It is time to review my CMALT (Certified Membership of the Association for Learning Technology) portfolio to maintain my accreditation. As with the first application to gain CMALT, I found the experience has helped me to reflect on the changes in my role, review my use of technology in my own learning and in teaching others, and set new goals for the future.
My original portfolio is available via PebblePad. I have made no changes to the original portfolio, providing the updated section of the portfolio in the blog post below.
Summary of recent work/practice
I found it fascinating to see how the seeds of some activities were planted in my original portfolio and encouraged to see how my career has developed. I am now a Lecturer in Distance Student Learning, which integrates well with my continuing role in supporting and teaching online students. I am still Director of the postgraduate Certificate in Advanced Veterinary Practice, and now also Deputy Director for the MVetSci in Advanced Clinical Practice. This dual role works well, as some students opt to take courses from both programmes and I have a clear overview of their transition, ensuring I can better support them. As both programmes are online, I maintain my connection with our Digital Education Unit and ensure I remain up-to-date with new technologies. New staff members have joined the Unit and, as a result, I have stepped back from directly providing learning technology guidance on online course development for colleagues, though I still provide informal guidance and learn from their experiences in turn.
As my role has developed, I have taken on new activities. I achieved my Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) in 2016. I mentor students and colleagues working towards their Fellowship at Associate, Fellow and Senior Fellow levels. This links with my work as a CMALT assessor and running webinars for those new to CMALT and assessing. My portfolio Future Plans suggested that I would be applying for a Doctorate in Education (EdD), which I did. As the programme was due to be reviewed, there was a delay in starting, so my supervisor encouraged me to switch to a PhD. It was an excellent option and I am now in my second year of a part-time PhD. This project focuses on the integration of digital and sustainable education building on my Specialist Option in my portfolio.
Projects reported in my portfolio have also developed in light of changes in technology. New technologies in the form of 3D printing, simulation, Virtual and Augmented Realities (VR and AR) are now being used in medical education, and I co-authored a paper with colleagues discussing the applications to veterinary medical education. I spoke about our use of Second Life in my portfolio and with time, we have stopped using the platform in my School. I still coordinate the virtual graduation, now for the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, within which my School sits. This now involves using a mixture of Skype, streaming video and pre-recorded videos, so that graduands can relax and enjoy their graduation ceremony at a distance without the pressure of worrying about technical difficulties. I have worked with colleagues to develop guidance for others across the University thinking about running their own virtual graduation. This video recorded by my colleague (and PhD supervisor) Dr Jen Ross demonstrates how this process worked for the Digital Education programme (running time 01:18).
I explore aspects of my role in more depth below and am happy to provide further information if required.
Overview of CPD activities over the past three years
My research profile is available via the Edinburgh Research Explorer. This provides an overview of my role, activities and research output. In the last three years, I have become more active and involved in the policies and practices of the University. These new aspects of my role include co-chair of the College and School Equality and Diversity committees, co-convenor of the College Library Committee and member of the University Library Committee, and non-professorial member of Senate. Relating to my work with learning technology, this has allowed me to gain a better understanding of how communicating best practice feeds into the institution’s strategic planning for the future. It has also given me a better sense of how the University works and of my role within the institution.
In addition to my work with online learning programmes, I have also been involved in two MOOCs, as a facilitator for one year of Equine Nutrition and as a co-presenter for one week of the EDIVET MOOC (week 5 with Andrew Gardiner and colleagues). I investigated the benefits of the EDIVET MOOC in more detail in a paper co-authored with students and colleagues. Through that investigation, we were able to demonstrate how the MOOC helped participants to better understand the role of the veterinary professional. It also supported new applicants by giving them a sense of what it would be like to study at Edinburgh, to see and experience how we teach. There has been the added joy for me of meeting applicants at interview and students who remember seeing me in week 5.
I have looked at three examples of CPD-related activities in more detail below.
Example 1: Mentoring
I am inspired by working with others; it helps me develop my skills whether I am a mentee or mentor. Mentoring is woven into my work, both formally and informally. Informally, as I mentioned earlier, I support colleagues who are new to teaching online. I also coordinate sessions for our local journal club, including inviting speakers from across the University to share their teaching research and experiences. Formally, since I achieved my FHEA and SFHEA, I have mentored colleagues and students as they work towards their fellowships. I have also assessed a number of CMALT portfolios, as both lead and second assessor, and co-presented two online introductory sessions for new CMALT applicants and assessors. I have taken part in the University’s Mentoring Connections scheme, first as a mentee in 2012 and then as a mentor in 2018.
