Technology Used

What technologies and/or e-tools were available to you or did you seek to develop?

At the start of the project, the final acceptance testing of the iNodes was required and negotiations with the University of Plymouth took place over continuing access to the SHELL server and database during the life period of PDP4Life.

The feasibility of transferring learner records data securely between institutions and from institutions to a repository was tested by piloting the ioNode technology and comparing it with the use of VPN architecture.

The three other projects in the DeL programme using ioNode were each responsible for developing an additional tool in the original portal developed for SHELL. By the time the project had developed its specification, the potential for building on the partners' experience of articulating PDP processes and incorporating a PDP process tool with the ioPortal concept was feasible.

The main activities undertaken through the project's extension periods were the enhancements to the ioPortal prototype and the evaluation of these with a series of focus groups with a number of partner institutions.

By the end of the first phase of the DeL projects, PhosphoriX (ioNodes supplier) had developed several aspects of ioPortal functionality through work with other projects such as EELLS and the iceBox that became available for PDP4Life to take advantage of during its extension phase. It was agreed that a prototype ioPortal would be developed that had a PDP4Life 'skin' and featured systems that would:

• enable data inputs relevant to PDP to be loaded into an inbox as a trigger for personal learning and development activities by the learner using the PDP guidance located within it
• provide a facility for locked categories of information and read-only documents that cannot be altered by the learner

This prototype was evaluated using 5 focus groups that included about 120 participants drawn from academic staff and students at 4 of the partner institutions. They were all attended by a representative from Phosphorix, enabling direct input to the company as part of the upgrading of the ioPortal.