Distributed e-Learning ProgrammeStories from regional pilot projects

IntroductionThese stories are based on a selection of regional pilot projects that were completed for the Distributed e-Learning Programme between 2005 and 2007. As part of this HEFCE-funded programme, JISC commissioned 21 projects around the use of technology to support lifelong learning in a regional context.

These projects that took a regional, cross-institutional and collaborative approach to supporting lifelong learners and facilitating progression. The motivation for this was the recognition that work, background or personal commitments may act as barriers to learning, and these projects piloted ways to help people to engage more effectively with learning opportunities in their region.

The stories follow some of the institutions’ activities through the regional pilots, and look at specific messages and lessons learned along the way. They consider the importance of personalisation, context and purpose, the need to look at people-related requirements as well as the usability of the technology, and show how the project managers motivated tutors and learners to get involved. They also touch on the issue of collaboration across different sectors and cultures.

The stories focus on a number of themes:

Using social networking tools for educational purposes:

Students learn new skills through social networking – QQ

MANSLE project

Learners develop online life timelines to help them QQ

look into the future! – L4ALL project

Developing high quality interactive content for sharing and re-use:

Teachers and learners look for ‘attractive’ resources – QQ

REHASH and L2O projects

Effective use of e-portfolios to support widening participation and progression:

e-Portfolios can ‘really make a difference’ – QQ

EPISTLE project

e-Portfolio narrows the gap between sixth form and QQ

HE – ELP project

e-Portfolio gives personal touch to Key Skills – QQ

File-Pass project

The benefits and issues involved in transferring learner data and information between institutions and sectors:

Technology supports collaboration in Nottingham – QQ

RIPPLL

A number of the stories carry links and references to related information and examples of work, which we hope will be of interest.

We hope that the stories will encourage you to set up and/or participate in similar projects around the country. We would also welcome your contributions to the JISC-CETIS Lifelong Learning Group’s social networking site, where you can ask questions or share your own experiences. We would encourage you to use it to add to everyone’s knowledge and understanding around this new and evolving area. Go to http://cetisllg.ning.com

2 Distributed e-Learning Programme

Students Learn New Skills Through Social Networking

Sixth form students at Cheadle & Marple Sixth Form College have been clubbing together to find out about courses and life at university – and it’s even led to one student having a complete change of heart, and deciding that university life could be for him after all!

Tutor Bill Pollard wanted to see whether social networking software, more usually used to communicate and share personal information, could be adapted to help sixth form students to work out how to tackle the potential move to university.

Research, organisational and peer review skills all improved

Some of the learners in his class didn’t come from ‘traditional’ backgrounds in terms of their education aspirations. He was interested in whether their mindsets might change if they shared research findings and discussed the issues with their peers – and whether it would help them to make more informed decisions about the right direction and course they should apply for.

Bill says ‘Probably the most exciting result was when a student who was the first in his family to continue education to level 3 started to use the results of the others’ research

and decided to apply to HE. It was the realisation that he

could continue in a field he was desperately interested

in, but at a local university, that made a difference. It

meant that he could live at home, which was much more

acceptable to him and his family. The fact that it was two

months after the UCAS clos ing date was a minor obstacle

easily overcome!’

It was no longer just the ‘Usual Suspects’ who joined in group debate

In the classroom the same ‘Usual Suspects’ continued to

be the main contributors, but online, what Bill found was

that ALL the students gradually started to take part in the

debate. He thought it likely that this had something to do

with the relative anonymity involved – only the tutor knew

who was contributing what to the discussion.

Using web-based software (http://del.icio.us) gave students

the opportunity to learn new concepts such as ‘tagging’

items they found (otherwise known as bookmarks),

and which they wanted to be able to access from other

computers. It also introduced them to the idea of ‘sharing’

these tagged items with others in the group, so that they

could browse each others’ findings as well as their own.

‘No longer do we have the panic as a deadline approaches!’

Bill showed them how to establish a code based on very

specific keywords to tag their entries, so that information

sharing was limited to their group, rather than being

something that was openly accessible to the wider world.

Looking for information around courses and opportunities

helped them all to improve their research skills, and

combining their results meant that they quickly developed

a variety of tagged web pages that quickly became a more

www.jisc.ac.uk/regionalstories 3

valuable resource than if each student had kept their findings separate.

