Exemplar of use 3 - University of Edinburgh


 

An overview of use

 

Exemplar  3  MY EDGE : Graduate Attributes

  

 Institution: e-Portfolio context: 

The development of student attributes is a constant thread throughout the University’s Strategic Plan, whether referring to learning, teaching or research.  More information can be found at http://www.employability.ed.ac.uk/Graduateattributes.htm   

 

Cross-institutional consultation identified three overarching attributes (Enquiry and Lifelong learning; Aspiration & Personal development and Outlook & Engagement) underpinned by four overlapping clusters of skills and abilities (Personal & Intellectual Autonomy; Personal effectiveness; Research & Enquiry and communication).  The challenge was to share that framework with our community, in a way that they could usefully engage with it.  The e-portfolio was seen as one tool which might be helpful for some students.

  

Dates of provision: September 2010 onwards

 

Reason for implementation: To try to introduce students to the idea of graduate attributes at the outset, so that they are seen as being a core part of the holistic experience of being a student here, not something that only happens or needs to be considered when graduation approaches.

 

Purpose/s:    Employability/Graduate attributes  

 

Learning processes involved:    Information capture, Information retrieval, Planning, Reflection, Feedback, Collaboration, Presentation

 

Practice:  fully developed as a service provision, but developing from perspective of user engagement

 

Key staff involved: Employability Consultants (part of Careers Service team); Employability Steering Group; ePortfolio adviser (part of Learning Services team); Head of Learning Services.

 

Links to example/s   

 

http://www.employability.ed.ac.uk/GraduateAttributesFramework.htm 

   

The whole concept of graduate attributes at Edinburgh relies on the idea of overarching attributes, which permeate almost all activities and areas of life. The idea of reducing that to a linear listing of distinct skills is contrary to the whole concept, yet we wanted to find some way to challenge each individual to consider what graduate attributes means for them. Translating the agreed graduate attributes framework into a set of profiles in pebblepad required considerable discussion. The framework itself had been the result of collaborative efforts, so there was reason to minimise any changes to those that were seen as essential - but on the other hand some of the language in the agreed framework was not felt to be appropriate for new students. There were also discussions round the degree of ganularity required, and some items could easily have been located in more than one profile. A webfolio was constructed which sought to provide the wider context about why our graduate attributes framework has the shape it has, alongside self assessment profiles and pointers to resources for support.