Mentor User Guide

July 2013

2

The Landscape Institute Charles Darwin House, 12 Roger Street, London, WC1N 2JU Mentor User Guide © The Landscape Institute 2013 No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, photocopying or otherwise, without permission in writing from the Landscape Institute.

3

Contents

About this Guide ....................................................................................................................... 4 Becoming a Mentor ................................................................................................................... 5 Logging in and the Pathway Dashboard ................................................................................... 6

Completing the Initial Review .................................................................................................... 8 Reviewing your Candidate’s progress .................................................................................... 10 Mentor Reviews and Exam Notifications ................................................................................. 12 Retaking the exam .................................................................................................................. 16

Supervisor Feedback .............................................................................................................. 17 Appendix: Summary of Deadlines ........................................................................................... 18

4

About this Guide

The Mentor User Guide provides a step by step guide to interacting with the Pathway system as a Mentor. In the pages that follow, you will find information on how to use the Pathway system. The User Guide should be read as a companion to the Guidebook to the Pathway to Chartership which describes the process Candidates and Mentors must follow in order for the Candidates to progress in the system and achieve chartership. The Guidebook details the requirements of the Pathway, what needs to happen and when. It is essential reading for all Pathway users. A Candidate User Guide is also available to download from the Pathway Resource Centre in the Members’ Section of the LI website.

The LI provides a range of other resources to help Candidates and Mentors, all of which can be found in the Pathway Resource Centre: http://landscapeinstitute.org/members/pathway/

The following documents are also available from the Pathway website

http://www.landscapeinstitute.org/members/pathway

Guidebook

Syllabus

Toolkit

Finding a Mentor

Guidance on Setting up a Study Group

The Pathway for People Currently Out of Work

Exam Notes for Candidates

Mock Exam Guidance

Plan B – What to do if you Fail the Exam

5

Becoming a Mentor

As part of their registration on the Pathway, Candidates are asked to nominate a Mentor, a chartered member who will work with them while they are on the Pathway, and provide quarterly reviews on their progress. More information on becoming a Mentor and what the role involves is provided in the Pathway Guidebook. If you are nominated as a Mentor you will receive an email from the Pathway system asking you if you wish to accept this role. If you accept (Candidates are expected to discuss this with you before making their nomination) the Pathway Coordinator will check all relevant details, confirm your Candidate’s registration on the Pathway, and give you both access to the Pathway system.

6

Logging in and the Pathway Dashboard

Once the Pathway Coordinator has approved your Candidate’s registration and your pairing with the Candidate, you will receive an email notifiying you that you can log on to the Pathway system at http://pathwaytochartership.org. Logging on takes you to your Pathway Dashboard. The dashboard is the control screen in your interactions with the Pathway. From the dashboard you can get to all parts of the Pathway system, view your Candidate’s progress, check for the latest alerts and deadlines, and update the contact details you wish to use on the Pathway. The Mentor dashboard is slightly different to what the Candidate sees so we have shown both here.

The Mentor’s view

You can see all your Candidate’s details by clicking here.

You can update your

personal details here.

Reminders and prompts for each of your Candidates (if you have more than one) will appear in the Task Menu.

Your Candidate list looks like this.

7

The Candidate’s view

Once the Initial Review has been submitted, they can click on these three headings to add to their Development Pack.

They can update their personal details.

They can view all their submissions, including any they may have made on the previous Pathway IT system.

Reminders and prompts will appear in the Task Menu.

8

Completing the Initial Review

Once you and your Candidate have been given access to the online system, the first step is for your Candidate to arrange an initial meeting or meetings with you so that you can complete the Initial Review. As the Mentor, only you have access to the Initial Review form and the Candidate cannot start logging their development until you have submitted it. The link to the Initial Review appears in your Task menu. The purpose of this first meeting is to capture any past-experience or knowledge your Candidate gained prior to joining the Pathway. Many people will be joining the Pathway straight from University and may have relatively little prior knowledge of syllabus areas. In this case their stage profile may be mainly zeroes, therefore this first meeting could potentially be quite short. A Candidate who has been working for some time may have accumulated a great deal of relevant knowledge, which you will need to verify through questioning and then record on the Initial Review form. There is more information about this in the Pathway Guidebook. There is also a section on assessing your Candidate in the Pathway Toolkit. The link to the Initial Review appears in your Task menu.

