Twenty Ten

Having got Mahara installed on the network I needed to find something to use it for that would work quickly and effectively. I decided to use it to create eportfolios for the OCR Nationals. I had been concerned about the amount of printing we were doing for the OCR Nationals especially the Unit 1. Eportfolios seemed to be the obvious choice, but there were still issues:

• Pupils all handed work into moodle for assessment
• Would pupils/staff be able to work out how to use mahara e-portfolios?
• Would our moderator like the new format

To address these we firstly continued to assess work and give feedback via moodle. The e-portfolio was only created once they had finished all work and it had been assessed. When the moderator came in to assess this years cohort we showed him mahara, he was well impressed and actually made it one of our action plans, so that all OCR units are submitted via mahara.

Once we worked out a system for submitting work – students took to it very easily and are now producing portfolios of work for each unit. The process is reasonably simple:

1. As a teacher you need to create a group for each of your classes.
2. In that group you then create a ‘view’ for each of the portfolios you want the student to create. Unit 1, Unit 20, Unit 21 etc. You also need to make sure that group is copiable.
3. Students are then invite themselves to your group and you accept. It seems the easiest way to get the right kids into the right group.
4. Once they are members of your ‘group’ they can go into their ‘my portfolio’ section and copy a view – the ones you have already created are now available for selection as they are part of your group.
5. Students now need to upload their work to their ‘my files’ area in Mahara.
6. In the ‘my files’ section they need to create a decent folder structure for each unit.
7. Once all work has been uploaded they can now edit the ‘view’ that they copied and add their work to it.
8. Editing views is easy once you get the hang of it. It is simply a drag and drop exercise. In this case all they are doing is dragging folders into the ‘view’ and choosing the correct folder from their ‘my files’ to add to their view
9. Once the portfolio(view) is complete the students can then submit the view. This now appears in the group which you as a teacher created and you have access to all their work in one portfolio.
10. I am now working with our technician to sort out submitting views to moodle. This will enable me to set up a course and user for our moderator and then the chosen sample can be submitted to moodle and the moderator has easy access to the necessary work. It can even be accessed by the moderator from home if needed.  Hopefully by installing this on moodle.

Below are some screenshots of some of the processes mentioned above.

Teacher OCR Group

Unit 1 – ‘view’ that can be copied by students. Info just explains the folder they need to complete in their ‘my folders’

Student portfolio for Unit 20 – all you need to do is click on any of the files and they will open. This works exceptionally well for swf animations.

You can give feedback and can also attach the official marksheet so everything is ready for the moderator.

Have added the screenshots to issuu so that you can see them better.  Hopefully if you click here they should appear

misterel Teaching & Learning eportfolio, mahara, OCR Nationals

I am at an impasse. DiDA has been my KS4 life for the past 3 years. I like the course. I like the way it is developing pupils abilities to think independently. I like the eportfolios and the fact that it is virtually paper free….. However, DiDA is an optional subject so I am therefore left with very mixed ability groups.  For those not aware of the DiDA structure you can take up to 4 units and each unit is worth 1 GCSE.  Each unit is either taught at a foundation(C-G) or higher level(A*-C).  This means that in a mixed ability class I can end up teaching both courses.

This is where all my problems begin.  The foundation and higher units follow a similar theme but the end results are different.   This means that you therefore become a schizophrenic teacher and at some point one or both groups get a bum deal.  Then there is the fact that DiDA is run by Edexcel. For some reason (profit???), it becomes a financial nightmare trying to do their exam submissions and by the end of year 11 neither you, your exams officer or headteacher have aclue how much it has cost you and what the pupils are likely to get.

The main reason that I am now in a world of indecision is that I have been offered (for £300) a complete scheme of work that will cover 6 units of the OCR nationals and will almost certainly guarantee, if the pupils follow it properly and can demonstrate their learning, a decent grade at GCSE, and the potential for more than one GCSE.  The units offered are diverse and interesting and the administration seems a lot easier.  With the benefit of having your own moderator coming down and telling you whether you are doing it right.  On the downside, OCR is perceived to be a lot easier, less interesting and motivating for the kids.

So now I don’t know what to do….

• ditch DiDA and the admin and teaching hell it gives me
• adopt OCR Nationals, get good results, but potentially teach a boring course….

If by any fluke of the magic of the web, someone out there reads this and can give me some advice it would be vey welcome.

misterel Generic, Teaching & Learning DiDA, GCSE, indecision, motivation, OCR Nationals, teaching