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From B3 to university-wide transformation: boosting employability

Becka Colley-Foster, Edge Hill University

Becka Colley-Foster, Head of Careers and Graduate Employability from Edge Hill University on ‘University-wide Initiatives’. This recording is from our 2022 MiniBash community event which was hosted in Birmingham, England. Videos are for educational personnel only and require a live educational email to watch. You can read a small snippet of the video transcript below. 

–START TRANSCRIPT– 

So, thank you very much for asking me to be involved today. I called it implementing B3 because I thought that would get everyone’s attention. But it’s really about how we use PebblePad to transform, what was a very simple self-reflect activity into an institutional wide approach and it was great to hear what Shane had to say at the beginning because that final slide of his, I reckon what we’re doing at Edge Hill hits at least 4 of those areas on there as an institution wide approach. 

So, before we get going then, and the impact of this is going to be lost because I should have sent Sarah my font, but I didn’t. So, yes, this is supposed to be Star Wars font. So, a long long time ago, excuse me, I’ve got a long COVID as well and I laughed too much last night, so my voice is probably going to give up. In a galaxy, far far away, I.e, Yorkshire, a skills and personal reflective activity developed called SaPRA because we couldn’t come up with a snappier name and I don’t have a rucksack to give people to do it. Its ultimate aim was world domination, but first it had to overcome the evil empire known as university bureaucracy, led by the stormtroopers of the public sector IT services. Let battle commence.  

So SaPRA version 1 was delivered in 2006, and I was trying to argue with Neil this morning about how long we’ve been using PebblePad for at Bradford, and it wasn’t from 2004, but it is almost as long as I have been a parent. My son was born in 2003. And the first version of SaPRA bearing in mind, this is the twenty first century, it was super high-tech. It was a paper workbook, but actually, it was really effective, and it went down really well with the students that we used it for. And Shane approached Bradford and we were early adopters of the technology. And version 2 was built in PebblePad and we love this. I remember discussing this with the learning technologists when we did it. Can you recognise the traffic lights on there Shane? You’ve got rid of the track lights. I love the traffic lights. So we no longer have traffic lights on there. 

So the whole process of SaPRA was that students reflect on their levels of confidence in a range of different skill areas on a scale of 1 to 5 and for those of you that can’t see the really slim text in that screenshot because I had to go back through my archives to find this. When they wrote themselves, they had a little number. And if they’ve done everything, if they drank themselves, they provided some evidence and they’d created an action plan because all of it was integrated. It gave them a green traffic light. If they’d done either an action plan or evidence, it was an amber light and if they’d done nothing it was red.  

–END TRANSCRIPT–  

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Talk description: I will use the themes of reflection and experiential learning, skills development and assessment (including programme level assessment and changes in assessment practice) to explore this process in more detail. This includes the link between disciplinary and institutional curriculum reform, learning from local innovations and changes, and using this to inform University level changes and support.

Bio: My current position is leading the University wide Curriculum Transformation Project. This is a major and long term initiative for the University considering all areas of the University’s undergraduate and taught postgraduate curriculum. Prior to this Jon set up and led the Institute for Academic Development (IAD) at the University of Edinburgh. The IAD provides University level support for teaching, learning and researcher development, including direct support for students and staff, and support for enhancement and innovation in curriculum development, the student and researcher experience. Jon has a PhD in petroleum geology.

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Talk description: The diversity of students in higher education dictates that there cannot (and should not) be a single ‘silver bullet’ approach to address the complex challenge of career readiness learning. However, the reality of modern university structures is that delivering bespoke experiences for each student is a challenge in and of itself.  And yet, all things are possible with creative use of PebblePad to streamline delivery (for the university) and make it highly personalised (for the student). 

Bio: Gayle Brent is a Learning and Teaching Consultant (Employability) at Griffith University, Queensland, Australia. Gaye’s specialist area of interest is developing and implementing strategies to enhance staff and student understanding of employability in both curricular and extra-curricular contexts. She completed a Master of Education and Professional Studies Research to explore the potential barriers and challenges to embedding employability-based learning in higher education curriculum and is currently completing a Doctor of Philosophy exploring the impact of an extra-curricular employability program on the individual student experience.

Dr Melissa Highton. Assistant Principal, University of Edinburgh

Talk description: A journey through the stories told by wicca data. How a neglected research data set was used by students to overturn historic injustice and shed new light on the lives of women in Scotland.

Bio: Melissa has worked for many years in higher education at some of the UK’s finest and most ancient institutions. In each place she enjoys discovering the hidden histories and less heard voices which can be surfaced in new ways using the most up to date and open technologies. She is a champion of playful and curious approaches to engagement with audiences on campus and online, and is an invited speaker at events about dangerous women.

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Bio: Jeff Grabill is Deputy Vice Chancellor for Student Education at the University of Leeds. Prior to joining the University of Leeds, Grabill was at Michigan State University (MSU) in the United States for nearly 20 years. He served Michigan State University as the Associate Provost for Teaching, Learning, and Technology. In that role, he was responsible for facilitating innovation in learning and educator professional development via his role as Director of the Hub for Innovation in Learning and Technology. Grabill’s research focuses on how digital writing is associated with citizenship and learning. That work has been located in community contexts, in museums, and in classrooms at both the K-12 and university levels. Grabill is also a co-founder of Drawbridge, an educational technology company.

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