As part of the BTEC course they were taking, Bill’s students also needed to learn how to organise themselves to achieve tasks over about 30–40 hours of work time. Again, Bill wanted to see whether online software could help them to hone their skills in this area.

They started using online diaries (blogs) to record what they had done during a session, including websites, books and periodicals they had browsed, and documented the skills they were developing. Bill says that this not only helped them to ‘remember’ things that they had done earlier, it also improved the accuracy of their bibliographies.

The online ‘classroom is as large as they want it to be’

From there, students became more realistic in the targets they set for their sessions, based on two premises – ‘What I am going to do today’ and ‘What I’m looking for’. Having documented what they’d achieved in previous sessions helped them to organise their thoughts before the next one, and this in turn led to better forward planning – ‘No longer do we have the same panic as a deadline approaches!’ says Bill.

An interesting product of these records and findings being shared online is that students are developing the skills to evaluate and comment on each others’ work, and peer review is starting to become the norm.

Bill is now moving the learners on to using Ning software (www.ning.com), which is more usually used for social networking. He set them up as a group, and encouraged them to upload their work and comment constructively on the work of other students. The security of the group lies in the fact that people can only join by invitation from him.

Bill says that although students still mostly prefer the classroom environment, they can see how software tools can help. He feels ‘they are beginning to appreciate that their classroom is as large as they want it to be, as we are starting to involve students from other groups in our online group’.

MANSLE Project

University of Bolton

Cheadle and Marple Sixth Form

Contact: Bill Pollard

Software used:

del.icio.us, blogs and Ning social networking software

Learners Develop Online Life Timelines to Help Them Look Into the Future!

FE learners found completing an online life timeline really

made them think about what they were going to do with their

future. They enjoyed recording the details of their life and

sharing this information with their friends.

Reflecting on how their past experience had influenced their decisions helped learners to make more informed decisions about their future.

However, it wasn’t all about enjoyment! The aim was to

help to engage post-16 learners who traditionally have not

participated in Higher Education.

The system was developed on the basis of research into the issues that contribute to non-participation in HE. This highlighted that lack of information about educational opportunities and a perception that options are ‘not for me’ were key.

The concept of a life timeline was based on Vannevar Bush’s 1945 trails concept (www.theatlantic.com/doc/194507/bush), which outlines the benefits of individuals recording a chained sequence of links, along with personal comments, resulting in the creation of personal trails that can be shared with colleagues.

Therefore, it was decided to design a system based on a web portal that would provide information on work-based, FE and HE courses, at the same time as incorporating the life timeline. This was to be offered along with personalised support and advice on learning and personal development pathways.

The aim was to develop an interactive, visual, front-end tool that would allow learners and tutors to create learning pathways and annotate them. The system was integrated with the learndirect database, giving learners access to a range of local learning opportunities.

A user-centred approach to development was adopted, via interactive workshops with targeted user groups and an ongoing consultation process with stakeholders.

The project was a complex one and building a system on existing tools and services proved to be particularly difficult. The system that was finally developed allowed learners to access information and resources and plan their own learning pathway, sharing experience with their peers (if they chose to).

‘It was only when I actually saw all these things on my life timeline, that I realised that it would be better to start the course next September, rather than this one’, one student said.

What distinguished it from similar projects was the way in which it encouraged learners to take a holistic view of their life experiences and commitments by portraying these visually on the life timeline. Users found the visualisation helpful.

Reflecting on how their past experience had influenced their decisions helped learners to make more informed decisions about their future. It also encouraged them to be more realistic about how their current life commitments might impact on their present and future learning. ‘It was only when I actually saw all these things on my life timeline, that I realised that it would be better to start the course next September, rather than this one’, one student said.

The second phase of the pilot project involved Teacher Education students from the Institute of Education, Birkbeck IT Applications learners and FE learners from Community College Hackney. All groups agreed on the value of the work and its potential to support otherwise excluded learners, with the FE learners being particularly positive.

‘This is an exciting opportunity to allow learners to use skills that they are already using at home via live chat and social networking and apply these to helping them make decisions about learning and life.’

Users were keen to see the system offer a much greater range of functionality than at present, including greater opportunities for personalisation, with opportunities to fill in journals, add photos, chat with friends, email mentors and search for jobs.

The system will now be used to support learners in a wider variety of contexts, as it is going to be embedded into the infrastructure of the Linking London Lifelong Learning Network. There are plans to integrate it with an e-portfolio and, as part of the MyPlan project, the current system will be adapted to incorporate a game-based application to give learners a better understanding of the implications of their career decisions.

