Tutor’s experience of using UCL Reflect with students

By Karen A M Shackleford-Cesare, on 12 February 2020

About Reflect and its User Group

Reflect, UCL’s educational blogging platform, has now had its first birthday and the Digital Education team are delighted that staff from across UCL have enthusiastically taken up the challenge of asking their students to blog, or produce other kinds of online assessment on Reflect.

Digital Education initiated the Reflect User Group (RUG) with its first face-to-face event on Thu December 12th, 2019 from 2-4PM. It was an informal ‘show ‘n tell’ opportunity for staff users of Reflect to compare and contrast their experience of using this tool in their teaching practice. Curious non-users were also welcome as we sought to expand its use to enhance teaching and learning.

We had intended to have the first RUG event in the Spring term, but Reflect user and Russian tutor in SSEES, Maria Sibiryakova asked us to step on the gas (accelerator) to make it happen sooner rather than later. She was very keen to meet fellow Reflect users, exchange ideas and learn of/from their experience and practice.

The tutor experiences showcased

The event showcased the experience of four teaching colleagues who used Reflect in the following ways (click on the bar for more):

• To build an ePortfolio in PGCE Primary Education

  “Reflect as a portfolio tool” –

  Ros Walford, Lecturer and Maria Hadjisoteris, Senior Teaching Fellow, IoE

  Reasons for use

  • For students to develop a reflective e-portfolio of their practice whilst on placement
  • To facilitate more "back and forth" between teacher and student than was possible with the paper-based portfolio because it can be accessed online at any time.
  • To eliminate the administrative overhead that managing paper binders incurred.

  Outcomes

  • A template was designed that had all the required sections and included guidance to students on adding content. Hence, each student received the same portfolio structure.
  • Self-instructional video was created to get students up and running with their portfolio, which was effective and reduced the need for face-to-face sessions.

• As an ePortfolio in PGCE Post-Compulsory Education

  "Portfolio assessment using the Reflect platform" –

  Hilary McQueen, Lecturer, IoE

  Reasons for use

  • For students to develop a reflective e-portfolio of their practice whilst on placement
  • To facilitate more "back and forth" between teacher/mentor and student than was possible with the paper-based portfolio because it can be accessed online at any time.
  • To eliminate the administrative overhead that managing paper binders incurred.

  Outcomes

  • A template was designed that had all the required sections and included guidance to students on adding content. Hence, each student received the same portfolio structure.
  • The portfolio template has tabs that usefully break down the requirements for students.
  • It was possible to facilitate access to students e-portfolios by non-UCL staff mentors in the schools where UCL students were doing their placements.

  Wish list

  • A way to check progress – some kind of automatic system that shows what has been done and what is new, and ideally what has been checked as we have to keep separate records, which is very time consuming.

  What I would do differently

  • I would create a table for the observation form and insert ready for use.
  • We would book a computer room and go through how to use Reflect.
  • I would introduce Reflect (now I know how to use it) and ensure that other staff members were there, too.
  • Have a test blog that everyone could add something to (say), just to practice.

• To address the aims of the Connected Curriculum and ensure students engage with researchers and the institution’s research

  “Reflect for science blog assessments and showcase portfolios” –

  Nephtali Marina-Gonzalez, Principal Teaching Fellow, Medical Sciences 

  Reasons for use

  • The Department wanted to replace of traditional assessment methods with coursework activities designed to engage students in the research carried out in the Division of Medicine inline with the aims of the Connected Curriculum.
  • To give Year 1 students an opportunity to create a public-facing output that showcased the research done at UCL and their understanding of it in terms suited for a lay audience. 

  Outcomes

  • Students found this activity more engaging that last year’s traditional single answer question (SAQ) exam and general feedback from the students was very positive.
  • There was a significant increase in marks for their blogs across the board relative to past exam grades, (namely, 71.4 +/- 6.1 blogs vs 56.1 +/-15 SAQ). 
  • Students were able to appreciate the importance of broad public engagement to their learning process. One student said:

  “If you can’t explain something simply, you don’t really understand it”.

  • An example of an excellent student blog post that achieved the aims of a Physiology module assessment: Cardiovascular effects of exercise training.
    • See the same student's reflections on this learning experience.

