Lisa Gray (JISC) ePorfolios (October 2012)

Editor's Notes

• #5: From a survey of UK HE institutions - 167Biggest jump in use of tools was between 2005 and 2008. 2008 – 55% responded2010 – 44% responded.
• #10: So any definition encompasses both product and process but also the fact that is learner createdThese processes of learning aren’t specific to e-portfolios, but are at the heart of good learning and teaching. e-portfolio tools and systems can support these, but only as part of a good learning design, not by themselves. Get good and bad e-portfolio stories as with any other form of assessment.
• #11: This diagram nicely formalises what was in the previous image & highlights the activities involved in creating e-portfolio presentations – and indicates how the technology can support these processes.
• #13: Cambridge 08 – ‘a genre, a set of practices supported by a set of technologies’
• #16: JISC and e-portfolios drafting, reflection, redrafting etc. and more easily promoting collaborative working. People are arriving at e-portfolio practice from a wide range of areas – professional bodies, employers, PDP practitioners, and starting to see the benefits to all involved. e.g. application to university:One project (ELP) looked at use of eportfolios to support entry to University, with a mentor at the University feeding back. One student as a result didn’t apply for his previous chosen career of medicine. Two students got accepted for midwifery courses after completing their portfolio, when the year previous none had. Mentors and e-portfolios were positively received. PorthisHEad – looking at using an e-portfolio to provide a richer application to Higher Education Applying for jobs and Work placements:MyWorld looked at the use of eportfolio (moodle extension) as a discussion prompt with a range of non-traditional learners from a socially deprived area of Oxford helping them to create CV’s, helping them to think about what to put in it etc. Presentation of work for professional accreditationA project led by the University of Cumbria is looking at the use of e-portfolios to evidence professional standards and accreditation. They are also using the e-portolio tool to support appraisal and team building across institutions. Presentation of work for assessment: Plumpton College– use an e-portfolio system in a professional studies module on a BSC Viticulture – they gathered professional evidence for assessment. Employers tend to be overseas so provided evidence of work placements and could share this electronically. Found course useful but software wasn’t great. Many projects are looking to use e-portfolios to support work-based learning – particularly around reflecting on experiences and relating that to their formal learningOverwhelmingly projects have found that the process was found to be useful – even where the tool wasn’t. 
• #18: Using images and other multimedia techs to tell your story can have some real benefits for tutors and learners. Evidence suggests can enhance deeper reflection and learning for example around critical incidents.
• #19: What have we learnt? Benefits - tangible
• #20: Just to share one of the resources from one of our projects, Flourish, based at the University of Cumbria, which explored the use of e-portfolios for staff CPD and appraisal. They asked animation students at the university to produce something which would start to explain in easy steps what this was about – to better engage staff with the process.....this approach was used by Southampton Solent University to engage their staff, with similar focused animations.The institution has now embedded e-portfolio use as part of the PgCinLTHE ......Staff appraisal – relaunched staff appraisal based on the intial work undertaken in the project. A challenge to embed not only a new process, but new technology too. Weren’t allowed to mandate the system. Wanted a more agile, living process of development, focus on the conversation. Launched institution wide. 91% staff completed it, and 75% did it in the e-portfolio, a suprise even to the project team.
• #26: A metaphor that makes sense in the context of this study is that of the blind men and the elephant. (from a link from Helen Barretts work)n various versions of the parablea group of blind men (or men in the dark) touch an elephant to learn what it is like. Each one feels a different part, but only one part, such as the side or the tusk. They then compare notes and learn that they are in complete disagreement. As to what this is.
• #27: This is an apt metaphor for the e-portfolio environment – as identified through the study those come to e-portfolios from a range of perspectives, some looking to support transition, evidencing competencies, promoting personal and professional development, or enhancing employability, and often the larger picture, of e-portfolios supporting an entire learning journey is missed. And with that, the opportunity to gain the maximum benefit from them – i.e. a coherent, well supported enhanced student experience. The diversity of purposes can lead to misunderstandings about the focus of an implementation initiative – even if use is linked to strategic aims, such as enhancing graduate attributes, other valid purposes are likely to equally exist which may make acceptance of other roles difficult to accept by some. Highlights the key role of engaging with all key stakeholders, with a clear articulated vision but recognition of existing approaches.