George Magoulas, the project leader, commented ‘this is

an exciting opportunity to allow learners to use skills that

they are already using at home via live chat and social

networking and apply these to helping them make decisions

about learning and life.’

L4All Project

Birkbeck/Hackney Community College

Contact: George Magoulas

Software used:

bespoke, incorporating some existing tools and systems from other JISC projects and the learndirect database

The above figure illustrates the main interface of the L4All trail creator. This is the component of the system that supports learners in creating their learning trail or timeline. A timeline consists of several life episodes. Learning and work-related icons as well icons that represent a variety of life events, and even customised icons, can also be included in the timeline. Episodes can be annotated and the timeline created can provide a holistic view of an individual’s lifelong learning pathway, giving details of particular life episodes.

As an aid to constructing their own learning pathways throughout their life, learners are able to search for timelines provided by other learners. This gives learners a repertoire of learning possibilities that they may not have otherwise considered, allowing sharing of successful learning pathways and presenting successful learners as role models to inspire confidence and a sense of opportunity amongst those previously excluded.

A personal space for lifelong learners such as this contrasts with many of the learning environments currently in use, which provide learners with resources and learning management tools that relate to their study at a single institution. L4All offers learners a set of distinct features, such as learner control over learning pathways, opportunities for reflection on where their learning is taking them, management of their profile, view of their learning pathway throughout life, a sense of community building and information sharing with individuals and organisations.

4 Distributed e-Learning Programme

Teachers and Learners Look for ‘Attractive’ Resources

Two projects with a similar theme – the sharing and re-use

of e-learning resources – have produced some interesting

findings.

The starting point for both projects was their observation

that the quality, attractiveness and easy accessibility of

resources is of fundamental importance – otherwise neither

teachers nor students actually bother to use them.

Critical success factor is … the need for materials to be ‘attractive’ to the end-user.

In order to achieve this, they came up with quite different

solutions.

The University of Southampton (L2O) focused on how to

support teachers in the adaptation and development of

resources to enable a good end result. They found that

developing and customising templates and style guides,

combined with group workshops, gave teachers the

confidence and support they needed to ‘have a go’.

The REHASH project (St George’s, University of London)

wanted to make existing medical and healthcare e-learning

resources available to FE and access courses, to help

students making the move from FE to HE. They looked at the

principles and standards that can assist the creation of good

quality resources appropriate to a particular audience.

L2O projectJulie Watson, from the L2O project, says the reason for

developing templates wasn’t simply about styling. They

had identified some key elements that seemed to make

a difference to whether e-learning resources worked

effectively and were used – that content needed to be

‘attractive’ to both teachers and learners, it needed to be

activity-based, incorporate feedback, to be context-rich and

be easy to re-use or re-purpose by others.

They also found that if teachers wanted to create that kind

and quality of resource they needed help to do it.

In their approach to developing effective online learning

resources they took into account the Conversational

Framework developed by Diana Laurillard (Professor of

Educational Technology at the Open University), which was

designed to encourage deeper level learning, and build the

tutor/student relationship.

Example Activity from L2O:Getting help from your dictionary

This led the team to develop Dreamweaver/Flash templates,

which integrated with forms, and enabled activities that

built on each other. The aim was ‘enforce reflection,

interaction and reflection and discussion with self through

enhanced levels of feedback’, says Julie.

To support this quite advanced form of content development,

they also provided training and feedback to those who

wanted to contribute materials. They have now developed

the system into a fully fledged content development tool,

which aims to support the production of high quality Re-

usable Learning Objects (RLOs), and the community using

the resources has grown to include over 100 language

practitioners.

If you would like to sample some of L2O’s learning activities,

which cover areas such as languages, study skills and

introducing international students to practical aspects of

living in the UK, these can be found at: www.elanguages.ac.uk/researchcommunity/projects/l2o.html

www.jisc.ac.uk/regionalstories 5

REHASH projectThe partners in this project already had large collections of image-based, interactive resources, which had been extremely well-received by staff and students at the HE level. The team felt that if they could re-purpose them appropriately, they would make a valuable resource for FE learners. As Terry Poulton said, their use could ‘help to reduce uncertainty and vulnerability among a large body of non-traditional learners [and] lead to an improvement in levels of achievement and retention’.

