Technology Used

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

The early months of the project in 2005 involved the selection of the two e-portfolios to be used in the project (ePET and PebblePad), the hardware purchases and installations of the software. The Birmingham partner used the ePET software.

It also involved working closely with the Kidderminster team on understanding and starting to install Shibboleth. There was a variety of problems with the implementation of Shibboleth, some to do with technical aspects of Shibboleth installation, some due to control of local networks. These problems caused considerable delay in being able to train local staff and also with the running of hands-on sessions with e-portfolios for students. During this time the project team made many unfruitful visits to the partner institutions, ready to train only to come across access problems. The resulting loss of confidence took considerable and gargantuan effort by the team to restore.

The Shibboleth problems were resolved in all partner institutions apart from Shirelands School as it was found their network could not handle 40+ users. The main problem was the changing of student profiles affecting PC performance and access, which was later resolved by the University in consultation with the network provider, RM. These students were subsequently invited to the University to use the e-portfolio in late February 2006.