunction with video clips described above in Sense of Community. Click the images below to open a full size version in a new window.

The PDP guidance materials introduce students to the principles, lead them through the process and include information on further support available to them.	The materials include structured guidance and reflective activities for students.
Here is a working example of a student activity. The video clips are contextualised with questions that direct the students to reflect on the issues raised in the clips. Apologies - this does not display properly in the Firefox web browser	Document templates are provided to scaffold students' reflection and provide them with a record of their reflection and plans.

Student reflection

Students will be able to use ePortfolios as personal learning environments from induction and throughout the course.

Prompted by the guidance in the PDP materials, students will use a range of tools and technologies to reflect on their learning, aspirations and progress, and integrate examples of their experience.

Some examples of different types of Portfolios are provided below:

A portfolio constructed in HTML to describe the process of participating in a team project	A portfolio including relevant links, tutorials constructed by the student, and reflective conclusions.
A sample portfolio that demonstrates how students can easily use the Blackboard Portfolio system to share work and ideas

 

Website development by the Learning and Teaching Institute, Sheffield Hallam University.