Sandboxes

and Springboards
crea%veanddigitalmarke%ng.net springboardcourses.ie

Two digital modules of six

Introduc%on to digital marke%ng prac%ce (how to do stu) Personal development competences (what you can do) Computer lab teaching, expert external speakers and workshops in semester 1 Project work in semester 2 with op%onal weekly meet-up Facebook group for links, references, social contact 60% building block marks for weekly exercises during semester 1 plus par%cipa%on marks (in-class and facebook, for ac%vi%es like website design, video of speakers, peer teaching) 40% marks for porMolio and project presenta%on in semester 2

Mixed ability, age, IT skills

Age range early 20s to late 50s IT skills on entry ranging from experience in content-managing websites down to barely able to cut and paste but improved! General literacy/wri%ng skills varied from professional to diculty in composing a basic business leVer Jobs market: almost all posts adver%sed from September 2011 to May 2012 requested 1-3 years experience and Google Adwords and many wanted a 2nd language too Approach: eporMolio evidence of skills star%ng with Blackboard as a private sandbox, moving to a curated, public eporMolio from development to showcase
Videos, Google Ads text, LinkedIn Proles, blog pos%ng, Google analy%cs reports, Slideshare presenta%ons, facebook business pages

Video: Margaret Smith

In a fast-moving subject like digital marke%ng you have to use expert prac%%oners Margaret Smith runs the Umnumnum Cookery school and came in to talk about using TwiVer for community management
For each speaker I encouraged a dierent student to video their talk so they would learn basic lming, edi%ng, YouTube upload, tagging etc. and these type of ac%vi%es formed the basis for the porMolios.

hVp://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=g4Ur_X3-tzs

What we wanted students to do

Reect upon their own learning, performance and achievement Plan for their personal, educa%onal and career development, including extra-curricular ac%vi%es. Collect purposefully the story of their eorts, progress or achievement. Make sense of the work and culminate in a curated or edited story that is publicly available to employers or clients, reec%ng real tasks accomplished. The level of guidance and support decreases during the PDP process as personal capabili%es develop, with the inten%on of the process becoming self-sustaining. I do not think we achieved the last point but is it realisEc?

Enterprise model of PDP

October bank holiday: stressing trying to create a relevant rubric to explain to the students, I found Norman Jacksons wiki: hVp://personaldevelopmentplanning.pbworks.com/w/page/ 2110913/FrontPage

Hidden away here and never ocially published says Norman

It %ed in really well with work my former colleague Dr Catherine OMahony carried out for NAIRTL in 2009 surveying what employers, academics and students want as graduate competences.

 Pitching ideas and persuading others of their value Communica%ng clearly and appropriately, demonstra%ng a sense of audience Producing content that is literate, numerate and coherent in an appropriate medium. Engaging in research or produc%ve enquiry to nd things out in order to do what is necessary Managing informa%on eec%vely in a range of media Building partnerships and collabora%ons and networking Being resourceful with exis%ng resources or crea%ng new assets Brokering by bringing people, ideas and resources together and inspiring them with a vision Working with others to achieve specic objec%ves Designing, making and producing crea%ve and digital media content Selling, or performing another specialist ac%vity closely related to crea%ve and digital marke%ng. Demonstra%ng customer focus and service orienta%on Ac%ng in an ethical manner demonstra%ng poli%cal, social and cultural awareness

Problems
Students found Blackboard Campus eporMolio pack hard, especially sharing journals with the tutor next year we will use the main journal feature but set to private. Too many clicks, too confusing to get to (add new entry buVon). Facebooks changed the game! Excellent proprietary systems (eg Kent, Dundee) have the diculty that they are not likely to be maintained ater the student leaves so eort is wasted. Timing: other modules overran, porMolios got squeezed by exam deadlines

 Combined elements from a number of the referenced publica%ons and websites Presented to students and discussed middle of term 1 Added bonus points for evidence of use of mul%media Based around a signpost document for each student linked to all the pieces of evidence PlaMorm independent students could choose where to do their showcase as long as it was easily accessible for prospec%ve employers or clients. But most used the course microsites I can send the rubric to anyone interested

Assessment Rubric

Developments for next year

Wordpress mul%user student microsites under course website umbrella (idea from hVp://edc.educa%on.ed.ac.uk/ ) A useful skill they could see employers valued (content management with Wordpress) while crea%ng their external porMolio Microsites will be in place from the start next year for those brave enough to move on from the Blackboard sandbox More DePTA / peer porMolio assessment and peer teaching More bonus points for using mul%media

What did I learn?

Most only did what the assessment demanded Those with poor IT and wri%ng skills found it harder: course entry requirements require revision. They nearly got more out of crea%ng good about.me pages that linked their social media presences than the eporMolio Rewri%ng and peer-reviewing their cvs, crea%ng LinkedIn proles and visualise.me graphic resumes, all worked well. Without the rst-week Skype talk from industry recruiter Roseanne Smith, the eporMolio exercise would have been irrelevant to the students. The course worked overall 8 in jobs (one emigrants), 2 star%ng businesses, 3 interning out of a cohort of 17 (4 dropouts) EporMolio marking is %me-consuming have a clear rubric.

Denis OMahoney example

If Denis doesnt get a good job out of this course in the end, Ill eat my hat Applica%ons for this, (and 5 other digital marke%ng courses from other ins%tu%ons), now being taken on the Springboard website

References
Arter JA, Spandel V, 1992. NCME Instruc%onal Module: Using PorMolios of Student Work in Instruc%on and Assessment. Available from: www.ncme.org/pubs/items/18.pdf Eraut M. (2009). Learning to be Professional through Higher Educa%on. Available at: hVp:// learningtobeprofessional.pbworks.com/w/page/15914947/FrontPage Gordon J, Assessing students personal and professional development using porMolios and interviews, 2003. Medical Educa%on volume 37, pp335-340 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Jackson N, Ward R. A fresh perspec%ve on progress lesa way of represen%ng complex learning and achievement in higher educa%on in Assessment and Evalua%on in Higher Educa%on, Volume 29, No. 4 August 2004. Available from: hVp://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/resources/resourcedatabase/ id361_fresh_perspec%ve_on_progress_les.pdf OMahony C, 2009. Inves%ga%ng graduate competences, NAIRTL. Available at hVp://www.nairtl.ie Personal development planning: guidance for ins%tu%onal policy and prac%ce in higher educa%on, 2009, The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Educa%on, Scotland. Available at hVp://www.qaa.ac.uk Qualica%ons and Curriculum Authority, 2007. E-Assessment Guide to Eec%ve Prac%ce. Available from: hVp:// www.sqa.org.uk/les_ccc/guide_to_best_prac%ce.pdf Strivens J. et al, 2009. The Role of e-PorMolios in Forma%ve and Summa%ve Assessment: Report of the JISC-funded Study. Centre for Recording Achievement. Available from: hVp://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/ elearningcapital/studyontheroleofeporMolios.aspx#downloads University of Plymouth Study Guide Number 11 Reec%on. Available from hVp://www.plymouth.ac.uk/learn. Zimmerman B. J. (2000). AVaining self-regula%on: A social cogni%ve perspec%ve. In M.Boekaerts, P. R. Pintrich, & M. Zeidner (Eds.), Handbook of self-regula%on (pp. 13-39).San Diego: Academic Press. Websites hVp://www.recordingachievement.org/higher-educa%on/depta-project.html hVp://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/e-porMolios/emerging-lessons hVp://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/2011/03/e-porMolios-7-reasons-why-i-dont-want.html