Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama

Using e-Portfolios to create a learning community and to support assessment and reflective practice - at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (formerly the RSAMD)

Creating a learning community and supporting assessment and reflective practice are key aims for those working in FE and HE. It is something staff at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (formerly the RSAMD) have been focusing on and using the ePortfolio tool, Mahara, to support. Staff and students have been making use of the opportunities to incorporate rich multi-media, to blog, upload videos of performances and more to enable reflection on practice, assess in more effective ways and foster inter-disciplinary engagement across the institution.

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Online Survey of Staff ICT Skills using the RSCs Training Needs Analysis (TNA) Tool

As part of their on-going aim for excellence in teaching, the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD) needed to take a snapshot of the current position of staff ICT skills on the learning curve and to identify preferred methods of learning. This would give a starting level from which The Academy could then measure improvement as a result of proposed staff development and training.

Facilitated by the RSC Scotland South & West, RSAMD conducted an online survey of staff in February 2009 using the RSCs Training Needs Analysis (TNA) tool. An institution-wide exercise of this magnitude required dedicated and informed staff to execute it, along with strong support from senior management. RSAMD faced a particular challenge regarding staff numbers. In addition to 190 full time teaching staff, RSAMD also employ in the region of 700-900 part-time peripatetic specialist staff. The TNA would provide a useful overview of staff training needs and impact on the use of e-Learning.
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Music Matters WIKI

In the context of studying for the PG Cert, Mary Troup introduced the use of WIKI software with 2nd year students taking the community music elective. WIKI software was used to support the Community Music programme with the aim of engaging students in knowledge sharing, team reflection, collaborative working and to develop their insight into the capacity for e-Learning to enhance their learning experience. Read more.....

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