January 13, 2026 • 36 mins
Associate Professor Dr Jaye Ryan, SFHEA, headed the nursing ePortfolio programme at Birmingham City University (BCU) in the UK between 2010 and 2019. She supported students and staff in creating ePortfolios and introduced Student Academic Mentors ePortfolios (STAMPs) to help students as peers.
In this episode, Jaye talks about the ePortfolio practice in her nursing programme, the challenges she faced, and how she and the STAMPs made the portfolio work for students.
Resources
- Ryan, J. A. (2025). The lived experience of mature undergraduate nursing students with quasi-dyslexia: Navigating ongoing academic challenges [Doctoral Thesis, Birmingham City University].
- Ryan, J. A. (2018). Which resources are most helpful to support development of an ePortfolio? British Journal of Nursing, 27(5), 266–271.
- AAEEBL Digital Ethics Principles: Support
- Hoeppner, K. (2025, May 15). Portfolios: Integral to your programmatic assessment approach.
- Mahara 26.04 refresh: December 2025 update
- Jaye's fundraiser for her dad after hurricane Melissa in 2025
Related episodes
- Amy Cicchino & Brandi Gilbert: Portfolios as high-impact practices
- Christina Mayes: Portfolio support through peer mentors
- David Hicks: The portfolio tells the story of growth
- Michael Sankey: The portfolio as the place of representation for emerging professionals
- Jonathan Murphy: Demonstrate skills and competencies
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Production information
Production: Catalyst IT
Host: Kristina Hoeppner
Artwork: Evonne Cheung
Music: The Mahara tune by Josh Woodward
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kristina Hoeppner (00:04):
Welcome to 'Create. Share. Engage.' This is
the podcast about portfolios forlearning and more for educators,
learning designers, and managerskeen on integrating portfolios
with their education andprofessional development
practices. 'Create. Share.
Engage.' is brought to you bythe Mahara team at Catalyst IT.
My name is Kristina Hoeppner.
(00:27):
In this episode, we are talkingabout nursing portfolios. I'm
excited that I can speak withAssociate Professor Dr Jaye Ryan
from Birmingham City Universityin the UK. We've met a little
over 10 years ago in November2015 at Mahara Hui UK, which, at
that time was held atSouthampton Solent University in
(00:48):
Southampton. Back then, Jaye wasalready heavily involved in the
portfolio practice at BCU in theBachelor of Science in Nursing.
I love that we could find a timeto chat, Jaye.
Jaye Ryan (01:01):
I'm so happy that we've managed to get the time,
too.
Kristina Hoeppner (01:04):
I'd very much like to congratulate you on
having completed all your workfor your Doctorate in Education
just very recently.
Congratulations. Dr Jaye Ryan.
Jaye Ryan (01:14):
Oh, thank you. That's so kind. Thank you, Kristina.
Kristina Hoeppner (01:17):
Jaye, can you please tell us what your role is
at BCU?
Jaye Ryan (01:22):
I'm an Associate Professor in the Department for
Midwifery and Child Health, andI run a blended nursing module
in an MSc course.
Kristina Hoeppner (01:32):
Do you remember when you started using
portfolios?
Jaye Ryan (01:36):
I do. Do you know sometimes when you forget how
long ago something was? 2010 -that's when we started. So that
is such a long time ago.
Kristina Hoeppner (01:46):
That is amazing that it's been a little
over 15 years now already.
Jaye Ryan (01:51):
Yeah.
Kristina Hoeppner (01:51):
That also shows how much work has gone
into your work and how you'vereally embedded it into the
programme.
Jaye Ryan (01:58):
Absolutely.
Kristina Hoeppner (02:00):
Between 2010 and 2019 you led the Mahara
portfolio initiative at BCUwithin the Bachelor of Science
in Nursing course. Why did youdecide to start incorporating
Mahara into that course at thetime?
Jaye Ryan (02:15):
Prior to 2010 we would have been following the
Nursing and Midwifery Council(NMC) 2004 guidelines. In 2010
they changed. So the standardsfor pre-registration was amended
and updated, and back in 2004our students used to produce
(02:35):
portfolios, and they were theold fashioned hardback
portfolios. They would have oneper year. Well, most students
had one per year. Some studentswould just try and put
everything into one folder. Butbecause a three-year course is
quite long, and the studentswere collecting lots of evidence
from practice, things thatthey'd done, certificates that
(02:55):
they'd gained, their grades,feedback on their assessments,
and looking at how theydeveloped over the three years.
So we did have some studentsthat would have a large lever
arch folder per year. That's alot for them to carry around.
Kristina Hoeppner (03:10):
Did you then also have a cupboard at the
university where you put all ofthe folders and binders and make
them secure?
Jaye Ryan (03:17):
Thankfully, the students owned them. So the
students would bring all of thisinto campus each time that we
would see them, and we wouldsign certain information off to
say that they'd kept it up todate, that kind of thing. Now
that was actually an NMCrequirement, so it was something
that they needed to do. So whenwe had the update in 2010, the
(03:39):
NMC said, 'We no longer requirestudent nurses to keep
portfolios because it's just achange that we're going through,
but we do expect them,obviously, to continue with
their professional development.'So at the time, our Head of
School decided that theportfolios were really important
for personal development, andthey decided to continue with
(03:59):
them, but they would no longerbe hard backed and sort of
actual contents that they bringin, but that we would stretch to
ePortfolios.
At the time, the university werein a contract with Mahara, and
we already had this system setup, but it was something that
sat in the background, and itwas something that if you
(04:22):
mentioned it to staff orstudents, they'd say, 'Oh, I've
heard of Mahara, and I know it'san ePortfolio system, but I've
never used it.' So everyone, assoon as you had a BCU email
account, whether it was a staffaccount or a student account,
you would, by default, have aspace in Mahara. But people
(04:43):
didn't really know that. So itwas brand new, but we were
writing it into our curriculumso it was there. So we were
going to be using it as of 2010that is scary [both laugh].
Kristina Hoeppner (04:57):
Oh no, it's not scary. It's actually really,
really good.
Jaye Ryan (05:00):
It was scary.
Kristina Hoeppner (05:03):
Must have been scary getting to know a new
system and implementing all thecriteria and what you wanted to
have with students.
Jaye Ryan (05:11):
Absolutely.
Kristina Hoeppner (05:12):
Interesting that the Nursing and Midwifery
Council decided againstportfolios because in New
Zealand, they've also had thepaper-based portfolios first and
then the electronic ones wereembraced because that practice
still needed to be demonstrated,professional development and
growth needed to be shown.
Jaye Ryan (05:31):
2010 was a little bit of a weird time for nursing
pre-registration because the2010 guidance from the NMC was
quite short lived, and theyrewrote and added more changes
in 2014. So it was quite a shortperiod for guidelines and
standards to be put in place. Wethen began to consider
(05:51):
revalidation, and revalidationwas very much portfolio-based,
but the NMC weren't reallystrict as to what kind of
portfolio you would keep as aregistered nurse, whether you
wanted to set up your ownelectronic portfolio, whether
you wanted to subscribe to acompany-kept ePortfolio, or
(06:12):
whether you wanted to go oldfashioned, old school and have a
hard-backed portfolio. They werevery vague as to how you would
do it, but definitely from 2014with revalidation in place,
similar to yourself, Kristina,there was a need for a
demonstration of that ongoingprofessional development in some
capacity. But we stayed with theePortfolio because it was
(06:34):
amazing.
Kristina Hoeppner (06:36):
What then were the components of the
portfolio that the studentscreated?
