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Centre for Academic Practice

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://eresearch.qmu.ac.uk/handle/20.500.12289/29

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Author: search.filters.author.Murray, SueStart date: 2010

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Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Using feedback and ePortfolios to support professional competence in healthcare learners
    (AABRI, 2012-07) Peacock, Susi; Scott, Alison; Murray, Sue; Morss, K.
    This article presents a learner-centric approach to feedback for healthcare students based upon current research literature and the authors' own research into student experiences of feedback using ePortfolios. Feedback is essential for all learners but for healthcare learners failure to engage with feedback may impact on patient care with potentially life-threatening consequences. Therefore, the aim of this practical approach is to support learners in the development of their professional competency and identity through deeper and broader engagement with feedback facilitated through learner-generated internal reflective and external dialogues. Such an approach requires learners to broaden their conceptual understandings of feedback, embracing its different forms and types regardless of when it is provided and by whom. Learners are also required to become active agents in the feedback process seeking out feedback opportunities in all their learning environments within and outwith academia. Fundamental to the approach is the ePortfolio providing a highly flexible, integrative environment for learners to create, record, collect and collate feedback over a period of study which can be used for reflective dialogue, appraisal of current progress and to plan for future learning activities. Practical tutor guidance is provided and the suitability of this approach for other disciplines is also discussed.
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    Tutor response to implementing an ePortfolio to support learning and personal development in further and higher education institutions in Scotland.
    (John Wiley & Sons Inc, 2010-09) Peacock, Susi; Gordon, Lisi; Murray, Sue; Morss, K.; Dunlop, G.
    Emergent research indicates that electronic portfolios (ePortfolios) can have a positive impact on the learning experience, but there are significant challenges-pedagogical and technological-which may limit their effectiveness. This paper contributes to research by providing further evidence about such challenges from the tutor perspective and offers suggestions about how institutions may address these issues. The paper draws upon 23 semi-structured interviews conducted with tutors in a range of subject areas, from Scottish further and higher education. Tutors were positive about the role that ePortfolios could play in the learning environment to encourage personal development and a more reflective approach to studies, assist student transition and, in some cases, support assessment. Concerns were raised, however, relating to moving paper-based assessed portfolios online, the legal issues of implementing an ePortfolio and the technical robustness and flexibility of systems. Barriers were identified regarding tutors' lack of understanding about personal development and reflection, and their role in the academic environment, initiative fatigue and lack of access to information technology. It was felt that these could be overcome, especially with long-term institutional commitment, significant staff development and the creation of tutor support networks. These findings should assist academics, staff developers and managers to implement an effective institutional ePortfolio solution.
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    Contemplation & Mindfulness in Higher Education
    (Springer, 2014-11-09) Oberski, Iddo; Murray, Sue; Goldblatt, Joe J.; DePlacido, Christine
    This chapter presents initial observations of a pilot that introduces mindfulness meditation into teaching and university life. Short meditations were offered at the start of Year 1 and 2 lectures, besides weekly drop-in sessions. The purpose was to enhance the student experience through the affective domain, identified by Thomas 2012 as a key factor in improving retention. Contemplative practices (CPs) consist of enhancing awareness of the 'here' and 'now', characterised by the foregrounding of 'being' and 'living', rather than 'doing' or 'knowing'. Thus, it could be argued that CPs have the potential to enhance the affective dimensions of the student experience and thus, indirectly, impact positively on retention. Students and staff perceived benefits that applied to learning and teaching specifically, but also to broader dimensions of their personal life. Overall there was enthusiasm from both students and staff for the innovation and a request to continue and expand current provision.
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    The Transformative Role of ePortfolios: Feedback in Healthcare Learning
    (Center for Instructional Development and Educational Research (CIDER), 2011-08) Peacock, Susi; Murray, Sue; Scott, Alison; Kelly, J.; Health Sciences and Practice Subject Centre (HSaP), Higher Education Academy (HEA)
    This article reports findings of a study based in Scotland that explored healthcare learners' experiences of feedback and ePortfolios. Feedback is a highly complex, multi-dimensional phenomenon, and healthcare learners consider it essential for their learning, recognizing that without it patient safety may be compromised. This study sought to explore whether ePortfolios, with their dual emphasis on both the product and process of learning, could encourage deeper and broader learner engagement with feedback. Drawing upon three examples where ePortfolios have been embedded into the curriculum, our findings demonstrate that most participants were generally positive about using the ePortfolio to access, read, and store feedback on their assessments. In some cases where ePortfolio had been introduced across a program, a number of learners had also begun to use feedback provided through the ePortfolio as a springboard for reflection and planning for future development. However, many of our students missed the wider opportunities for long-term, regular creation of and engagement with feedback through the ePortfolio. After reviewing our implementation and using novel work based on threshold concepts, we propose the Personal, Learning and Thinking Skills (PLTS) framework as a guide to support deeper learner engagement with feedback.