1, 2, 3 – A journey of PDP at the University of Wolverhampton

This paper is a synthesis of the findings of three research projects to identify Personal Development Planning (PDP) progress at the University of Wolverhampton. The three projects look at PDP from a number of perspectives. Firstly, a university-wide e-Portfolio evaluation that explored e-Portfolio practice through the measure of PDP objectives evident in practice - the objectives used within this provide the structure for the discussion within this paper. Secondly, the paper is informed by the Inter/National Coalition for EPortfolio Research INCEPR) project, which involved looking at the facilitating and inhibiting factors affecting the scalability and sustainability of e-Portfolio and e-Portfolio based PDP across the institution. Finally, a Doctoral research project that looked at factors that contribute to engagement with PDP. Aspects of three of these pieces of research were pulled together as part of the Higher Education Academy/National Teaching Fellowship Scheme National Action Research Network On Researching and Evaluating Personal Development Planning and ePortfolio Practice Project (The NTFS NARN project)

A little and often: unanticipated outcomes from an ePortfolio evaluation impacting on early identification of risk and non submission of work

Since 2005 all staff and students within the University of Wolverhampton have had access to an ePortfolio system - PebblePad. In 2007 the University ran a HEA Pathfinder Project 'embedding ePortfolio at level 1' which involved 1800 level 1 learners and 31 members of staff across all academic schools. The staff development activities used to develop teacher capabilities tried to mirror the student experience to great success. The knowledge gained from this project was then taken into a University-wide impact evaluation. The evaluation identified anticipated and unanticipated outcomes of pedagogic processes for personal development planning (PDP) and e-portfolio development. This paper will deal with two key areas: 1 the early identification of risk and 2 the reduction in non-submission of work. This work now feeds into the University's Blended Learning Strategy (2008). The overarching aims of this strategy are to enhance student learning and to improve each student's learning experience. This is articulated via student entitlements of which the following are directly addressed by this work: All students should be entitled to: formative assessment/s opportunities on line with meaningful electronic assessment feedback; have the opportunity to participate in electronic Personal Development Planning (ePDP); The paper will look at how an ePortfolio system was used to develop learner skills, learner support issues and how staff from a central department worked with discipline-based staff to help support their students, finally addressing institutional strategy and support issues

Best practice guide for the design of ePDP tasks

Higher Education Academ

Record, reflect, connect: Using web cams with an ePortfolio system

DIVERSE (Developing Innovative Visual Educational Resources For Students Everywhere) INHOLLAND, Haarlem, Netherlands.Each country has its own visual sign language used by the Deaf community; in the UK this is British Sign Language (BSL). In 1994 the University of Wolverhampton created the 1st Degree course in Europe for Interpreting (BSL/English) this course has a very high employment record. Before this research students used video cameras to record work, physically having to bring tapes in for tutorials and feedback. This research brought together an ePortfolio system – PebblePad© and web cams to offer students the opportunity to record, reflect and connect their development in their own space and time and for staff to be able to provide relevant and appropriate formative feedback. Within the University of Wolverhampton all students and staff have an ePortfolio system - PebblePad©. The software allows users to build collections of items related to their studies, personal development, continuing professional development or any event. Those items can then be published or shared with individuals, groups or to a public audience. The software promotes reflection and gathering of evidence, any digital file can be linked to the software giving the ability to add such things as video, images and sound. However, the majority of students and staff use mainly text and pictures this research has tested the ability to connect moving images through web cams. This paper will give a comprehensive view of the technical, pedagogic and support issues raised by this project.interna

The Pathfinder Journey - Embedding ePortfolio at level 1

Higher Education Academ

Best practice guide for the retreat model of staff development to design ePDP tasks

Higher Education Academ

The Educational Potential of e-Portfolios: supporting personal development and reflective learning

Review of The Educational Potential of e-Portfolios: supporting personal development and reflective learning Lorraine Stefani, Robin Mason & Chris Pegler London: Routledge, 2007, 186pp. ISBN-13: 978-0415412148 (pbk

Prevalence and architecture of de novo mutations in developmental disorders.

The genomes of individuals with severe, undiagnosed developmental disorders are enriched in damaging de novo mutations (DNMs) in developmentally important genes. Here we have sequenced the exomes of 4,293 families containing individuals with developmental disorders, and meta-analysed these data with data from another 3,287 individuals with similar disorders. We show that the most important factors influencing the diagnostic yield of DNMs are the sex of the affected individual, the relatedness of their parents, whether close relatives are affected and the parental ages. We identified 94 genes enriched in damaging DNMs, including 14 that previously lacked compelling evidence of involvement in developmental disorders. We have also characterized the phenotypic diversity among these disorders. We estimate that 42% of our cohort carry pathogenic DNMs in coding sequences; approximately half of these DNMs disrupt gene function and the remainder result in altered protein function. We estimate that developmental disorders caused by DNMs have an average prevalence of 1 in 213 to 1 in 448 births, depending on parental age. Given current global demographics, this equates to almost 400,000 children born per year

Heterozygous Variants in KMT2E Cause a Spectrum of Neurodevelopmental Disorders and Epilepsy.

We delineate a KMT2E-related neurodevelopmental disorder on the basis of 38 individuals in 36 families. This study includes 31 distinct heterozygous variants in KMT2E (28 ascertained from Matchmaker Exchange and three previously reported), and four individuals with chromosome 7q22.2-22.23 microdeletions encompassing KMT2E (one previously reported). Almost all variants occurred de novo, and most were truncating. Most affected individuals with protein-truncating variants presented with mild intellectual disability. One-quarter of individuals met criteria for autism. Additional common features include macrocephaly, hypotonia, functional gastrointestinal abnormalities, and a subtle facial gestalt. Epilepsy was present in about one-fifth of individuals with truncating variants and was responsive to treatment with anti-epileptic medications in almost all. More than 70% of the individuals were male, and expressivity was variable by sex; epilepsy was more common in females and autism more common in males. The four individuals with microdeletions encompassing KMT2E generally presented similarly to those with truncating variants, but the degree of developmental delay was greater. The group of four individuals with missense variants in KMT2E presented with the most severe developmental delays. Epilepsy was present in all individuals with missense variants, often manifesting as treatment-resistant infantile epileptic encephalopathy. Microcephaly was also common in this group. Haploinsufficiency versus gain-of-function or dominant-negative effects specific to these missense variants in KMT2E might explain this divergence in phenotype, but requires independent validation. Disruptive variants in KMT2E are an under-recognized cause of neurodevelopmental abnormalities