Jaye Ryan (06:41):
Although we decided that this was going to be part
of their curriculum, I must holdmy hand up and I'll say we had a
vague idea. I'd say year one wasquite clear what we wanted to
do. Year two and year three wasa bit of a work in progress. We
had not considered the trainingthat the students and the staff
(07:03):
more so would need in order tobe able to maintain their own
portfolio. I think we consideredthat if we got IT support, they
would tell them what to do,they'd have some guidance to
follow, and it would work. Butit didn't. It was really, really
difficult.
So the first component that weexpected our students to do was
(07:26):
to create what we called anintroductory page, and it was an
opportunity for the students tointroduce themselves to their
personal tutor. Throughout theBSc Nursing programme, all
students have access to apersonal tutor, literally from
day one. So we saw that as areally good opportunity for the
(07:47):
students to get started withtheir ePortfolio and create a
page that we called 'About me'.
They would share someinformation, they would upload a
photograph of themselves, andthe only guidance we gave them
was obviously to keep thephotograph professional. So some
of them would wait until theygot their uniforms, which was
one of the proudest moments forany student nurse, the day that
(08:11):
you receive your uniform, andyou've got your shoes and you've
got your name badge and you'vegot your stripes that you can
sew onto your uniform. So we hada lot of students that would
wait until they got theiruniform, and they would take a
full length photograph ofthemselves, and they would
attach that to the page. Theywould put some information about
(08:31):
themselves, whether they wereliving at home or whether they
were living in halls. They wouldtalk about their hobbies, their
interests, and at that point,they would probably share
another photograph ofthemselves, whether it was doing
horse riding or playing netballor something that they had
particular interest in.
So they really wanted to sharesomething about themselves, so
(08:53):
that their personal tutors,hopefully, would start to build
that relationship with them thatis so important throughout the
three years. So that was thefirst page. A lot of students
could do it, Kristina. Theguidance that we gave them was
okay for the majority, but wedid have some students that
really struggled with thetechnology. I'm not sure if you
(09:15):
remember that when I first metyou, back in 2015, one of the
biggest problems that I spokeabout relentlessly was the
version of Mahara that we wereusing. Do you remember?
Kristina Hoeppner (09:28):
Yeah, you were on a pretty old one at the
time, if I may say so [bothlaugh].
Jaye Ryan (09:33):
It was, I can't even remember how old it was,
Kristina, but it was so old andit was very clunky. When I used
to go to the conferences and seeyou present, you'd be presenting
all these amazing things thatyou could do with Mahara, and
I'd be looking at my version onmy laptop and going, we can't do
that. Why can't we do that? Alot of the things that we wanted
(09:55):
the students to do, we had tocreate a workaround. We had to
adapt and make it work as bestas we could because that was all
we had at the time.
So we did involve IT quite earlyon to support the students, but
again, I hadn't appreciated thatas they continue to use the
(10:17):
ePortfolio, it needed to beconnected to some content within
their nursing course. That'swhen I really became the lead
for ePortfolio, and I had toalign content within the nursing
course to the portfolio andconsider which aspects of it
could be demonstrated and usedto show their personal
(10:39):
development when they met withtheir personal tutors.
Kristina Hoeppner (10:42):
So that the students could then also see,
'Ah, this is why I'm doing that.
I'm not just doing it as anextra bit.'
Jaye Ryan (10:48):
Absolutely.
Kristina Hoeppner (10:49):
Were these portfolios then also assessed?
Jaye Ryan (10:52):
That's such a difficult question.
Kristina Hoeppner (10:54):
Oh, did I open Pandora's Box [both laugh]?
Jaye Ryan (10:57):
Yes, you have. They were a requirement. I think a
lot of this requirement camefrom the old NMC 2004
requirement, and that was that astudent nurse throughout their
three years had to showprofessional continuing
development. They had to showthat they were improving, that
(11:20):
they were acting on the feedbackthat they were given, whether
that was academic feedback orwhether it was feedback in
practice, we wanted to see thatongoing, continuing development.
When we had the ePortfolio, wehad a bit of a split camp. So we
had a lot of personal tutorsthat were 'I want my student to
(11:40):
do this. I expect it to be donein this particular way. I want
to see that they are continuingto develop.' So I put together
some guidelines with regards towhat a particular page was going
to show at the point that theywere going to meet their
personal tutor. That was quiteeasy. A lot of personal tutors
(12:00):
would look at the page andthey'd go, 'Yeah, they've done a
really good job. They'veuploaded their grades, they've
talked about their assessments,they've talked about what
they've been doing in practice,they've written a piece of
reflection. I'm happy withthat.'
Then we had the other camp,whereby we had personal tutors
that like, 'Do you know what?
The NMC don't really want aportfolio any more. I can see my
students grades on anothersystem. I can see that they're
(12:22):
passing. They're passing inpractice. So if they want to do
a page for me, that's fine. Ifthey don't, that's equally
fine.'So we got a little bit of mixed
messages. It was always an areaof contention. It was always an
area that was very difficult tolock down. So one of my roles
and responsibilities was toconsider it from continuing
(12:45):
development and thatprofessionalism, that was my
stance. And on that basis, a lotof students were very
conscientious and continued todo it. We'd always get a few
students that were like, 'Ican't do it. It doesn't work for
me. And my personal tutor says,I don't have to, so I'm not
going to.'
Kristina Hoeppner (13:06):
It can be hard if it's a requirement, but
it doesn't really count foranything or for much...
Jaye Ryan (13:10):
Yeah, and that's exactly where we were.
Kristina Hoeppner (13:13):
... because then it does feel a bit more
like a chore that is not valued,especially if your tutor says,
'Well, I don't really care.'
Jaye Ryan (13:20):
Yeah, really difficult.
Kristina Hoeppner (13:22):
So for the students who had a tutor who was
behind the portfolio and whovalued it, who said, 'Yes, this
is important for yourprofessional development,' how
did these students perceive theportfolio work? Did they at some
point come to the realisation,'Oh, this is actually helping me
in my practice'?
Jaye Ryan (13:41):
They did, and they continued to use it. It became
quite clear to me, I'd say,probably about by 2011 / 2012
that for these students thatwere really keen, and they could
see the vision that I hadbecause the final page that all
(14:01):
the students, again, wereadvised, encouraged [laughs] to
produce, was called an'Employability page'. They could
see the whole schedule in frontof them, so they knew what they
were expected to do in year one,year two and year three.
For those that were really keen,they were very much focusing on
this employability page. Thiswas where you would use your
(14:24):
Mahara ePortfolio to demonstrateto a potential employer your
skills and attributes inaddition to the standardised
programme that you would comeout with. We were really trying
to encourage students to puttheir best self in their
(14:45):
portfolio. We had a number ofstudents that would be
volunteers within the community,which is excellent. That's
really good. We had a lot ofstudents that would gain
certificates for things thatthey did outside of university
and outside of the course, butthose skills and attributes were
still really important to thecareer that they'd chosen, which
(15:06):
was nursing. So they would beinvolved in fundraising. They
would be studentrepresentatives, they would be
student ambassadors. They wouldbe involved in open days, and
they would talk to prospectivestudents and their families and
talk about how they enjoyed thecourse and what they got from
it.
Those students were the onesthat were looking forward to
(15:28):
creating an employability pagebecause they recognised that it
would give them added valuebecause not all students would
be completing their course andwould have something additional
to showcase, and we almost referto it as a showcase. Show your
employer everything that isextra about you. So you're not
(15:50):
just a BCU BSc on nursingstudent with a first class
honours degree. You've got moreas well. So it was that added
value.
Kristina Hoeppner (16:00):
That also makes them then stand apart
because everybody else wouldhave had the coursework. Brandi
Gilbert, actually, just in arecent podcast interview, said
that she's using the portfoliosfor internships in Life Health
Sciences, and the portfoliohelps the students stand out,
helps personalise theexperiences, so that they can
(16:21):
show off their whole person andall that they've achieved, and
the extra bits, so that theyhave that added value as well,
and not just a standard résuméthat everybody else has exactly
the same one.
