These notes, taken during the course of filming for the Thanet College video case study, provide a further insight into the implementation strategies outlined in the Toolkit case study.

 

Geoff Rebbeck, e-Learning Manager

Technology has moved on from meeting the needs of many towards meeting the needs of one. The personal learning journey is now key to learning – that is why e-portfolios or personal learning spaces really matter. A personal learning space is not just a technology, more a change in the way we think and is therefore wholly new and demanding, but profound learning is possible as a result.

 

Three things have happened to drive this approach:

• Technology is more refined and capable of supporting individual learning

• Reflection is more valued as a method of learning

• Use of the internet is now normative practice among the Web 2.0 generation

 

These drivers have provided an opportunity to change the way we teach.

 

How we implemented e-portfolios

• In 2007, we took PebblePad into the college and shared it with 120-odd teachers, gave each one a personal account to capture what they normally recorded for their annual appraisal.

• I worked first with colleagues using e-portfolios for reflection on their teaching practice then took the concept to senior management once a critical mass of users had started to form. Our use of e-portfolios for continuing professional development (CPD) coincided with the Institute for Learning’s Reflect initiative which also helped to raise awareness among the staff.

• Early adopters tend to come on board quickly but you will find that you have to ‘go for it’ to persuade others. e-Portfolios bring about a change in behaviour that you either ‘get’ or you don’t. There was a group here who ‘got it’ quickly, a group who simply didn’t and a group who took time to think about it. It was a long, arduous journey.

• There is no doubt using a personal learning space is enhanced by sharing and co-mentoring. This also helps to develop a critical mass of users.

 

We use 5 types of e-portfolio for different purposes so although PebblePad is a very important tool it is not the only one used at Thanet College. The range includes:

 

• Reflective personal learning spaces – for this, PebblePad is the chosen tool

• Mapping portfolios – standalone tools that map evidence to competences on NVQ courses, Learning Assistant for example

• Social networking tools – Facebook and Mahara are used here used to create a community of college-goers, to establish what it means to be a learner at Thanet College

• In-Folio – a visual / auditory e-portfolio for learners with learning difficulties and disabilities

• Bespoke tools used in certain vocational areas

 

This means there is no one e-portfolio that is standard across the college. I don’t think you can have the words standard and personal in the same sentence. It is the teaching and learning that must drive the tools you use, not the technology.

 

Implementation challenges

It is difficult to implement so many different products; you have to restrict access to some extent but you should never shut out what someone finds useful. When someone says the technology is ‘clunky’ that means the software is not aligned to that user’s needs. We need to start with the user’s needs. That does mean the technology used at Thanet College is splintering – I don’t actually know all the platforms that are used here for learning, and I would be worried if I did. We don’t control how students learn. They can bring in their own technology now and use what suits them.

 

The change in behaviour I was asking my colleagues to adopt was monstrous. e-Portfolios are not something simple like VLEs. This asked for a change in behaviour, a change in the way of thinking, a change in the ownership of learning and the management of a learning journey, also the accountability for that learning.

 

There are support risks to this. But you have to remember the stable point is good teaching and learning. You should not see technology as the central controlling force. Students can disengage if a technology is forced on them and what works for one may not work for another. So our approach to infrastructure is like this:

 

• Wi-Fi in each room to support learners’ use of their own software and hardware

• Moodle as a central VLE

• Choice of software

• Constant chatter on text, via e-portfolios, email, podcasts etc

 

Selling e-portfolios to staff

We forget when introducing something new to tell people what they no longer have to do. Don’t make it sound as if you are doing this on top of...Stress that you can explore more interesting and easier ways of working.

