Lead Contact: Sarah Chesney (sarah.chesney@cumbria.ac.uk)
JISC Programme: JISC Users & Innovation Programme (JISC Circular 02/07)
Lead Institution and Partners: University of Cumbria
Project Dates: April 2007 - March 2009
Case study tags: online learning, e-portfolios,university of cumbria, e-portfolios for application, employability drivers for e-portfolios, learner perspectives on e-portfolios, e-portfolios for cpd and pdp,practitioner perspectives on e-portfolios, e-portfolios for supporting learning processes,institutional perspectives on e-portfolios
Background & Context
What is the background to the e-portfolio initiative?
The Flourish project came about as the result of a bid submitted to the JISC by St Martin's College. The College was one of the institutions (along with the Cumbria Institute of the Arts and the Cumbria campus of University of Central Lancashire) that became part of the University of Cumbria in August 2007.
Prior to Flourish commencing, there was nowhere for St Martin's staff to store their work, privately reflect upon their achievement and then share this with a variety of internal and external colleagues in an appropriate and timely manner. Continuing Professional Development activity was mainly stored hard copy and most staff relied on face-to-face presentations or email with attachments to distribute information on their CPD and professional interests.
When Flourish began in March 2007 a majority of academic staff at the University of Cumbria had not come into contact with an e-portfolio and were, therefore, unfamiliar with the potential benefits that e-portfolios offer.
Flourish has operated in a complex situation where processes from legacy institutions have been adopted as a short-term answer whilst longer-term solutions are sought. The context is complicated by the fact that the university is highly dispersed, with seventy miles separating the two main campuses. Many colleagues were (and still are) therefore unknown to one another, even if they work in similar areas. This context can be seen in a positive light, with an opportunity to do things differently and try new approaches to existing activities.
What were the aims and objectives of the initiative?
Flourish's overall aims were to ease the administrative burden experienced by learning, teaching and research practitioners at Cumbria. Its objectives were to:
- Encourage staff to use an e-portfolio to:
- store evidence of learning and reflect upon this
- demonstrate evidence of their development
- raise awareness of an e-portfolio amongst academic staff so that they could consider using an e-portfolio with students
- disseminate Flourish activities and outcomes to the wider Higher Education community
- identify the challenges that arise when an e-portfolio is introduced for staff CPD
- trial and evaluate use of an e-portfolio for CPD activities
- identify successful approaches to designing processes for introducing and embedding the use of an e-portfolio
How was the initiative implemented?
The project sought to achieve its aims through 5 key activities:
- Embedding e-portfolio as a fundamental element within the institution's Post Graduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (PgCLTinHE)
- Piloting it with staff as part of the appraisal process
- Recording and sharing of experiences of practitioners' attendance at conference through publishing to Conference Gateways, a key component within the chosen e-portfolio system
- Working with professional accreditation bodies (e.g. the HE Academy, SEDA and CILIP) to evaluate the efficacy of applications by e-portfolio
- Implementing e-portfolios to smooth the forging and enhancement of cross-departmental relationships between staff within a newly-formed institution
Flourish used an action research approach, and sought to work collaboratively with colleagues from all parts of the University. It was viewed as an opportunity to scrutinize working practices in relation to the institution and develop the notion that an e-portfolio has the potential to enhance staff CPD. The project used a cyclical approach - enhancing practice by taking lessons learned from each iteration to improve the next stages of the process.
Evaluation was based on Glenaffric's Six Steps to Effective Evaluation.
It was recognised from the outset that success of the project was dependent on senior management support. This support also helped convince other staff of the value of the project.
The implementation was undertaken in work packages. The HR department was keen to encourage staff to use PebblePad in the appraisal process so this was piloted on a small scale in 2007 and then adapted and rolled out further.
Other work packages included the Post Graduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education; Professional Accreditation and Team Building.
Technology Used
What technologies and/or e-tools were available to you or did you seek to develop?
PebblePad software was used. There was also a requirement for updated Flash Player to be installed on all PCs in order to run the PebblePad software.
Initially, there was not an automated way of creating accounts for users, this had to be done manually by members of the Flourish Team. Later on Flourish purchased a single sign-on solution from VLE Genius with the aim of enabling users to move from their PebblePad account into the Blackboard VLE, and vice versa without being required to login.
