Institution/ Organisation Name:  Thanet College   http://www.thanet.ac.uk/ 

What is unique about this implementation case study

Thanet College is a large Further Education college with 16-18 and adult learners and a wide range of tools are currently used to meet their diverse range of abilities and needs. Use began in 2008 with an e-portfolio for staff accreditation with the Institute for Learning and then pilots began with PebblePad which is now used more widely. Learning Assistant is used for NVQ candidates and In-folio is being piloted for students with learning difficulties/disabilities. In 2010 Mahara was also made available for students to use. The Head of e-Learning has been influential in guiding the implementation and he has been involved in a range of externally funded projects to support this work. Thanet College aspires to be an e-mature learning provider and is regarded as having a well informed and evidenced large-scale e-portfolio implementation  - as such its practice has been the subject of a range of UK publications, workshops and conferences.

e-Portfolio tool:  PebblePad and the PebblePad based REfLECT for staff accredtiation purposes with the Institute for Learning. Two student pilots completed with Pebble (One Advanced Diploma group and one employer-based training).  Trialling In-folio (2010) designed for students with learning difficulties or learning disabilities. A second pilot started with 15 ITQ Business Administration students. Mahara added to College server for student exploration. Learning Assistant used for 150 NVQ candidates with a further 400 added for beauty therapy and work-based business and care students making 4 portfolios used across the College.

Learning Assistant was used for 150 NVQ candidates in Catering and 400 beauty therapy and work-based business and care students followed as a second tranche. This is likely to increase again.

130 current teaching staff have a portfolio, not including those that have now left college.

The remaining current 250 staff were also given a portfolio although take-up in this group has been sporadic.

We piloted in HNC Computer Studies - discontinued in 2010 and a second pilot of 25 students with The Turner Contemporary students - completed March 2011. Currently 15 students are completing two Units of a business and secreatarial course using Pebble which is more successful. 

In-folio portfolios have not been progressed due to a loss of the key staff in the Section and problems having the portfolio operating on another college's servers that did not transpire.

Mahara has been added to the College servers and is accessible from the Intranet and VLE. 430 students have explored with some formal activity emerging, based on social activity. 

PURPOSE:   Personal Development Planning, Continuing Professional Development of Staff, Evaluation of training, preparation for Appraisal, Work based learning, Employability attributes, Assessment, Lifelong Learning.

Organising learners to complete 7 learning outcomes in a shortened course time. Preparing unemployed adults to demonstrate skills for employment at the Turner Contemporary in Margate.

Drawing on the younger minds to see how they encounter e-portfolios.

PROCESSES:    Information capture, Information retrieval, Planning, Feedback, Reflection, Collaboration, Presentation. Course administration, providing a narrative to tie all the activities and outcomes to one place.

DRIVERS: There is a general acceptance that mapping portfolios deliver simple and effective administrative savings and shorten the time taken to achieve. Reflective protfolios are seen as, but not fully understood, nor still fully employed in contributing to the accepted notion of personalised learning. The drives come from teachers who see portfolios as offering a better route for recording, making sense of and presenting learning. The business case for using mapping portfolios makes them easier to implement.

Key words:  Thanet, FE, Further Education, UK, PebblePad, Mahara, In-folio, Learning Assistant, REfLECT, IfL, CPD, PDP, UK, reflective practice, staff appraisal, special needs students, peer-to-peer, accessibility, personal accountability

Brief overview of the organisation and its current e-portfolio use:

The main Thanet College campus overlooks the sea in Broadstairs. The College serves a local area undergoing regeneration and it contains some of the most deprived wards in South East England, which are categorized by high unemployment, low wages and low educational attainment.  Thanet College aims to serve the broad range of needs within the area and offers provision in all subject sector areas. Catering and Hospitality has long been established as a Centre of Vocational Excellence, with an international reputation.   There has been recent growth in demand for Health, Public Services, Care, Hair, Beauty, Tourism and Construction.  Thanet College works in close partnership with schools and the Thanet 14 -19 Consortium, which is often quoted as best practice within the county. The college is very effective in supporting individual learners and students with learning difficulties and disabilities.  In 2009-2010, Thanet College had 1600 16-18 Learners, 3300 Adult Learners and 400 Staff.

