EPICS-2: North East regional collaboration for personalised, work-based, and lifelong learning
Lead Contact: Simon Cotterill (S.J.Cotterill@newcastle.ac.uk)
JISC Programme: JISC e-Learning Programme
Lead Institution and Partners: Newcastle University, Durham University, Northumbria University, University of Sunderland, University of Teesside, Gateshead College, CETL4HealthNE
Project Dates: September 2007 - March 2009
Case study tags: e-portfolios, newcastle university, e-portfolios for application, e-portfolios for assessment, community of practice perspectives on e-portfolios, e-portfolios considerations - interoperability,lifelong learning drivers for e-portfolios, e-portfolios for cpd and pdp, online learning,employability drivers for e-portfolios
Background & Context
What is the background to the e-portfolio initiative?
EPICS-2 was a collaborative project, based in the North East of England, which took place over the 18 months leading up to March 2009. The project built on the considerable success and deliverables of the EPICS project around technology, pedagogy and governance relating to e-Portfolios and Personal Development Planning (PDP), and made a significant impact on the development of support for personalised learning, work-based learning (WBL) and lifelong learning.
What were the aims and objectives of the initiative?
Develop expertise and capacity through partnership and collaboration: to support the uptake and effective use of PDP/e-portfolios across the region by:
- Building on the Regional Forum established in the first EPICS project, recruiting further subject areas in each of the existing partner sites
- Engage with new partners from the Further Education (FE) and other sectors, as appropriate
Develop and improve support for personalised learning and work-based learning by:
- Large-scale pilots to evaluate the use of e-portfolio to support personalised learning pathways, including use and extension of software developed in previous JISC projects
- Undertaking a review of technologies and associated pedagogy used to support Work-Based Learning in the North East, to share and promote good practice regionally and nationally
- Large-scale pilots to evaluate the use of e-portfolios, blogs and social networking to support learning and PDP
Support mobility and lifelong learning by:
- Embedding personal learning with mobile technologies, including the development of solutions for mobile portfolio/blogging with asynchronous connection to Web-based portfolios, complementing existing work with mobiles undertaken by CETL4HealthNE projects
- Embedding the transfer of real data from undergraduate to postgraduate e-portfolio using methodologies developed in the first EPICS project
- Pilot the transfer of real e-portfolio data between FE and Higher Education (HE), working with the JISC-funded ComPort project
- Producing e-portfolio exemplars using 2 or more identity management systems (OpenID, Liberty Alliance, and Shibboleth/CAS)
- Engaging with emerging specifications and standards to facilitate the robust and efficient flow of e-portfolio and PDP data between institutions
Evaluate the impact of the project: evaluate the impact of e-portfolios and PDP in the region by:
- Evaluating the impact of the project with new partners
- Evaluating the efficacy of e-portfolios with the new pedagogic areas (personalised learning pathways, blogs, WBL, etc)
Maximise the impact of the project: documenting and disseminating the outcomes of the project and its evaluation and engagement with other high impact projects within the region and beyond:
- Developing and delivering a detailed dissemination
- Making an updated version of the ePET portfolio freely available to the JISC community
- Adding value to institutional and other initiatives (including CETLs) in the region by ensuring that this project complements institutional requirements
How was the initiative implemented?
The project was divided into a number of work packages (WPs) and case studies:
- Project management and set up (WP1)
- Developing expertise and capacity through partnership and collaboration (WP2)
- Large-scale pilots of e-portfolios, blogs and social publishing (WP3)
- Review of technologies and associated pedagogy used to support Work-Based Learning (WP4)
- Supporting personalised learning pathways for postgraduate students in a regional context (WP5)
- Supporting lifelong learning (WP6)
- Identity management exemplars (WP7)
- Personalised learning environments - mobile technologies (WP8)
- Evaluation (WP9)
- Dissemination and documentation (WP10)
- Updated version of the ePET portfolio freely available to FE/HE community (WP11)
The project employed Case Study methodologies and mixed methods for evaluation (questionnaires and focus groups).
Technology Used
What technologies and/or e-tools were available to you or did you seek to develop?
The project designed a blog with explicit support for structured learning outcomes/skills, with the learner able to opt to share blog entries with defined communities. This was integrated within the ePET portfolio.