  For Neph's 5 top tips more about his experience with Reflect peruse his case study and interview

  Wish list

  • Better marking tools that were integrated with Moodle.

  What I'd do differently

  • Give the students several examples of what is expected of them.
  • Invite UCL's Copyright officer to give a lecture to on copyright issues.
  • Utilise the Open tool kit for students that Digital Education's Leo Havemann and Samantha Ahern are developing.
  • Students found communicating scientific concepts in lay terms particularly challenging so the target audience of the blogs will be adjusted according to the level of expertise of the students.
  • Build on our use of Reflect to have our students use it to create a 'showcase portfolio' that will trace their progress and achievement throughout their degree.

• Using blogs to develop foreign language writing skills

  “The Use of Blogs in Developing Writing Skills in Russian” –

  Maria Sibiryakova, Senior Teaching Fellow, SSEES

  Reasons for use

  • For students to create a language portfolio, which serves as an ipsative form of assessment. They contribute to it regularly and can get feedback from peers and externals as well as their tutor that feeds forwards into their next post.
  • To motivate students  to write more in Russian by:
    • Providing an external audience for their work, not just their tutor
    • Enabling them to see and comment on each other's work – peer review
  • To prompt students to take responsibility for what they write both the:
    • Content they create
    • Language they use

  Outcomes

  • Students were less likely to submit a draft
  • This new form of assessment was as effective as traditional methods, e.g. exams
  • Students developed transferrable digital skills through their use of WordPress

  Wish list

  • Ability for students to see the number of views their posts have had
  • Would like Reflect to have more support for marking
  • To eliminate the need for Turnitin, Plagiarism as a trust issue

  What I'd do differently

  • Incorporate training on academic integrity
  • Include a copyright statement and seek guidance/support from the UCL library.

  For more view Maria's presentation slides.

   

Reflect user support

One of the things we had hoped to have time for at the meeting was to discuss how the RUG can be most useful to members. Although due to lively Q&A, we didn’t end up getting to that topic, we still want to hear your views on this. Hence, please let us know via our online form. All in all, we think the format of this meeting worked well and we intend to repeat it in the next few months.

Looking forward to the next User Group meeting, we are hoping once again to hear from staff with a range of use-cases for Reflect. Issues which we know people are working on include assessment criteria for Reflect blogs and sites, doing group work on Reflect, and comparing Reflect with MyPortfolio. Of course, if you would like to speak, or hear about particular things please complete this online form, we’ll be notified and get in touch.

Reflect’s Hall of Mirrors

By Samantha Ahern, on 31 January 2020

Reflect is UCL’s educational blogging service. It is a WordPress-based platform, hosted by CampusPress. Although Reflect is the educational blogging service, it can be utilised in a number of different ways by both staff and students for teaching and learning purposes. The flexibility of the WordPress platform enable Reflect sites to be structured in any of the following ways, as both individual and class sites:

• As a traditional blog
• As a website built from a number of static pages
• As a website built from a number of static pages with an incorporated public or private blog

In addition these sites can be public, private or accessible to a selected group of users.

Why use Reflect for teaching and learning?

Reflect can be used to support all six dimensions of the Connected Curriculum:

1. Students connect with researchers and with the institution’s research.
2. A through-line of research activity is built into each programme.
3. Students make connections across subjects and out to the world.
4. Students connect academic learning with skills for the workplaces.
5. Students learn to produce outputs – assessments directed at an audience.
6. Students connect with each other, across phases and with alumni.

Reflect could be incorporated into teaching and learning, including assessment in the following ways.

Traditional blogs could be used to:

Websites could be used to:

Websites with blogs could be used to:

For a discussion on the use of UCL Reflect for the creation of portfolios, please see: Creating digital portfolios

How is Reflect being used for teaching and learning?

Since its launch Digital Education have sought to work with colleagues from across the institution to support the use of Reflect for teaching and learning, enhancing their digital pedagogy toolkit and the student experience.

To date, two events have been held to showcase the use of Reflect and to facilitate knowledge exchange between colleagues who are currently using and would like to use Reflect.