 

We can take the familiar and give it a technological spin – for example, you are used to talking to students so now you can podcast. Thus you take the familiar and put it into technology and when you sell it that way you find teachers can move into it easily. A lot of teachers are in fact very comfortable with technology because they use it in their private lives. Now they just need to see how they can apply it to teaching and learning. However, people need confidence in the seller. Explain things in language they understand and tell them how it will make learning easier. Emphasise the benefits such as:

• Improves our working life

• Enables independent learning

• Helps learners take control of their learning and account for their progress

• Supports more profound forms of learning

 

Student perspective

Students don’t always get e-portfolio-based learning immediately. They need to understand that they are not presenting their learning to you but recording the journey of their learning for themselves.

 

Staff may get contacted in the evening – the classroom is no longer the critical place for learning. But I have found a sense of reasonableness prevails. We have to learn not to let the tail wag the dog.

 

Benefits for students

• Greater efficiency as, for example, in NVQ mapping portfolios in which learners can demonstrate multiple competences with one video

• Learners take charge of their own learning and learn to account for themselves.

• They create a magnificent resource that can be used for different purposes

• In the process, they also create a holistic picture of themselves which can capture ‘accidental learning’. An e-portfolio helps present ‘the rounded self’ to different audiences

• Learners no longer take away just a qualification, they can now make statements about themselves to the world

• There is huge potential to change how the college works with employers and trainers

 

Does it always work? If not, why not?

We experienced failure with a local employer which had really bought into the concept of supporting its workforce to develop their wider selves by means of e-portfolios. But the staff needed to see first what the finished product looked like, and this didn’t happen. You have to make sure that teachers ‘get it’ first if you want students to succeed with e-portfolios.

 

Tools and systems

Software written for a purpose may not match every individual’s needs. PebblePad is an exceptionally good tool for reflective learning. Mahara is less questioning of the student so we use it to enable students to develop a communal identity.

 

I have concentrated on introducing colleagues to technologies that I think are of value to teaching and learning, but I never shut out something a teacher finds useful. As a consequence, a college such as this one will have 20, 30 or possibly even 40 different pieces of software supporting different situations. There is a splintering of technology going on… and that doesn’t include what the students bring in. Ten years ago we hosted and controlled the technology in use in the college. Now we don’t, but it does not matter as long as the teaching and learning remain good.

 

VLEs in relations to e-portfolio tools

e-Portfolios are technology working at an individual level. Learners can take away their work, it’s owned by them. When we described what we wanted learners to be able to take with them, we found that what we were describing was an e-portfolio. When we described what the college needed to know about each learner, we were describing an individual learning plan (ILP). Boundaries are difficult to define between VLEs and e-portfolios but this is one example of the difference: e-portfolios are what learners value and take with them, an ILP is what the college needs to know about the learner and thus stays in the college on the VLE.

 

Key points for wide scale implementation

• Engage teachers with e-portfolios by demonstrating their value as a reflective tool for CPD

• Introduce the concept to students where it is familiar/natural – the term ‘portfolio’ may already be understood in some curriculum areas

• Prepare staff for a complete change of behaviour as they take this leap of faith

• Gain support from senior management and ensure you have an evangelist

 

Paul Manning, Chef Tutor and Head of Improvement

My experience

• I used my e-portfolio to gain evidence for my QTLS and to complete an ITQ in Accessible IT Practice. I found that the network of friends and colleagues that formed through the online course gave me support, for example in the collaborative work for the ITQ. You could share thoughts with each other via the e-portfolio (PebblePad).

• I have since used PebblePad to reflect on training and teaching observations across the college and collaboratively with other staff to prepare for a presentation.

• But I also wanted to make learning opportunities better for my students. So I have used e-portfolios to create small communities of learners who have greater flexibility over when and where they work. Younger students are used to technology, it’s natural for them.

• We also use a mapping portfolio in catering which has enabled learners to demonstrate more easily and more rapidly the standard they have achieved – for example by means of videos uploaded into the e-portfolio tool (Learning Assistant)

 

Changes in practice

e-Portfolios have streamlined my practice. I am a paper-free person now. The flexibility of e-portfolios broadens your horizons.

