RAPPORT
Volume 3 Issue 1 (2018)
The International Journal for
Recording Achievement,
Planning and Portfolios
Editorial: How we got to Dublin: some thinking – and a bit of reflection
Rob Ward
On behalf of the Seminar Planning Committee
Rob Ward joined the first incarnation of the Centre for Recording Achievement – the
Recording Achievement and Higher Education Project – at its inception in 1991. He is
now Director Emeritus of the CRA.
Email: [email protected]
The planning
As readers might be aware, the
commitment to a second joint seminar
led collaboratively by the Centre for
Recording Achievement in the UK (CRA)
and the Association for Authentic,
Experiential and Evidence-Based
Learning in the US (AAEEBL) grew in
part from the positive feedback from the
first joint seminar, held in Edinburgh in
2015. From a CRA perspective, it also
reflected a longer history of engagement
with colleagues from across the world,
going back to a collaborative event held
at Goodenough College, London in 2005!
So we started with a sense of history and
continuity: indeed our process for the
event drew heavily upon the Edinburgh
format.
As before, we were intentionally
inclusive: submissions and participation
were invited from both established and
emergent researchers and practitioners
with interesting stories to tell, from those
offering case studies of individuals and
small groups to large cross-institutional
studies linked to retention and graduation
data. We offered a range of formats for
proposals and encouraged the
involvement of students as co-
presenters. We emphasised the intention
to help colleagues shape their proposals
where these might need a bit of
‘tweaking’ to fit congruently within the
programme. Throughout we sought to:
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focus upon sharing and developing
the body of curriculum, pedagogy,
evaluation and research evidence to
inform decisions about effective
ePortfolio practices, and specifically
upon encouraging practitioners to
engage in and report upon such
research and evaluation activities;
provide an environment that was
supportive, developmental and
scholarly.
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