Newham College of Further Education  http://www.newham.ac.uk 

What is distinctive about this implementation case study

 Newham College of Further Education has over 15,000 full-time and part-time students and is based in East London. Implementation though recent is for all students and the e-portfolio supports progression and employability skills (PES). Full time students have access to computers and centrally supported through study coaches during one hour timetabled sessions and induction into using e-portfolios is part of an introduction to study skills. The main use is in CV development but use for assessment purposes is emerging.

e-Portfolio tool:  Mahara

PURPOSE:   Transition from the institution, Employability, Lifelong Learning

PROCESSES:  Information capture, Information retrieval, Planning, Reflection, Presentation 

DRIVERS:  Institutional, students

Key words:  Newham, FE, Further Education, UK, Mahara, Online Evidence, Progression, Employment, PES course, Study Coaches, Learning Centres

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

Newham College of Further Education has over 15,000 full-time and part-time students and is located in the vibrant and very diverse London borough of Newham. In 2009 the College was graded ‘Outstanding' by Ofsted, emphasising its innovative and inclusive curriculum. The College's vision is to have a highly robust and user-friendly virtual learning environment to enhance the learners' experience with a ‘one-stop-shop' for all their resources, and to add a new dimension to its teaching and learning.

The history of use of e-portfolios 

The need for a system that would support progression and employability skills (PES) was the impetus for Newham College to take a closer look at Mahara, an open source e-portfolio, which was part of our Moodle VLE hosting contract. For the first year of this contract the focus had been on getting the VLE embedded; now faced with the challenge to prepare for the online PES programme within just six weeks, our attention turned to the e-portfolios. As students would be using the e-portfolios during an hour long timetabled session within one of the Learning Centres, an induction in using e-portfolios was created and delivered as part of the students' overall induction to Supported Independent Study.

Whilst support and direction of use are given, the e-portfolio is very much owned by the learner, who decides who has access to their space once it is developed. Learners are very happy to have support from the Learning Centre team of Study Coaches, who work closely with the students to ensure challenges are resolved and learners are fully aware of all functionalities of Mahara.

What are they used for and by whom? (Numbers of users would be helpful) 

e-Portfolios are used by full-time learners during their timetabled Supported Independent Study (SIS) session, (approximately 4300). The session is used to support learners in using ILCT to develop both their IT as well as functional skills, e-portfolios are used to build an online CV, used to promote the students skills and track development.  At present the e-portfolios are mainly being used as a CV development tool but some areas within the College are using it as part of student assessment.

Any evaluations completed/any evidence of value  

Study coaches support the PES programme and get ongoing feedback on student issues, which are discussed at the weekly meetings with the Head of Centre. Surveys and focus groups are ongoing. 

Key factors for successful implementation

Presented e-portfolios within a structured guided learning platform, learners were initially directed but once they became familiar with the tool, guidance was flexible and encouraged individualisation. Support was ongoing to encourage use and learners were provided support as requested - created videos to upload, digitisation of certificates, etc.

Lessons learned

e-Portfolios have been a positive addition to the ILCT tools offered to learners, can be very time consuming in support provision for staff who are involved, however time invested is worthwhile in view of learner satisfaction and work produced. 

The future

Further exploration of e-portfolio especially looking to use as an assesment tool.