I was delighted to receive notification from ALT last week that my Senior CMALT portfolio, which I submitted in May, had been approved. Hurray!  When I wrote my original CMALT portfolio, I blogged about the process and shared drafts here on my blog as I was writing them.  I didn’t do that this time because, tbh, I had so many false starts, I wasn’t sure I would ever get it finished and submitted!  I have shared the whole portfolio here under open licence though, and I’ll also be submitting it to ALT’s portfolio repository. 

One of the things I struggled with when writing both portfolios, and something other CMALT candidates often struggle with too I think, is claiming credit for work we have undertaken as part of a team.  As learning technologists, the vast majority of the work we do is in collaboration with other learning technologists, academics, students, colleagues from other institutions, and from across the ALT community.  This is particularly the case when working in open education.  Trying to pin point exactly what you did as part of a wider team effort is never easy, also many of us are reticent about blowing our own trumpets, and imposter syndrome is a real thing.  Writing first person singular feels really awkward to me, I’m so used to writing “we”, that “I” doesn’t really come naturally to me anywhere other than on this blog.  As a CMALT assessor, I often find myself providing gentle feedback asking for more information on the candidate’s own contribution to specific activities and initiatives. This was very much at the forefront of my mind while I was writing my own portfolio, but I found it was impossible to talk about my own work without frequently referring to the work of a large number of colleagues and open education practitioners. So I just want to take a moment to acknowledge some of those who I’ve worked closely with over the last few years, and those whose scholarship and open practice has influenced and challenged me, many of whom are name checked in my portfolio. 

Javiera Atenas, Phil Barker, Frances Bell, Helen Beetham, Lucy Crompton-Reid, Catherine Cronin, Maren Deepwell, Charlie Farley, Josie Fraser, Leo Havemann, Melissa Highton, Karen Howie, Rajiv Jhangiani, Alan Levine, Ewan McAndrew, Neil McCormick, Nikki Moran, Gary Needham, Stuart Nicol, Tara Robertson, Jane Secker, Audrey Waters, Martin Weller, Joe Wilson.

Thank you. My Senior CMALT portfolio wouldn’t exist without you.