Jaye Ryan (16:35):
Absolutely. And that's exactly what we wanted to
do. These students that were sokeen, we would notice that other
students would migrate towardsthem. So they would be like,
'How have you done this withyour page? And how have you got
your page to look like this? Andhow did you manage to change the
colour?' Because even changingthe colour on the version that
(16:56):
we had was hard. That's thesituation that they were in.
When I think back to what it waslike, the students did really
well, they did exceptionallywell.
What I did was I approached oneof the Deans at the university,
and I asked for some money[laughs], and I said, 'I've got
a really good idea. I think wecan use these students that are
(17:19):
very keen and are very good atwhat they do to help those that
are struggling. If I've got alittle bit of money, we may be
able to pay them in some way.'And we did have a scheme within
the university. It was anopportunity for students to seek
employment within theuniversity. They would be paid a
small fee for doing open days,they will be paid for working in
(17:43):
the student union shop, and formine, they were paid to be
student academic mentors. Do youremember the STAMPs - Student
Academic Mentors Portfolio? Sothey worked with me. And before
the podcast, I was looking backat some of the files of the
students. Some of them are nowworking as lecturers. They've
(18:04):
got amazing jobs.
They set up their own Moodlecourse with a booking system
that was available to allstudents, and students would go
in and they would book intoslots. And I managed to block
book a small IT room that had 20computers in there. The students
(18:25):
would run these sessionsthemselves, and the students who
were booked, they would turn up.
They would tick off that they'dturned up for their meeting,
their appointments, and it wouldbe a 45-minute slot with 10
minutes at the end forquestions. And they would guide
them through the process. Theywould work the room. They would
sit down with them. They woulddo one-to-ones for those that
(18:45):
had come along to get support.
When they understood what theywere doing, they would go and
sit with another student andhelp another student. It was
almost like a community ofpractice whereby they all got
together and helped each other.
People talk about the STAMPs,the Student Academic Mentors,
even today.
Kristina Hoeppner (19:06):
Do you still have them?
Jaye Ryan (19:08):
We don't. The course has changed so much. We've now
got new standards, and theePortfolio isn't part of it.
Kristina Hoeppner (19:18):
In general, portfolios are really, really
good for programmaticassessment, so that you can see
that it's not just in oneisolated course that the
students use portfolios and needto demonstrate their
competencies and skills, butreally throughout an entire
programme, and tracking that ina very formative way, so that
(19:39):
students also get something outof it. So hopefully it'll make
it back into the course.
Jaye Ryan (19:44):
I hope so because that was what we were looking
at. We really wanted the upgradeso that we could use this
competency framework.
Kristina Hoeppner (19:53):
Yep, that had just come out, and I so wanted
to upgrade you directly inSouthampton [inaudible, both
laugh]. There's lots more goodfunctionality in there. I mean,
you did mention the continuingprofessional development
activities that students neededto track those, there's a big
enhancement that went intoMahara 25.04 that would help
(20:14):
with that, make it veryconvenient to track those hours,
collect additional informationon it. There are easier ways
than we had in 2015 to supportthe competency portfolios and
also tracking of standards andthe like.
Jaye, do you know what impactthe portfolios had on the
(20:34):
overall student experience? Kindof looking at the students that
did do their portfolios, you hadalready mentioned, they saw the
benefits, and they reallyenjoyed also having that
showcase page where they couldshow off and demonstrate what
they had done, not just as partof their regular study
programme, but also within thecommunity and beyond. Does
(20:56):
anything stand out for you inregards to that impact that
portfolios contributed to whatthe students felt at the
university?
Jaye Ryan (21:06):
I think it helped them to develop their
confidence. Within the nursingcourse at the university, we
have a number of students thatwill enter via a variety of
different widening participationinitiatives. So these will be
students that start theirnursing course without what we
consider to be traditional Alevels, traditional university
(21:30):
qualifications. They may come inwith BTECs or those kinds of
things. And sometimes thesestudents may have had a break in
their learning, and by default,we then consider them to be
mature purely because they'vehad that break in learning. And
it's like, 'Wow, I'm 22 and I'ma mature student.' It's more to
(21:51):
do with how they've come backinto education.
I think this also means that alot of students that have come
through this route into nursing,some of them can lack
confidence. It's oftenconfidence in that academic
ability. They may have beenworking within a health or
caring profession before theycame to do their nursing course,
(22:13):
and they have life experiencesand work experiences that give
them confidence within that sideof the course, but the academic
side, and being at university,they sometimes feel a little bit
lost. Using an ePortfolio todocument their journey really
helps them to reflect on howthey are developing.
(22:36):
It gives them an opportunity toupload their feedback sheets and
to reflect on the feedback thatwas given, and then have a look
at the feedback sheet that theyhad for their next assessment
and compare them and possiblythink, 'Oh wow, that one said
that I wasn't demonstrating muchcritical thinking, but this
(22:58):
feedback sheet, six months lateron my next assignment, says that
I'm starting to develop criticalthinking skills. And it's like,
right, okay, so the support thatI had from the library and the
support that I had from theacademic development department,
and the tutorials that I hadduring the module are really
making a difference.'
Kristina Hoeppner (23:17):
Because they can see their growth.
Jaye Ryan (23:20):
Absolutely. That is so important. The first years
can really struggle, and thenthey get to those middle years
where you're a bit sort of,you're not new, but you're not
quite ready to qualify, and it'sa bit of a vague area. And I
think using the ePortfolio givesthem an opportunity to continue
(23:41):
to reflect, continue to planwhat they want to do, plan where
they can see their strengths ortheir limitations. What are they
going to do about that. How arethey going to develop those
skills? How are they going to beready for level six? How are
they going to be ready for beingnewly qualified? What additional
things can they do? Having allof their thoughts, their ideas,
(24:06):
their development in one place,really helps them. It helps them
to focus.
Rather than getting thatfeedback sheet and having looked
at it once on Moodle and notbeing happy with the grade or
the feedback and the comments,basically never looking at it
again because that is quiteeasily an option. When you've
got a portfolio, you download itand you put it in your
(24:27):
portfolio, and you can see yourjourney whereas a lot of
students lose sight of theirjourney because it sits within
separate Moodle courses and justgets left unless they decide to
print it off for themselves. Andif it's not good, you generally
don't print it off, do you? Youjust leave it there.
Kristina Hoeppner (24:44):
And then at some point, the Moodle course
might be emptied or deleted, youlose access to it, and then you
don't remember that so easily,or you might remember it, but
might remember it incorrectlywhereas yeah, if you have it in
the portfolio, you have it rightthere, that visualisation of the
progress.
Jaye Ryan (25:01):
Yeah, which I think is so important.
Kristina Hoeppner (25:04):
Yeah. So Jaye, where would you like to
take portfolios in nursingeducation if you were the boss
again?
Jaye Ryan (25:11):
I mean, our students have now got an ePad. So they no
longer have paper documents forpractice, so it's all
electronic. It'd be really niceif we could integrate an
ePortfolio into that as well. Sothe ePad is quite task focused,
if that makes sense. So youknow, have they done this? Tick.
(25:34):
Have they had this meeting?
Tick. And then a few commentsand another tick. Whereas an
ePortfolio adds depth to thoseticks. You get a wider breakdown
of what those ticks representrather than having to rely on
the overall comments that Ithink sometimes can be quite
detached from the student,possibly.
(25:54):
But I think with an ePortfolio,it becomes student owned as
well. Whereas they don't reallyown their ePad. It's more of a
course requirement and apractice requirement. It is used
as a tool to communicate, but Istill think it doesn't have any
individuality about it, likewith the ePortfolios. The
ePortfolios are student owned.