• #28: The case studies form the backbone to the toolkit. Total of 18 case studies, 11 UK based, 4 from Australia and 3 from NZ. All differ in breadth and depth.It was a self driven process – with institutions providing authentic accounts of their stories. RED = VIDEO CASE STUDIES
• #29: The case studies provide authentic accounts of practice (described by those involved) from within the UK, Australia and New Zealand - ranging from 2 to 7 + yrs of experience. Case studies are available through the wiki as:1. summary overview providing details of numbers of users, distinctive features, drivers, tools, purposes.2. Or full case study. 3. Exemplarse.g. Finding examples from localised use, school/faculty use, cross institutional use, or the broader lifelong learning context across all institutions involved.
• #30: The study has picked up a range of practice, at different levels of scale, including examples at local course level, school-wide level, cross institutional level, and extra-curricular. All case studies identified where their practice fitted in to that scale.For example: X institutional use supporting PDP with research students at Newcastle – use of e-PETSchool wide use, e.g. At the University of Edinburgh use with MSC nursing students changing a dissertation assignment to e-portfolio-based. Extra-curricular use at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology for RPL for competence based training qualificationsAnd.....Thanet College and University of Bradforduse of e-portfolios with staff, feeding in to their professional requirements with the professional body
• #31: Are there any generic lessons we can learn from this body of knowledge? The case studies have been analysed, and a guidance provided relating to a series of models, some of which may make more sense to each of you in your different contexts. These different models relate to the way in which implementation was initiated, to a set of e-portfolio implementation principles, And also relating to the stages of the implementation journey. I
• #32: Three models of initiation were identified in the toolkit. Top down: driven by senior managers (top down model), to support institutional goals (wolverhampton, Newham College, University of Edinburgh, Bradford)TEG the University of Bradford, who took a strategic, top down approach towards implementing national policy on Progress Files in response to the Dearing report (1997). A working group produced a framework approved by Senate and incorporated in their Learning and Teaching Strategy (2005-2009), which included an entitlement for every student to have a private online space for development. A small central team explored use, systems and practice and made recommendations on the choice of tool. It is now fully integrated with the VLE, all students and staff have access. Wide range of use including the Graduate School who are using it to implement a research development framework for all PhD students. Middle-out: by managers with responsibility for technology enhanced learning (Southampton Solent, Newcastle, Dumfries and Galloway College, Thanet College)Bottom-up: by learners and practitioner demand. (Birmingham City)Study found that this central co-ordinating role was key to success, although this role was undertaken by different people in different institutions. For eg. In HE it was often a central coordinating units outside of Information Services, although a ProVC (Curtin) and seconded lecturers were also key. If co-ordination and support are insufficient the initiative carries a higher level of risk. The toolkit outlines the advantages and disadvantages of each model, and presents examples from the case studies. For example, a top down initiative may mean that all students have the same entitlement, with central support provided from the start, but lecturers may lack a sense of ownership, and all course needs may not be addressed.In all cases the importance of aligning e-portfolio use with the institutions strategic aims is clearly signalled, no matter which model is adopted.
• #33: So from the review that we undertook, it became apparent that the lessons around e-portfolio implementation were complex, and out of that work emerged a model that could help us to understand the complexity. One feature is that threshold concepts are often ‘troublesome’ to the learner, i.e., that they may seem alien, incoherent or counter−intuitive (Perkins, 2006). It does appear that the implementation of e-portfolios is particularly troublesome. Threshold concepts exist in all bodies of knowledge. In the e-portfolio area they are particularly troublesome in that understanding emerges from technological, pedagogical, institutional, life-long and life-wide learning perspectives. Because of this the field engages a range of different stakeholders who need to understand the e-portfolio domain and these have different cognate backgrounds and professional interests. The evidence for this troublesome nature include the lack of a shared understanding of terms, that many don’t use the term at all, or use ‘personal learning’ as a way of describing the use of these tools. Purposes can be endless. Understanding seems to increase over time, suggesting that there are key issues to understand.