The Initial Review

For each syllabus area you should select the stage that most closely describes your Candidate’s current level of knowledge and understanding (there is more about the stages in the Pathway Guidebook and Toolkit). For each element you should then add a few sentences explaining how your candidate has gained this level of knowledge prior to starting the Pathway. Once you have gone through each section of the syllabus you should click ‘submit’ at the bottom of the form. You can only submit the Initial Review once so make sure you have included all the information you wished to before this final step.

9

Once the Initial Review has been submitted your Candidate will be able to start logging their development.

Candidates will log projects, development logs and a quarterly statement over the course of the quarter. There is more about this in the Guidebook and the Candidate User Guide.

Taking over from another Mentor The Initial Review only needs to be completed once – when the Candidate first starts on the Pathway. If you are taking over the Mentor role from another Mentor for a Candidate who has already been on the Pathway for a while (and an Initial Review has already been completed) you will not be required to submit another Initial Review. You will be able to give your comments on the Candidate’s progress and achievements as part of your quarterly Mentor Review when it becomes due.

Initial Review deadlines There is no specific deadline by which you need to complete the Initial Review - it can be submitted at any time on any day. Please be aware that your Candidate will not be able to begin recording their development on the Pathway until your Initial Review has been submitted. If your Candidate is keen to get started and submit their first Development Pack in a particular quarter, you should submit your Initial Review without delay, and in good time before the end of the quarter, to give them sufficient time to make their submission.

Viewing the Initial Review All submissions from your Candidate, you and your Supervisor can be found in the ‘View all Previous Development’ option on the ‘My Candidates’ screen.

The ‘My Candidates’ screen

Your Initial Review can be viewed under ‘Forms’.

10

Reviewing your Candidate’s progress

Please note the following viewing options are only possible for submissions made as part of Q3 2013 and later. To view submissions made before this time see the later instructions. The Pathway system has a number of tools which enable you to review your Candidate’s development and the submissions each of you have made while on the Pathway system. This can be particularly helpful when you are thinking about their progress, or looking over their development and experience when considering whether to submit a notification for the exam. You can view your Candidate’s experience

Quarter by quarter – i.e. by Development Packs

By Project

By syllabus area

Quarter by quarter To view your Candidate’s Development Packs by quarter, select ‘View all Previous Development’ on your ‘My Candidates’ page. The ‘View by pack’ tab will give you a list of all Development Packs within the system.

Quarter by quarter

To view a development pack click on the ‘overview’ button under the relevant section.

11

By Project or syllabus area

From the same screen use the ‘View by project’ or ‘View by syllabus’ tabs to access these views. You can use the filter at the side to look at all development (select ‘any’) or just the records for a particular quarter.

Viewing Submissions Made Prior to Q3 2013 Click on ‘Development Packs’ in the orange menu bar. Scroll down to the quarter you wish to view and click on ‘Download Development Pack’. This will give you that submission as a PDF.

If no submission was made the button will say ‘no submission’.

12

Mentor Reviews and Exam Notifications

The Mentor Review is the quarterly review submitted by you on the Pathway system. In preparation for completion of your Review, you will need to look over your Candidate’s submission and discuss with them the development they have undertaken and how this has contributed to their level of knowledge and understanding across any syllabus areas. The Toolkit gives further guidance on how you can use various questioning techniques as part of your assessment. Sometimes your Candidate’s knowledge will have increased. You may even find that they have increased their stage scores across a number of syllabus areas. At others, they may have increased their knowledge, but not sufficiently to increase from, for example, Stage 1 to 2. This is normal and while you may not change the stage score on the Mentor Review you can still write a comment to reflect the work that has been done. Wherever a stage score has increased you must add a comment to the Mentor Review to explain how this has been achieved. Your Supervisor will also be looking for evidence to support this increase in your Candidate’s Development Pack. Examples of good Mentor Reviews can be seen in the Pathway Resource Centre. (http://landscapeinstitute.org/members/pathway)

Completing the Mentor Review You can access the Mentor Review from your pathway dashboard or from your ‘My Candidates’ menu.