And I think it's reallyimportant that students have
(26:16):
something that they ownthroughout the course. They
don't really have anything.
Kristina Hoeppner (26:23):
Kind of goes back to what you had said
earlier, that, yes, they gothrough all the course
requirements. So the ePad isthat requirement, everybody has
it, everybody's looks somewhatsimilar, maybe some ticks more
here, some ticks more there, butthat personal element is
missing.
Jaye Ryan (26:40):
That's key to your student identity and your
professional identity becauseyou are so much more than a
student nurse, and you willbecome so much more than a
nurse. You have your values,your morals, you have life
outside of nursing. And a lot ofthe times, the person that you
are outside of the uniform iswhat makes you the person within
(27:04):
that uniform. So it's importantthat you have an opportunity to
express and to share and seethat development in something
that is not controlled by anorganisation.
One of the things that we alwaysused to say to the students is
that although we do have sometemplates that you can use, and
we do have guidance, and we dotalk about professionalism and
(27:26):
accountability, within yourePortfolio, it's yours. It
belongs to you. You decide whatyou put in it. You decide
whether you want it to look pink[laughs], whether you want it to
have a dark background. Youdecide on what you want it to
look like because it representsyou as an individual. Within
(27:48):
that, it will have itsprofessional elements. Within
it, it will also have some ofyour skills and attributes
within nursing, but also outsideof the nursing profession.
If I had an opportunity to bringit back, based on some of the
things that you've mentioned andreminding me about the
competencies and some of theother things that you also
(28:08):
mentioned that have thesimilarities with the ePad, I'd
so want to bring it back. It wassuch an exciting time. It was so
innovative. I know that it wouldbe so much easier to use now.
A lot of people now use theiriPhones and their tablets and
their Androids, and all of thosedevices are quite intuitive, and
(28:29):
they know the next step. Theyknow that if you go into your
contacts it's because you wantto make a phone call, send a
text message, send something,and it gives you the option
straight away. Whereas backthen, Mahara didn't do that. It
was waiting for you. You had todecide what you wanted to do
next. And I think because it isso much more intuitive, it opens
(28:50):
up so much more opportunitiesfor people to be creative and to
be innovative and to showcasethemselves, which is what it's
all about.
Kristina Hoeppner (29:00):
It will be even more intuitive with our
release of Mahara 26.04 in Aprilbecause we have gone through a
very big phase of UX redesign,talking to our community
members, and also doing aninformation architecture review
in order to find out where thereare elements that need to change
in order to simplify workflows,in order to make it more
(29:24):
apparent what people need to doright from the start, and so I
look forward to rolling thatout, and we should talk then
again.
Jaye Ryan (29:30):
Absolutely [laughs].
I'm excited just listening toyou talk about some of the
things that are coming, soundsreally good.
Kristina Hoeppner (29:37):
So that now takes us into our quick answer
round. So the last questions foryou. Which words or short
phrases do you use to describeportfolio work?
Jaye Ryan (29:48):
I'm going to have to go with that one -
student-owned. That was one ofthe things that I would talk
about to the students all thetime. It was one of the only
things that they actually owned,that they could be themselves
and they could show us who theywere. So, yeah, student-owned to
showcase you.
Kristina Hoeppner (30:06):
Perfect. What tip do you have for learning
designers or instructors whocreate portfolio activities?
Jaye Ryan (30:16):
They need to work together. The magic started to
happen when I began working withthe students. So by getting the
Student Academic Mentors, theSTAMPs on board, that's when
things really started to evolvebecause the STAMPs they were in
two camps. They knew what thestudents were going through
(30:38):
because they were students, butat the same time, they knew the
journey that was ahead of thembecause they were also nursing
students. So they used theirunderstanding of what this
journey ahead, what it was goingto look like, to support the
newer students that were comingthrough.
The creators of the ePortfolio,need to work with the students
(31:00):
in order to find out what it isthey want, how they want it to
be, what they would like it tolook like, and come to
agreements. I think that's key.
You've got to work with thestudent to develop it,
especially if it's going to bestudent-owned [laughs].
Kristina Hoeppner (31:16):
Yeah, completely, yeah. The STAMPs,
they were a very good idea, andlots of other institutions also
had what they called peermentors or eterns, and they all
really heavily rely on them, andalso see the benefits because
they can talk in the language ofthe students, they had more
shared experience becausethey've just gone through it as
(31:38):
well.
Jaye Ryan (31:38):
I did a very small research project and published
on the back of it asking themwhich resources were most
beneficial, and it was theSTAMPs. The Student Academic
Mentors came out as top. Ithelped with that self efficacy,
as in, 'Okay, you can do it.
I've watched you do it. I can dothat. I know I can do that.'
That was one of the biggestconfidence builders.
(32:00):
Don't assume that everyone is ITliterate. Back in 2010, we made
that assumption that, you know,everyone's got an iPhone,
everyone's got a laptop,everyone's got a desktop,
everyone will know how to useMahara. They don't. And you know
what, Kristina, even now, I comeacross students that have
laptops and have devices andthey don't really know how to
(32:23):
use them. It's a massiveassumption, and especially when
students come into university,you know, family are so proud of
them. They will put together andthey will get them this all
singing, all dancing laptopthat, unfortunately, they can't
use because they don't know howto use it. So don't
underestimate, don't assume thatit is for everyone, and that
(32:49):
level of literacy is there foreveryone.
There is going to have to besome templates, guidelines,
training, support put in placein order for this to continue.
And then, as it does, build usethe ones that are good. Use the
students that are really goodand really keen and want to
help, use them to help othersthat are struggling, that will
(33:12):
create more confident studentswho will then go on to help
others. I did it for years whenthe others finished their
course, and they graduated andleft and went to become nurses.
I had the next round up andready, and it just continued,
and it works really well.
Kristina Hoeppner (33:31):
Yeah, thank you so much for that second tip
that lecturers, tutors,instructors, whatever they are
called at an institution, needto keep in mind.
What would you say to thestudents who create the
portfolios? What do you want totell the future generation of
nursing students in regards toportfolio practice, what they
should keep in mind?
Jaye Ryan (33:52):
The nursing profession, it's a hard course.
It really is a hard course. Itteaches you so much about
yourself as an individual. Youneed to remember that when these
job adverts come out, you know,it's not just a few newly
qualified nurses that are goingfor these jobs. There will
possibly be hundreds, hundredsof newly graduating student
(34:17):
nurses are going for these newlyqualified jobs, not just from
your university, but from lotsof universities. Our courses
now, for an intake in September,600 / 650?
Kristina Hoeppner (34:31):
Wow.
Jaye Ryan (34:31):
That's a lot, and you will all be finishing your
course at the same point. Howare you going to stand out? How
are you going to look differentthan someone else who is
completing the same course asyou? What I consider is that
this ePortfolio could be thekey. It will show you as being
(34:52):
IT literate. It will show you ascontinuing your development, not
just within the course, but alsooutside of the course. That will
show your potential employerthat you have ambition, that you
have staying power, that youhave determination, and all of
these abilities and attributesyou can put within your
(35:13):
ePortfolio so that they canreally see who you are beyond
the BSc Honours Nursing student.
Yeah, got a first class honoursdegree, but my God, have you see
my portfolio? That's what Iwould say [laughs].
Kristina Hoeppner (35:28):
Yeah, that's a very, very good tip for the
students to personalise theirexperience and stand out.
Jaye Ryan (35:34):
Absolutely.
Kristina Hoeppner (35:35):
Thank you so so much for the chat today,
Jaye.
Jaye Ryan (35:39):
You're welcome.