• #34: Threshold Concepts associated with eportfolio implementationPURPOSES: The PURPOSE/S for the eportfolio must be aligned to the particular context;LEARNING ACTIVITY DESIGN: There must be a conscious DESIGN & SUPPORT OF A LEARNING ACTIVITY/ ACTIVITIES suited to the purpose and the context; PROCESSES: The PROCESSES involved in the creation of the eportfolio in this context must be understood and both technical and pedagogic support needs to be provided; OWNERSHIP: eportfolio processes and outcomes need to be OWNED by the student - this leads to considering portability, choice of tool (use their own phone camera, audio recorder, Web 2.0 application etc, but also their engagement;DISRUPTIVE NATURE: e-portfolios are disruptive from a pedagogic, technological and an organisation perspective because they tends not to fit exactly within existing systems or processes.
• #35: Once you take these key principles, and discuss them in relation to each step of an implementation journey, you get something quite powerful, and that enables informed decisions to be made that are suited to the local context. These four broad stages of the implementation journey, plus Stage 0 – what went on before (as key to the success of the implementation)– were apparent in all case studies. Stage Description0. ContextDevelopments and conditions prior to implementation1. Planning and procurementThis involved reflection on and response to the current context - institutions tended to have some pre-existing use of portfolios/e-portfolios2. Facilitating adoptionThis involved piloting with volunteer practitioners who became champions3. Embedding effective practiceThis involved sharing practice and wider adoption4. Sustaining progressThis involved some institutional change and though features that support sustainability may be in place during previous stages this commitment to e-portfolios is something that can only be judged over timeTypically the activity comprising stages 1 to 3 takes three years, but for the institutions who pioneered the way, it took longer.NOT A LINEAR PROCESS, BUT A JOURNEY as continuing enhancement and improvement may lead to further instances of invention and early innovation. The toolkit outlines a set of key issues and statements of effective practice relating to each of these implementation principles – with a different focus for both managers and practitioners. For example for mangers around purpose – that the range of purposes are recognised up front, that teaching strategies relate to the drivers or e-portfolio use explicitly, and that the technology is able to support the range of purposes identified. For practitioners that there is a transparency of purpose and benefits for users, achieved for example through an institutional drive towards graduate attributes. Ownership is particularly interesting – whic
• #36: Look at these and decide what is in place and what your next steps would be. Asummary guide for large scale institutional implementation is provided here, but it is important to note that each context for implementation is different and it is the application of the e-portfolio model that is the key to success.This assumes that the institution has decided to initiate a top-down implementation strategy Identify at least one senior manager who has responsibility for making executive decisions and who will engage in developing the vision for e-portfolio use across the institution. Identify/establish the e-portfolio implementation central unit and its manager – their roles are critical to the success of the implementation strategy and they need to be in place for all the implementation stages. Decide upon the key stakeholder representatives, eg students, lecturers, employment and careers, volunteering, alumni, administrators, Graduate School, Information Services and engage them in developing and supporting the implementation strategy over all the implementation stages. This process needs to be led by the e-portfolio implementation manager using ‘expert’ advice and will need to consider the key drivers, such as employability, retention etc as well as potential contexts for use across the insitution and the time line. Use by staff on the new lecturer course and for performance review/promotion should be considered.Establish an approach to both pedagogic and technical support that is able to suit the range of contexts of use – technical support and some pedagogic support through online resources will need to be centrally provided. And the training is not just on the technology, examples of how you use it is key. Identify existing effective use of e-portfolio and potential champions/mentors and gather case studies of use. CAN BE KEY IN EARLY STAGES OF PLANNING and at all other stages. FOR EG Curtin University, Australia appointed students with experience of the e-portfolio as student support officers – providing front line advice for new users, email requests and supporting practitioners. STAFF ENGAGEMENT KEY TO LEARNER ENGAGEMENT
• #37: Develop an approach for evaluation and dissemination of the implementation that provides case studies of use across a range of contexts that include students explaining the benefits as well as providing cost benefits data to provide a basis for sustaining the initiatives.Establish and evaluate pilot projects supported by the champions and central unit – these need to be informed by the intended institutional uses for the e-portfolio and how these are to be rolled out/ developed. They can provide essential in demonstrating benefits, addressing misconceptions and establishing levels of support requiredProvide easy access to the e-portfolio tool and support resources to all staff and students, and integrate with other relevant systems. Been shown to increase learners perceptions of the value of the tool.
• #38: LISA
• #40: This is an example, from Thanet College, one of the case study participants, of the role staff professional development can take in an e-portfolio implementation. Others pick up themes of employability , work-based learning, the challenges of implementing one tool across divergent schools. Changes to system...