Success Factors

What are the key outcomes of the initiative?

PDP4Life has made a significant contribution to the body of knowledge on PDP through the development of the draft specification mapped to UKLeaP. Although no clear agreement in the field of interoperability has yet been reached, it has been suggested that PDP4Life and other similar projects should work together to develop consensus on how to work together towards interoperability.

The project has enabled the partners to review their PDP systems and contribute to a specification that has the potential to underpin their local development without the need to impose a one-size-fits-all template on individual institutions.

The project demonstrated that the use of ioNode for secure data transfer of learner records from one location to another is replicable. The project has not yet demonstrated that it is possible to export locally derived e-PDP data and transfer it to the lifelong learner record. The project has also enabled the development of the ioPortal prototype as a mechanism for the testing of attitudes to e-portfolios and e-PDP. The outcomes of PDP4Life are being taken forward through the work being undertaken for PDP4XL2 between October 2006 and September 2008 which will see further development of the ioPortal prototype.

The project has raised the profile of PDP processes and approaches in the creative industries and contributed the findings about PDP for this domain into the debate about the value of PDP through extensive dissemination activities in the South West region. Specific benefit for the education community has been achieved by highlighting the perceptions of stakeholders in creative industries towards PDP. This can inform curriculum development and careers guidance within HE programmes that support students' progression into employment in this sector.

Important links have been made between the project and the Lifelong Learning Networks in the South West. This project has been a useful vehicle for raising the profile of PDP approaches among the Higher Education Institutions in the South West. It has been interesting to note the diversity of these approaches and the different stages of development across the partners, from single departmental initiatives to institute-wide implementation. This has obviously had an impact on each partner's engagement with a project like this. The project has also encouraged closer collaboration between information management and learning and teaching professionals.

All the partners gained greater understanding of current ePDP/ePortfolio systems, but their readiness to adopt any of the systems was limited by their institutional contexts. This restricted the opportunities for partners to trial open source products with user groups but case studies on the use of PebblePAD and PROFILE have been developed.

What follow-up activity will be/has been carried out as a result of the project?

The project's dissemination activities have been numerous and widespread. In addition to the project website and project conferences details about the project have been disseminated through conference presentations and publications.

The outcomes of PDP4Life were taken forward through work undertaken for the PDP4XL2 project which saw further development of the ioPortal prototype.