Challenge

Increasing access to employment opportunities is a Griffith priority - and for many students employability is a prime motivator for embarking on university study.  So how can we ensure our graduates are job-ready, career capable, well-rounded individuals? 

Approach

Throughout their entire university journey, students should be able to reflect on their ambitions and goals, and evidence their curricular and extracurricular experiences with the end goal of increasing their empoyability.

Embedding structured and personal reflection into their learning experience enhances students' self-awareness, allowing them to collate their skills and abilities.  We asked this cohort to firstly reflect upon their skills and priorities, and then to imagine themselves 5 or 10 years down and track so that they could start building their career path. 

We used PebblePad to scaffold this process, which enabled students to create shareable portfolios to showcase their experience, skills and capability.  In essence, this provided them their own online space to develop work over time and receive formative feedback along the way.

Taking this approach meant that instructors could easily track each individual's progress and provide meaningful feedback at any stage of the process.

Outcomes

Students were able to:

• Create ePortfolios that are accessible ever after graduation, encouraging a seamless transition from university to the world of work  
• Record evidence of their experiences that may otherwise be lost
• Selectively share and showcase their learning journey, skills, and abilities

Enabling Technology

PebblePad workbooks were used to provide a framework for students.

Pebblepad (Fact sheet). Getting Started with VLE tools and the Course Design Standards.

Pebblepad (Module). Getting Started with VLE tools and the Course Design Standards.

Implement

When considering using PebblePad as an activity or assessment task, consider the following:

• Book training for the whole teaching team prior to implementation
• Spend time on the structure of your template and test this with students
• When designing the workbook consider the amount of instructional text on the page - less is often more

Students will have preconceptions, so: 

• Outline how PebblePad will be used for your course
• Provide instructions on the use of PebblePad 
• Set clear expectations for your work depth and quality
• Provide a detailed support document for assessment requirements
• Provide examples of completed work 

Your Learning and Teaching Consultant can suggest ways of optimising the use of PebblePad for your teaching practice. 

Griffith Graduate Attributes

This assessment item aligns with the following Griffith Graduate Attributes:

1. Knowledgeable and skilled with critical judgement
2. Effective communicators and collaborators
3. Innovative, creative and entrepreneurial

In this assessment item, students are encouraged to draw upon their meta-cognitive abilities to reflect upon their career plan and articulate their personal strengths.

Contributed by

• Griffith Sciences
  School of Environment and Science
  Caryl Bosman
  (07) 555 27721
  c.bosman@griffith.edu.au
  http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2667-6266
  Griffith Experts profile
• Learning Futures
  
• Griffith Sciences
  L&T team
  

Preferred Citation

Bosman, C (2020). Building urban and environmental students' career paths. Retrieved from https://app.secure.griffith.edu.au/exlnt/entry/7508/view