‘there is definitely a place for good quality dynamic, subject-based and validated content’

But to ensure that the new resources would ‘continue a consistent pattern through different levels of courses’, they felt that it was important to develop a framework of principles and standards for developers to follow.

They introduced processes that ranged from mapping objectives and identifying suitable resources to assessing the validity, attractiveness and overall quality of the materials once they had been developed.

If you would like to see some of the learning resources that have been re-purposed, it is possible to set up a guest account at the REHASH website www.elu.sgul.ac.uk/rehash.

The diagram shows a ‘before and after’ example of the differences between the HE and re-purposed FE version.

They also knew that the end materials needed to be easily accessible to teachers and learners, and made recommendations around the usability and overall quality of the interface, consistency of presentation and conformance to technical standards.

However, they found that existing repositories were not always user-friendly, and were putting off potential users. So, similar to the L2O project, they developed a customised website to act as a repository.

The team now feels it is important to build on the conclusions that came from the REHASH project, and are now looking at developing additional video-based resources, using the principles and processes they have established.

Terry Poulton, from the project, says that the ready availability of simple, image and text-based resources via the web means that ‘simply developing banks of popular and simple topics may have outlived its usefulness’. They feel that the valuable areas they can concentrate on is the high quality, top-end resource, or those which are significantly interactive.

‘developing banks of popular and simple topics may have outlived its usefulness’

What both projects concluded was that there is definitely a place for good quality dynamic, subject-based and validated content – and they would like to feel that others could build on the methodologies and tools developed in these projects to help develop and grow this kind of repository.

L2O project

University of Southampton, with partner Universities of Reading, Portsmouth and Surrey

Contact: Julie Watson

Software used:

Software tools developed in-house

REHASH project

St George’s, University of London

Guy’s, King’s and St Thomas’ School of Medicine

Kingston University

Croydon College

Contact: Terry Poulton and Emily Conradi

6 Distributed e-Learning Programme

E-Portfolios Can ‘Really Make a Difference’

The University of Wolverhampton has found that one of the

keys to success in introducing e-portfolios is working out

how to gain and maintain the interest of the people involved.

Working with three local FE colleges and a school, they have

been testing how e-portfolios can help trainee teachers to

reflect on their learning more effectively.

‘the people side is as important to its success as the usability of the technology’

Rachel Challen, who supported the module leaders at

the college, found that it really made a difference if the

e-portfolio was introduced as an integral part of the course,

rather than an add-on that could be seen as simply causing

more work.

She also found that the tutor’s approach to the idea of using

an e-portfolio is critical, and that mentoring them was an

important aspect of her role. Their attitude and enthusiasm

mattered more than any previous experience they might

have had – and they were able to work on acquiring the

skills as they went along.

Where tutors became fully involved in the process, it became apparent that learners were more likely to see the e-portfolio as a useful tool. If not, there was the risk of it being viewed as an ‘extra’ that Rachel came to deliver to learners, rather than a valuable part of the course that needed to be taken forward by the learners themselves.

Learners become ‘champions’ of the process

Her conclusion is that ‘the people side is as important to its success as the usability of the technology. The technology obviously plays an important part, and learners need to feel that using an e-portfolio doesn’t make the task harder than it need be.’

PebblePad, the e-portfolio tool chosen by the University for the pilot, was generally seen as a user-friendly tool and not requiring too much in the way of technical know-how.

The trainee teachers used the e-portfolio for everything from recording meetings and action plans to uploading photos and processes. They liked being able to include items like these in their portfolios, and felt that it opened up opportunities and helped them to develop new skills.

A number of students started out as sceptics when first presented with the concept of creating a web-based portfolio, but soon found that it could help them to structure and record what they had learned in a much more memorable way. James, who admits that initially he was a sceptic, is now an avid user of the software, using it to record his references and readings list

Claire Mansfield, another student on the course, produced some small videos to insert in her webfolio for sign-language students, and a link to one of these can be found at http://tinyurl.com/29jdwc.

www.jisc.ac.uk/regionalstories 7

And Theresa, one of the college tutors, remarked that ‘the essence of the web folio is that what used to be a very one dimensional approach to reflection, through a diary or journal, has now become multidimensional and also utilises a range of multimedia.’ Since the end of the pilot, the University has kept in touch with the colleges, and they are pleased that work on e-portfolios is continuing at all of them.

