Technical Support
'Due to the nature of flexible lifelong learning and the recording of both informal learning and life experiences, e-portfolio may place a higher demand on access than other institutionally based systems. Ideally institutions need to ensure 24/7 access and develop strategies that can recover service quickly should systems become unavailable outside of the traditional 9-5 Monday to Friday window.'
ePISTLE Guidelines 4
Further Resources
Technical support is important to ensure a smooth deployment and continued maintenance of the e-portfolio system. This means that the e-portfolio must be included in the disaster recovery procedures of an institution from the beginning (ePISTLE Guidelines on Storage and Access). Such technical support will need to be in place for all institutions using the e-portfolio including partners. In the ELP Project, changes to firewalls at one participating school presented some difficulties. This was resolved to some extent largely through good communication between the school coordinator and the project team showing how important this is in helping to minimise user frustrations. A wide range of issues arose for learners during the ISLE project during the technical deployment of the e-portfolio system, and a high level of support was needed to overcome these. However, in most cases technical issues have tended to arise during the early stages of deployment although ironing out technical problems from the outset is critical to user engagement as the system may be considered difficult to use or unreliable if these are unresolved.
