Document Type

Article

Rights

This item is available under a Creative Commons License for non-commercial use only

Disciplines

*pedagogy

Abstract

Students on work placement will have very different experiences from each other; however they are generally not connected to their peers, but working with professionals under the guidance of a work placement co-ordinator. Therefore during work placement they are not formally supported by peers and cannot learn from the diverse range of activities their peers will experience. The aim of this project is to enhance the student experience while on work placement by introducing a blog assessment. The implementation of work placement blogs will allow work placement experiences to be shared with the whole class. Feedback mechanisms are discussed, along with assessment strategies which actively promote student interaction with their peers. This ensures that all students have the potential to learn from their own reflections, from each other’s experiences, from tutor feedback on peer blogs, from the process of peer review and through broadening the curriculum by connecting the “class room” setting to “real life working environment”. Overall this assessment allows more efficient achievement of learning outcomes that all work placement modules share. For example, blogs can help to develop further students’ personal and employability skills such as critical thinking and analysis through reflection, writing skills, communication, professionalism, listening and giving/accepting constructive criticism through the discussions with each other. In addition, all of these important student graduate attributes can be further enhanced and developed through directed discussions with the lecturer using blogs.


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