 

We have trialled Learning Assistant on our NVQ catering courses, then took the plunge and introduced e-portfolios onto all level 3 courses. This enables students to use video and audio as evidence of their competences – much more valuable when making the transition into employment. Students can now show employers what they can do.

 

My students use their phones to capture evidence of what they have done and then upload it into their portfolios. This has really helped progression among lower achieving students who are more likely to complete as a result of recording and presenting their competences through efficient use of multimedia. This summer, we finished the course 6 weeks earlier because students didn’t have to find bits of evidence at the end to assemble into paper-based portfolios.

 

I think it is important to keep up with the skills students bring with them in the use of technology. It’s the way we should be going. Students can keep evidence as they go along and access it flexibly. It’s also real evidence. We are now assessing our students in a more real way.

 

The future

Hair and Beauty are now adopting mapping portfolios. There will be 500 of these portfolios in use across the college. Eventually all NVQ students will use one.

 

Key messages

It’s essential that managers teach. I lead by example and actually use e-portfolios myself so I have to demonstrate to staff that I can teach this way. Using e-portfolios myself first was helpful. It’s the best way to gain an understanding of what can be achieved with e-portfolios.

 

Nick Holbrook-Sutcliffe, Head of Division Business, Arts, Science and Education

Starting out

I struggled at the beginning on the ITQ course. I discussed this with Geoff and we decided the IT was getting in the way and this was causing me to fall behind the other staff taking the ITQ in Accessible IT Practice.

 

But through the ITQ course I was introduced to Posterous, a blogging tool. Blogging is more natural to me and using that tool suddenly I was able to catch up. I could use PebblePad as the main e-portfolio but link from there to the work I had created on Posterous. e-Portfolios are an opportunity to think in a different way and reinvent the way we deliver education. The tool you use doesn’t matter as much as the process.

 

Changes in practice

I would say there are two key benefits. I am creating work that is accessible to more students; I can track what they are doing and intervene when I need to. Students are also more in control of their work. I stand back and watch them doing it.

 

It’s great for me to keep in constant touch with what students are doing. For example, I can set them targets and put them in touch with other students who might help them. This has been particularly valuable for dyslexic adult students. However, the accessibility benefits I have discovered by accident by using e-portfolios as a teaching and learning tool.

 

Student support needs

Some students have found the technology scary. I presumed they all knew about blogging but this was a false assumption. I teach a range of ages. Also a large number of students do not have access to IT at home. You have to be aware of those who would be disadvantaged.

 

But students do get going. Once they overcame their fears, work started to flood in and learning is continuous across the summer. It doesn’t stop when term ends. Students do need to know that the infrastructure will support their needs. It’s our job to provide them with an infrastructure that works and training on how to use the tools. One of the first things I teach them is how to log in.

 

We are building up an infrastructure that will support access in a range of ways. WiFi in every classroom, for example, so that students can access their work on their own devices. Developments must be able to occur organically. I am giving students a tool, but they need to know it’s not the only one. As professionals, we have to keep abreast of what’s new.

 

Encouraging staff

The more managers use e-portfolios, the more staff will see how they work. We also have improvement days. We are also putting in the infrastructure so it’s impossible to ignore the technology.

 

If you are going to do innovative things with IT, your infrastructure has to support it. The way we are doing it is to enable students to bring in their own smartphone or iPad. It sounds quite easy but it has cost us £250,000 and a lot of time to make that happen.

 

Key messages

e-Portfolios increase the fun in learning. They increase the ease of learning but also have a clear impact on retention. On my course, this rose from 84% to 90%.

 

As a teacher you can keep an immediate track of where your students are and set targets accordingly. You can do this for one student, a group of students or a whole class. And then when you meet in class, the lesson starts perfectly. Everyone knows where they should be.

 

e-Portfolios can support remote learning, but face-to-face contact to me is still very important.

