Foreword by Shane Sutherland, PebblePad CEO
Ever since their inception, ‘eportfolios’ seem to have been typically associated with showcasing examples of completed work, rather than for sharing and receiving feedback on work, projects and ideas in progress. And while examples of portfolio practice have often come from disciplines like nursing and teaching, we have over our years of PebblePaddling (15 and counting) heard about innovative examples of eportfolio practice in many other disciplines, but often these have been viewed as atypical. How wonderful then for personal learning advocates and the wider STEM community to have at their disposal the excellent collection of use cases brought together by the superb team in Griffith Sciences. I cannot overstate the value and usefulness of the resources in the book described below, and how proud I am to have Griffith University as a customer.
This blog post has been authored by Julie Crough, Chris Campbell and Christopher Allan from Griffith University.
Sustaining quality teaching and learning in STEM
Finding and sustaining quality learning and teaching practice in STEM can be difficult, particularly when it involves a new technology. Finding examples within STEM to support sustained growth can be almost impossible. In 2017, Griffith University implemented a university-wide adoption of PebblePad. To facilitate this implementation, Griffith Sciences instituted a blended learning fund to find and support initiatives utilising PebblePad and other technologies. The Blended Learning Designs in STEM Higher Education book provides some results of that initiative.
The book provides a professional learning framework that can be used to implement blended learning technologies such as PebblePad, in Higher Education in an authentic way. It offers a set of learning principles to inform the design of learning in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). These principles, coupled with a range of PebblePad initiatives and case studies across STEM disciplines, provide a rich suite of resources to support educators to adopt or adapt them to their own context. We think the book is unique in that it provides a snapshot of one university (Griffith University) and one implementation of a new technology (PebblePad) within a STEM context. It documents the “grass roots” initiatives of STEM practitioners and the blended learning designs that have organically grown throughout this process.
References and resources
Blended Learning Designs in STEM Higher Education: Putting Learning First
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-981-13-6982-7
Leveraging educational technology to enhance career confidence
https://app.secure.griffith.edu.au/exlnt/entry/5505/view
New flight procedures training laboratory for Griffith Aviation
https://app.secure.griffith.edu.au/exlnt/entry/7128/view
Promoting active learning and equity in a HyFlex course
https://app.secure.griffith.edu.au/exlnt/entry/7148/view
Using PebblePad as a design brief with a first year cohort
https://app.secure.griffith.edu.au/exlnt/entry/7328/view
Using PebblePad to collect evidence of learning
https://app.secure.griffith.edu.au/exlnt/entry/7348/view
Supporting science students to be problem solvers, not recipe followers – https://app.secure.griffith.edu.au/exlnt/entry/7368/view
Building urban and environmental students’ career paths
https://app.secure.griffith.edu.au/exlnt/entry/7508/view
For more information on the learning and teaching process undertaken within the book, see the Griffith Sciences Blended Learning Model – https://app.secure.griffith.edu.au/exlnt/entry/6405/view