The ePET portfolio has a high level of programme-level customisation
Mobile Technologies were used for the Work-based learning element of the project with e-portfolios being delivered on Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs).
e-Portfolio exemplars could be produced using Identity management systems - OpenID, Liberty Alliance, and Shibboleth/CAS.
Success Factors
What are the key outcomes of the initiative?
Engagement & Capacity Building
- The project provided regional forum events during the project and a national event after it had ended
- Added value to and collaborated with other initiatives (e.g. JISC COMPORT project, NTFS NARN project)
e-Portfolios, blogs & community publishing
- New subject areas were recruited beyond those identified in the proposal to pilot e-portfolios/blogs (namely PGCE, Clinical Skills & Employability)
- Extension of ePET portfolio to include personalised blogs and community publishing and design to link unstructured blogs to evidence structured outcomes/skills
Personalised Learning
- Developed 'proof of concept' regional hub to share workshop information to better support personal learning pathways for PG researchers (using the XCRI-CAP standard)
- Added greater personalisation to the ePET portfolio / blog
Work-based Learning
- Case studies include use of e-portfolios in work-based settings (PGCE, Speech Therapy, Employability placements, clinical skills)
- Captured information on technologies to support WBL in region
Lifelong Learning - Interoperability
- Work with lifelong learning standards significantly expanded with more emphasis on contributing to emerging specifications in conjunction with JISC-funded PIOP (Portfolio InterOperability Prototyping) and LEAP2A projects. Helped shape emerging national standards
- Transferred real portfolio data using latest version of LEAP2A
Mobile Technologies
- Direction of work on mobile technologies changed from support for asynchronous processes linked to e-portfolio to integration of JANETxt (texting to blogs)
Authentication
- Successfully implemented CAS authentication in a version of the ePET portfolio
Evaluation
- Evaluation of specific case studies including new pedagogies for use of unstructured blogs to evidence structured outcomes
- 3 additional case studies (with existing but not new partners)
- Evaluation extended to provide insights into use of external social networking sites in education and factors influencing engagement with e-portfolios/PDP
Dissemination
Software
What follow-up activity will be/has been carried out as a result of the project?
Continuation includes:
- Project helped lay some of the foundations for other initiatives, ELLI in HE project, JISC initiatives including PIOP, LEAP2A and Dynamic Learning Maps
- Broader implementation of the ePET blog beyond the pilot subject areas at Newcastle
- Ongoing interest in regional support for postgraduate training
- Implementation of JANET text to support the MBBS programme and potentially other systems at Newcastle
Lessons Learned
What are the lessons learned from the project?
- Sometimes it's useful to change your plans - try and recognise blind alleys sooner rather than later! Developments in technology since the submission of the proposal resulted in a significant change in the direction of the work planned for mobile technologies. The time taken to make the decision about the change was, in retrospect, too long especially considering the short duration of the project
- Don't underestimate the time needed for consultation and user needs analysis in collaborative projects
- Where possible, design project activities to have side-effects with immediate direct benefit to stakeholders. This approach was valuable in securing further buy-in and support from the stakeholders concerned
- Focus groups need to be carefully planned and co-ordinated, and run in a formal, structured way (context: postgraduate students, work package 5). The focus groups were run in a very carefully controlled format with fixed questions and small numbers of participants with audio recordings made of the focus group (so that facilitator can concentrate on facilitating the session rather than trying to write notes). The approach is necessary to keep the discussion focused on the matter in hand, to ensure that the views of all participants are heard, and to make sure that the focus group delivers useful results. The approach received very good feedback
- Collaborative projects need to be designed and developed iteratively, incrementally and flexibly. This is becoming a common way of working in software development, but is especially important for a collaborative project such as this one, where existing systems are being made to interact
- Don't assume stakeholders will think your project is the best thing since sliced bread! In retrospect the project team felt that they should not have been surprised that there were user acceptance issues in relation to the use of personally owned mobile phones for educational purposes. Learners need a clear purpose and idea of what the benefits are for using their mobile phones for course-related services otherwise this may be perceived as an intrusion into their personal lives
- Be prepared to sacrifice functionality in favour of developing a workable solution. During the information gathering phase for WP5 it became clear that certain functionality would not be possible unless significant changes were made to existing systems, and that the owners of these systems would not be willing or able to do this within the project timescale
Further Resources
Website: www.eportfolios.ac.uk
Final Report: www.epics.ac.uk/report
