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
Semester
Level 1000
Level 2000
Level 3000
Level 4000
Level 5000
1
1
1
1
1
2
Oral
Presentation
Poster
Newspaper
2
x
xx
2
x
x
x
x
Mini project
x
x
3 sets of posters
2
x
x
Essay
Semester 2
2
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 Assessment
Peer Assessment is used
to moderate an overall
mark given by two
assessors
CH3441
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.
Personal Development Planning
Dr. Fiona Gray
FILTA
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 Record
Royal 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 (20025)
USR 2002-3
Fiona Gray
Semester 2
Mentoring
Training
Semester 2
Individual
discussions
Semester 1
Individual
discussions
22/30
Level 3000
(3rd Year)
Mentoring
Filled in retrospectively
To enable mentoring
Level 1000
(1st Year)
58/64
Steady State Operation
Semester 1
Introduce PDP
Level 1000
(1st Year)
Fiona Gray
Semester 1
Training for
mentoring
Semester 1
Encouraging
Checking
Level 2000
(2nd Year)
Semesters 1
and 2
Mentoring
Semester 2
Mentoring
Level 3000
(3rd Year)
Level 4/5000
(4th/5th Year)
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 nonspecialist 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
Plan and present an oral presentation with appropriate visual aids
D
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 2
Arrive on a unicycle, put a bit of juggling in the middle, make a loud
noise every time someone looks like dropping off
Colin Mason suggests cutting out most of the detail and concentrating
on the key points
A
B
C
D
E
I can use this skill very well
I can use this skill well, but some improvements could be made
I need to improve this skill
I need to put in considerable work to develop this skill
I have not had the opportunity to develop this skill
Phase 3
Phase 2
Phase 1
How it works
To Assess or not to Assess…
For
• 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)
Against
• 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
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.