Exploring issues around e- portfolios

ICEBREAKER Find a partner – someone new to you! You have 2 minutes to swap ideas about what the term ‘Personal development planning’ means to you. When the whistle blows, move on to your next partner.

CONTEXT Report of the National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education (Dearing, 1997) QAA accepted recommendations and set lead in time of 5 years (2005/06 start date) for institutions. HEFCE (2005) Strategy for e-learning Leitch Report (2006) Partnership between the government, employer and individual Burgess group final report (2007) (HEAR) QAA review – Progress File Implementation Group

What does PDP mean? Definition: “structured and supported processes to develop the capacity of individuals to reflect on their own learning and achievement, and to plan for their own personal and educational and career development.” (QAA 2001)

“e-portfolios are simply evidence- based stories.” (Sutherland, 2007) What stories do we want our learners to tell? How will these stories be used? What skills do the story tellers need?

Purposes of e-pdp and e-portfolio in UK HE practice (Strivens, 2007) To implement PDP 29 To support formal learning/learning to learn 26 To support overall development (including personal and career areas, and experience/learning from less formal contexts) 30 To support formative assessment 22 To provide an assessment management tool, for formal summative assessment 17 To create a presentational portfolio/showcasing for progression 24 To support transition between different learning environments (into and from the institution) 19 To support CPD for staff 15

Students are not just users but authors of the system! How can we enable them to create ‘profoundly interconnected expressions of their learning’ and become ‘effective digital communicators’ (Kimball, 2005)