Lessons Learned

What are the lessons learned from the project?

There are three different areas that get blurred in e-portfolio systems design and implementation - pedagogical design; domain knowledge representation; system interoperability. If these three areas are given equal attention then interoperability and usability will be facilitated.

The lack of customisability with the system was a disappointment and highlighted that it is an important consideration for practitioners and users.

Although learners saw the potential offered by e-portfolios in terms of employment, it was highlighted that acceptance of e-portfolios has to come from the industry and employers. Some learners expressed concerns as to whether potential employers would bother to logon to their site.

The teacher is crucial to achieving success with "learner" uptake of the system. Where the teachers had been most active in conceiving and designing the pedagogical intervention that the portfolio was supposed to serve, the best results were achieved. Where the portfolio was a late, optional, difficult bolt-on to an already full curriculum and the teachers had not had much input to the pedagogical design, there was less chance of user uptake.

Recommendations made on the basis of the user experiences are:

Local customisation

The e-portfolio system needs to provide the ability for project leaders to customise their hierarchy and interface locally to suit their learners and their courses. Staff need technical support with this customisation.

Reliability

The system needs to work reliably to save students' work and allow them to produce their final presentations and share them with others.

Usability

The system would benefit from an improved user interface with larger fonts, more readable text colours, larger buttons and easily recognisable and colour-coded symbols.

Functionality

Staff and learners made many suggestions to improve the functionality of the system. The dominant request was for more flexibility in personalising both data input and the output presentation.

Support

Learners requested more support with using the system including guidance and support which is embedded into the system.

Data protection

Learners are aware of data protection and privacy issues around working online and need clear answers and reassurance on what happens to their data.

Timing

It is important to have any new software available at the start of each course and for learners to know for how long their data will be stored and they will have access to it.

Task design

The learners who were most able to express the benefits from working with the system were those who had worked on authentic, relevant and timely tasks. Devising such tasks is likely to be important to the uptake and value of e-portfolios by learners.

Employers and accreditors

Learners are keen that those receiving the outputs from their e-portfolios are welcoming of their work. Future e-portfolio developments would be enhanced by the involvement of employers and/or accreditors.

Networking

It would be helpful to promote staff at project sites working in pairs or teams and greater networking between case studies in order to motivate and support each other throughout the implementation and evaluation process.