Learners on other courses have seen what these trainee teachers have been doing, and are keen to try out e-portfolios for themselves. In fact, one of the colleges was sufficiently impressed with the results that they are now doing a full rollout of the e-portfolio across all subject areas.

Rachel feels that one of the most encouraging aspects to come out of the pilot is that learners who were involved in the pilot have since become ‘champions’ of the process, which should help it to become an accepted part of the learning environment.

EPISTLE Project

University of Wolverhampton

Telford College of Arts and Technology

Contact: Rachel Challen and Theresa Loughlin

e-Portfolio: PebblePad

E-Portfolio Narrows the Gap Between 6th Form and HE

Students at three Bradford schools worked with the

University of Bradford to use an e-portfolio as an integral

part of their career planning activities. The tasks in the

e-portfolio were assessed and, on successful completion

of the module, students gained 15 UCAS points towards an

offer at the University.

The University of Bradford already has a history of working

closely with local schools via its Compact Scheme

(www.brad.ac.uk/compact), which supports sixth form

students with their current programmes of study, gives

them the opportunity to sample future degree options and

helps them with their university applications.

Using the e-portfolio represented a change in approach, as

it meant that the module could be delivered in the schools,

rather than at the University. Although this involved a great

deal of liaison between the University and the schools in

order to get things up and running, it allowed the University

to engage with more students at an earlier stage and

provided additional support to teachers in the schools.

Neil Currant and Christopher Murray, the two Project

Officers, were crucial to the success of the project. Because

of their past experience, they had an understanding of how

the school sector, FE sector and careers services worked

and were able to engage and have credibility with staff in

these areas. Neil had taught science in secondary schools

for a number of years and had been a keen promoter of

technology to support teaching, and Christopher had worked

in careers guidance in FE.

Learners gained 15 UCAS points towards an offer at the University of Bradford.

Each school supported 17–25 students, who were also

supported by a tutor from the University. The Compact

Officer at the University was also involved.

The e-portfolio was used to record evidence for a module

that supported learner progression into HE. It was intended

to encourage more informed decision-making by getting

students to think about university earlier and to reflect on

their skills and abilities, narrowing the gap between the

sixth form and HE. ‘When we first started, I thought we were

starting early [in thinking about university] but I think now

that it was a good time to start,’ one student said.

Students were enrolled on the five-credit Foundation

Level Module at the University and given initial training in

using the e-portfolio. ‘They needed to understand what the

purpose of the e-portfolio was and its potential, not just how

to use the software,’ Neil said. PebblePad was the chosen

e-portfolio as it offered the required degree of flexibility.

The schools found it helpful to have someone from the

University endorsing their messages about HE – ‘someone

from outside telling them [the students] is more credible

than it just coming from us,’ one schoolteacher said.

There were some technical issues, mainly resulting from

the firewalls on the school networks, but students didn’t

experience technical problems at home. This highlighted the

importance of involving IT staff in partner institutions and

getting their buy-in at the planning stage of a project.

8 Distributed e-Learning Programme

‘They needed to understand what the purpose of the e-portfolio was and its potential, not just how to use the software.’

Students completed eight generic tasks that were designed to fit in with any university application. These included: research into possible universities (not restricted to Bradford), a skills audit and a personal statement. They were given dedicated time and support to do this work and the length of time varied from school to school.

One of the key tasks was the completion of the personal statement for the UCAS application. These are often written at the last minute, which can mean that learners don’t think enough about their skills and abilities. What students most liked was that the e-portfolio gave them a more structured way of building this statement. ‘It was very useful to me because it made me record my experiences, something I wouldn’t usually bother to do’, one student said. A total of 86% of students who took part in the project (and the survey) agreed with this! Recording skills, achievements and experience was considered to be the most useful aspect of using the e-portfolio.

The skills audit also gave them the chance to consider what new skills and experience would be of benefit to their future. ‘I have been able to identify my strengths and weaknesses and to include things I’ve done in my spare time, like voluntary work,’ one student said.

Following the compulsory tasks, students had to complete a reflective activity as part of their webfolio. This was something that was new to most of them and, although they didn’t always find it easy, acquiring this valuable skill will help their future learning. ‘Having to write about yourself was difficult. You don’t usually write about yourself and so you had to think about it,’ one student said.

