A project team consisting of e-Learning and Veterinary Nursing staff at the Barony campus of Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) in Dumfries and Galloway, has been shortlisted in the category of “Innovation In Training” in the Scottish Training Federation (STF) Awards.
The project team produced a responsive collaborative digital teaching, learning and assessment environment for first year HND Veterinary Nursing students at the campus. The new online Graded Unit assessment was created to help students with planning, developing and delivering an educational and professional presentation on the importance of animal health and welfare to the public.
The student teams actively e-communicated and e-collaborated within online discussion forums, held frequent face-to-face and online meetings, co-created Padlet (web-based collaborative wall) presentations, peer-reviewed fellow teams’ video ‘prototype’ presentations resulting in confidently delivering professional and engaging presentations to campus staff, students and secondary-level school pupils.
Students also individually submitted outstanding e-portfolio digital evidence showcasing the successful steps in planning, development and evaluation stages of their online-based and interactive presentation projects.
Courtnie Toyer, one of the students involved in the project, said: “The new online Graded Unit project provided an exciting and interactive format in which we were able to successfully design and digitally submit our Graded Unit assignments. I feel using the new platform, although at times challenging as is learning with any new concept, improved the assessment structure and allowed us to gain new skills including teamwork, collaboration, digital skills, and assisted with confidently presenting a professional team-based presentation to the public.”
Ali Hastie, E-Learning Developer, said: “Within their teams, the Veterinary Nursing students worked extremely hard with their online-based and interactive presentations and the technologies provided to them.
“Both staff and students at Barony are delighted that their hard work has been recognised as a potential contender for the highly acclaimed Scottish Training Federation Innovation in Training Award.”
The winners will be announced on 25 September as part of the STF Conference, Annual Dinner and Awards at Crieff Hydro.
