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This project aims to develop online mentor training for employers, allow employers to complete online project briefs and sign off completion points for learning outcomes online via the use of digital signatures, allow employers to interactively comment on student reflections via Blogs and asynchronous discussion forums, and create an e-portfolio workspace to allow students to upload video/text/image/web-based files for assessment.
The college has decided to use the (External) ELGG environment as a basis for:
• Creating a web-based mentor training resource for employers taking part in work placements.
• Creating a flexible web-based pro-forma to describe a project brief and learning outcomes for work-based learning that can be completed and signed-off online by the tutor, employer and learner.
• Creating a web-based online community for learners, employers and tutors using asynchronous discussion forums and Blogs for reflective comment.
• Creating an e-portfolio space for learners to document their work-placement experiences, and receive feedback from their mentor and tutor. This, too, will be web-based and used to assess the unit.
This model, once developed, can be utilised by other computing and engineering work placements.
The ELGG environment is accessible via a hyperlink from the Foundation Degree's course space on Moodle, the VLE used by Hull college, although it's front end has been modified, as ELGG's ‘communities’ section allows loopholes in access security, where anyone in a community can view anyone else’s files and blogs without express access being granted.
On completion of the Mini-Project, Hull college's (External) Foundation Degree in Software Design and Development students will be able to receive formative and summative feedback on their work placement development, regardless of geographical location, which is located in one, easily accessible area, instead of distributed around various paper-based documents. They will be able to keep in communication with the unit tutor, the employer and each other through one, web-based area – by having online discussions and mentor training, geographical and time constraints are bypassed. The tutors responsible for the work placements will still need to visit employers, but they will be able to access feedback on how students are progressing on a much more immediate basis.
An online version of existing paperwork for employers is to be developed and tested, as is an online version of the existing mentor training. This will include developing web pages for forms and resources, and storing details in a secure online database, creating a model both suitable and interesting for other colleges running Foundation Degrees in computing subjects with work placements.
An interim account of the project's work was published in Volume 6, Issue 2 of Italics , the on-line journal of the Information and Computer Sciences Subject Centre, and an end of first phase report presented at our annual conference in August 2007 .
A (External) dedicated website has been created for the project, which has secured continuation funding from the (External) JISC e-learning capital programme for 2007/8.
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