In my original portfolio, I spoke about the online peer tutoring scheme I set up with a colleague for our postgraduate distance learning students. That scheme is ongoing and a small number of tutors choose to apply for their associate fellowships each year. Mentoring one of the groups coincided with me applying for my Senior Fellowship. Together, we reflected on what it meant to work towards our shared goals in a paper. We authored this online via a shared document, as we were located at distance from each other. That echoed the process we had used to mentor the tutors as they developed their teaching skills online. I feel this demonstrates how a scholarly community of practice can be supported with technology.
To help me with the varied aspects of my role, I took advantage of an opportunity provided in my School to gain career development coaching. I discuss my experience in the following video: https://youtu.be/7zYzJliPut4 (running time 01:20) to help colleagues thinking about applying. My comments about getting to grips with information overload link back to the talks for the journal club, as I used that as a route to share the lessons I had learned in dealing with email.
Example 2: Improving Academic Practice with Turnitin
I worked with colleagues from across the University to develop a short course looking at how Turnitin could be used to help improve academic practice. Funding was received in 2014, with the course going live in 2017. Details of the project are available via the Institute for Academic Development’s website and we co-authored a blog post about the inspiration for and benefits of the course.
This was a great opportunity to work with colleagues from other Colleges in the University, allowing me to explore in more depth what was expected of students in other disciplines and learn from the experiences of others. It was interesting to see how a tool such as Turnitin could be used to encourage students to develop their research and writing skills, rather than simply as a plagiarism checker. All of my students now have access to this course and this has led to in-depth discussions about the ways in which they can best make use of the tool. This project has shown me how valuable it can be to examine our use of technology to help design the best approach to support learning.
Example 3: Networked Learning
I attended the Networked Learning Conference in Zagreb, Croatia in May 2018. This gave me an opportunity to present my work in two ways: first through a standard paper presentation and second as a guest on a Virtually Connecting session online with fellow conference participants.
When I reviewed my original portfolio, I smiled to read my recommendation for the Networked Learning conference in my Specialist Options section. I continue to find it an inspiration as it allows me to meet with fellow researchers who are interested in the connections between learners and each other, IT, resources, the environment and more. This year, there was an added bonus in participating in my first Virtually Connecting session. The aim here is to widen participation in conferences for those who are unable to attend. It was exactly as described, a “great spontaneous hallways conversation”. It demonstrated how effectively technology can be employed to enhance the conference experience for all involved. I enjoyed it so much that I have since attended as a participant and have reflected about the benefits in a blog post.
Updated future plans
My CPD plan for the next three years is tied up with my PhD work. The project is specifically looking at the interplay of the digital and outdoors, thinking about how and if place-awareness can be encouraged at a distance, linking directly to my Specialist Option from the original portfolio. It will require me to keep up-to-date with new technologies and allow me to learn with and from my participants. At its heart, the project considers the interplay between learning and technology, the networked connections between learner and learner, and learner and environment. From my experience of the last year and a half of the project, I understand better what it entails. It will give me plenty of opportunity to research and reflect, there will be concerns and puzzles, and through it I will have the support of my supervisors, peers, colleagues, family and research team. I will also be considering applying for a Senior Lecturer position in the next three years. That is a portfolio activity in itself, so should keep me busy!
Updated confirmation and date
I declare that, to the best of my knowledge, the statements and evidence included in this submission accurately describe my practice and are drawn from my own work, with the input and support of others duly and clearly recognised. This is dated as the original live date of this post: 31 May 2018.
One of my clearest memories as a child of such a place was a family holiday to a cottage my uncle had recently purchased. The cottage stood in the middle of a ploughed and mucky field (yeay, muck!) and at the edge of the field there was a small stream running in a deep mossy ditch under trees. Though the ditch was deep, the stream was not. I liked to wade in to the middle in my wellies and stand in the quiet cavern under the green tree canopy. The sound of chuckling water and birdlife and my breath. The scent of water and moss and green and primroses. I remember the primroses most of all, as the banks were covered in them and the scent wrapped all around me. It was a magical spot; if I stood long enough and still enough, I thought, I will see fairies. To this day, the scent and sight of primroses makes me smile.
