JISC

See also UK learner profile specification 1.1b  [PDF] and the Developing learner profiles across FE and HE project

Background/Context

This project will extend work already carried out by extending the work of the Centre for Recording Achievement in the development, co-ordination and engagement with practitioners in the MLE community to support the development of more effective interoperability between learner-centred MLEs and the production of helpful relevant standards to underpin the related technical work.

Aims and Objectives  [1]

The overall aim of the project is to provide the focus for consultation, development, acceptance by the community and implementation of e-standards in order to:

1. Progress towards the:
   a. development of the IMS Learner Information Packaging and related e-standards; [2] b. use of related specifications; [3] to ensure that a range of different practice can be effectively supported;
2. Facilitate the development of formal standards, in particular the application profiles which may arise from the programme and inthis way provide clear guidance to vendors of user requirements across the sectors;
3. Join up practice within the shared learning environments being developed by local partnerships of schools, colleges and universities, by national organisations and by employers;
4. Centre the development of e-Learning upon the needs of the learner by focusing on development of the learner; [4] 
5. Promote and facilitate effective interoperability between PDP systems, grounded in the mutual recognition of diverse PDP practice, across the spectrum of lifelong learning;
6. Enable schools, colleges and universities to exchange learner information to support shared learning and transitions [5].

The project will also:

• make available the experience of implementing the Guidelines for HE Progress Files published by Universities UK, SCoP, QAA and LTSN to other sectors;
• develop the ability to communicate the distinctive value of UK Education to international audiences by building on the links already established by members of the group and the organisations they represent.

Project Methodology

Project activities

The nature of the demand envisaged will require the Project to develop on from current work in two ways:

1.     At the macro level, where the new support project will:

        a. promote engagement and support consensus building with:

b.      collate information that will in practice help full MLE [6] system developers and vendors to develop systems that are most effectively interoperable;
c.      collate information that will support the development of formal UK and international interoperability standards (by BSI for example) and provide a basis for conformance testing. [7]

2.       At the micro level, where support will be provided to JISC projects through an agreed programme which will incorporate:

a.        Programme level workshops; including within Programme meetings;
b.       The facilitation of links between Projects with similar concerns and issues, who may be able to provide support for one another;
c.       Individual consultation activity, within the overall cost base.

Implications/ Deliverables/ Stakeholders

1. A project web site (http://www.cetis.ac.uk/members/llsp) along with documentation of its development and use, and feedback from users, to serve as:
   a. An expanding repository of structured information about PDP practice and about MLE systems which support it;
   b. Mechanisms to facilitate mutual recognition of practice which supports engagement and consensus building in the relevant communities.
2. Training workshops to help users (practitioners in particular) to maximise their benefit from that website.
3. A service to help vendors and developers implement interoperable MLE systems supporting PDP. This would cover: specific advice on how to represent any learner information item in IMS LIP; general advice on how to implement the input and output of IMS LIP XML information; and specific advice, where available from documented cases, on how to interface PDP systems with particular MIS and VLE systems. The service would be widely publicised, and thereafter logs kept of requests for help and the response to those requests.
4. One or more documents expressing our understanding of the emerging consensus across the sectors on the requirements for MLEs to support the development of people as lifelong learners centred upon the needs of the learner, and of the emerging consensus about what standards, both for specifications and vocabularies, would best serve the purposes of the PDP community.
5. Application Profiles and attendant use cases arising from the programme to support the development of appropriate software.
6. Proposals for relevant standards delivered to the appropriate standards bodies at opportune times.

Other deliverables to date:

• Report on 'Developing and Implementing a Methodology for  Reviewing E-portfolio Products' by Helen Richardson and Rob Ward - March 2005
• Generic guidance for institutions on 'Getting what you want: Implementing Personal Development Planning through e-portfolio' by Rob Ward and Helen Richardson - August 2005
  • A starting point for students: guidance based on the generic document from the student perspective (Rob Ward and Helen Richardson - February 2006). Available in Word or PDF.
  • A starting point for PDP practitioners: guidance based on the generic document from the perspective of a PDP practitioner (Rob Ward and Helen Richardson - February 2006). Word or PDF. 
  • A starting point for institutional managers: guidance based on the generic document from the perspective of an institutional manager (Rob Ward and Helen Richardson - February 2006). Word or PDF.
  • A starting point for technical developers: guidance based on the generic document from the perspective of a technical developer (Rob Ward and Helen Richardson - February 2006). Word or PDF.
  • A starting point for MIS managers: guidance based on the generic document from the perspective of an MIS manager (Rob Ward and Helen Richardson - February 2006). Word or PDF.
• Scenarios of use from the MLEs for Lifelong Learning Projects, with supporting material
• Developing scenarios of practice - a one page overview of the scenarios approach. August 2005
• Interim (April 2005) and final (September 2005) scoping reports with recommendations to the JISC Learning and Teaching committee on 'Supporting e-portfolio development in the UK'

[1] Items in italics denote a direct link into the activities of the Learner Information Packaging Special Interest Group (LIPSIG)
[2] Those items in italics are seen as falling under the auspices of CETIS funded activity
[3] Including, as appropriate, use of the IMS Learning Design specification.
[4] PDP processes are seen as the key mechanism for achieving this central objective of the JISC 0103 programme.
[5] Such as from post 16 education to HE in the context of the strategy for widening participation proposed in the future of higher education.
[6] A "full" MLE system here implies one that covers PDP and PDR information
[7] Though such testing will not be carried out within the Project