Lessons Learned

What are the lessons learned from the project?

The project provided evidence to partner institutions, stakeholders and practitioners that a shared resource platform can be achieved and utilised to positively affect teaching and learning. Although at the end of the project the portal required further modification to improve access and usability, the pilot provided a resource which, in principle, would be of value to non-traditional learners and their tutors, easing and encouraging transition through different levels of learning. This project demonstrated to practitioners and learners that local education providers are working together to make their learning journey easier and this will be achieved if interoperability and portability can be made possible between all local providers.

Recognition of Goodwill

Small scale, tight projects require goodwill from participating partners in the allocation and deployment of resource (e.g. more staff time was needed than was officially allocated in the plan). Goodwill should be formally recognised by partners who sign up for similar projects.

Cultural Issues

When working across sectors, cultural as well as technical issues have to be taken into account. There is an interest in sharing resources across institutions but, as FE colleges are significantly less well resourced than HE, electronic resources may not be readily shared. There are implications for shared provision in the retention and transfer of e-portfolios between sectors, but standards are, as yet, so far away that it is difficult to see how this can be achieved in the short to medium term.

Communication

Communicating with individuals from third party providers (e.g. software suppliers) may be difficult, especially if contact is limited to email and electronic help facilities. Face-to-face meetings with suppliers, or a coordinator who has direct access to a supplier, should ensure that issues are resolved quicker and that confidence is maintained.

Open Source Software (OSS)

One of the important features of adopting an OSS approach is access to a development community for knowledge sharing and support. In the case of uPortal the strong community provided an invaluable resource throughout this project.

Tutor engagement

Tutor engagement was achieved in the project but not to the extent hoped for. It became apparent from the student focus group and from tutor feedback that the tutors were unclear about how to use the portal as a teaching tool. Tutors had engaged with the fact that their students could use the portal and resources for their personal learning, and in most cases were encouraging the use of the portal in a weekly session. It had not registered with tutors that the use of the portal could be integrated into lessons and tutorials or that it could provide a tool with which to signpost further learning and to provide further support and encouragement for additional learning outside of the classroom. Rarely was the portal used by tutors as a communication tool for informal feedback and participation in their students' reflective learning.

Technical issues

Single sign-on is as important as we thought. Maintaining a system with multiple passwords is not scalable!

It is important to test and optimise the system for equipment that is likely to be used. In our case the student lab PCs had 15" monitors with 800x600 resolution. Designing for the user environment should be undertaken from the outset. Screen real estate issues take time to resolve.