Fed up with telling learners how to complete their portfolios?

Are you fed up with telling learners how to complete their portfolios of assessment evidence? If so, this ‘call for volunteers’ might be something you’ll be interested in..

There’s a name for what I’ve just mentioned above. Not specifically the ‘fed up with telling learners’ bit, but the time you have to spend working with a learner when they don’t get it right. It’s called ‘preventable contact’. This lovely term helps you get a grip on the ‘payoff’ you might receive when you ‘invest’ in using a new strategy. Investment – payoff. It’s the only way quality improvement becomes sustainable, rather than a flash in pan.

Here’s a quick overview of the issues we tend to find with apprentices and their portfolios:

  • insufficient understanding of portfolio structure
  • issues with unique reference numbers for individual pieces of evidence
  • the confident setting of pieces of evidence against all appropriate performance criteria (PCs), including, where appropriate, PCs from different units
  • using unit specifications and PCs creatively to plan evidence gathering independently of their assessor
  • creating a portfolio that is easy for all parties to navigate
  • using a wider variety of evidence with which to demonstrate range and scope.

And actually, there’s another one – just plain old enjoyment of the portfolio-building process.

A group of Saudi Women’s colleges, run by the wonderful Dr Kathy Bland, decided they wanted their students to get it right first time, and to change portfolio building from being a chore to an enjoyable and creative process. So they commissioned an online training resource – which I’ve just finished…

What I need now, is a group of teachers/trainers/assessors and learners who would like to pilot the resource to see if I’ve got it right. Interested?

The resource consists of six short videos, supported by a workbook. The total playing time of the videos is just 16 minutes, and there are short tasks associated with most of these – which can be found in the workbook. The workbook also contains a transcript of the videos’ narration to aid reflection. Everything is contained in one webpage, and the workbook can also be downloaded from there too.

At the end of the resource, there’s a Memory Survey to help users reflect on their understanding; this includes further advice and suggestions if any gaps are identified. And the all-important Pilot Users’ Feedback Survey (just 15 short questions) is right at the bottom of the page – to let us know how we’ve done.

Here’s the link:

Completing the assessment portfolio

We’d like to complete the pilot before Friday September 18th (2020) if at all possible. I know this is tight, but it’s also the perfect timing to catch the September-start learners.

If any of you feel you could recommend this to the relevant people, I’d be grateful if you could let me know. Please feel free to forward a link to this post as an introduction and ask them to get in touch direct: tony@ccqi.org.uk.

Very best wishes to your all, and thanks in advance for any help.

Tony

Comments

  1. Rabia Shaheen
    September 8, 2020 @ 09:09 pm

    Hi Tony,
    I would really love to join in.It really seems the need of the hour as I have myself faced this issue with my trainees. Thanks to Sonia Ross for recommending.
    Am in ?.

  2. Tony Davis
    September 8, 2020 @ 11:11 pm

    Thank you very much for getting in touch, Aroosh, we really do appreciate your help. Please find the link and password below for the training resource. All of the information you need is in the resource itself, and we’d be grateful if you could complete your piloting by September 18th so that we can collate everyone’s responses soon after that. If you do have any questsions, please do not hesitate to get in touch: tony@ccqi.org.uk.

    URL https://ccqi.org.uk/completing-the-assessment-portfolio-2
    Password for ctap1765

    Thank you again.
    Best wishes
    Tony

  3. Aroosh Idries
    September 8, 2020 @ 09:09 pm

    I would love to participate in this
    Thanks

  4. Tony Davis
    September 8, 2020 @ 11:11 pm

    Thank you very much for getting in touch, Aroosh, we really do appreciate your help. Please find the link and password below for the training resource. All of the information you need is in the resource itself, and we’d be grateful if you could complete your piloting by September 18th so that we can collate everyone’s responses soon after that. If you do have any questsions, please do not hesitate to get in touch: tony@ccqi.org.uk.

    URL https://ccqi.org.uk/completing-the-assessment-portfolio-2
    Password for ctap1765

    Thank you again.
    Best wishes
    Tony

  5. Dr Anisha Thomas
    September 9, 2020 @ 01:01 pm

    Hi Tony

    I would really like to join in. I think this will really benefit the educators.

  6. Nazia Faisal
    September 9, 2020 @ 05:05 pm

    I will be interested to be a part of this work. Thanks to Aroosh Idrees for her recommendation.

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