Simon Cotterill from Newcastle University dicsusses the use of the ePET e-portfolio system in the EPICS-2 project to provide North East regional collaboration for personalised, work-based, and life-long learning.

1. EPICS-2 North East regional collaboration for personalised, work-based, and life-long learning October 2007 to February 2009 Partners include: 5 HEIs FE colleges (Comport Project) CETL4HealthNE Project Director: Prof. Geoff Hammond Project Manager: Simon Cotterill Project Officers: Paul Horner Martin Edney http://www.epics.ac.uk

2. Background: EPICS-1 EPICS - North East regional collaboration around ePortfolio progression pathways with illustrative studies Part of the JISC Distributed e-Learning Programme. 2005- 2006 Partners included: 5 HEIs FE colleges JISC Regional Centre Case studies -demonstrate feasibility / scalability -supporting life-long learning http://www.epics.ac.uk

3. EPICS-1 Highlights Pedagogy established a Regional Forum for PDP Governance developed a toolkit for those embarking on using ePortfolios to consider policy, practice etc. Technical 5 case studies; interoperability FE / HE Shibboleth (single sign-on)

4. EPICS-2: Themes Work-Based Learning ePortfolios, Blogs & Social Networking Life-Long Learning Personalised Learning

5. EPICS-2: Overview of Activities Regional PDP Forum Large-scale pilots of ePortfolios, blogs & social publishing Supporting personalised learning pathways for Postgraduate Students in a regional context Supporting life-long learning (interoperability) Mobile technologies (JANET txt) Updated version of the ePET portfolio

6. Case Studies

7. Case Study: ePortfolio to support learning on an employability skills module An action research project undertaken with undergraduate students at levels 5. Context: the module helps prepare students for the recruitment process for both year-long placements and permanent employment. Aim: encourage students to adopt a deep, active approach to learning, and thus take responsibility for their own learning. Outcomes: The use of the ePortfolio format encourages reflection and self-evaluation and facilitates formative feedback by peers and tutors, as well as providing a repository for evidence of skills and capabilities from which appropriate material can be selected to support specific job applications.

8. ePET: Unstructured Blogbut with explicit links to skills/outcomes

10. Modest engagement: av. 28 logins per student in 18 months (range 1 -168)

11. Minimal engagement prior to assessed assignment in Semester 2, Year 1

12. Mostly used CV/skills (assessed),limited use of cross-module learning log  “It helped me see the skills I was using that my modules shared and sort of helped me develop those further”.  “too time consuming”  “I had to write a CV and it helped me think about what modules and what aspects of each module I enjoy, while writing about them”.  “didn't really understand what I needed to put down as evidence”

14. Medium engagement: av. 30 logins per student (range 2 -142)

15. Steady use over time; recording clinical goals, placements and clinical skills

16. Virtually no sharing of blog entries in the community areas “I find I do not have enough time to use the ePortfolio regularly.”  “being able to put in my placement goals, and have a format to review my progress in these at each stage”.  “Ability to put in different placements into the portfolio alongside your goals and whether you achieved them. Ability to make blogs private to evaluate yourself without others seeing.”.  “You had to be careful to tick a load of boxes saying that your blog was private because it could get posted in the community blog otherwise”

18. High engagement: av. 41 logins per student (range 4 -178) in Semester 1, 1096 files uploaded

19. Good use of blog: av. 16 entries. Many linked to Skills av. 76 links to QTS standards

20. Many blogs published to community areas: 825 entries, 262 comments “good for staying in touch whilst on teaching practice”.  “What I do like about the ePortfolio is that it is designed for the purpose of building a skills repertoire, and allows you to connect thoughts and experiences to the Key Skills.”  “It's not very clear exactly what parts of it are mandatory and what parts are optional”  “the ePortfolio is well set-out with regards to being able to link blogs to the skills pages. The ePortfolio in a sense guides you through the necessaries”.  “It is tedious having to fill in a weekly blog especially when I have many other things to do.”

21. Factors related to engagement with ePortfolio / blog *Interim results* n=163 (30% response rate so far)

22. Use of Social Networking and perceptions of its use in learning 91% of respondents use social networking sites (58% on a daily basis). Use of these sites was predominantly for social reasons, though: 62% sometimes used them to communicate with classmates about course-related topics 9% had used them to communicate with teaching staff about course-related topics “…most people see Facebook etc. as an escape from work and it really should stay that way.” “It must never be enforced. Emphasis on ‘social’ networking. Informality is key.” BSc Speech & Language Sciences student Combined Studies student “I prefer to keep social networking sites for personal use and for engaging in general conversation about essays etc in a non-official/non-university domain where it's friends discussing a course. Professional dialogue, opinions on educational matters, lesson plans, theory discussions I prefer to engage in face to face or via the official, nominated online spaces.” PGCE student Interim results n=163 (30% response rate so far)

24. Established paper-based portfolio for reflection and assessment

25. ePET portfolio adapted to replicate parts of the paper portfolio

26. Low uptake – students had option to use either paper or electronic

28. Personalised Learning Pathways Aims: share and widen the range of training opportunities for postgraduates to choose from (including part-time and distance students). Extensive consultation and user-needs analysis We developed a working model for sharing training opportunities amongst the 5 universities in the NE. Very applicable to other contexts (e.g. viewing learning opportunities from multiple providers in WBL).

29. Workshop Booking system Workshop Booking system ePortfolio XCRI feed XCRI feed Aggregator Web Service to import attendance records from remote systems

30. Life Long Learning(interoperability)

32. Worked with various standards; particularly

33. LEAP2a

34. EUROPASS

35. IMS ePortfolio

36. Extended the work in EPICS-2 into 2 JISC-CETIS projects:

37. PIOP (completed)

40. Integration with other systemse.g. Workshop admin portfolio/CV e.g. CV recruitment services

41. Mobile Technologies

43. Issues with distribution of mobile devices on short-term basis

44. Issues related to changing curricula

45. Solution:

46. JANET txt

47. We developed Web Services to send incoming texts to portfolios/blogs

49. New approach to link blogs to structured outcomes in ePET

50. Developed a working model for the regional sharing of learning opportunities for postgraduates

51. Work on interoperability standards for lifelong learning helped shape national standards.Further Information ► http://www.epics.ac.uk

53. Skills / learning outcomes (add evidence / view learning opportunities)

54. Personalised learning records

55. Related learning resources drawn in from multiple sourcesWeb 2.0 approaches: participative – interactive – engaging Web 3.0 approaches: adaptive – analogy with neural networks Scenario: A student views their personalised learning map which draws in their specific modules, programme level outcomes and personal learning records. They add an external resource linked to a particular topic which they opt to share with others on their course, who can rate and review it.