All staff have had personal e-portfolio accounts within PebblePad since 2008 although this has been scaled back to teaching staff 

The implementation strategy was developed by the Head of e-Learning within the Improvement and Innovation Team reporting then in 2007 to the Senior management Team, now the Curriculum Leadership Group.  It became part of the e-learning policy that year. Implementation began with staff use and then pilot use with students in different contexts.    This began with use of a PebblePad reflective journal by staff that was aligned with the IfL roll out of Reflect followed in 2008 with a pilot of a reflective e-portfolio by two small groups of users.  A key element of the strategy is the flexibility in choice of tool which meant ensuring functionality matched the context and ongoing evaluation of  tools - this has led  to the use of different tools. For 2010 the mapping portfolio Learning Assistant  is used by most NVQ students, In-folio is being investigated for use by special needs students, PebblePad continues to be used as a reflective portfolio by staff and some students and Mahara is offered as tool through the VLE for 'free' use by any student This use is alongside a tutor led but collaboratively developed ILP or  Personal Learning Plan for all students on all courses using Moodle PLP as part of the College VLE.  

Key factors for successful implementation

• e-Portfolios represent a technology driven by the teachers who need to adjust the curriculum design to accommodate them. The introduction needs senior management support and a budget to provide a first group of e-portfolio accounts
• Induction needs to include an introduction to the portfolio processes and how they should be used. It is important students are happy with their use, the processes and how they fit in or border other technologies like the VLE and texting etc
• Using e-portfolios for anything other than mapping for NVQs requires generous support of tutors who are being asked to make a conceptual change in approach prior to starting
• Working with higher level courses first is a better place to start as students are more likely to be happy to take a share in management of their learning. Younger students have a good grasp of technology for gaming and socialising but less understanding of technology in learning. Many also wish to adopt a passive approach to learning expecting or wanting the tutor to do all the work!  

Lessons learned

• It is necessary to persevere until teachers and students understand how it all works. It is a change of technology that makes much more sense once it is done. The time to do this can be prolonged as it makes sense towards the end when the whole learnng episode comes together. Theoretical constructs beforehand require a good deal of faith in the initiator of the idea
• Managers have some difficulty understanding how the change of approach can improve tried and trusted methods of working with students and employers. There is some reluctance to make changes that have not been proved elsewhere. Early adopters have to have a culture that recognises that is what they are and are comfortable with it
• Mapping e-portfolios take around 20% of the time required for completing an NVQ compared with a paper-based approach
• Mapping e-portfolios are easier to introduce than reflective ones
• The introduction of reflective e-portfolios in FE is slower and harder and is more driven by enthusiasts in colleges

The future

• Financial constraints will influence future developments but e-portfolios are an established and valued aspect of practice within the College and so use will continue. However, in terms of staff use, it is likely that the CPD process promoted by the IfL will be meshed to the staff development process in colleges. PebblePad portfolios will support a Gateway per college allowing all activities to be stored and presented from an e-portfolio and replicated for the IfL purposes
  
• Mapping e-portfolios will continue to grow rapidly and support other courses where there are prescribed learning outcomes against which activities and work can be assessed and mapped
• There will be a full-on rush by awarding bodies to sign up colleges to their own e-portfolio for candidates completing their courses as well as then for other courses. This has started already. The wholly predictable behaviour of candidates and assessors make software design relatively simple
  
• Later the full power of reflective e-portfolios will lead to the development of learning agreements for employees offered training by colleges. e-Portfolios will be brought by learners to other colleges and providers, allowing the capture of all learning from all sources. Training will be seen as shaping the rounded self rather than a discrete activity starting and finishing with the College