The proposed activity for this project built upon work that was already being carried out in embedding an electronic, web-based progress file and web portfolio system into the learning and teaching strategy of a Mathematical Sciences degree programme [1].
There existed a source of rich data comprising entries from students who keep an interactive, electronic, online learning log, over a period of some five years. The main activity of this miniproject was to analyse the content of the data. The analysis was to detail ways in which students were using the learning log, what they were saying, and how they were progressing as they passed through their courses. The aim was to better understand how to brief students in the ways they could use the log to support their learning. Such briefings are particularly important in Mathematical Sciences, where students are perhaps less used to reflecting upon their learning than students in some other, more discursive areas.
An additional objective was to improve the existing system. By characterising the ways in which students had been using the system up to that point, it was hoped that it would be possible to identify areas of improvement, encouraging aspects and removing any perceived barriers to proactive engagement.
An educational research assistant was employed to carry out the analysis of the data, under the guidance of the academic staff that were responsible for developing the progress file system.
Reflective portfolios are an excellent way of getting students to think about the skills they have and the skills that they need to develop, particularly when it comes to considering employment. The development and suitable embedding of a reflective progress file system is clearly one potentially important aspect.
On the completion of the project, there was both direct experience of embedding a reflective progress file system in a degree programme, and a well-understood evidence base concerning how students made use of the system and what benefits it brought to them. This was of considerable value in aiming to spread good practice through the discipline area across the sector, where in some parts the resistance to ideas such as this could be strong, in juxtaposition to the frequently stated view by employers that mathematics graduates would enhance their employability by developing their generic, as well as their mathematical, skills.
[1] Challis, N., Gretton, H. and Waldock, J. (2003) ‘Web-based assessment of student progress files’, CAA in Mathematics (LTSN MSOR).