Like all projects there were challenges as well as benefits. Giving feedback electronically represented a change in working practices that not all staff got to grips with in the timescale of the project. Teachers did not find that giving feedback in this way was practical when students were working on their portfolios in a classroom setting and so they continued to provide individual, formative feedback verbally in the face-to-face sessions.

Working through issues such as this has all been part of the learning process. ‘One of the real bonuses for institutions was the gain in intellectual capital; something that is hard to measure and often not considered,’ Neil Currant said. ‘This included improved ICT skills in students and staff, as well as the reflection, planning and ‘learning how to learn’ skills development in students. At the same time, staff developed their competence in e-working, e-facilitation and e-support.’

The e-portfolio module is now being offered by the University of Bradford to all Bradford schools as a part of its suite of Compact scheme modules.

ELP Project

University of Bradford

Contact: Carol Higgison and Neil Currant

e-Portfolio: PebblePad

www.jisc.ac.uk/regionalstories 9

E-Portfolio Gives Personal Touch to Key Skills

Childcare learners on a Key Skills Programme became more motivated and were keener to attend, as a result of using an e-portfolio on their course. ‘People – not just me but everyone else too – enjoy Key Skills more now we’re using e-portfolios,’ one student said.

Sandra Varey, the tutor who ran the project, said ‘although it was the first time learners had had guaranteed access to computers in class and this was motivating in itself, the personalisation of the e-portfolio was what appealed to learners most.’

It’s always difficult to get learners interested in Key Skills and for them to understand how these relate to their main course but, because the e-portfolio reminded them of social networking software, they were keener to find out more. ‘When you’ve got a computer in front of you, it’s easier to work,’ one student said and another added ‘I think it’s good because you can also go on it at home.’

Encouraging learners to document their thoughts in blogs helped their understanding. At the same time it encouraged them to reflect on their progress – something learners would have previously found daunting.

‘Although it was the first time learners had had guaranteed access to computers in class and this was motivating in itself, the personalisation of the e-portfolio was what appealed to learners most.’

The paper-based portfolio had been very prescriptive and transferring to an e-portfolio represented a complete change. ‘When we had paper portfolios, there were lots of scrap bits of paper whereas now it’s tidier and all in one place,’ one student said.

The software for this project was chosen by talking to other institutions and software providers. Sandra said, ‘You don’t need to be a ‘techie’ or even particularly confident with ICT to get to grips with PebblePad and see its potential.’ In fact Sandra wasn’t! She only learnt how to use the e-portfolio a week before the learners did. ‘I think the introduction of e-portfolios to this Key Skills group went smoothly because I was honest about the fact that we were all learning at the same time,’ she said.

Sandra didn’t insist on a uniform approach to evidence collection and this empowered learners to make their own judgements. Most found this new, flexible approach quite

10 Distributed e-Learning Programme

difficult to start with, as they had not been used to making decisions in this context.

‘You don’t need to be a ‘techie’ or even particularly confident with ICT to get to grips with PebblePad and see its potential.’

Initially it was hard for them to decide even small things for themselves, such as what subheading to use. But, with time, students’ confidence in their own abilities grew.

Peer-to-peer support was also something that greatly improved through using the e-portfolio. When one member of the group missed a week, other learners from the class came to the next session an hour early and helped her catch up. ‘It makes you look forward to Key Skills because you know you’ll be doing something fun,’ one student said.

Another obvious gain was increased confidence in using ICT for both the staff and learners involved and the value of this shouldn’t be underestimated.

Referencing evidence against the Key Skills criteria wasn’t fully addressed in the pilot. Sandra concluded that one solution would be to produce generic tasks that are mapped to the qualification to act as a guideline and reassure staff who are new to using e-portfolios. ‘It would be useful for small numbers of colleagues teaching in the same area to work together to share ideas, and address issues,’ she said.

And like all changes in working practices, it posed some challenges. Reviewing the evidence online wasn’t as easy as looking at a paper-based portfolio, but this was partly because it was a new way of working. Sandra said, ‘Don’t let it put you off getting involved in a similar project. The gains, like increased student motivation and quality of work, far outweighed the inconvenience.’

File-pass Project

UCLAN/Furness College

Contact: Sandra Varey

e-Portfolio: PebblePad

Technology Supports Collaboration in Nottingham

There is now a ‘true feeling of regionality in Nottingham’ in educational terms. The RIPPLL Project, led by the University of Nottingham, proved that it’s possible to transfer personal data between different administrative and e-portfolio systems across a range of institutions.

