Lead Contact: Mark Johnson (mwj1@bolton.ac.uk)
JISC Programme: Distributed e-Learning programme
Lead Institution and Partners: University of Bolton (L), Open University, Stockport College, Bury College, Wigan and Leigh College, Hopwood Hall, Pennine Acute PCT Trust, Bolton PCT, Cheadle and Marple 6th form College, Oldham University Centre, City College Manchester
Project Dates: March 2005 - July 2007
Case study tags: online learning, e-portfolios,university of bolton, e-portfolios for assessment, e-portfolios considerations - identity management, e-portfolios considerations - implementation, learner perspectives on e-portfolios
Background & Context
What is the background to the e-portfolio initiative?
Over recent years, there has been a significant drive at the institutional and national levels in designing, developing and implementing systems and processes to support learners in identifying and recording their personal development needs, particularly through reflection. Several technology-based approaches to personal development planning (PDP) and reflection have been developed within both the academic and commercial sectors. Additionally, significant funding has been directed at the creation of lifelong learning networks (HEFCE (2004)) which integrate FE, HE and workplace learning.
Drawing the dimensions of PDP and lifelong learning together clearly highlights the need for effective systems and processes to enable learners to plan, manage and reflect on their learning now and in the future and to be supported and mentored effectively throughout the process. At a local level, this is reflected in the Greater Manchester Strategic Alliance Lifelong Learning Network Business Plan.
At a technical level the trend for large and complex software applications which attempt to provide a vast array of functionality within a single package is evolving in favour of the creation of discrete services. This concept of a service-oriented architecture, or web services, enables individual services to be aggregated in a variety of ways in order to provide a best match to the needs of individual users. This approach is embodied within a wide diversity of recent national and international initiatives, culminating in the proposed JISC e-framework.
The MANSLE project was designed to highlight and evaluate the issues in designing, implementing and operationalising the use of a web service approach to support learner reflection, personal development planning and mentoring. In particular the project attempted to clarify the issues surrounding the specification of portfolio services and how these can be deployed to support student progression within the context of lifelong learning. This is consistent with the approach being adopted within the development of a reference model for e-portfolios for lifelong learning.
What are the aims and objectives of the initiative?
The overarching goal of the project was to demonstrate and evaluate how e-portfolio web services from a variety of sources could be aggregated to support learners' personal development planning and portfolio development activities, and to receive appropriate mentoring and guidance, within the context of the lifelong learning agenda.
More specifically the project sought to identify how these pedagogic approaches could be supported through the use of technology with learners on foundation degree programmes within the Greater Manchester Strategic Alliance lifelong learning network.
How was the initiative implemented?
The MANSLE project was in a unique position amongst the range of DEL regional pilot programmes in that the bid was led by the Greater Manchester Strategic Alliance (GMSA) rather than by an individual institution or group of institutions. The project was formally owned by the GMSA, although the University of Bolton acted as the lead partner.
There were five project phases:
- Needs analysis
This involved interviews and discussions with senior staff to identify the principal issues specific to work-based learners on foundation degrees which technology could have a role in supporting. Some of these included: facilitating external interaction and dialogue between learners, academic tutors and work-based mentors; reflection; planning and managing learning.
- Review and evaluation of existing tools and services
To support a web services approach a survey was undertaken of a broad range of open source software developed both by previous JISC projects and within the wider academic community to identify web services or functionality which could be incorporated within the MANSLE interface.
- Development of the MANSLE application and web services
The technical development of the MANSLE application was constructed around the web services architecture, which would provide the various functionality required by the project stakeholders and the client application architecture which end users would utilise to record and analyse their data during the project implementation.
- Implementation and ongoing review of the MANSLE application
Each project partner identified an appropriate module within a foundation degree programme in the health and social care context with which to pilot the MANSLE application with learners. Students piloted the use of the MANSLE tool during semester 1 2005-6
- Student and staff evaluation
Informal evaluation was carried out on an ongoing basis throughout the development and implementation phases. Formal evaluation was undertaken using an evaluation instrument which allowed the project to assess students’ use and technical experience of using MANSLE as well as evaluating the process of using PDP and their understanding of the potential of technology in this context.
Technology Used
What technologies and/or e-tools were available to you or did you seek to develop?
The project bid clearly outlined the web service/service oriented architecture approach which MANSLE would adopt, building on the work of previous JISC projects and providing a proof of concept of the JISC e-framework in aggregating a range of existing and custom services within a user interface to form a new tool to support a specific application of these services. This approach enabled a rapid application development model to be implemented resulting in the release of versions of the software within a very short period from the start of the project. Additionally existing development environments (e.g. Eclipse) used within previous projects (e.g. RELOAD) were utilised in order to capitalise on the expertise available within the project consortium and also to minimise the timescale of the development lifecycle.
A number of technical decisions were discussed and agreed during the early phases of the project. For instance, a client application was chosen instead of a web interface to enable the full range of functionality identified within the needs analysis exercise. The technical development of the project also had to be undertaken within the evolving interoperability framework surrounding technological approaches to PDP and portfolio development. The web service approach adopted therefore ensured that data constructed using these services adhered to appropriate standards.
The principal output from the MANSLE project has been the production of a client application incorporating a range of web services. The application aggregates web services from a range of JISC projects, most notably the HORUS project from the University of Manchester alongside web services created specifically to deliver functionality required by MANSLE project partners.
The MANSLE application is a standalone client application which is installed on individual computers, with the database stored on a remote server (although it is also possible for the data to be stored locally). The application provides functionality in four broad areas, as identified within the original needs analysis activity, these are: personal development planning; portfolio development; reflection on course events; and a tutor meeting record.