The first event organised by colleagues in the Arena Centre for research-based education, the Showcase Portfolio event, was held in the North Cloisters on 28 May 2019. The aim of this event was to provide students and staff with an opportunity to see examples of how blogging can be used for educational, professional and personal purposes.

This event was preceeding by a blog post and a case study where colleagues shared how they were using Reflect with their students:

• Reflect blogging service to support Connected Curriculum at UCL
• Medical Science students use UCL Reflect to create scientific blogs for assessment

The second event, Teaching and Learning with Reflect, was held in the Christopher Ingold Building on 12 December 2019. At this event staff shared their experiences of using Reflect for teaching and learning with their respective cohorts.

For a  write-up of the event please see: Tutor’s experience of using UCL Reflect with students

More information about UCL Reflect, including FAQs, can be found in the Reflect Blogging Resource Centre. In addition, you may wish to join the Reflect User Group on Microsoft Teams. In this team, colleagues across the institution share news, experiences and related readings to the use of UCL Reflect.

Inspiration – Great News – It has been saved!

By Michele C Farmer, on 29 January 2020

I have heard that Inspiration mind mapping software has been bought by another company and will be continued.

New Accessibility Tool lets you customise Moodle

By Eliot Hoving, on 20 January 2020

A new Moodle plugin, the Accessibility Tool, will be available on Wednesday 22nd January 2020 for staff and students.

The tool allows students and staff to customise the appearance of the Moodle platform through changing Moodle’s colour scheme, font style, readability and text size. The tool can help reduce eye strain and improve concentration. Changes made using the tool only apply to the user, and only apply to the Moodle platform, not documents uploaded or stored on Moodle.

Green on Black Colour Scheme:

White on Grey Colour Scheme:

Text Size – default

Text Size – Massive text size

How to edit your accessibility preferences?

To customise your preferences, simply:

1. Log onto Moodle
2. Click on your name on the top right of Moodle to open up the user menu.
3. Select Accessibility Tool.

The release of the Accessibility Tool follows on from Digital Education’s efforts to improve the accessibility of Moodle content through training and support and releasing Blackboard Ally. See the Creating accessible content webpage for more detail.

Students and staff can be directed towards this blog post to learn about the Accessibility Tool, or alternatively to the updated Staff guide or Student guide.

If you have any questions please contact Digital Education at digi-ed@ucl.ac.uk.

Accessible documents for the STEM disciplines (well, mainly) using LaTeX

By Jim R Tyson, on 8 January 2020

Next week I am leading a session on using LaTeX (or Markdown) to create more accessible and inclusive documents.  This is a bring your own device session – if you want to practice the techniques you will need a laptop (or other suitable device) with a working LaTeX installation.  The session is on Wenesday 15th January and starts at 2 pm.  It is expected to last around two hours.  You can book a place at the following link

Eventbrite booking for accessible LaTeX

with Access Code Student.  The course is only open to staff and students of UCL and a UCL ID card is required for building access.

LaTeX is a de facto standard for authoring documents in many STEM disciplines. It is used not only in publishing academic research but also in preparting materials for teaching and learning. This session will look at the ways we can make documents prepared with LaTeX more accessible and so make teaching and learning more inclusive.

The issues covered are relevant to markdownand Rmarkdown users as well as LaTeX users.

I hope to cover:

• Overview of accessibility concerns
• Using standard LaTeX techniques to enhance accessibility
  • structure
  • fonts and typefaces
  • margins
  • hyperlinks
• Inserting comments into PDFs vs using captions
• Use of colour
• Using pandoc to generate HTML or docx formats
  • creating MathML output

New Year, new you? How LinkedIn Learning can help you meet your goals

By Caroline E Norris, on 3 January 2020

As a member of staff or a student at UCL, you have unlimited access to LinkedIn Learning, an on-demand library of high-quality instructional videos covering a vast range of software, business and creative skills.  So whether you’re a seasoned user or have yet to take advantage of LinkedIn Learning, the new year is the perfect time to start some regular online learning.

Here are six courses to help set you up for success in the New Year.  So, why not block out some time in the next few weeks to get started?

• Successful Goal Setting
• Achieving Your Goals
• Setting Your Financial Goals
• The New Rules of Work
• Breaking Out of a Rut
• Creating an Amazing Life