The data transfer was intended to encourage widening participation by providing information that supported individual learning and career journeys from school to: college, university and employers. For example, information from a learner’s Y11 school review could be transferred to support their application to an FE college, or a university graduate could transfer their data to an employer to support their job application (although in this project only one data set was tested). ‘It makes sense for learner data to transfer with them from school to college and beyond. Learners want to be more in control of their own data,’ said Sandra Kingston, the project manager.

As the project progressed, it became clear that the term ‘e-portfolio’ meant something different to each institution.

The project has extended an existing partnership between

the University of Nottingham and the LEA to include

Nottingham Trent University and local colleges, which will

be valuable for future working.

Although the project has helped to break down the

barriers between HE and FE locally, the two sectors work

very differently and it was a steep learning curve for all

involved. One of the key challenges at the outset was

reaching a point where there was a shared vision of the

potential of the project. This was achieved by broadening

people’s awareness of the possibilities, at the same time as

managing expectations.

It was also found that FE colleges are often tied down by their

software vendors, which poses technical difficulties. Sandra

hopes that ‘by working collaboratively user institutions will

have a more effective ‘voice’ to influence change’.

A major contribution of the project was the skills

development of technical staff across institutions. On-

the-job training with these staff proved to be particularly

effective and the project highlighted the potential for staff in

different institutions to collaborate.

www.jisc.ac.uk/regionalstories 11

As the project progressed, it became clear that the term

‘e-portfolio’ meant something different to each institution.

One way of addressing this was to use a standard way

of storing and transferring information about learner

achievements, and UK LeaP was the standard portfolio

data-interchange format that was used. However, UK LeaP

did not readily match to all the areas that people wanted

the e-portfolio to cover and it was quite complex to use.

‘We found that, in some ways, it is easier to look at what

works already [in terms of storing data] and grow things

from there, rather than mark the required areas against an

existing standard.

The project highlighted the potential for staff in different institutions to collaborate.

Standards are only effective if the people who are going to

use them get involved with their development. The outcomes

of the project have identified that the underpinning

philosophy behind UK LeaP is correct but that there is a

need for simplification,’ Sandra said.

A key aspect of the project was the collaboration related

to the City of Nottingham Passport and its successor, the

Passportfolio. The original City of Nottingham Passport

incorporated a set of documents that were produced at the

end of each key stage to reflect a student’s achievement,

progress and ability to manage their own learning. The

Passportfolio is a web-based portfolio with three functional

elements: recording of achievement, reviewing own learning

(which contains games and exercises designed to improve

self-awareness) and a ‘presenting zone’ where learners can

assemble documents and other media.

The University of Nottingham worked with the City of

Nottingham Passport team and representatives from

FE colleges in both the city and county to progress the

implementation of an electronic application to FE via an

agreed common application form. This form was to be

located within the Passportfolio.

This project has made the electronic FE application process

within Nottinghamshire possible, providing richer data. It

is hoped that this will widen participation by supporting

applications to FE and by allowing communication between

pre-HE and HE systems. Learners said that they really want

to be able to share their data with others, particularly in

university applications. ‘Although we can’t yet prove that

there is better retention of learners who come with data, we

should be working towards proving whether this is the case,’

Sandra said.

However, Sandra felt that if other institutions want to

attempt something similar, it would be important for them

to have a clearer idea of the technological set-up for each

of the partners. A baseline audit of both staff skills and

technology in each institution would be helpful. This would

enable feasibility to be assessed in advance and training

targeted where it is needed most.

At the start of the project, several major employers

had expressed an interest in being involved and good

relationships were built with some individuals in these

organisations. Understandably, though, companies proved to

be particularly reluctant to allow experimental work involving

their IT systems and it was found that more time was

needed to address issues and obtain buy-in at a senior level.

Therefore, a college was used as the sample employer.

It is also important that any e-learning project does not

become so focused on technology that learners’ other needs

are ignored. In this project it became clear that Information,

Advice and Guidance (IAG) was a necessary ingredient, as

learners benefited from this type of professional, individual

support when making career decisions. The extension of the

project is working closely with Connexions, who will have

a key role to play in sustaining the Passportfolio moving

forward.

RIPPLL Project

University of Nottingham

Contact: Sandra Kingston

Software used:

Passportfolio

12 Distributed e-Learning Programme