Working together

The benefits of student-staff partnerships in supporting moves towards personal learning

Abstract

Personal learning is a complex terrain for students to navigate, and one that transcends discipline and cohort boundaries. This paper reflects on the introduction of a forum to promote, encourage and support student engagement with PebblePad, an ePortfolio / personal learning system. The forum provides students with an informal network beyond their course/subject cohorts in which they can ask questions and discuss issues as they traverse the technical and conceptual complexities in what is for many a transformational learning approach. It has developed as a partnership between students and staff, emerging from a student suggestion, establishing itself under the leadership of staff with student support, but gradually undergoing a role reversal so that students now take the lead. Now nearing the end of its second year, the forum demonstrates how staff-student partnerships can benefit a range of stakeholders in the university community - from students to academics, and particularly to the mentors themselves.