Pre-Conference
Workshops

Get ready to unlock the potential of PebblePad!

We’re thrilled to share the details of our upcoming Pre-Conference Workshops.

Morning Workshop (option 1)

Change is the only constant: Exploring the untapped potential of PebblePad to transform measures of success for all things employability (skills, career development and professional identity)

3 Hours

Facilitators:

Gayle Brent

Senior Fellow Higher Education Academy (SFHEA)
Learning and Teaching Consultant (Employability)
Griffith Sciences
Griffith University, Australia

Overview

This workshop is discussion-based and very hands-on. It will involve consensus decision-making to facilitate the contribution of aspirational ideas to embed employability-based learning (EBL) narrowing to an achievable set of practical actions (centred on the use of PebblePad). Participants will work individually and in small groups to develop practical, evidence-based solutions that are achievable within their context, to suit diverse student cohorts, with the core goal to enhance student engagement in meaningful career development learning (CDL) throughout their degree, including measures of success for the student, the educator, and the university.

In this workshop an innovative example use of PebblePad will be (briefly) demonstrated to stimulate discussion and decision-making. Participants will explore the diverse dimensions of ‘employability’ and will then generate practical steps to embed employability (and/or CDL) in the curriculum. Purposeful, practical and “out of the box” uses of PebblePad to intrinsically capture measures of success that do not rely on employment outcomes will be a core focus of the outcomes.

Morning Workshop (option 2)

A key to the map: Onboarding users to ATLAS

3 Hours

Facilitators:

Susan Bonham

Ed Tech Advisor
Education Technology Department
Langara College, Canada

Overview

The Educational Technology Department (EdTech) at Langara College supports the institution’s core learning tools, including PebblePad. Since we launched PebblePad in 2001, it has been used mostly for authentic assessment and guided experiential learning. The Faculty of Nursing uses PebblePad for all clinical courses, and we have multiple programs using PebblePad for practicums, including Library Technology, Recreation Studies, and Supply Chain Management. In these courses, both the ongoing formative assessment and the high stakes summative assessment is done in ATLAS. As such, instructors who teach in a course using PebblePad need to get comfortable using ATLAS very quickly, even if they are new to the entire platform. ATLAS has a reputation for being challenging, but EdTech has found that by knowing what functionality each course or program will be using and then focusing faculty training on what they will need to know and nothing else, we are successfully and efficiently onboarding ATLAS users each semester.

This workshop will provide a hands-on overview of the approach used to successfully onboard faculty to ATLAS at Langara. Participants will then be invited to share the hurdles and pain points they have experienced when onboarding new users. Facilitated discussion will aim to uncover new ways of approaching these challenges, equipping participants with strategies to implement within their own organisations.

NOTE: This is NOT an ATLAS training session. The focus is on identifying approaches to the successful onboarding of new ATLAS users.

Morning Workshop (option 3)

Beginners: Unlock Your Digital Potential: Beginner's Guide to Mastering PebblePad

3 Hours

Facilitators:

PebblePad Learning Services and PebblePad Academy staff members

Paul Duvall

Head of Learning Services and Senior Solutions Consultant
PebblePad

Jane Bradley

Learning Developer & Academy Lead
PebblePad

Jenny Masters

Learning Support Specialist
PebblePad

Overview

New to PebblePad? Come along to our Basic PebblePad Sessions! Designed for beginners, these interactive sessions will guide you through the essentials of using PebblePad, from creating content to adding it to a workspace, testing it out and adding feedback.

Our expert trainers will provide personalised support to help you confidently navigate the platform and make the most of its features. Join us to enhance your digital skills and take your work to the next level with PebblePad!

🥪LUNCH

afternoon Workshop (option 1)

Positive planning: Using appreciative inquiry to support eportfolio advancement

3 Hours

Facilitators:

Dr. Leeann Waddington

Associate Vice President, Teaching & Learning
Teaching & Learning Commons
Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Canada

Dr. Nishan Perera

Director, Learning Technologies & Education
Teaching & Learning Commons
Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Canada

Overview

The successful adoption and implementation of ePortfolios in complex higher educational contexts can have some core challenges, including resistance to change and buy-in, lack of clarity and alignment with institutional plans, unclear roles and responsibilities, insufficient communication with key parties, and gaps in the needed technological and pedagogical resources to support success. Instead of being paralyzed by these numerous challenges, imagine a process that utilizes the institution’s strengths and builds on what works well to move toward the desired future. Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is a strengths-based, positive approach to organizational change that can support strategic planning and the successful implementation of ePortfolios in higher educational contexts.

This three-hour experiential workshop will guide participants through an Appreciative Inquiry (AI) process to catalyze the design of their own institutional ePortfolio advancement plan. Participants will leave with practical knowledge to construct an ideal implementation plan and create sustainable positive change in their setting using an AI approach.

afternoon Workshop (option 2)

SLICCs:
powerfully reflective, student-centred learning at scale

3 Hours

Facilitators:

Dr Gavin McCabe

SLICCs Co-lead (reflection, student development and employability)
Careers and Employability Manager
Careers Service
The University of Edinburgh, Scotland

Professor Simon Riley

SLICCs Co-lead (academic)
Personal Chair of Experiential Learning
Edinburgh Medical School
The University of Edinburgh, Scotland

Overview

Student-Led, Individually-Created Courses (SLICCs) offer a reflective learning and assessment framework for students to gain academic credit for experiential learning.  Portfolio-based, SLICCs reward students’ learning journey irrespective of the perceived success or failure of their activity. They are highly flexible and used widely used at scale across the University of Edinburgh as: 

Summer SLICCs – Available to all first- and second-year undergraduate students to support and recognise their summer activities. 
Cross-disciplinary – Open to students that allow them to work Enabling students to work across disciplinary boundaries, with the SLICCs reflective learning framework used to guide, structure and recognise diverse experience. 
In schools – Schools across all three colleges are using the SLICCs framework to provide course structure and materials, tailored to a specific activity or wicked problem, from pre-honours to integrated PhDs. 
External – A growing number of partners are also using the SLICCs framework to support their activities, individually or in groups to recognise inter-institutional student activities.

This workshop is facilitated by Professor Simon Riley and Dr Gavin McCabe – co-creators of SLICCs and highly experienced in helping others understand and implement the SLICCs model and approach. 

This workshop will provide you with the ideas, tools and insight to make SLICCs work for you, and your institution. 

For more information about SLICCs, see www.ed.ac.uk/sliccs

afternoon Workshop (option 3)

Master PebblePad: Advanced Scenarios for Experts

3 Hours

Facilitators: