The document details the MOSEP project, which aimed to support adolescents (ages 14-16) in their educational transitions by implementing e-portfolios to enhance self-esteem and personal competencies. Funded by the European Commission, the project involved a European partnership and created a toolkit for teachers that includes training materials and online resources for effective e-portfolio utilization. The goal is to prevent early school leaving and empower students by improving the capabilities of educators and vocational counselors.

1. CASE STUDY
MOSEP
by
Wolf Hilzensauer
This document is part of the overall European project LINKS-UP - Learning 2.0 for an Inclusive
Knowledge Society – Understanding the Picture. Further case studies and project results can be
downloaded from the project website http://www.linksup.eu.
Copyright
This work has been licensed under a Creative Commons License:
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This
publication reflects the views only of the author(s), and the Commission cannot be
held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained
therein.

2. “Young learners, between the age of 14 and 16, find themselves at transition points in
their lives at which they have to choose between going into upper secondary education
or entering vocational training. It is a time when they have to make decisions and need
to be supported in making the best choices for their future careers. Adolescent research
suggests that students at the transitional stage of development between childhood and
adulthood need specific forms of learning support (Bandura, 2006; Pajares et al., 2006).
This is the case especially for developing personal competencies, such as goal setting
and accomplishment, self-organisation and self-confidence, and developing a vision of
professional life” (MOSEP, 2008).
Case profile – MOSEP in a nutshell
MOSEP
More Self-Esteem with my e-Portfolio
Website http://www.mosep.org/
Status finished/closed (2006 – 2008)
Interviewed person Project coordinator: Mag. Wolf Hilzensauer, Salzburg Research
Funded and promoted by… European project – Leonardo da Vinci programme
Combination of formal setting in the frame of further education
Location of the Learning Activities (workshops, courses) and informal setting (e.g. materials for self-
study)
MOSEP addresses the growing problem of adolescents (aged 14 to
16) dropping out of the formal education system around Europe.
| Teachers and Vocational Counsellors working with 14-16 year
old students.
Target group(s) | Teacher Trainers, who are responsible for the training of either
in-service or student-teachers.
| The indirect target-group will be 14-16 year old secondary
school students, preparing for the next phase of their educa-
tion or training.
Number of users 80 trainers and 120 students
Educational Sector(s) Vocational Education & Training
Combination of formal (courses, workshops) and informal (materi-
Category of the Learning Activities
als)
(Semantic) Wiki, Video podcasts, Mahara E-Portfolio Software For-
Web 2.0 technologies used...
um, Platform: www.mosep.org
Electronic portfolios (e-portfolios) as a means of supporting both
Methods to support inclusion
young people and the teaching and counselling staff
2

3. Short description and key characteristics
“The project idea of MOSEP (http://www.mosep.org/) is to develop a set of measures
for the use of e-portfolios1 in different contexts in order to strengthen the self-esteem of
young learners. The e-portfolio concept is a learner-centred model allowing a greater
degree of personalisation of learning and motivating and empowering students to ac-
quire the skills needed to succeed in today‘s knowledge economy and become confident
and competent 21st Century citizens. The e-portfolio is a powerful tool to aid inclusion
in both social and educational terms as it encourages the celebration of achievements –
the wide pallet of skills and interests that a young person has gained both in and out of
school.
The focus of the MOSEP project lies on ensuring that all school students – particularly
those in the critical transition stage of 14-16 years – will be enabled to develop and
demonstrate their full potential” MOSEP targets early school leavers by improving the
skills and qualifications of their teachers and career counsellors (MOSEP, 2008).
Key characteristics
“The EU project MOSEP (More Self-Esteem with my e-Portfolio) is an innovative project
being funded under the European Commission’s Leonardo da Vinci Programme
(08/2006 – 08/2008). The total project budget was € 489.895. MOSEP addresses the
problem of early school leavers at the stage at which young learners are in danger of
dropping out of the formal education system, in adolescence. A strong European part-
nership – from Austria, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Lithuania, Poland and the UK – is
working closely with a network of experts across Europe to produce an e-portfolio
‘toolkit’ specifically designed for initial and in-service teacher trainers and vocational
counsellors to help to prepare teachers and trainers to work with learners who are using
ePortfolios” (MOSEP, 2008).
Dimension of learning and inclusion
“MOSEP is harnessing the power of electronic portfolios (e-portfolios) as a means of
supporting both young people and the teaching and counselling staff who work with
them. During the MOSEP project a set of measures for the use of e-portfolios in differ-
ent contexts was developed in order to strengthen the self-esteem of young learners.
The so-called MOSEP-Toolkit consists of the following products and services which are
freely available for use by schools and teacher training organisations:
| A study2, identifying and outlining the specific qualifications and skills required by
teachers/tutors working with adolescents,
| a MOSEP train-the-trainer course for teachers/tutors and counsellors,
1
E-portfolios can be defined as "a purposeful collection of student (or teacher) work that
illustrates efforts, progress and achievement in one or more areas over time. An electro-
nic portfolio uses digital technologies, allowing the portfolio developer to collect and or-
ganize portfolio artifacts in many media types (audio, video, graphics, text)." (Barrett,
2005)
2
The MOSEP-Study and a description about it is free available for download under:
http://www.mosep.org/images/stories/attachments/mosep_study.pdf
3

4. | a teacher-training package providing guidelines, assignments that teachers can use
with the adolescents as well as accompanying materials for better understanding of
e-portfolios as a method for self-organised and competence oriented learning and
| an online forum for the teachers/tutors on how to use this material and also how to
select, install and implement an open-source e-portfolio tool for use with their stu-
dents.
The materials developed in the MOSEP project are open learning materials and activities
that can support face to face, blended learning or online delivery. Although the materi-
als concentrate on the learning and development processes and not on specific tools”
(MOSEP, 2008).
Innovative elements and key success factors
The move towards personalised learning and a desire to harness the available tools and
technologies to support learning and engage learners have raised the profile of the
ePortfolio and the ePortfolio process. The MOSEP course (wiki.mosep.org) developed
for e-portfolio teachers/tutors, career advisor's and vocational counsellors consist of five
modules and are divided into 23 sessions/topics with one or more practical assignments
each. These sessions and the related materials can be used as an online material and
data repository as well as a structured face-to-face course. All materials, videos and
screencasts are available in 5 different languages (EN, DE, LT, PL, BG).
The MOSEP-tutorials have been designed to be either used as they are, or adapted and
customised to meet individual training needs. They support reflective, personalised
learning and employ a variety of methods including:
| Internet based activities
| Presentations and video podcasts
| Group work, discussions and peer review for face to face delivery
| Online collaboration and networking for individual study
They are stored in an innovative (semantic) wiki (http://wiki.mosep.org/), which means
that they are in the public domain and available/accessible to anyone who wants to use
them. The wiki allows teachers or trainers to select the individual activities or activities
that they need, and to assemble them into the sequence that meets there learners' spe-
cific training needs. In this way, they are able to customise their courses before make
available to their trainees. The MOSEP wiki can help teachers or trainers to design and
resource any course that they might want for introducing the e-portfolio process to their
learners. The content is therefore dynamic and relies on the community for contribu-
tions and moderation once the MOSEP project finishes (Hilzensauer, Prokoph & Ulrich,
2007).
4

5. Figure 1: Mosep Tutorial
Source: http://www.mosep.org/index.php/lang-en/tutorials
The MOSEP modules provide teachers and trainers with teaching and learning resources
that can be used to support trainees who are focussing on any aspect of the e-portfolio
process. The modules consist of a foundation module and four other modules, each of
which covers one aspect of the e-portfolio process. The modules are sub-divided into a
number of sessions. Each of the sessions includes a sequence of activities that, in addi-
tion to providing suggested ‘things to do’ for both the trainer and the trainee, also
provides links to materials, such as online articles and audio-visual content.
| Session 1: Introduction focuses on e-portfolio purposes from the young learners' per-
spective.
| Session 2: Working with young learners explores methods that can be used to motiv-
ate young learners, especially these with difficulties. It helps to develop approaches
to encourage young people to use modern media in their learning for their personal
development.
| Session 3: Digital Technology in the construction of identity focuses on the contribu-
tion of digital technology to the construction of learners' identity. Privacy and secur-
ity issues are discussed about the online presence of adolescents.
| Session 4: Tools and implementation explores the different software possibilities and
is furthermore extended by interactive tutorials on the Mahara e-portfolio system
(http://eportfolio.mosep.org/)
| Session 5: Validation is intended to support personal development planning with the
view to e-portfolio development
5

6. The MOSEP course was tried out in six European countries (UK, DE, AT, LT, PL, BG) with
different target groups (HEI teachers, teachers in secondary education, vocational coun-
sellors) and in different target institutions (university, university of applied science, sec-
ondary school, career centres, student counsellor centres).
Problems encountered and lessons learned
For the MOSEP project it was important that a comprehensive evaluation study, indicat-
ing the use of e-portfolios in different educational settings was carried out. The results
of this survey as well as the pre-test led to the final refinement of the MOSEP course ac-
cording to the identified needs of the teachers. Furthermore, a project evaluation took
place and indicated the positive progress of the project during the project lifetime. The
technical support is vital in a multimedia rich environment and also a new collaborative
teacher role is essential.
After the software analysis phase in the first project year, the project consortium agreed
to use the existing software Mahara rather than to develop a new system. Due to the
very heterogeneous project consortium, a very broad picture of the e-portfolio pro-
cesses, requirements and necessary processes needed top be drawn. A great variety of
aspects had to be taken into account, dealing with the different educational cultures
and backgrounds, the requirements of the institutions, the requirements of the tutors
and, last but not least the requirements of the learners.
6

7. Collaborating institutions in LINKS-UP
Institute for Innovation in Learning, Friedrich-Alex-
ander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen,
Germany
www.fim.uni-erlangen.de
Arcola Research LLP, London, United Kingdom
www.arcola-research.co.uk
eSociety Institute, The Hague University of Applied
Sciences, The Hague, The Netherlands
www.esocietyinstituut.nl
Servizi Didattici e Scientifici per l’Università di Firen-
ze, Prato, Italy
www.pin.unifi.it
Salzburg Research Forschungsgesellschaft, Salzburg,
Austria
www.salzburgresearch.at
European Distance and E-Learning Network (EDEN),
Milton Keynes, United Kingdom
www.eden-online.org
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