CMALT: (4A) Communications

“Statements should describe the way in which your work involves collaboration, for example through participation in a team or acting as an interface to other groups. Relevant evidence would include reflection on collaborations with others, reports outlining your activity within a team process, how you have brokered support for a particular initiative (for example from a technical or legal support service) or how you have worked with others to solve problems.”

4A. Working with others

I am very lucky that, where I work, I come into contact with, and have the ability to work with, some generous and innovative people. During 2011 I was able to work with closely with some of them in collaborative projects.

One aspect of my support to the online programme at Bournemouth University was to help the Induction programme (see the Portfolio Section 2a and 2b) and to support the students during their Induction week. Each year the programme team met after the Induction programme has been completed to reflect on the students’ participation and the activities themselves and to investigate whether it had been effective. I was central to this process and continued to develop and expand what we offered right up until I left in May 2012.

In 2011 I worked closely with the Programme Coordinator (Maureen Wincott) and Programme Administrator (Lianne Hutchings) on a poster presentation to the Bournemouth University 2011 Education Enhancement Conference where we demonstrated the “the development and support taken throughout a week-long online Induction for geographically-disparate Business School students studying the fully-online BA (Hons) International Business & Management degree” (see Supporting Evidence item 1).

Also during 2011 I was invited to present at the eAssessment Scotland Conference in Dundee (see Supporting Evidence item 2) and I used this opportunity to work with Lianne again on a poster presentation. We investigated the ‘support’ required for online assessment, the processes and stakeholders/roles involved, and created a chart of the the life-cycle of an electronic assessment, and the involvement of stakeholders at different stages of the assessment.

Both these posters were well received by the delegates at their respective conferences and I gained valuable feedback on how eAssessment is handled and produced at different UK Universities. What struck me, certainly with the poster on eAssessment, is that very few Institution considered that online students (those who do not attend face-to-face sessions) need different processes and instructions. What is also apparent is that the academic staff involved also need to have a different mind-set when creating the assignments. However, since joining the University of Leicester I know that this is not always the case – Leicester has a very large number of Distant Learners, a great many of them in the College I work with, and their assessment is important and carefully considered.

Working on these posters involved a mix of face-to-face discussion, telephone conversations and email exchanges and, given the opportunity to work on projects like this again, I would be inclined to utilise a wiki or Google Site (like this portfolio.). The constraints on our time meant it was often difficult to progress the project at an even pace but the use of a wiki or Google site would enable organisation of thoughts, process(es), reflection, and final output from the project in a manner we all had control and influence over, without losing email content – you must of course use the ‘subscribe’ option to be kept up to date with changes.