CEPPL | News Archive

issotl09

A team of colleagues from the Ceppl recently attended the issotl09 (International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning) Conference in Bloomington, Indiana where they presented two papers. Professor Susan Lea and Dr Lynne Callaghan`s paper was entitled "Effective Implementation of Mobile Learning in Health Care Settings: Underpinning Principles". Dr. Lynne Callaghan, Holger Andersson, Emma Whittlesea and Lauren Mutton presented a paper on a recent Research-informed Teaching project: "Ceppl.net: A Web 2.0 Video Resource to Enhance Health Students` Understanding of Generic Research Concepts". Both papers were received very well and have lead to potential collaborative links with colleagues in the US. It was an excellent opportunity for our new career Ceppl researchers to attend their first international conference and to have experience of presenting in such a forum. Having the funding to be able to take a team of researchers to this conference has enabled us to fulfil HEFCE`s objective of rewarding and recognising staff excellence as well as focusing on their personal and professional development.

Professor Susan Lea
Ceppl Director

International Conference on e-learning

Alison Thoburn and I (Midwifery lecturers in the Faculty of Health) recently attended the 4th International Conference on e-learning which was held in Toronto, Canada. The venue was the University of Toronto - an interesting and scenic campus with a mixture of old buildings and modern architecture. We presented a paper on the blended Midwifery e-portfolio, which had been developed largely as a result of findings from the Ceppl Assessment of Practice research activity, for which I am the lead. The research has involved longitudinal studies exploring the perceptions of students of the practice assessment methods in use in their Midwifery, Social Work and Emergency Care degree programmes, and the role these play in their learning. Findings in relation to best practice principles and specific issues relating to the use of portfolios were incorporated into the innovative blended portfolio. Following a pilot study, this was rolled out to first year students on the Midwifery programme, and evaluated after its first year - feedback being received from the students, their clinical mentors and the midwifery academics. This work was presented at the conference and, in addition, a peer-reviewed paper was published in the Conference Proceedings:

Fisher M, Thoburn A, Arkinstall T and Proctor-Childs T (2009) A Blended Approach to Evidence Learning in Professional Practice. In: Salajan F (ed) Proceedings of the 4th International Confernce on e-Learning. Reading: Academic Publishing Limited p114-120.

The conference provided an excellent opportunity to network with colleagues from a wide academic spectrum, and provided useful insights into current developments in e-learning. We were also able to meet with Professor Edith Hillan, Vice-Provost Academic of the University of Toronto, to share insights into midwifery and education. If you would like to discuss the conference or see a copy of our presentation, please get in touch.

Margaret Fisher
Associate Professor (Senior Lecturer) in Health Studies - Midwifery
margaret.fisher@plymouth.ac.uk

JISC TechDis HEAT Project

The CEPPL`s work has contributed to the recent shortlisting of Plymouth University for a Times Higher Award 2008 in the category of `Outstanding Support for Students with Disabilities`. A component of the nomination was the JISC TechDis HEAT project to support students with disabilities using personal digital assistants (PDAs), as part of a collaboration between Judith Waterfield, Director of Disability Assist and Deirdre Ford, CEPPL fellow.

The project report can be found here.