Open Paper Session 3: Preparing students for professional practice
12th May 2023
Wednesday 14 June, 13.30-15.00, Online
Four Academic Exchanges (verbal presentations of 13-14 minutes, each followed by 6-7 minutes for questions).
This session will be chaired by Alan Marvell, Senior Lecturer in Events Management and National Teaching Fellow.
Recording of the session
i. YFP Business Partnership – Building a brighter future for students
Gareth Nelson (School of Computing and Engineering) and Natalie Ferrari (Future Plan Employability)
With the restructuring of the Your Future Plan (YFP) department and the introduction of Business Partners (BPs) attached to Schools at the University of Gloucestershire, we present what has been achieved as a result of the new and successful collaboration between the YFP Business Partner and the YFP Academic Lead within the School of Computing and Engineering, with the aim of boosting Graduate Outcomes and producing professionalised graduates.
The implementation of the employability provision is novel for the University. It involves utilising the three Employability Pillars, as outlined in the University of Gloucestershire Strategic Plan 2022-27 (Goal 3), to create nine Employability Learning Outcomes and seven Employability Assessments. Working with Academic Course Leaders, these Learning Outcomes and Assessments have been embedded throughout modules in Levels 4, 5, and 6, allowing ACLs to shape it for their own calibre of students. This approach increases academic involvement in employability and allows for progression through employability content.
The progression and buy-in from academic staff are the direct result of the business partnership forged between the BP and YFP Academic Lead, allowing for flexibility, idea sharing, and tackling challenges from two different angles. The impact of this new pilot Employability Strategy will be evaluated through a range of data sources: Careers Registration, Career Pulse, Graduate Outcomes Survey, and module feedback.
ii. Practising for Practice – exploring simulated practice scenarios on the Social Work degree and students’ preparedness for practice
David Hambling and Emma Perry (School of Health and Social Care)
This presentation will cover the use of face-to-face simulated practice scenarios which have been embedded across the three-year undergraduate Social Work qualifying degree. The School of Health and Social Care is striving to be a centre of excellence for simulations aiding students’ practice learning. Research has been carried out to explore the impact simulations had on students’ preparedness for practice placements. The research data comes from two focus groups, involving 12 final year Social Work students, who had recently completed their final 100-day practice placements. Experiences of practice simulations across the three-year Social Work degree were discussed by students, along with how prepared students had felt for practice. Themes that were identified included simulations aiding: 1) exposure to practice realities, 2) applying and reflecting on learning and 3) self-awareness and reflexivity. Important findings included simulations aiding students’ knowledge transfer into practice, the development of reflexivity, and the importance of reflections around values and emotions and their influence on practice. Using these findings has aided recommendations and contributions to a growing body of research highlighting the importance of simulations and their contribution to students’ preparedness for practice. Opportunities for further educational and research developments in this area will be explored.
iii. The use of an e-portfolio (Mahara) as a tool to enable learning through assessment
Pauline Williams (School of Natural, Social and Sport Sciences)
This University Teaching Fellowship (UTF) project aimed to explore the use of an e-portfolio within assessment. The module strand that houses the portfolio is delivered through Levels 4, 5 and 6 and is centred on developing the professional practitioner in sport. The learning design intends to enable students to acknowledge and develop their own career planning through self-awareness, awareness of the relationship between theory and practice and ownership of their own development.
In the academic years 2021/2022/2023, students from Levels 4, 5 and 6 were asked to complete a survey to share how they found the experience of the use of an e-portfolio as an assessment. Focus groups were held to explore their experiences further, in particular where the students had completed the portfolio at all three levels. The results and key recommendations will be shared.
iv. Teaching Humans in a Virtual World
James Dalby (School of Creative Industries)
On 1st February 2023, it was announced that the AI ‘chatbot’ ChatGPT had successfully passed Google’s technical interview process for a Level 3 Software Engineer; an entry-level position at Google, although with a $183,000 salary nonetheless! Preparing our students for a working world where many roles with measurable and repeatable elements may become shared with – or even replaced by – AI technologies is something we need to be discussing and doing today, in order to remain relevant.
This presentation will begin with tech-pioneer Jaron Lanier’s belief that for too long humans have been encouraged to think and work ‘like computers’, and suggests that in education an initial task is to recognise fundamental differences in the ways human brains and AIs operate. In this way, we can design curricula and assessments (such as rethinking the binary idea of dividing all courses/modules into ‘practical’ and ‘theory’ camps) which prioritise human working and offer clear employment trajectories in an increasingly virtual world.