JISC

Overview

The aim of Partnership investigations into accredited prior/previous (Pineapple) is to bring clarity and apply structure to current Accredited Prior Experiential Learning (APEL) work, policies and practice carried out in the University of Plymouth Colleges regional partnership of Further Education Colleges. Gaps will then be identified and, where possible, filled. Methodologies will be developed to create APEL processes pertinent to multiple stakeholders and record such activities and their outcomes. This data will be stored and accessible by the individuals concerned to create an APEL portfolio of their tool use and a meta-analysis will enable this information to become a community resource of processes and their associated outcomes. Around this, a programme of community development and advocacy will be developed.

Aims and objectives

The project aims to investigate, implement and evaluate methods, technologies and associated interventions and policies that will assist in the embedding and widespread acceptance of APEL. This will be further enhanced by supporting learners and employers in the learning journey between APEL and a progression route to an HE programme. Methods of managing stakeholder expectations will also be investigated. For entry and progression to be as smooth as possible it will be necessary to develop mechanisms for blurring the institutional boundaries (as perceived by the learner).

Project methodology

This project will:

• review existing APEL resources and identification of any information gaps
• identify possible barriers and mechanisms to implement the APEL procedures
• investigate SOA to support diversity both inter-institutional and intra-institutional, to allow stakeholders to access and share open content
• investigate the role of the institution as a service provider, allowing stakeholders to interact with, relevant resources that are easily discovered and reusable
• use the findings to inform institutional decision makers of the pertinent issues and to suggest adaptation of current and future institutional strategies
• develop processes to allow the collation and sharing of APEL data
• develop, implement and evaluate an APEL toolkit/diagnostic for stakeholders to explain APEL process and for the user to record/register APEL
• develop an APEL tracker to record and monitor use of the PINEAPPLE tool

Anticipated outputs and outcomes

Outputs will include:

• Cross-institutional demonstrations of the Pineapple systems, policies, processes and practice to support lifelong learning and workforce development via the application of APEL
• Evaluation of stakeholders’ experiences of Pineapple technologies, and its influence on practice
• Dissemination and active engagement with the wider community to communicate key messages from the project and promote take-up of the approach;
• Materials and support to facilitate the take-up of the Pineapple approaches in other organisations and Guidance for other institutions when carrying out similar Innovations;
• Data and findings that could be used as the basis for ongoing APEL research
• An evaluation report, reflecting on the issues encountered, articulating what has been learnt through carrying out the project, descriptions of the key processes tackled by the project and what future questions need to be explored

Technology / Standards used

Technologically, the key development will be the creation of an APEL diagnostic tool and tracker using PHP, MySQL and AJAX. Existing software and resources will be used to provide for other functionality. The resulting tools, resources and processes will be relevant, beneficial and transferable to other HE and FE settings.

Lead Institution

• University of Plymouth

Project partners

• City College Plymouth
• City of Bristol College
• Weymouth College