Portfolios and VLEs

Slowish day today, but at least I've pretty much resolved all that needs doing until September, and the rest can wait till then. I even managed a bit of precious research time.
One thing that will wait till the start of the new academic year is the portfolios, or rather the virtual part of the project. I mentioned in the earlier post that a designated list of tasks would be given, from which the students would select the best work for their portfolios at the end of the year. Well, what will also happen is that these will form the core of 'key tasks' on the university's VLE, Blackboard. Not only will the task be outlined alongside the companion tasks that a student will need to be able to understand and do in order to complete the task, each component will be a learning module. The idea is that where students can't come to class for whatever reason, they will be able to complete the designated self-study tasks and still have their attendance counted. That's what we're moving towards, anyway. In addition, links pages will direct students to additional reading, exercises and study linked to each key topic, the idea being that we can create differentiation within the cohort - faster students will be able to do more challenging work involving less guided, more real-world learning material, while lesser able students still complete the tasks they need to. It will also be a boon for the IT sessions we ru for our FT students, as these are currently a bit on the flabby side.