Mentor Review Form

13

Some Mentors will complete the Mentor Review after meeting with their Candidate while others find it best to complete it during the meeting.. The Stage ‘Scores’ The ‘Score last quarter’ column is pre-populated from either the Initial Review (for example, where this is the Candidate’s first quarterly submission and therefore your first mentor review) or from the last mentor review you submitted. These previous scores cannot be edited. The ‘Score this quarter’ column is also pre-populated to be the same as the previous quarter, but you can update these scores to reflect your assessment of the Candidates achievement this quarter with a single click.

The comments section If your Candidate’s development is such that there is no change to your Candidate’s scores in a particular area of the syllabus you do not have to submit a comment for that area. Situations where the Mentor will actually not comment at all will be rare as it is unlikely that a Candidate will not have experienced any broadening or deepening of knowledge in any of the areas in each section. You are also welcome to comment even where the score has not changed. You will see examples of this in the sample Mentor Reviews available in the Pathway Resource Centre. Where a score does change you will need to make a comment describing how your Candidate has developed this additional knowledge and understanding. Comments do not have to be lengthy and often just a few sentences will suffice. You will need to go through each of the syllabus sections and make adjustments to scores or add comments as is appropriate. Refer to the guidance in the Pathway Toolkit on “Assessing your Candidate’s Knowledge and Understanding”. The final part of the Mentor Review is a small number of additional questions asking you to reflect on your Candidate’s progress, plans for the coming quarter and the likelihood of them being ready to take the exam within the next 6-12 months. This is shown below.

If your Candidate is not yet ready to take the exam you should select ‘No’. An additional question will then appear asking whether you expect them to be ready by the end of the next quarter. If your Candidate is ready to take the exam you should read the guidance below before selecting ‘Yes’ and continuing with the form. To submit your Mentor Review you should answer any remaining questions and then click on ‘Submit Assessment’.

Notifications and the Exam During the course of the Pathway, your Candidate will need to develop a Stage 2 level of knowledge and understanding across the majority of the Syllabus with Stage 3 in some areas where they have particular

14

experience and expertise. Stage 1 is acceptable in a very small number of areas not connected with their day-to-day work. Once they have the necessary level of knowledge and understanding the two of you should discuss whether you are happy to submit a notification as part of your next Mentor Review. Notifications will not be approved if there are any syllabus areas where your Candidate’s knowledge is still at stage 0. To submit a notification you will complete your Mentor Review as usual and get to the stage described in the previous image. When you select ‘Yes’ to this question a number of additional questions will appear which will also need to be answered before the form can be submitted. These ask you to comment on:

The progress your Candidate has made since joining the Pathway

Areas where your Candidate has had particular experience

Areas where your Candidate has less direct experience and how they have covered these

Your candidate's integrity, understanding of professional values and responsibilities, and preparedness to take on the professional responsibilities of a chartered landscape architect

Once you have answered these questions you can submit the form as usual. Once a notification has been submitted your Supervisor will review the current and previous submissions and decide whether to accept or decline it. If your Supervisor declines the notification they will tell you why in their feedback and indicate what additional development the Candidate needs. If the Supervisor accepts the notification your Candidate is now eligible to take the Exam and should register straight away using the link on their Pathway Dashboard. There is no minimum time Candidates need to spend on the Pathway and so it is possible that someone with extensive past experience may meet the required standard shortly after joining. Typically, most Candidates without prior experience and joining straight after graduating will need to spend 2-3 years on the Pathway before they meet this standard. Whatever their rate of progression it is important not to push to take the Exam before they are genuinely ready. The Candidates who fail the exam (the pass rate is usually between 70-85%) will have had stage scores of 2-3 across all syllabus areas but, as you will read in the Chief Examiner feedback published after exams, they were unable to display this level of knowledge or understanding when questioned. Albert Einstein said “If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough”. One way of testing whether your Candidate truly has a stage 2 level of understanding is by asking them to explain the syllabus area as if to someone completely unfamiliar with their work and with an average client’s level of knowledge about landscape architecture. Testing your Candidate’s knowledge on this basis should stand them in good stead for the exam.

Viewing your Candidate’s Exam Result You will receive an email notifying you that your Candidate’s exam result has been released and can now be viewed online. You should log in and click on the link in your ‘Tasks’ menu to view this. You can also view it by going to the ‘My Candidate’ screen and clicking to ‘View all Previous Development’. You can then click on the ‘Exam History’ tab to view recent and any previous feedback.