 

Sara Reeves, Programme Area Manager, Business Administration and Tourism

I have used e-portfolios in a number of ways:

• As part of a reflective process for continuing professional development (CPD)

• I undertook an ITQ in Accessible IT Practice which was delivered via PebblePad

• As an ILT Champion, I have helped train staff in using PebblePad.

 

Benefits

PebblePad is user friendly and easy to pick up, navigation self-explanatory. Students have found it easy, perhaps easier than staff.

 

It has changed my practice. On a module on a level 3 course in business administration, students have to show knowledge of software and evaluate it. They aim to become personal assistants and so will be team leaders who need to take people forward. Using an e-portfolio route to evaluate and reflect on what they find shows students taking full ownership of their work. I became their facilitator and guide, changing the way I delivered the course as a tutor. It’s changed the way I assess work as well. Students upload their evidence which is a more user-friendly way of assessing what they have done.

 

Students can also gain from peer assessment; they move further forward as a result of reflecting on each other’s work and by giving each other feedback. It is great to watch them start from the beginning, personalise their portfolios and see how they take them further. It was a quick learning process for these students. They felt comfortable straightaway and were proud of their work, proud of being the first to try out e-portfolios for this purpose. It was nice for them to move away from paper. Their e-portfolios were available from any location, it was more flexible.

 

It’s not just about a qualification. An e-portfolio is a product that can be taken outside the educational world – for example, as a CV for employers. Students can now say to employers ‘Read about me and my aspirations’. They aren’t just creating a document; they are getting the benefit of reflection on the processes behind creating that document, and from obtaining and giving feedback to peers. You watch their understanding develop. You feel connected to their work. I would be happy to take e-portfolios into other units.

 

Paula Stroud, Lecturer in ICT, Business and Administration

Starting out

I have used an e-portfolio for two purposes:

• ITQ in Accessible IT Practice short course

• CPD

I drew on the support and experience of other staff in the ITQ; there was a lot of collaborative group work and we helped each other.

 

How did it work out?

I have now had experience of two e-portfolio tools: Mahara with my level 1 students and PebblePad for my own CPD. We have always had CPD but there had never been a formal way we could log and reflect on the professional development we have undertaken. No one had to use the e-portfolio option initially but I found I liked the reflective aspect of PebblePad. You can see your journey develop and track how far you have come. I could also share aspects of my e-portfolio with my line manager in the annual one-on-one review. This helped to reduce the time I spent in preparation.

 

Now using an e-portfolio is automatic for me. And it’s had a big impact on my teaching. I would like to introduce e-portfolios further into my teaching as they help me do my job better. I work on dispersed sites and it’s easier if I can access/share e-portfolio-based work with people on other sites.

As I teach on short courses, there is less time to get to know students and break down barriers. e-Portfolios help unify groups.

 

I now encourage students to use e-portfolios. It helps them become more reflective and enables them to see the learning journeys they are on. It is also a means of extending courses into online delivery.

 

Challenges

The ethos [behind reflective e-portfolios] is one of sharing. Implementation can fall down if students dislike sharing. Setting up use of e-portfolios can also take time. You have to demonstrate the benefits to students but that really isn’t any different to working with paper-based portfolios.

 

Undertaking a course in PebblePad

You have time issues as a teacher and I began the course at a particularly busy time of year. I envisaged it to be like an NVQ, lots of collecting evidence, but in fact it became an integral part of my CPD. When I first heard about it, if I am honest I thought it would be an awful lot of hard work but having completed the qualification I now appreciate how much work an e-portfolio reduces. I liked the fact that I could reflect and then go back and check that reflection and see how you had come. I could also access my work from any location and could share it with colleagues, which was really useful.

 

What excites you about e-portfolios?

Accessibility, flexibility, establishing reflection before learners are even aware they are doing it. Not every learner enjoys pen and paper or learning in the classroom. Now there are more options available. I am disabled with muscular dystrophy and I have found the efficiency of e-portfolio use and the ability to access my work online very helpful.

 

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