The EHU Partnership Mentor’s role in verifying evidence within the e-portfolio

The e-portfolio  All trainees on the Further Education and Training programmes are expected to complete an e-portfolio via Campus Pack which is part of the Blackboard Virtual Learning Environment at Edge Hill University  The e-portfolios were introduced in September 2012

How do I get access to my trainee’s e- portfolio?  Trainees have been instructed to invite their EHU Partnership Mentor and their Personal Tutor (amongst others) to access their e-portfolio. Your trainee will invite you to access his/her e- portfolio via an generated within Campus Pack. The will contain a hyperlink to their portfolio and you may find it useful to save the link in your Bookmarks or Favourites folder  If you have not received an from your trainee within two weeks of them starting their practice with you, you should ask if he/she has set up their e-portfolio yet, and request that you be given access

What is in the e-portfolio?  The e-portfolio is a ‘single-source’ record that trainees will use to track their development from the earliest stages to the end of their training  The evidence requirements for the e-portfolio have been substantially rationalised, meaning less duplication of evidence and a lighter workload for the trainee, their personal tutor and for you as their EHU Partnership Mentor

What evidence do I need to verify? The evidence that EHU PMs need to verify relates to: ✓ The number of hours the trainee has completed ✓ Formal observations carried out by the EHU PM ✓ Records of EHU PM meetings ✓ Verification of Professional Standards achieved including observations, witness statements and other evidence These items are directly related to ensuring that the trainee’s records are compliant and that they are entitled to pass The Practicing Teacher module. There is one additional key point that EHU PMs should be involved with, although they do not need to verify the evidence presented by the trainee…

Breadth of Experience  All trainees must evidence breadth of experience to demonstrate that they are engaging with the wider teaching role/gaining experience of other areas of teaching, in order to increase employability  Guidance in The Practicing Teacher module states: “You should provide evidence of engagement in the wider teaching role. Ideally this will comprise of up to 30 hours in addition to your 100 hours teaching and can include up to 10 hours of shadowing, team teaching, 1-1 delivery and can also include CPD such as attendance at conferences etc.”

Breadth of Experience  Trainees must also demonstrate that they have carried out 3 peer observations over the length of their course and these can be an opportunity to observe classes of their own subject, a different subject area, different age groups/levels from their normal teaching  Trainees should organise these observations themselves, although you may be able to support this process by introducing trainees to key members of staff, especially regarding the following areas…

Breadth of Experience  We strongly encourage you to highlight opportunities for trainees to engage in the following:  English as an Additional Language/English for Speakers of Other Languages  Functional Skills (English and Maths)  Students with Learning Difficulties/Disabilities  Behaviour for Learning This may be through observation, team teaching, visits or Inset training. These areas are discussed as part of the course modules and Edge Hill University also hosts conferences to support knowledge in these areas, but there is no substitute for first-hand experience if this can be facilitated

Breadth of Experience  Breadth of experience/employability will be discussed at individual tutorials with Personal Tutors and we strongly encourage you to discuss this at Mentor / Mentee meetings  Personal Tutors will verify engagement with Breadth of Experience when trainees submit their e-portfolios for marking

How do I verify evidence? You and your trainee’s Personal Tutor need to verify certain evidence and this is done in two ways  Through signatures on those forms that require them for example, Observation paperwork, log of hours  Through logging on to your trainee’s e-portfolio and entering your initials and the date in the appropriate column – your trainee will guide you through this process  NB. It is crucial that you only verify evidence in the e-portfolio when you have logged on via the hyperlink sent by the trainee – if you verify evidence when the trainee has logged on, the system will identify this as the trainee verifying their own evidence which cannot be accepted

I don’t have time to do all this!  At first glance it may appear that this is a lot of work, however we will be encouraging trainees to complete their e-portfolio from the earliest days at the university and their engagement with this will form part of the grade for the module. This means that they should be uploading new evidence on a regular basis

 We will also be encouraging trainees to share their progress with you at your regular meetings – you can verify uploaded evidence whenever this is ready, so it should take only moments to complete on-going verification. The only thing that should wait until the end of the placement is the final verification of the teaching hours log  If you have any concerns about your trainee’s e-portfolio and/or verifying the evidence, please ask your trainee’s Personal Tutor who will be happy to support you. It is the trainee’s responsibility to compile and complete their evidence, we are just asking you to confirm that certain parts of the evidence are complete. Thank you