Assessing Transferable Skills Personal Development Planning

David Cole-Hamilton

School of Chemistry

University of St. Andrews

Transferable skills Embedded in the Curriculum

Posters Oral presentations

Essays Chemical Newspaper

Miniproject

All involve teamwork

Posters

Oral Presentations

Chemical Newspapers

The Problem

Level 1000 Level 2000 Level 3000 Level 4000 Level 5000

Semester 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2

OralPresentation

x x x x

Poster xx x

Newspaper x

Essay x x

Mini project x

Semester 2 3 sets of posters 3 sets of Oral presentations

The Solution

• Hold all poster sessions on the same afternoon with a reception for staff and all students (lectures the morning of the same day)

• Each activity marked by at least two staff members

• Markers selected from those not involved in teaching the module

• Only one assessment per staff member• All staff members do one assessment• Prizes judged by sponsor or other External

person

Assessment of Group work(Miniproject)

Assessed Components

Individual Report

Group Report

Group presentation (each individual contributes)

Assessment of Group Report

Peer AssessmentCH3441

Miniprojects Peer Assessment

In carrying out the assessment of the contribution other members of your group have made to the project, please assign a mark to each one between 0 (no input) and 4 (did everything). The total marks should add up to 8 if there were 5 members of the group and 6 if there were 4. Fractional marks are acceptable. Do not award a mark to yourself.

Your Name:

Name of group member Mark

Please return this to me at the presentations on Friday. Thank you.

David Cole-Hamilton May 2004.

Peer Assessment is used to moderate an overall mark given by two assessors

Personal Development Planning

Dr. Fiona GrayFILTA

Personal Development Planning

Maintaining a record of the skills developed during a University Degree

Academic and non-academic

Undergraduate Skills Record

Royal Society of Chemistry

Why do Personal development Planning

If I ask a student at interview – “Did you do any group work during your

undergraduate degree?”and they think for a while before saying“I seem to remember putting a poster together with

some other students in Second year”I am not impressed. If they can reply immediately with details of various

activities, they are much more likely to get the job

Recruitment Officer, Quintiles, Edinburgh

Undergraduate Skills RecordRoyal Society of Chemistry

Undergraduate skills record

• Student centred

• Regularly updated

• Read over before interviews etc.

• Covers academic and non-academic activities

• Paper, on-line and downloadable formats available

Introduction of USR Chemistry, St. Andrews

• Funding from FILTA (2002-3)

• Part time employment of Dr. Fiona Gray (2002-5)

USR 2002-3

Level 3000(3rd Year)

Semester 1Individual discussions

Level 1000(1st Year)

Semester 2Individual discussions

Mentoring

Filled in retrospectivelyTo enable mentoring

Semester 2MentoringTraining

22/3058/64

Fiona Gray

Steady State Operation

Level 3000(3rd Year)

Level 1000(1st Year)

Fiona Gray

Level 2000(2nd Year)

Level 4/5000(4th/5th Year)

Semester 1Introduce PDP

Semester 2Mentoring

Semester 1Encouraging

Checking

Semesters 1 and 2

Mentoring

Semester 1Training for mentoring

Nine Key Skills

• Planning and Organisation• Study Skills• Handling Information• Communication Skills• Teamwork• Scientific / Practical Skills• Improving Learning and Performance• Information/Communication Technology• Problem Solving

Communication Skills

Rate yourself on your ability to:• Ask for advice and help from fellow students,

lecturers, supervisors• Present ideas to a range of specialist and non-

specialist audiences• Maintain good lecture / laboratory notes• Provide written reports on time and of an

appropriate length• Plan and present an oral presentation with

appropriate visual aids

How it worksPlan and present an oral presentation with appropriate visual aids

Note Comments targets and Plans with evidence to support your scoring

Went on a bit long; rather boring; two people fell asleep in the back row half way through

Development Targets for Phase 2Arrive on a unicycle, put a bit of juggling in the middle, make a loud

noise every time someone looks like dropping offColin Mason suggests cutting out most of the detail and concentrating

on the key points

A I can use this skill very wellB I can use this skill well, but some improvements could be madeC I need to improve this skillD I need to put in considerable work to develop this skillE I have not had the opportunity to develop this skill

Pha

se 1

Pha

se 2

Pha

se 3

D

• Will students take the process seriously if it is not compulsory and not assessed?

• Some students have had very bad experiences of PDP at school (National Record of Achievement)

To Assess or not to Assess…

• Students have said they would not fill in the record honestly if they were to be assessed or had to show the record to someone

• Staff are happy to help or look over what has been written and comment if invited

For Against

Showing PDP is worthwhile

• Personal Development planning is for the benefit of the students

• They need to see it as worthwhile• Senior students help because they can give

practical examples of where it was important (Industrial Placement or job interviews)

• A staff member committed to the scheme makes the scheme work.

• She also picks up other problems early in first year (e. g. time management)

Conclusions

• Personal Development Planning helps students appreciate the skills they have learnt and why they have learnt them

• It allows them to check before an interview what they have done

• They will probably not keep a skills record without encouragement

• Mentoring of junior students by more senior ones helps show the importance of PDP

• A staff member to introduce and monitor PDP helps greatly.