JISC

This project has sought to develop, deliver and evaluate an e-portfolio service to learners who may in some way be ‘isolated’ from further or higher education with the aim of helping them to engage with the lifelong learning agenda and to gain access to the opportunities provided by HEIs for personal and work-related development.

Executive Summary

The project partners are all based in the Lancashire and Cumbria region - Cumbria Institute of the Arts, Carlisle College, St Martins College, Furness College, Burnley College, Blackburn College and The University of Central Lancashire (further input has been provided by Edge Hill and Lancaster University). Representatives from each partner have formed the management committee which was created to make decisions about the direction of the project as it has progressed. The management committee members represent the variety of roles involved in embedding learning technology in an educational establishment; Learning Technologists, Teaching and Learning Co-ordinators, Faculty Staff and Heads of IT. It was hoped that this approach would lead to a democratic decision making process and also facilitate decisions which allowed the project to develop and improve as it went along.

The project team comprised of the operational team based in the Learning Development Unit at the host institution (The University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN)). Due to the relatively short timescale of the project (12 months not including continuation phase) the project team arranged two ‘pre-meetings’ of the management committee before the official start date at the beginning of April 2005 as it was thought that it would take several meetings before representatives from the nine partners were established and felt comfortable with the tasks ahead. This strategy allowed us to hit the ground running and made completion of the project possible.

At the management committee meetings partners talked of current practice and policy. Discussion took place around the value of joined up thinking across the region regarding a lifelong learner’s e-portfolio. Although the project has not specifically been about developing e-portfolio software, the management committee reviewed various existing software packages available and their relative merits for this project. It was decided to try and develop and use an e-portfolio for the project which may be of worth to both the FE and HE communities. Although it was acknowledged that the product developed may not be perfect for any of the partners it was thought that it might provide the ‘chassis’ of a portfolio (in respect of the language and the fields used) which had the potential for partners to make their own. With this in mind it was decided to adapt and use the Open Source Portfolio software (v1.5) – The project team offered to host this at UCLAN to relieve partners of the need to install a version at their own institution.

Each partner was free to decide on the cohorts used with the remit that in some way they represent the definitions of ‘isolated’ that the management committee had deemed applicable for this project. These definitions included geographically, socially, culturally and ‘aspirationally’ isolated. The ‘live pilot’ part of the process took place in semester one and part of semester two in the academic year 2005-06. The evaluation aimed to record the opinions of the learners and the tutors while using the e-portfolio. It also aimed to record how the project may influence the institutional policy of each partner and finally how the project worked as a whole. The project advisory board appointed a representative of the Centre for Recording Achievement (Janet Strivens) as the external evaluator to comment on the project as a whole at the project advisory board meetings. Janet was also commissioned to carry out a series of ‘on-site’ interviews with the supporting tutors involved and to summarise the findings in a report. The report is shown in the ‘Outputs and Results’ section of this final project report.

The project achieved many of its original objectives. The key ones being to:

• trial and evaluate e-portfolios as a way of encouraging isolated learners to reflect on their educational needs and aspirations
• identify e-portfolio software that is suitable to the needs of the isolated learner
• share between the partners to this bid existing e-tools and resources relating to personal development
• train tutors working with the isolated learners in the use of e-portfolios and how learners can be helped to benefit from them
• use e-portfolios to encourage and raise awareness of educational opportunities

In addition to these the project partners also considered the implications of encouraging wider scale use of e-portfolios in their respective institutions. This involved understanding the workload implications for staff, the effectiveness of different software and the effectiveness of encouraging staff to become early adopters.

While the e-portfolios were more successful with some cohorts than others, they are potentially of great benefit to many – both in further and higher education institutions. The success did not seem to depend on the level of the learner, their age or gender but on marrying the enthusiasm of staff with the appropriate software for the learner. In all, e-portfolios seem to offer a student centred approach to recording achievement and developmental planning. This ‘student-centred’ approach is something learners found appealing, as are the opportunities for collaborative learning and social computing that e-portfolios offer.

Read the final report below. This report is available electronically only.