Wider Opportunities for Reflection Learning and Development
Lead Contact: George Roberts, groberts@brookes.ac.uk
JISC Programme: DeL Regional Pilots
Lead Institution and Partners: Oxford Brookes University (L), University of Brighton, Association for Learning Technology (ALT), Knowledge Integration Ltd. (K-Int), Abingdon and Witney College, Plumpton College, Sussex Downs College, Thames Valley Professional Instutes Partnership (TVPIP), Oxfordshire Community Learning Support Unit (CLSU), Brighton Community University Partnership Project (CUPP)
This case study illustrates Employability, Application, Application to Education, Application to Employment, PDP, Supporting Learning Processes, Evidence, Learner Perspectives, Professional Body Perspectives, Defining Requirements, Technologies, Open Source, Perspectives, IT Skills, Legal Access
Background & Context
What is the background to the e-portfolio initiative?
There is growing interest in the implementation of e-portfolios at all levels of education. The Government's e-strategy anticipates that schools, colleges and universities "will want to develop eventually an e-portfolio where learners can store their own work, record their achievements" (Dfes, 2005). The e-learning strategy for higher education also has as an objective "encouraging e-based systems of describing learning achievement and personal development planning" (HEFCE, 2005).
If e-portfolios are to become so widespread, it is important to understand the impact of using such tools for learners, practitioners and institutions.
The PETAL 2 and myWORLD projects set out to build on the results of the Personal e-portfolios for Teaching and Learning (PETAL 1) which aimed to support learner-centred, reflective and dialogic learning practice. The project was based on existing partnerships for lifelong learning and widening participation. The project extended and built on learning domain services and common services tools and systems for personal development planning (PDP). Like the first PETAL project, myWORLD and PETAL 2 set out to adapt, implement and trial the Open Source Portfolio (OSP) in a range of post compulsory educational contexts: HE, FE, adult community education and professional institutes.
What were the aims and objectives of the initiative?
The main aim of the PETAL 2 and myWORLD projects was to develop, test and evaluate the use of an Open Source OSPI e-Portfolio in a range of post compulsory education settings.
The projects combined technical and pedagogic aims. Technically it was intended to adapt Open Source OSPI for use in the different post compulsory education settings and to develop a stable installation. From a pedagogic viewpoint the intention was to pilot and evaluate the use of e-portfolios with up to 100 end users. This involved conducting 10 case studies across the South East of England working with up to 100 end users and evaluating these use cases and their impact on learners and institutions.
How was the initiative implemented?
There were five main stages to the project:
- Software development which followed an iterative development cycle
- Test installations
- Reiterations
- Test users
- Evaluation using a case approach with data collection through a survey, focus groups and interviews
The project had two centres: Oxford Brookes University and the University of Brighton. Each centre worked with a group of established partners: FE colleges and community learning projects. Oxford Brookes also worked with representatives of local branches of professional institutes.
The two projects were consolidated under a single steering group. All technical development work was undertaken by Knowledge Integration.
After brief initial familiarisation, case study leaders were asked to write a scenario of use using a template. Then they were asked to develop a hierarchy for the local implementation of the software.
The collection of detailed user data became focused on five case studies representing further education (Abingdon & Witney College), higher education (Visual Arts at University of Brighton, and Viticulture at Plumpton College), adult and community learning (Access to Arts at University of Brighton) and professional (Chartered Management Institute). Visits were made to five case study sites to conduct interviews with the project leaders. Visits at four of these sites included a focus group with learners.
The survey was developed in order to gather information about the learners using the PETAL tools and to elicit their expectations and early experiences of using the e-portfolio tool.
While the survey was intended to gather initial experiences, the focus groups were planned to be conducted after the learners had had more time working the e-portfolio tool.
Interviews with the project leaders were conducted during the site visits. A semi-structured interview was prepared in advance which was intended to elicit the project leaders' views on: the intended pedagogical rationale for using e-portfolios on their course, and their perspective on the extent to which this had been achieved; their use of the tool including issues around usability and customisability; their experiences of being a partner site including the impact of their involvement in the project within their institution.
