In 1997 the National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education (NCIHE) recommended that all students should have a Progress File to enable them to make the outcomes of their learning more explicit and to demonstrate their achievements. The HE Progress File consists of the Transcript Record of formal qualifications and the Personal Development Plan or PDP. Transcripts are available online in MyModules. Using MyPlace students can record and reflect on their learning and achievements and optionally share and discuss them with their lecturers or friends. MyPlace therefore provides a repository for achievements and ways to record and reflect on them.
Lancaster has been providing online PDP for students since 2004 ahead of sector expectations based on the Burgess report of 2004 and HEFCE's e-learning strategy of 2005. However MyPlace was developed in 2007 in response to the inability of the earlier system to share records, the complex nature of making an entry (in which recording and reflection happened simultaneously) and inability to extract records when students left the university. All these shortcomings are remedied in MyPlace, and records from the previous system were transferred to MyPlace. We continue to evaluate effectiveness ( http://www.lancs.ac.uk/celt/celtweb/files/MyPlace_Survey_Results.pdf ).
MyPlace is based on the familiar blog metaphor of articles and comments with standard and user-customised tags to encourage thinking about academic and employment related skills in an easy to use format. Students can create articles visible to themselves, to named friends or to everyone at the university, so besides its PDP / portfolio function it is also widely used for social interaction. MyPlace avoids the risks of indiscreet or inappropriate disclosures associated with public social networking sites on the Internet by restricting access to university students and academic staff; it also avoids encroaching on students' use of public sites for their own social interactions.
MyPlace is closely linked to the university student records system so that standard tags and navigation options are personalised to each student's scheme of study and their departmental and pastoral (college) affiliations; it is closely linked with the university VLE so that students enjoy single-sign-on (SSO) with the VLE, are alerted in the VLE to new MyPlace content and can easily create MyPlace articles from VLE content, making it easy for them to record useful material.
Shared articles and comments on articles are highlighted on the MyPlace Home, while each student's own entries (public and private) are easily accessible in their own blog. Students can navigate content using tags and full-text search. Tags are structured under academic skills, career related skills, achievements, modules and work experience, each with approximately a dozen options but students can always make up tags of their own if necessary.
MyPlace makes extensive use of Web 2.0 features such as news feeds and operability with standard blogging tools based on the MetaWeb API; thus experienced bloggers and users of Microsoft Word can use their normal authoring tools to create MyPlace content.
MyPlace is managed by the university's Learning Technology Group but on a day to day basis student use is guided and assisted mainly by student mentors. Mentors are paid, student volunteers that we try to ensure represent a cross-section of the student population, see http://www.lancs.ac.uk/celt/celtweb/student_mentors. Mentors are trained to encourage and support students to get the best out of MyPlace by writing about their academic, cultural and social experiences on a regular basis as exemplars of good practice for other students. Good practice seeks in particular to raise awareness of the softer skills associated with studying that students may need to record as achievements or plan to practice more in future, such as group work, communication, time management and other skills that future employers are looking for. They are encouraged to identify and reflect on the evidence of how and in what situations these skills have been put into practice (i.e.,through the degree programme, social or employment activities). Mentors also deal with practical issues, providing feedback on articles, collecting student feedback on the effectiveness of MyPlace and encouraging students to take a more pro-active role in their individual learning and career planning, to practice reflective thinking and to build awareness of strengths and weaknesses.
Awareness of MyPlace is raised by:
MyPlace has been in use for less time than its predecessor but has collected more content which was created by more people. However, MyPlace also benefits people who only lurk without ever creating their own blog, exposing thoughts and promoting reflection for all. Because of the social interaction it promotes, MyPlace also fulfils a previously unsatisfied need for a universal student forum that has been useful in airing and raising awareness of issues of wide significance and interest, such as problems of acclimatisation for international students, local issues and places of interest and so on. The future includes expansion of MyPlace to facilitate easier contact with students in their departments, colleges, and student societies, as well as the place to collect, reflect and more.