Presented at the HEFCE Learning Gain Conference The role of student owned storytelling, digital multimedia narratives and reflection to demonstrate learning gain and how with scaffolded support this can be used to motivate and support student retention and progression.

1. Celebrating Learning Gain and Teaching Excellence
Through Social Media and Digital Narratives
Sue Beckingham | @suebecks
National Teaching Fellow
Sheffield Hallam University
HEFCE Learning Gain National Conference
7 February 2018
#LGNatConf18

2. The role of student owned storytelling,
digital multimedia narratives and
reflection to demonstrate learning gain
and how with scaffolded support this can
be used to motivate and support student
retention and progression.

3. Learning gain can be defined and understood in a
number of ways.
But broadly it is an attempt to measure the
improvement in knowledge, skills, work-readiness
and personal development made by students
during their time spent in higher education.
http://www.hefce.ac.uk/lt/lg/
What is learning gain?

4. An expectation
improvement is measured

5. How can ALL students be measured equally?

6. Measurement concerns…

7. LARK OR AN OWL?
IS THERE A PERFECT TIME TO TAKE MEASUREMENTS?

8. RECOGNITION THAT LIFE STUFF HAPPENS AND
AFFECTS INDIVIDUALS DIFFERENTLY

9. Unexpected
Outcomes
The Tortoise and
the Hare
(and other races
between unequal
contestants)
Aesop's Fables
STUDENTS PROGRESS AND DEVELOP AT A
DIFFERENT PACE

10. POTENTIAL TO
OVER SURVEY
IS A RISK...

11. proxy measurements are often required to stand in for variables that cannot be
directly measured.
fuzzy concept where the boundaries of application can vary considerably
according to context or conditions, instead of being fixed once and for all. This
means the concept is vague in some way, lacking a fixed, precise meaning,
without however being unclear or meaningless altogether.
operationalization - a process of defining the measurement of a phenomenon
that is not directly measurable
Measurement
issues

12. A POTENTIAL PLAN
From the moment students enter higher education they are ALL
supported to plan and develop a portfolio that demonstrates their
ongoing learning gain

13. A shift in thinking
and self belief
Half empty or
half full….

14. In order to develop knowledge, skills, work-readiness and personal
development during their time in university student need to be able to reflect
themselves on where they are at any given point and plot ongoing progress.

16. Recipe for Learning Gain

17. What if students chose
their own best examples
of learning gain?

18. Measures
Affective
How students feel and approach their learning,
through constructs including confidence, resilience
and mind-set.
Behavioural
Activities students do, such as work-placements,
research projects, and engagement with virtual
learning environments.
Cognitive Critical thinking, problem solving and disciplinary
cognitive gain.

19. COMMUNICATION
CONFIDENCE
APPROACHES OUTCOMES
Students could plot
their own ongoing
learning gain

20. CONFIDENCE
(affective)
OUTCOMES
(behavioural)
APPROACHES
(cognitive)
COMMUNICATION

22. Students need to be supported to develop the
communication skills they need to articulate
the learning they have gained.

23. Adapted from Gibbs, G. (1988) Learning by Doing: A Guide to Teaching and Learning Methods.
Scaffolding reflective practice

24. Adapted from Gibbs, G. (1988) Learning by Doing: A Guide to Teaching and Learning Methods.
Scaffolding reflective practice

26. ABSTRACT
CONCRETE
Climb down the Ladder of Abstraction
Answer: How is this important?
Through storytelling learn to
share both concrete details and
abstract principles and lessons.
Climb up the Ladder of Abstraction
Answer: Why is this important?
'Ladder of Abstraction'
Language in Thought and Action - S. I. Hayakawa

27. ABSTRACT
CONCRETE
theory - application - critical analysis
Through storytelling use
multimedia photographs, video,
diagrams, charts, concept maps
to visualise learning gain
context - examples - detail
'Ladder of Abstraction'
Language in Thought and Action - S. I. Hayakawa

28. Defuzzification through
holistic story telling to articulate
learning gain and how, why, when,
where it can be/has been applied

30. Sue Beckingham | @suebecks
National Teaching Fellow and Principal Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University
with a research interest in the use of social media in education.
Blog: http://socialmediaforlearning.com/
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/suebeckingham