EPICS-2

North East regional collaboration for personalised, work-based, and life-long learning

October 2007 to February 2009 Partners include: 5 HEIs FE colleges (Comport Project) CETL4HealthNE Project Director: Prof. Geoff Hammond Project Manager: Simon Cotterill Project Officers: Paul Horner Martin Edney

http://www.epics.ac.uk

EPICS-2: Themes

ePortfolios, Blogs & Social Networking Personalised Learning Work-Based Learning Life-Long Learning

EPICS-2: Overview of Activities

• • • • • • Regional PDP Forum Large-scale pilots of ePortfolios, blogs & social publishing Supporting personalised learning pathways for Postgraduate Students in a regional context Supporting life-long learning (interoperability) Mobile technologies (JANET txt) Updated version of the ePET portfolio

Case Studies

Case Study: ePortfolio to support learning on an employability skills module

An action research project undertaken with undergraduate students at levels 5.

Context:

the module helps prepare students for the recruitment process for both year-long placements and permanent employment.

Aim:

encourage students to adopt a deep, active approach to learning, and thus take responsibility for their own learning.

Outcomes:

The use of the ePortfolio format encourages reflection and self-evaluation and facilitates formative feedback by peers and tutors, as well as providing a repository for evidence of skills and capabilities from which appropriate material can be selected to support specific job applications.

ePET: Unstructured Blog but with explicit links to skills/outcomes

Case Study: Combined Studies Evaluating use of ePortfolio to support personalised learning pathways

• Cohort: students commencing October 2007 (n=119) • Modest engagement : av. 28 logins per student in 18 months (range 1 -168) • Minimal engagement prior to assessed assignment in Semester 2, Year 1 • Mostly used CV/skills (assessed),limited use of cross-module learning log  “It helped me see the skills I was using that my modules shared and sort of helped me develop those further” .  “too time consuming”  “didn't really understand what I needed to put down as evidence”  “I had to write a CV and it helped me think about what modules and what aspects of each module I enjoy, while writing about them”.

Case Study: Speech & Language Sciences Evaluating use of ePortfolio/blog to support placement learning

• Cohort: BSc & MSc students (all years) from October 2007 • Medium engagement : av. 30 logins per student (range 2 -142) • Steady use over time; recording clinical goals, placements and clinical skills • Virtually no sharing of blog entries in the community areas  “being able to put in my placement goals, and have a format to review my progress in these at each stage” .  “I find I do not have enough time to use the ePortfolio regularly.”  “You had to be careful to tick a load of boxes saying that your blog was private because it could get posted in the community blog otherwise”  “Ability to put in different placements into the portfolio alongside your goals and whether you achieved them. Ability to make blogs private to evaluate yourself without others seeing.”.

Case Study: PGCE (Secondary) Evaluating use of ePortfolio/blog to support placement learning

• Cohort: PGCE students (all subjects) from Sept 2008 (n=156) • High engagement : av. 41 logins per student (range 4 -178) in Semester 1, 1096 files uploaded • Good use of blog: av. 16 entries . Many linked to Skills av. 76 links to QTS standards • Many blogs published to community areas: 825 entries, 262 comments  “What I do like about the ePortfolio is that it is designed for the purpose of building a skills repertoire, and allows you to connect thoughts and experiences to the Key Skills.”  “good for staying in touch whilst on teaching practice” .  “It's not very clear exactly what parts of it are mandatory and what parts are optional”  “It is tedious having to fill in a weekly blog especially when I have many other things to do.”  “the ePortfolio is well set-out with regards to being able to link blogs to the skills pages. The ePortfolio in a sense guides you through the necessaries” .

Factors related to engagement with ePortfolio / blog

*Interim results* n=163 (30% response rate so far) I have a clear understanding of the purpose of the ePortfolio I have a clear understanding of how the ePortfolio is used in my programme I received adequate information on how to use the ePortfolio I had a clear understanding of the skills being evidenced in the ePortfolio The skills included in the ePortfolio are important in studying for my degree The skills included in the ePortfolio are important for my longer-term career The ePortfolio is important for my programme Course handbooks and study guides refer to the ePortfolio Teaching staff regularly refer to the ePortfolio Group 1

High Engagement

87% 91% 58% 66% 69% 59% 75% 58% 84% Group 2 Group 3

Medium Engagement Modest Engagement

74% 76% 50% 58% 42% 58% 65% 94% 94% 82% 65% 41% 17% 25% 33% 33% 25% 33%

Use of Social Networking and perceptions of its use in learning

91% of respondents use social networking sites (58% on a daily basis). Use of these sites was predominantly for social reasons, though: 62% sometimes used them to communicate with classmates about course-related topics 9% had used them to communicate with teaching staff about course-related topics “…most people see Facebook etc. as an escape from work and it really should stay that way.” “It must never be enforced. Emphasis on