Kristina Hoeppner (35:41):
I loved hearing what you have done
within the nursing degree,introducing portfolios, working
with them for many, many years,helping a lot of nursing
students become professionals,and well certainly look forward
to continuing to follow yourjourney and seeing what is going
to happen with the new rewritein a few months. Thank you so
(36:02):
much.
Jaye Ryan (36:02):
Thank you. Thank you.
Kristina Hoeppner (36:03):
Now over to our listeners. What do you want
to try in your own portfoliopractice? This was 'Create.
Share. Engage.' with AssociateProfessor Dr Jaye Ryan. Head to
our website, podcast.mahara.org,where you can find resources and
the transcript for this episode.
This podcast is produced byCatalyst IT. Our next episode
(36:26):
will air in two weeks. I hopeyou will listen again and also
tell a colleague about ourpodcast so they can subscribe.
Until then, create, share, andengage.
Welcome to 'Create. Share. Engage.' This is
the podcast about portfolios forlearning and more for educators,
learning designers, and managerskeen on integrating portfolios
with their education andprofessional development
practices. 'Create. Share.
Engage.' is brought to you bythe Mahara team at Catalyst IT.
My name is Kristina Hoeppner.
(00:27):
In this episode, we are talkingabout nursing portfolios. I'm
excited that I can speak withAssociate Professor Dr Jaye Ryan
from Birmingham City Universityin the UK. We've met a little
over 10 years ago in November2015 at Mahara Hui UK, which, at
that time was held atSouthampton Solent University in
(00:48):
Southampton. Back then, Jaye wasalready heavily involved in the
portfolio practice at BCU in theBachelor of Science in Nursing.
I love that we could find a timeto chat, Jaye.
Jaye Ryan (01:01):
I'm so happy that we've managed to get the time,
too.
Kristina Hoeppner (01:04):
I'd very much like to congratulate you on
having completed all your workfor your Doctorate in Education
just very recently.
Congratulations. Dr Jaye Ryan.
Jaye Ryan (01:14):
Oh, thank you. That's so kind. Thank you, Kristina.
Kristina Hoeppner (01:17):
Jaye, can you please tell us what your role is
at BCU?
Jaye Ryan (01:22):
I'm an Associate Professor in the Department for
Midwifery and Child Health, andI run a blended nursing module
in an MSc course.
Kristina Hoeppner (01:32):
Do you remember when you started using
portfolios?
Jaye Ryan (01:36):
I do. Do you know sometimes when you forget how
long ago something was? 2010 -that's when we started. So that
is such a long time ago.
Kristina Hoeppner (01:46):
That is amazing that it's been a little
over 15 years now already.
Jaye Ryan (01:51):
Yeah.
Kristina Hoeppner (01:51):
That also shows how much work has gone
into your work and how you'vereally embedded it into the
programme.
Jaye Ryan (01:58):
Absolutely.
Kristina Hoeppner (02:00):
Between 2010 and 2019 you led the Mahara
portfolio initiative at BCUwithin the Bachelor of Science
in Nursing course. Why did youdecide to start incorporating
Mahara into that course at thetime?
Jaye Ryan (02:15):
Prior to 2010 we would have been following the
Nursing and Midwifery Council(NMC) 2004 guidelines. In 2010
they changed. So the standardsfor pre-registration was amended
and updated, and back in 2004our students used to produce
(02:35):
portfolios, and they were theold fashioned hardback
portfolios. They would have oneper year. Well, most students
had one per year. Some studentswould just try and put
everything into one folder. Butbecause a three-year course is
quite long, and the studentswere collecting lots of evidence
from practice, things thatthey'd done, certificates that
(02:55):
they'd gained, their grades,feedback on their assessments,
and looking at how theydeveloped over the three years.
So we did have some studentsthat would have a large lever
arch folder per year. That's alot for them to carry around.
Kristina Hoeppner (03:10):
Did you then also have a cupboard at the
university where you put all ofthe folders and binders and make
them secure?
Jaye Ryan (03:17):
Thankfully, the students owned them. So the
students would bring all of thisinto campus each time that we
would see them, and we wouldsign certain information off to
say that they'd kept it up todate, that kind of thing. Now
that was actually an NMCrequirement, so it was something
that they needed to do. So whenwe had the update in 2010, the
(03:39):
NMC said, 'We no longer requirestudent nurses to keep
portfolios because it's just achange that we're going through,
but we do expect them,obviously, to continue with
their professional development.'So at the time, our Head of
School decided that theportfolios were really important
for personal development, andthey decided to continue with
(03:59):
them, but they would no longerbe hard backed and sort of
actual contents that they bringin, but that we would stretch to
ePortfolios.
At the time, the university werein a contract with Mahara, and
we already had this system setup, but it was something that
sat in the background, and itwas something that if you
(04:22):
mentioned it to staff orstudents, they'd say, 'Oh, I've
heard of Mahara, and I know it'san ePortfolio system, but I've
never used it.' So everyone, assoon as you had a BCU email
account, whether it was a staffaccount or a student account,
you would, by default, have aspace in Mahara. But people
(04:43):
didn't really know that. So itwas brand new, but we were
writing it into our curriculumso it was there. So we were
going to be using it as of 2010that is scary [both laugh].
Kristina Hoeppner (04:57):
Oh no, it's not scary. It's actually really,
really good.
Jaye Ryan (05:00):
It was scary.
Kristina Hoeppner (05:03):
Must have been scary getting to know a new
system and implementing all thecriteria and what you wanted to
have with students.
Jaye Ryan (05:11):
Absolutely.
Kristina Hoeppner (05:12):
Interesting that the Nursing and Midwifery
Council decided againstportfolios because in New
Zealand, they've also had thepaper-based portfolios first and
then the electronic ones wereembraced because that practice
still needed to be demonstrated,professional development and
growth needed to be shown.
Jaye Ryan (05:31):
2010 was a little bit of a weird time for nursing
pre-registration because the2010 guidance from the NMC was
quite short lived, and theyrewrote and added more changes
in 2014. So it was quite a shortperiod for guidelines and
standards to be put in place. Wethen began to consider
(05:51):
revalidation, and revalidationwas very much portfolio-based,
but the NMC weren't reallystrict as to what kind of
portfolio you would keep as aregistered nurse, whether you
wanted to set up your ownelectronic portfolio, whether
you wanted to subscribe to acompany-kept ePortfolio, or
(06:12):
whether you wanted to go oldfashioned, old school and have a
hard-backed portfolio. They werevery vague as to how you would
do it, but definitely from 2014with revalidation in place,
similar to yourself, Kristina,there was a need for a
demonstration of that ongoingprofessional development in some
capacity. But we stayed with theePortfolio because it was
(06:34):
amazing.
Kristina Hoeppner (06:36):
What then were the components of the
portfolio that the studentscreated?
Jaye Ryan (06:41):
Although we decided that this was going to be part
of their curriculum, I must holdmy hand up and I'll say we had a
vague idea. I'd say year one wasquite clear what we wanted to
do. Year two and year three wasa bit of a work in progress. We
had not considered the trainingthat the students and the staff
(07:03):
more so would need in order tobe able to maintain their own
portfolio. I think we consideredthat if we got IT support, they
would tell them what to do,they'd have some guidance to
follow, and it would work. Butit didn't. It was really, really
difficult.
So the first component that weexpected our students to do was
(07:26):
to create what we called anintroductory page, and it was an
opportunity for the students tointroduce themselves to their
personal tutor. Throughout theBSc Nursing programme, all
students have access to apersonal tutor, literally from
day one. So we saw that as areally good opportunity for the
(07:47):
students to get started withtheir ePortfolio and create a
page that we called 'About me'.