The Project Manager made the decision not to install this building block on the live Blackboard server because concerns had been raised about the ease with which any member of staff with admin rights on the Blackboard system could potentially mimic another user's login details and subsequently access their PebblePad account.
Success Factors
What are the key outcomes of the initiative?
The Flourish Project has ensured that a significant number of staff at the University of Cumbria have come into contact with an e-portfolio and had the opportunity to experience using one. By March 2009 600 out of approximately 1800 members of staff had a PebblePad account. Every account was created upon request by the user (there was no provision for automatic generation of user accounts). Approximately one third (200) accounts are inactive. Those with inactive accounts were contacted before the end of the Project and asked if they still needed the account and the majority said yes, they intended to use PebblePad in the near future.
As a result of Flourish over 300 student accounts have been created and have been used successfully in the Faculty of Education, the School of Business (as part of the Higher Education Academy/Centre for Recording Achievement Employer Project) and in the School of Law to support Personal Development Planning.
Flourish has also ensured that the issue of e-portfolios for all students is on the agenda of influential committees at Cumbria, as well as being discussed at the Heads' Conference and faculty management meetings.
In some areas Flourish exceeded the objectives outlined in the original plan, examples include the University of Cumbria Teaching Fellowships (made via PebblePad in 2008) in institutional e-portfolios (where PebblePad was used to collect, collate and demonstrate institutional information) and in the Higher Education Academy/JISC Benchmarking Activity.
Flourish has also had an impact on procurement processes at Cumbria. Using the experiences of introducing PebblePad to staff, Flourish project staff were instrumental in designing procurement and deployment procedures intended to encourage and support innovation in e-learning.
What follow-up activity will be/has been carried out as a result of the project?
Further work needs to be done regarding the use and impact of having to use multiple e-portfolios for professional development, particularly when it involves registration with a professional body. Staff have expressed reluctance to use multiple methods of recording their CPD and this has the potential to impact upon engagement with an e-portfolio.
There is also potential for further work to be done on the attitude and IT capability of those 'receiving' an e-portfolio for review or assessment that has an impact upon the extent to which an e-portfolio is used.
Concerns raised by staff regarding the longevity of their e-portfolio suggest that more work needs to be done concerning access and hosting of a personal learning system.
Flourish has highlighted the need for guidance on such issues as information management including data protection, intellectual property rights and publishing of unlawful content that may cause offence.
The Blossom project was a follow on to Flourish. It looked at similar practices of using e-portfolios to support staff CPD across the HE sector. Blossom contacted a number of UK HE institutions for information on how e-portfolios are being used for CPD. The project has produced a number of filmed interviews with practitioners in the area from across the sector.
Lessons Learned
What are the lessons learned from the project?
In order to successfully engage staff it is important that line management are on board with initiatives. For instance, it was found that staff were reluctant to use the Personal Learning System (PLS) for appraisal if they anticipated resistance to its use from their line manager. This was a major reason for non-engagement cited by those staff who had the opportunity to use the PLS for appraisal, but chose not to. Thus the attitude of the e-portfolio recipient was critical to whether users adopted this technology to support their appraisal.
The introduction of a PLS for staff Continuing Professional Development (CPD) does encourage academic staff to use an e-portfolio with their students.
The Project found that there was a tension between transferring existing processes into an electronic environment and the necessity for some staff to learn new skills in order to do this.
Transferring processes from one medium to another should be viewed as an opportunity to revise and enhance existing processes.
Introducing and embedding a PLS into a professional course can substantially change the learning activities, leading to re-design of activities and in the long term a revision of the learning outcomes.
Encouraging habitual use for a variety of activities has to be cultivated over a period of time. Flourish was funded for two years and it was only in the final months that the Project staff felt that their work had taken root and started to grow in strength.
Further Resources
Flourish website - http://www.flourishproject.org
Flourish animations - https://portfolio.pebblepad.co.uk/cumbria/viewasset.aspx?oid=12116&type=webfolio&pageoid=51801 including e-portfolios for starters and e-portfolios for managers
Blossom project interviews https://portfolio.pebblepad.co.uk/cumbria/viewasset.aspx?oid=50341&type=webfolio