‘social’

networking. Informality is key.” BSc Speech & Language Sciences student Combined Studies student “I prefer to keep social networking sites for personal use and for engaging in general conversation about essays etc in a non-official/non-university domain where it's friends discussing a course. Professional dialogue, opinions on educational matters, lesson plans, theory discussions I prefer to engage in face to face or via the official, nominated online spaces.” PGCE student Interim results n=163 (30% response rate so far)

Case Study: ePortfolio to support Overseas Nursing Programme

• Students spend most time on placements • Established paper-based portfolio for reflection and assessment • ePET portfolio adapted to replicate parts of the paper portfolio • Low uptake – students had option to use either paper or electronic • Ongoing interest from programme leaders to work on an ePortfolio approach

Case Study: ePortfolio/blog to support PGCE + interoperability

• More on this later from the COMPORT project

Personalised learning pathways for Postgraduate Students

Personalised Learning Pathways

• Aims: share and widen the range of training opportunities for postgraduates to choose from (including part-time and distance students).

• Extensive consultation and user-needs analysis • We developed a working model for sharing training opportunities amongst the 5 universities in the NE. • Very applicable to other contexts (e.g. viewing learning opportunities from multiple providers in WBL).

Workshop Booking system XCRI feed Aggregator Workshop Booking system XCRI feed ePortfolio Web Service to import attendance records from remote systems

Life Long Learning (interoperability)

Interoperability

• Standards and specifications for transferring life long learning records between systems • Worked with various standards; particularly • LEAP2a • EUROPASS • IMS ePortfolio • Extended the work in EPICS-2 into 2 JISC-CETIS projects: • PIOP (completed) • Leap2a (ongoing)

Educational Benefits of Interoperability

Continuity in life-long learning (LLL)

School HE Continuing Development

Alternative models Life-long ‘ personal learning space ’ Serial transfer of data Aggregators of multiple portfolios / blogs • •

Explicit recognition of prior learning Focus on continuous development, not episodic learning

Integration with other systems

• •

Linking into the wider VLE Integration with other systems e.g. Workshop admin portfolio/CV e.g. CV recruitment services

Mobile Technologies

Mobile Technologies

• Major change in the project: From: developing ‘asynchronous’ tools for PDAs using proprietary form building software To: Using mobile phones – texting into portfolios/blogs • Why?

Rapid advances in connectivity and mobile data contracts Widespread mobile phones / contracts by students Learning from CETL4HealthNE mobile projects: • High support costs (local and central) • Issues with distribution of mobile devices on short-term basis • Issues related to changing curricula • Solution: •JANET txt • We developed Web Services to send incoming texts to portfolios/blogs • Focus groups: issues - personal cost, professionalism

Summary

• Case studies add to our knowledge of the use of ePortfolios/blogs to support LLL & WBL •New approach to link blogs to structured outcomes in ePET •Developed a working model for the regional sharing of learning opportunities for postgraduates •Work on interoperability standards for lifelong learning helped shape national standards.

Further Information ► http://www.epics.ac.uk

Extra slides (not used in the presentation)

Learning Maps

This is an innovative 2 year project funded as part of the

JISC

“Transforming Curriculum Delivery Through Technology” programme, starting in November 2008. The Learning Maps will provide a fusion of both formal curricula and personal learning information with the flexibility to view: • Formal curriculum maps (programme and modules) • Skills / learning outcomes (add evidence / view learning opportunities) • Personalised learning records • Related learning resources drawn in from multiple sources Web 2.0 approaches: participative – interactive – engaging Web 3.0 approaches: adaptive – analogy with neural networks

Scenario:

A student views their personalised learning map which draws in their specific modules, programme level outcomes and personal learning records. They add an external resource linked to a particular topic which they opt to share with others on their course, who can rate and review it.

Background: EPICS-1

EPICS - North East regional collaboration around ePortfolio progression pathways with illustrative studies

Part of the JISC Distributed e-Learning Programme.

2005- 2006 Partners included: 5 HEIs FE colleges JISC Regional Centre Case studies -demonstrate feasibility / scalability -supporting life-long learning

http://www.epics.ac.uk

EPICS-1 Highlights

•

Pedagogy

– established a Regional Forum for PDP •

Governance

– developed a toolkit for those embarking on using ePortfolios to consider policy, practice etc .

•

Technical

– 5 case studies; interoperability FE / HE – Shibboleth (single sign-on)

EPICS-2 Summary

Web 2.0 – blogs and social networking Personalized learning Pathways for Postgraduates Regional Forum Mobile learning

Personalised Learning

ePortfolios to support learning pathways and cross-module learning Life-long Learning Work-based Learning Further Information: www.epics.ac.uk