The Centre for Recording Achievement: ‘Researching and Evaluating Personal Development Planning and e-Portfolio.’

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FYI >>>

The Centre for Recording Achievement
An Associate Partner of the Higher Education Academy (UK)
in association with:
The Inter/National Coalition for Electronic Portfolio Research
The National Action Research Network (NARN)
The Scottish PDP Forum

The Second International Residential Seminar

‘Researching and Evaluating
Personal Development Planning and e-Portfolio.’

National College for School Leadership, Nottingham, UK
26-28th April 2010

CALL FOR CONTRIBUTORS

Electronic portfolios are a rapidly developing global phenomenon. In
the UK, many Higher Education Institutions have chosen to use e-
portfolio systems to support the implementation of Personal
Development Planning (PDP). PDP supports students in recording and
reviewing achievements, reflecting and planning for personal,
educational and career development. This approach is highly congruent
with other initiatives across the world, such as the AeP project in
Australia, the work of SURF in the Netherlands and the recently-formed
Association for Authentic, Experiential and Evidence-Based Learning
(AAEEBL) in the US. These initiatives use e-portfolio tools to promote
self-regulated, personalised or integrative learning, to align
assessment with learning and to support transitions.

A recurring theme has been the need for robust evaluation and research
evidence to inform decisions about effective e-Portfolio and PDP
practices.

Key seminar themes are:
1. Tutoring, mentoring, coaching for e-portfolio and PDP practice.
2. The development of identity and autonomy (inc. self-regulation/
personalised learning).
3. Engagement: student, staff and community perspectives (inc. staff/
professional development, employability).
4. Supporting integrative and reflective learning (inc. co/extra-
curricular learning, assessment and feedback, work-based/service
learning).
5. Institutional change (inc. scaling up, achieving institutional
transformation, drivers such as retention, progression, inclusion,
achievement).
6. Researching e-portfolios and personal development planning: tools,
methods, approaches.


As with the first highly successful international seminar held in
Oxford in 2006, this event will bring together international
researchers, practitioners and HE managers to further develop a
community of practice that will:

• share critically evaluated practice amongst e-Portfolio and PDP
practitioners;
• showcase work undertaken by the National Action Research Network for
PDP and e-Portfolio and the Inter/National Coalition for Electronic
Portfolio Research;
• continue to build research capacity by supporting emergent research
and researchers;
• encourage a critique of current research, monitoring and evaluation
practices;
• facilitate further discussion of appropriate research and evaluation
methods;
• contribute a robust evidence-base to underpin the effective
implementation and use of e-Portfolios and PDP.

It will be intentionally inclusive: submissions and participation are
invited from both established and emergent researchers. Studies
employing various methodologies are welcome, from case studies of
individual students and cohorts of staff, to large cross-institutional
studies linked to retention and graduation data. We aim to provide an
environment that is supportive, developmental and scholarly, within a
comfortable, purpose-built residential conference centre. See
http://tinyurl.com/lccun for further details of the venue.

Conference proposals should take one of the following forms:

1. Trigger Paper – these half-hour sessions will briefly
synthesise current research, raise a key research and evaluation
question, propose a novel research methodology or present research in
progress [10mins] as a trigger for structured discussion [20 mins].
2. Research report – these half-hour sessions will report [20
mins report plus 10mins for questions] on completed PDP and e-
Portfolio research and evaluation projects addressing one or a number
of the themes listed above.
3. Symposium – these ninety-minute sessions will bring together a
number of short inputs on a similar theme to allow more detailed
discussion and/or workshop activities. Groups might wish to
collaborate to offer symposia; alternatively, the organisers reserve
the option of grouping contributions together around a common theme.




‘Researching and EvaluatingPersonal Development Planning and e-
Portfolios’
Proposal Form: Call for Contributions

Proposals, in electronic format only, should be submitted to Cath
Hewson at the Centre for Recording Achievement
(ca...@recordingachievement.org) by Wednesday16th December 2009.

1. Include the following presenter information. Place an asterisk
beside the name of the contact person for a session involving more
than one person:
Name(s):
Institution(s):
Address for correspondence:
Post/ZIP Code:
Email:
Tel:

2. List the seminar theme(s) addressed:

3. Indicate the proposal type:

a. trigger paper (30 minutes)

b. research report (30 minutes)

c. symposium (90 minutes)

4. Include in a session description (300 words or less) the following
information:
a. Session title

b. Session outline (key points to be made or issues to be discussed)

c. For trigger papers and symposia, how attendees will be engaged
(structure and activities)

d. References (key literature or resources important to the session’s
content)

5. Identify IT or audio visual requirements (Data projector and
laptop as standard. If other equipment is required, please request it
here and provide a rationale for why it is necessary to your session’s
activities).

Feedback on proposals will be provided in January 2010. Successful
proposals will be included in the Seminar Handbook, which will be sent
to all participants before the event.



Rob

The Centre for Recording Achievement.
Tel. No: 01942 826761; Fax No: 01942 323337
r...@recordingachievement.org
www.recordingachievement.org