They would share someinformation, they would upload a
photograph of themselves, andthe only guidance we gave them
was obviously to keep thephotograph professional. So some
of them would wait until theygot their uniforms, which was
one of the proudest moments forany student nurse, the day that
(08:11):
you receive your uniform, andyou've got your shoes and you've
got your name badge and you'vegot your stripes that you can
sew onto your uniform. So we hada lot of students that would
wait until they got theiruniform, and they would take a
full length photograph ofthemselves, and they would
attach that to the page. Theywould put some information about
(08:31):
themselves, whether they wereliving at home or whether they
were living in halls. They wouldtalk about their hobbies, their
interests, and at that point,they would probably share
another photograph ofthemselves, whether it was doing
horse riding or playing netballor something that they had
particular interest in.
So they really wanted to sharesomething about themselves, so
(08:53):
that their personal tutors,hopefully, would start to build
that relationship with them thatis so important throughout the
three years. So that was thefirst page. A lot of students
could do it, Kristina. Theguidance that we gave them was
okay for the majority, but wedid have some students that
really struggled with thetechnology. I'm not sure if you
(09:15):
remember that when I first metyou, back in 2015, one of the
biggest problems that I spokeabout relentlessly was the
version of Mahara that we wereusing. Do you remember?
Kristina Hoeppner (09:28):
Yeah, you were on a pretty old one at the
time, if I may say so [bothlaugh].
Jaye Ryan (09:33):
It was, I can't even remember how old it was,
Kristina, but it was so old andit was very clunky. When I used
to go to the conferences and seeyou present, you'd be presenting
all these amazing things thatyou could do with Mahara, and
I'd be looking at my version onmy laptop and going, we can't do
that. Why can't we do that? Alot of the things that we wanted
(09:55):
the students to do, we had tocreate a workaround. We had to
adapt and make it work as bestas we could because that was all
we had at the time.
So we did involve IT quite earlyon to support the students, but
again, I hadn't appreciated thatas they continue to use the
(10:17):
ePortfolio, it needed to beconnected to some content within
their nursing course. That'swhen I really became the lead
for ePortfolio, and I had toalign content within the nursing
course to the portfolio andconsider which aspects of it
could be demonstrated and usedto show their personal
(10:39):
development when they met withtheir personal tutors.
Kristina Hoeppner (10:42):
So that the students could then also see,
'Ah, this is why I'm doing that.
I'm not just doing it as anextra bit.'
Jaye Ryan (10:48):
Absolutely.
Kristina Hoeppner (10:49):
Were these portfolios then also assessed?
Jaye Ryan (10:52):
That's such a difficult question.
Kristina Hoeppner (10:54):
Oh, did I open Pandora's Box [both laugh]?
Jaye Ryan (10:57):
Yes, you have. They were a requirement. I think a
lot of this requirement camefrom the old NMC 2004
requirement, and that was that astudent nurse throughout their
three years had to showprofessional continuing
development. They had to showthat they were improving, that
(11:20):
they were acting on the feedbackthat they were given, whether
that was academic feedback orwhether it was feedback in
practice, we wanted to see thatongoing, continuing development.
When we had the ePortfolio, wehad a bit of a split camp. So we
had a lot of personal tutorsthat were 'I want my student to
(11:40):
do this. I expect it to be donein this particular way. I want
to see that they are continuingto develop.' So I put together
some guidelines with regards towhat a particular page was going
to show at the point that theywere going to meet their
personal tutor. That was quiteeasy. A lot of personal tutors
(12:00):
would look at the page andthey'd go, 'Yeah, they've done a
really good job. They'veuploaded their grades, they've
talked about their assessments,they've talked about what
they've been doing in practice,they've written a piece of
reflection. I'm happy withthat.'
Then we had the other camp,whereby we had personal tutors
that like, 'Do you know what?
The NMC don't really want aportfolio any more. I can see my
students grades on anothersystem. I can see that they're
(12:22):
passing. They're passing inpractice. So if they want to do
a page for me, that's fine. Ifthey don't, that's equally
fine.'So we got a little bit of mixed
messages. It was always an areaof contention. It was always an
area that was very difficult tolock down. So one of my roles
and responsibilities was toconsider it from continuing
(12:45):
development and thatprofessionalism, that was my
stance. And on that basis, a lotof students were very
conscientious and continued todo it. We'd always get a few
students that were like, 'Ican't do it. It doesn't work for
me. And my personal tutor says,I don't have to, so I'm not
going to.'
Kristina Hoeppner (13:06):
It can be hard if it's a requirement, but
it doesn't really count foranything or for much...
Jaye Ryan (13:10):
Yeah, and that's exactly where we were.
Kristina Hoeppner (13:13):
... because then it does feel a bit more
like a chore that is not valued,especially if your tutor says,
'Well, I don't really care.'
Jaye Ryan (13:20):
Yeah, really difficult.
Kristina Hoeppner (13:22):
So for the students who had a tutor who was
behind the portfolio and whovalued it, who said, 'Yes, this
is important for yourprofessional development,' how
did these students perceive theportfolio work? Did they at some
point come to the realisation,'Oh, this is actually helping me
in my practice'?
Jaye Ryan (13:41):
They did, and they continued to use it. It became
quite clear to me, I'd say,probably about by 2011 / 2012
that for these students thatwere really keen, and they could
see the vision that I hadbecause the final page that all
(14:01):
the students, again, wereadvised, encouraged [laughs] to
produce, was called an'Employability page'. They could
see the whole schedule in frontof them, so they knew what they
were expected to do in year one,year two and year three.
For those that were really keen,they were very much focusing on
this employability page. Thiswas where you would use your
(14:24):
Mahara ePortfolio to demonstrateto a potential employer your
skills and attributes inaddition to the standardised
programme that you would comeout with. We were really trying
to encourage students to puttheir best self in their
(14:45):
portfolio. We had a number ofstudents that would be
volunteers within the community,which is excellent. That's
really good. We had a lot ofstudents that would gain
certificates for things thatthey did outside of university
and outside of the course, butthose skills and attributes were
still really important to thecareer that they'd chosen, which
(15:06):
was nursing. So they would beinvolved in fundraising. They
would be studentrepresentatives, they would be
student ambassadors. They wouldbe involved in open days, and
they would talk to prospectivestudents and their families and
talk about how they enjoyed thecourse and what they got from
it.
Those students were the onesthat were looking forward to
(15:28):
creating an employability pagebecause they recognised that it
would give them added valuebecause not all students would
be completing their course andwould have something additional
to showcase, and we almost referto it as a showcase. Show your
employer everything that isextra about you. So you're not
(15:50):
just a BCU BSc on nursingstudent with a first class
honours degree. You've got moreas well. So it was that added
value.
Kristina Hoeppner (16:00):
That also makes them then stand apart
because everybody else wouldhave had the coursework. Brandi
Gilbert, actually, just in arecent podcast interview, said
that she's using the portfoliosfor internships in Life Health
Sciences, and the portfoliohelps the students stand out,
helps personalise theexperiences, so that they can
(16:21):
show off their whole person andall that they've achieved, and
the extra bits, so that theyhave that added value as well,
and not just a standard résuméthat everybody else has exactly
the same one.
Jaye Ryan (16:35):
Absolutely. And that's exactly what we wanted to
do. These students that were sokeen, we would notice that other
students would migrate towardsthem. So they would be like,
'How have you done this withyour page? And how have you got
your page to look like this? Andhow did you manage to change the
colour?' Because even changingthe colour on the version that
(16:56):
we had was hard. That's thesituation that they were in.
When I think back to what it waslike, the students did really
well, they did exceptionallywell.
