The Bridge to Academic Success in English (BASE) program is a pathway for international English language learners at the University of Waterloo. The program has been designed to help students build their language and academic skills so that they may be successful in their full degree studies. In 2016, eportfolios were incorporated into the course design of one of the courses that students take while in the BASE program, which focuses on the development of academic writing and research skills. The adoption of PebblePad in 2019 provided an opportunity to redesign the BASE writing courses. This case study describes how PebblePad workbooks have been implemented across all of the program's writing courses to facilitate an 'assessment as learning' model that streamlines the purpose, timelines and mechanisms of feedback within a process approach to writing. PebblePad makes the act of giving, receiving, processing and acting upon feedback visible to instructors, students and the learning community. In turn, the visibility of engagement is enhanced.
The above case study is just one of twenty-five brilliant examples from our 2020 'Charting new courses in learning and teaching' conference. With case studies spanning degree apprenticeships, clinical assessment, interprofessional education, showcase portfolios, and many other contexts and disciplines, they are real stories of trailblazing innovation. If you'd like to download all 25 exemplars of pedagogical goodness, click the link below.
