Quotes form a recent discussion on the ILT Champions (FE) list

Awarding bodies seem to differ in their requirements too - C&G endorse products, OCR have links to different e-portfolio providers but don't seem to endorse them, RCVS don't mention e-portfolios.... OCR have a pre-evaluation checklist, together with a getting started with e-portfolios document on their website. C&G just have a basic page saying what and e-portfolio is, benefits, buying etc....

We've been doing a very small trial with One File with 1 staff member and learner - it seems to have been well-received.

We are now in the process of deciding whether we want to continue with this, or use Moodle as an e-portfolio in it's current form, and see what the e-portfolio module being developed for Moodle through the Open University will be like.

One consideration is that we'd be asking staff and learners to learn another system, while some are more IT literate than others....so would we be better "just" expanding upon their Moodle knowledge instead.

When I spoke informally with a lead verifier, he said he'd be willing to look at any system we came up with and let us know if it was acceptable.....

Yes, it is definitely the year of the e-portfolio. Seems there is not one solution and I don't suppose people expect there to be one; just promising options. The value here is the diversity of what we are all trying and then sharing the results in a few months time. Hopefully BECTA can co-ordinate this strand and the 'players' on a list somewhere to make sure we return to it regularly to update progress. That way we don't all end up doing the same thing or trying too many options, yet sharing and collaborating as we go. We will need some mechanism to report back our findings to this super community....

We have about 6 to 9 months to nail this before students will move us into the next area of e-learning discourse: m-learning (or maybe social learning software sat on servers outside colleges?)....

Is it worth waiting for developments and upgrades from Moodle to provide the portfolio? The moodle Portfolio does not appear to be as functional and would require a lot of admin work to be a success.....

I agree that waiting for a moodle ePortfolio may take a long time as I suspect such tools will meet the purpose of students gathering a portfolio of what they have done, but not necessarily for tracking the complex set of learning outcomes/IV/EV needs that we might expect in FE assessment. That is unless someone takes on the mantle of writing a module with UK FE in mind.

I understand that a planned development for moodle is to allow courses to list learning outcomes and map assessments to those outcomes, but that is a way off yet. That'll help......

We have had ELGG available in Moodle all year, but deliberately didn't give any lead because firstly we didn't know what we wanted from it and secondly, we think it a little too basic to warrant time-and-effort investment at this stage. We are about to trial Pebble pad with teachers first. PP is the other end of the spectrum to ELGG, feature wise. We will look at how we can use these as learners ourselves first. Frankly, I think you have to let teachers make sense of what they want a portfolio to be first before letting students lose with them. ELGG has had very little take up because there was not staff understanding, commitment, buy-in and drive.

10. Good social software will reflect all aspects of humanity, so plan to fix and mend and support content and structure rather than manage-out the possibility of poor use which will lead to sterility.