What I did was I approached oneof the Deans at the university,
and I asked for some money[laughs], and I said, 'I've got
a really good idea. I think wecan use these students that are
(17:19):
very keen and are very good atwhat they do to help those that
are struggling. If I've got alittle bit of money, we may be
able to pay them in some way.'And we did have a scheme within
the university. It was anopportunity for students to seek
employment within theuniversity. They would be paid a
small fee for doing open days,they will be paid for working in
(17:43):
the student union shop, and formine, they were paid to be
student academic mentors. Do youremember the STAMPs - Student
Academic Mentors Portfolio? Sothey worked with me. And before
the podcast, I was looking backat some of the files of the
students. Some of them are nowworking as lecturers. They've
(18:04):
got amazing jobs.
They set up their own Moodlecourse with a booking system
that was available to allstudents, and students would go
in and they would book intoslots. And I managed to block
book a small IT room that had 20computers in there. The students
(18:25):
would run these sessionsthemselves, and the students who
were booked, they would turn up.
They would tick off that they'dturned up for their meeting,
their appointments, and it wouldbe a 45-minute slot with 10
minutes at the end forquestions. And they would guide
them through the process. Theywould work the room. They would
sit down with them. They woulddo one-to-ones for those that
(18:45):
had come along to get support.
When they understood what theywere doing, they would go and
sit with another student andhelp another student. It was
almost like a community ofpractice whereby they all got
together and helped each other.
People talk about the STAMPs,the Student Academic Mentors,
even today.
Kristina Hoeppner (19:06):
Do you still have them?
Jaye Ryan (19:08):
We don't. The course has changed so much. We've now
got new standards, and theePortfolio isn't part of it.
Kristina Hoeppner (19:18):
In general, portfolios are really, really
good for programmaticassessment, so that you can see
that it's not just in oneisolated course that the
students use portfolios and needto demonstrate their
competencies and skills, butreally throughout an entire
programme, and tracking that ina very formative way, so that
(19:39):
students also get something outof it. So hopefully it'll make
it back into the course.
Jaye Ryan (19:44):
I hope so because that was what we were looking
at. We really wanted the upgradeso that we could use this
competency framework.
Kristina Hoeppner (19:53):
Yep, that had just come out, and I so wanted
to upgrade you directly inSouthampton [inaudible, both
laugh]. There's lots more goodfunctionality in there. I mean,
you did mention the continuingprofessional development
activities that students neededto track those, there's a big
enhancement that went intoMahara 25.04 that would help
(20:14):
with that, make it veryconvenient to track those hours,
collect additional informationon it. There are easier ways
than we had in 2015 to supportthe competency portfolios and
also tracking of standards andthe like.
Jaye, do you know what impactthe portfolios had on the
(20:34):
overall student experience? Kindof looking at the students that
did do their portfolios, you hadalready mentioned, they saw the
benefits, and they reallyenjoyed also having that
showcase page where they couldshow off and demonstrate what
they had done, not just as partof their regular study
programme, but also within thecommunity and beyond. Does
(20:56):
anything stand out for you inregards to that impact that
portfolios contributed to whatthe students felt at the
university?
Jaye Ryan (21:06):
I think it helped them to develop their
confidence. Within the nursingcourse at the university, we
have a number of students thatwill enter via a variety of
different widening participationinitiatives. So these will be
students that start theirnursing course without what we
consider to be traditional Alevels, traditional university
(21:30):
qualifications. They may come inwith BTECs or those kinds of
things. And sometimes thesestudents may have had a break in
their learning, and by default,we then consider them to be
mature purely because they'vehad that break in learning. And
it's like, 'Wow, I'm 22 and I'ma mature student.' It's more to
(21:51):
do with how they've come backinto education.
I think this also means that alot of students that have come
through this route into nursing,some of them can lack
confidence. It's oftenconfidence in that academic
ability. They may have beenworking within a health or
caring profession before theycame to do their nursing course,
(22:13):
and they have life experiencesand work experiences that give
them confidence within that sideof the course, but the academic
side, and being at university,they sometimes feel a little bit
lost. Using an ePortfolio todocument their journey really
helps them to reflect on howthey are developing.
(22:36):
It gives them an opportunity toupload their feedback sheets and
to reflect on the feedback thatwas given, and then have a look
at the feedback sheet that theyhad for their next assessment
and compare them and possiblythink, 'Oh wow, that one said
that I wasn't demonstrating muchcritical thinking, but this
(22:58):
feedback sheet, six months lateron my next assignment, says that
I'm starting to develop criticalthinking skills. And it's like,
right, okay, so the support thatI had from the library and the
support that I had from theacademic development department,
and the tutorials that I hadduring the module are really
making a difference.'
Kristina Hoeppner (23:17):
Because they can see their growth.
Jaye Ryan (23:20):
Absolutely. That is so important. The first years
can really struggle, and thenthey get to those middle years
where you're a bit sort of,you're not new, but you're not
quite ready to qualify, and it'sa bit of a vague area. And I
think using the ePortfolio givesthem an opportunity to continue
(23:41):
to reflect, continue to planwhat they want to do, plan where
they can see their strengths ortheir limitations. What are they
going to do about that. How arethey going to develop those
skills? How are they going to beready for level six? How are
they going to be ready for beingnewly qualified? What additional
things can they do? Having allof their thoughts, their ideas,
(24:06):
their development in one place,really helps them. It helps them
to focus.
Rather than getting thatfeedback sheet and having looked
at it once on Moodle and notbeing happy with the grade or
the feedback and the comments,basically never looking at it
again because that is quiteeasily an option. When you've
got a portfolio, you download itand you put it in your
(24:27):
portfolio, and you can see yourjourney whereas a lot of
students lose sight of theirjourney because it sits within
separate Moodle courses and justgets left unless they decide to
print it off for themselves. Andif it's not good, you generally
don't print it off, do you? Youjust leave it there.
Kristina Hoeppner (24:44):
And then at some point, the Moodle course
might be emptied or deleted, youlose access to it, and then you
don't remember that so easily,or you might remember it, but
might remember it incorrectlywhereas yeah, if you have it in
the portfolio, you have it rightthere, that visualisation of the
progress.
Jaye Ryan (25:01):
Yeah, which I think is so important.
Kristina Hoeppner (25:04):
Yeah. So Jaye, where would you like to
take portfolios in nursingeducation if you were the boss
again?
Jaye Ryan (25:11):
I mean, our students have now got an ePad. So they no
longer have paper documents forpractice, so it's all
electronic. It'd be really niceif we could integrate an
ePortfolio into that as well. Sothe ePad is quite task focused,
if that makes sense. So youknow, have they done this? Tick.
(25:34):
Have they had this meeting?
Tick. And then a few commentsand another tick. Whereas an
ePortfolio adds depth to thoseticks. You get a wider breakdown
of what those ticks representrather than having to rely on
the overall comments that Ithink sometimes can be quite
detached from the student,possibly.
(25:54):
But I think with an ePortfolio,it becomes student owned as
well. Whereas they don't reallyown their ePad. It's more of a
course requirement and apractice requirement. It is used
as a tool to communicate, but Istill think it doesn't have any
individuality about it, likewith the ePortfolios. The
ePortfolios are student owned.
And I think it's reallyimportant that students have
(26:16):
something that they ownthroughout the course. They
don't really have anything.
Kristina Hoeppner (26:23):
Kind of goes back to what you had said
earlier, that, yes, they gothrough all the course
requirements. So the ePad isthat requirement, everybody has
it, everybody's looks somewhatsimilar, maybe some ticks more
here, some ticks more there, butthat personal element is
missing.
Jaye Ryan (26:40):
That's key to your student identity and your
professional identity becauseyou are so much more than a
student nurse, and you willbecome so much more than a
nurse. You have your values,your morals, you have life
outside of nursing. And a lot ofthe times, the person that you
are outside of the uniform iswhat makes you the person within
(27:04):
that uniform. So it's importantthat you have an opportunity to
express and to share and seethat development in something
that is not controlled by anorganisation.
