Looking back at the event

We look back on an successful and well-attended event during which four UM programmes shared their experiences with PebblePad. Their presentations included portfolio design to support programmatic assessment, writing a thesis, reflection and feedback processes, recording and monitoring, progress, competency and skills development. An overview of the recordings of all presentations can be found at the bottom of this news item.

About PebblePad

In September 2024, ten programs across four faculties started using PebblePad, more will follow in the second half of this academic year and in the years to follow. PebblePad is a digital portfolio tool to record and monitor learner growth and achievements, reflection and feedback processes, longitudinal assessment, and competency development. This tool supports the UM vision that assessment is meaningful for the learning process, and is coordinated at program level, and should be aligned with the UM collaborative, constructive, contextual and self-directed learning principles.

Presentation recordings

In the presentations below, presenters mention various PebblePad features and workflows, to list a few:

  • Recording and monitoring student progress, e.g., learning outcomes skills and competencies, at programme level
  • Feedback by UM mentors, tutors, assessors, externals, peers, …
  • Reflection and self-evaluation
  • Individual and group assignments
  • Collaboration
  • Connection to Turnitin
  • Connection to Canvas
  • Recording and showcasing proof of learning
  • Assessment by UM staff and by externals
  • Assessment using feedback templates and rubrics
  • Narrative feedback
  • Datapoint collection

For more information on these features, go to our PebblePad support page.

Introduction and brief overview of UM implementation of PebblePad by Ilse Sistermans
In the event introduction Ilse explains why UM has implemented a Portfolio and briefly takes you through the various steps of implementation and touches upon support and training available at UM.

 

Pebblepad programme workspace to track progress across a programme by Ilse Sistermans
A quick explainer of the overarching programme workspace that PebblePad developed for UM. In this workspace students and staff (mentors, assessment committees) can monitor student progress across an entire programme. It facilitates visualisations of each competency through data points in scatter graphs.

 

FPN Bachelor Psychology by Dr Eliza de Sousa Fernandes Perna
Dr Eliza de Sousa Fernandes Perna presents their programme’s design of a programmatic assessment portfolio that is also meant to track student progress development by tutors, mentors and students. The students receive meaningful feedback instead of grades. Decisions are divided into low stakes – focus on feedback -, medium stakes – focus on diagnosis and new learning goals – and high-stakes – focus on pass-fail decision. Data points are collected from group projects, individual projects, presentations, peer revision and co-curricular activities. For sufficient portfolio design, they stress the need of time, a team and testing, testing, testing.

 

Implementing a Portfolio tool from an organisational and educational point of view by Prof Dr Desiree Joosten-ten Brinke
In her presentation, Desiree addresses the UM vision on assessment and how the portfolio tool PebblePad supports programmatic assessment, assessment of, for and as learning and based data collection. She stresses the importance of student engagement and self-directedness. She then takes us through the steps assessment of Portfolio design, emphasising the need for backward design, and of a programme portfolio design team of faculty level that supports learning designers and atlas managers.

 

FHML Master Health Policy Innovation and Management by Dr Daan Westra
Designing a competency-based program Portfolio in PebblePad that supports self-directedness and competency-development across the programme. The master uses a programmatic assessment approach with longitudinal tracks for knowledge and skills.

 

LAW Bachelor European Law School by Ilaria Piovesan
This bachelor programme uses PebblePad to support the skills track of a bachelor programme, with the use of competency-based assessment and standardised rubrics. Ilaria Piovesan stresses the need of support and time investment for portfolio design.

 

 

 

SBE Master Learning and Development in Organisations by Dr Thérèse Grohnert
The Master Learning and Development in Organisations uses PebblePad to guide students through their thesis trajectory: defining the topic; writing the proposal; writing the chapters, submission. In addition, SBE is preparing to use PebblePad for University Teaching Qualification (UTQ) to get teaching staff acquainted with the tool and its possibilities.

 

 

More information

Do you need more information on PebblePad features at UM or support? Follow the links to useful resources below, or reach out to your own faculty support or to Team Digital Learning Environment (DLE) at the University Library via the contact form below.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

 Resources for all UM PebblePad users

Additional resources for UM programme (portfolio) coordinators and support staff

Remember, it is crucial to start preparing months before going live with students. This allows ample time for iterative design and thorough testing. Contact your faculty support, they can help you to get started on your PebblePad Portfolio design