15

Viewing ‘Exam History’

16

Retaking the exam

We hope that your Candidate will be successful in the Pathway exam. If they do not succeed the first time, they can retake the exam. There is no limit on the number of times they can retake. Before they can register again, you will need to make another notification (as part of your next Mentor Review) and this must be approved by your Supervisor. Once this has happened, your Candidate will be able to register again. Before they reregister, they should carefully consider the feedback given by Examiners, and discuss it with you. To give them the best chance of success when they retake, they should be prepared to work on any areas of weakness identified, as well as preparing across the syllabus.

17

Supervisor Feedback

Each quarter the submissions made by you and your Candidate are reviewed by your Supervisor, who will provide feedback to you both. Once submitted you will receive an alert by email and can then view your Supervisor feedback by going to the ‘My Candidates’ section. There will also be an alert to let you know you have received feedback from your Supervisor under ‘Tasks’ on your dashboard, and you will receive an alert by email. Your Supervisor is there to help and advise you. They also provide an independent assessment of your submission and feedback for both the Candidate and the Mentor. Each Supervisor has approximately 20 Candidates to look after. Please be aware that where Supervisors find that similar feedback is relevant to more than one Candidate, they may sometimes use the same phrases and advice for several Candidates. If you know another Candidate who has had the same Supervisor, you may notice some phrases which occur in feedback which has been given to both Candidates. This does not mean that they have not given your submission proper and individual attention.

Providing evidence of your Candidate’s progress As a basis for providing their feedback, your Supervisor will look at your Mentor Review to see how your Candidate has progressed and what evidence you and your Candidate have provided to support that progression. You and your Candidate therefore need to ensure there is information to support any claim of progression e.g. from level 1 to 2 or 2 to 3 within the Candidate’s Development Pack and in the Mentor Review. Information in each needs to be supported by the other to ensure the Supervisor understands how your Candidates has progressed.

Responding to feedback from your Supervisor Supervisors often give specific advice on which syllabus areas to focus on or suggest particular development activities. Candidates and Mentors need to show they have reacted to this feedback in their next submission. You can contact the Supervisor for clarification if you are unclear why an activity has been suggested or do not understand a particular comment (the Supervisor’s email address is in the final column of the ‘My Candidates’ list). General questions can be answered by the Pathway Coordinator.

18

Appendix:

Summary of Deadlines

The Quarterly Cycle The deadlines for the submission of Development Packs and Mentor Reviews are summarised in the table below, with an indication of when Candidates and Mentors can expect to receive feedback from the Supervisor. Candidate

Development Pack Submission Deadline

Mentor Review Submission Deadline

Supervisor Feedback Deadline

Quarter 1 – Jan to Mar 31 March 7 April 1 May

Quarter 2 – Apr to Jun 30 June 7 July 1 August

Quarter 3 – Jul to Sep 30 September 7 October 1 November

Quarter 4 – Oct to Dec 31 December 7 January 1 February

The Oral Examination

Examination dates Exams are usually held twice a year, in May and November. Examination dates are published on Talking Landscape (http://talkinglandscape.org/) as soon as they are known. The final date, time and venue of the examination will be confirmed to Candidates once they have registered for the exam. The timetables for notifications and registration are detailed on the following page.

Notifications and deadlines for registration Candidates are eligible to register for the examination where their Mentor has made a notification and this has been accepted by the Supervisor. A notification can be made at the end of any quarter as part of the Mentor Review.

19

7th Jan

• Deadline for First Notification (as part of Mentor's Q4 submission)

1st Feb • Supervisor Feedback deadline for Q4

28th Feb • Deadline for Candidate to register for the Exam

7th July

• Deadline for First Notification (as part of Mentor's Q1 submission)

1st Aug • Supervisor Feedback deadline for Q2

21st Jul • Deadline for Candidate to register for the Exam

May examination

Candidates who wish to register for a May examination must complete and submit the Examination Registration Form by 28 February. They will need to have received a notification no later than the end of Quarter 4 followed by approval of this by their Supervisor before they are eligible to register. This is summarised in the diagram below. November examination

Candidates who wish to register for a November examination must complete and submit the Examination Registration Form by 31 August. They will need to have received a notification no later than the end of Quarter 2 followed by approval of this by their Supervisor before they are eligible to register. This is summarised in the diagram below.