One of the things that we alwaysused to say to the students is
that although we do have sometemplates that you can use, and
we do have guidance, and we dotalk about professionalism and
(27:26):
accountability, within yourePortfolio, it's yours. It
belongs to you. You decide whatyou put in it. You decide
whether you want it to look pink[laughs], whether you want it to
have a dark background. Youdecide on what you want it to
look like because it representsyou as an individual. Within
(27:48):
that, it will have itsprofessional elements. Within
it, it will also have some ofyour skills and attributes
within nursing, but also outsideof the nursing profession.
If I had an opportunity to bringit back, based on some of the
things that you've mentioned andreminding me about the
competencies and some of theother things that you also
(28:08):
mentioned that have thesimilarities with the ePad, I'd
so want to bring it back. It wassuch an exciting time. It was so
innovative. I know that it wouldbe so much easier to use now.
A lot of people now use theiriPhones and their tablets and
their Androids, and all of thosedevices are quite intuitive, and
(28:29):
they know the next step. Theyknow that if you go into your
contacts it's because you wantto make a phone call, send a
text message, send something,and it gives you the option
straight away. Whereas backthen, Mahara didn't do that. It
was waiting for you. You had todecide what you wanted to do
next. And I think because it isso much more intuitive, it opens
(28:50):
up so much more opportunitiesfor people to be creative and to
be innovative and to showcasethemselves, which is what it's
all about.
Kristina Hoeppner (29:00):
It will be even more intuitive with our
release of Mahara 26.04 in Aprilbecause we have gone through a
very big phase of UX redesign,talking to our community
members, and also doing aninformation architecture review
in order to find out where thereare elements that need to change
in order to simplify workflows,in order to make it more
(29:24):
apparent what people need to doright from the start, and so I
look forward to rolling thatout, and we should talk then
again.
Jaye Ryan (29:30):
Absolutely [laughs].
I'm excited just listening toyou talk about some of the
things that are coming, soundsreally good.
Kristina Hoeppner (29:37):
So that now takes us into our quick answer
round. So the last questions foryou. Which words or short
phrases do you use to describeportfolio work?
Jaye Ryan (29:48):
I'm going to have to go with that one -
student-owned. That was one ofthe things that I would talk
about to the students all thetime. It was one of the only
things that they actually owned,that they could be themselves
and they could show us who theywere. So, yeah, student-owned to
showcase you.
Kristina Hoeppner (30:06):
Perfect. What tip do you have for learning
designers or instructors whocreate portfolio activities?
Jaye Ryan (30:16):
They need to work together. The magic started to
happen when I began working withthe students. So by getting the
Student Academic Mentors, theSTAMPs on board, that's when
things really started to evolvebecause the STAMPs they were in
two camps. They knew what thestudents were going through
(30:38):
because they were students, butat the same time, they knew the
journey that was ahead of thembecause they were also nursing
students. So they used theirunderstanding of what this
journey ahead, what it was goingto look like, to support the
newer students that were comingthrough.
The creators of the ePortfolio,need to work with the students
(31:00):
in order to find out what it isthey want, how they want it to
be, what they would like it tolook like, and come to
agreements. I think that's key.
You've got to work with thestudent to develop it,
especially if it's going to bestudent-owned [laughs].
Kristina Hoeppner (31:16):
Yeah, completely, yeah. The STAMPs,
they were a very good idea, andlots of other institutions also
had what they called peermentors or eterns, and they all
really heavily rely on them, andalso see the benefits because
they can talk in the language ofthe students, they had more
shared experience becausethey've just gone through it as
(31:38):
well.
Jaye Ryan (31:38):
I did a very small research project and published
on the back of it asking themwhich resources were most
beneficial, and it was theSTAMPs. The Student Academic
Mentors came out as top. Ithelped with that self efficacy,
as in, 'Okay, you can do it.
I've watched you do it. I can dothat. I know I can do that.'
That was one of the biggestconfidence builders.
(32:00):
Don't assume that everyone is ITliterate. Back in 2010, we made
that assumption that, you know,everyone's got an iPhone,
everyone's got a laptop,everyone's got a desktop,
everyone will know how to useMahara. They don't. And you know
what, Kristina, even now, I comeacross students that have
laptops and have devices andthey don't really know how to
(32:23):
use them. It's a massiveassumption, and especially when
students come into university,you know, family are so proud of
them. They will put together andthey will get them this all
singing, all dancing laptopthat, unfortunately, they can't
use because they don't know howto use it. So don't
underestimate, don't assume thatit is for everyone, and that
(32:49):
level of literacy is there foreveryone.
There is going to have to besome templates, guidelines,
training, support put in placein order for this to continue.
And then, as it does, build usethe ones that are good. Use the
students that are really goodand really keen and want to
help, use them to help othersthat are struggling, that will
(33:12):
create more confident studentswho will then go on to help
others. I did it for years whenthe others finished their
course, and they graduated andleft and went to become nurses.
I had the next round up andready, and it just continued,
and it works really well.
Kristina Hoeppner (33:31):
Yeah, thank you so much for that second tip
that lecturers, tutors,instructors, whatever they are
called at an institution, needto keep in mind.
What would you say to thestudents who create the
portfolios? What do you want totell the future generation of
nursing students in regards toportfolio practice, what they
should keep in mind?
Jaye Ryan (33:52):
The nursing profession, it's a hard course.
It really is a hard course. Itteaches you so much about
yourself as an individual. Youneed to remember that when these
job adverts come out, you know,it's not just a few newly
qualified nurses that are goingfor these jobs. There will
possibly be hundreds, hundredsof newly graduating student
(34:17):
nurses are going for these newlyqualified jobs, not just from
your university, but from lotsof universities. Our courses
now, for an intake in September,600 / 650?
Kristina Hoeppner (34:31):
Wow.
Jaye Ryan (34:31):
That's a lot, and you will all be finishing your
course at the same point. Howare you going to stand out? How
are you going to look differentthan someone else who is
completing the same course asyou? What I consider is that
this ePortfolio could be thekey. It will show you as being
(34:52):
IT literate. It will show you ascontinuing your development, not
just within the course, but alsooutside of the course. That will
show your potential employerthat you have ambition, that you
have staying power, that youhave determination, and all of
these abilities and attributesyou can put within your
(35:13):
ePortfolio so that they canreally see who you are beyond
the BSc Honours Nursing student.
Yeah, got a first class honoursdegree, but my God, have you see
my portfolio? That's what Iwould say [laughs].
Kristina Hoeppner (35:28):
Yeah, that's a very, very good tip for the
students to personalise theirexperience and stand out.
Jaye Ryan (35:34):
Absolutely.
Kristina Hoeppner (35:35):
Thank you so so much for the chat today,
Jaye.
Jaye Ryan (35:39):
You're welcome.
Kristina Hoeppner (35:41):
I loved hearing what you have done
within the nursing degree,introducing portfolios, working
with them for many, many years,helping a lot of nursing
students become professionals,and well certainly look forward
to continuing to follow yourjourney and seeing what is going
to happen with the new rewritein a few months. Thank you so
(36:02):
much.
Jaye Ryan (36:02):
Thank you. Thank you.
Kristina Hoeppner (36:03):
Now over to our listeners. What do you want
to try in your own portfoliopractice? This was 'Create.
Share. Engage.' with AssociateProfessor Dr Jaye Ryan. Head to
our website, podcast.mahara.org,where you can find resources and
the transcript for this episode.
This podcast is produced byCatalyst IT. Our next episode
(36:26):
will air in two weeks. I hopeyou will listen again and also
tell a colleague about ourpodcast so they can subscribe.
Until then, create, share, andengage.
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