One of the key objectives of the extension phase was to produce 'lightweight portfolio widgets' which would better take account of learners' web habits by basing a new MANSLE plug-in around an existing web browser. Flock was therefore chosen as an established rich web platform which allowed for the seamless integration of a variety of services. Some of the technical paraphernalia that surrounded the original application was dispensed with such as the XML structure of the portfolio and the HORUS web services. As a result, the Flock MANSLE plug-in (which also works with Firefox) produces a persistent free-format editor which allows for the aggregation of photos, text, etc which can be dragged and dropped from the surrounding web environment. Data is stored on the central MANSLE service using the same mechanism as with the original application. The service is self-registering, and also provides facilities for aggregating data relating to other services users subscribe to (social bookmarking, blogs, wikis, etc). The service also provides feeds for monitoring purposes.
Success Factors
What are the key outcomes of the initiative?
A total of 5 modules within 3 foundation degree programmes were piloted during the project with a specific implementation of the MANSLE tool created for each of these 5 instances. A total of more than 80 students were supported during the project by tutors within the partner institutions. The extent to which each of these students engaged in the project varied from superficial engagement (primarily due to time and other personal commitments) through to a significant and detailed use of the tool to support a wide range of aspects of the curriculum.
The major tangible outcomes of the MANSLE project have been:
- In relation to the wider JISC community, MANSLE has demonstrated that the web service approach provides a powerful, rapid and easily implementable approach to a diverse range of learning and teaching contexts. Additionally a number of issues relating to the definition of web services in general, and the definition and implementation of portfolio services in particular, have been highlighted for further development within the sector
- A cohort of learners, academic staff and workplace mentors who have engaged in the specification, development, implementation and evaluation of e-PDP, e-portfolio and e-mentoring tools and have thus been able to explore, identify and comment on the potential utility of these systems in supporting the further development of foundation degree programmes and the work of the GMSA in support of lifelong learning
- Identification of a number of issues which need to be addressed when planning the design and implementation of personal development planning and portfolio development approaches within the curriculum - irrespective of whether these are technology-supported or not
- Stimulation of discussion across a diverse group of staff relating to the ways in which portfolio development, personal development planning and mentoring can be embedded within the curriculum and operationalised with learners in order to enhance the overall learning experience. This would not have occurred had MANSLE not acted as the catalyst for these discussions
- Recommendations at individual pathway, institutional and GMSA level on the effective ways in which personal development planning, portfolio development and mentoring need to be developed, implemented and facilitated in order to effectively support learners in a range of lifelong learning contexts
- One particular area of interest where the MANSLE tool has found significant utility and could play a major role in supporting lifelong learning and student progression is in relation to support for learners in the clinical practice setting. Practice tutors within these settings are responsible for overseeing student competency claims, and the making and validation of such claims needs to be efficient and feed directly into enhancing the skills repertoire. The use of tools such as MANSLE to facilitate this activity is likely to provide significant benefit to learners, tutors and the trusts within which they are employed
The extension of the project allowed for a shift in focus from technology to pedagogy, and in particular, from focus on tools to produce e-portfolios, to focus on technological habits that learners require to produce e-portfolio artefacts, and the teaching and learning issues involved in the acquisition of those habits.
As pedagogical focus has increased, so new areas for enquiry have arisen which reflect the changing technological circumstances. In particular, the challenge in addressing not only technological issues of reflective practice and lifelong learning, but also the psycho-social barriers within learners means that new pedagogies are necessary to address these particular needs.
The extension also allowed for a technological assessment of new widget-based technologies as a way of integrating technological practices for a wide variety of services.
What follow-up activity will be/has been carried out as a result of the project?
These include:
Dissemination of the work undertaken within the project and its outcomes at a variety of levels, including at an institutional level within project partners; through collaboration with other JISC DEL and related projects; at a regional level through the GMSA and North West Universities Association, and at a national level through Foundation Degrees Forward, CETIS, the Centre for Recording Achievement, JISC and presentations at a range of conferences and in journal articles.
Lessons Learned
What are the lessons learned from the project?
Whilst the project was primarily constructed and envisaged as a technical development project, it has become evident that the technical issues are inextricably linked within a range of other issues and it is vital that any activity surrounding the use of technical portfolio and personal development planning processes, particularly in a collaborative or regional context effectively address all of these dimensions.
As is true with many other areas of the application of technology to support learning and teaching, the most effective implementations occur where staff have a clear sense of the ways in which technology can effectively support the curriculum, and where it adds real benefit to the student learning experience rather than being seen as an additional activity with no perceived benefit to the learner. By promoting the ownership of learning technology by both teachers and learners, signs that a process of real change has started to occur.
From a technical perspective, MANSLE has shown how a range of e-portfolio web services, as well as those created specifically to support functionality identified within the project can be aggregated within a user interface. This approach allowed an extremely rapid software development phase to be undertaken and has effectively demonstrated the utility and power of this service oriented approach to software development.
The technical approach has highlighted a number of issues relating to the design and aggregation of web services, and more specifically clarification of what constitutes a portfolio web service. The project has clearly demonstrated that this model inherent in the JISC e-framework is effective in enabling the rapid creation of a useful tool. One the other hand, the extension phase has been able to explore the opportunities and educational benefits of social software as an alternative to institutional systems like MANSLE.
An effective network was created to support the ongoing work of the GMSA lifelong learning network, specifically in the area of student progression and recording achievement through the use of portfolio and PDP approaches. Sharing of practice across members of the project team was significant and contributed to the effective implementation of the project within very tight time constraints. All members of the project team gained considerable insight and greater understanding of the ways in which technology may be able to support these aspects of curriculum activity and hence inform their own institutional agendas.
Further Information and Resources
MANSLE Project Website - data.bolton.ac.uk/elab/mansle
MANSLE Final Report
