PebblePAD

JISC projects current and future.

The University of Wolverhampton has been successful in attracting funding from the JISC to evaluate how ePortfolios can support transitions between learning episodes and to employment. PebblePad is the main ePortfolio used in this project which involves 3 local colleges, 2 schools and a New Technologies Institute.

More information on the project can be found here.

Other links with the JISC are through our work with the CETIS Special Interest Group developing the UKLeaP specifications for the interoperability of ePortfolio systems.

Projects

Epistle – ePortfolio with Schools and Colleges

This project began in March 2005 and involved 2 schools, 3 colleges and 2 universities working on the integration of eportfolios into the curriculum. The original project ended in March 2006 but was supported through until June 06 by which time it had received continuation funding to support existing users until June 07. The project delivered 4 sets of guidelines and an overall report which can be accessed through the ePISTLE websites at http://www.epistle.wlv.ac.uk and http://asp2.wlv.ac.uk/epistle/

ELP – Enhancing Learner Progression

PebblePad was used by the University of Bradford led 'Enhancing Learner Progression' project; with Leeds Metropolitan and Leeds University. PebblePad was chosen over a leading open-source ePortfolio because of its usability and flexibility for the project's intended audience. Information on the ELP Project is available from here.

LIPID - Linking Pebblepad with SITS

This 6-month project was funded to take an existing piece of software and implement it in a new or innovative environment. The project team used SWEET.net to act as a piece of ‘middleware’ allowing proprietary data to be taken from SITS and then passed to PebblePad using a recognized ‘open standard’ – IMS Enterprise. The team further developed the software to extract module data from SITS and to make it available to tutors administering gateways. Now that data is held in SWEET it is able to be shared with other systems that may require SITS-type data without the need to interface directly with SITS. Further details of the LIPID project can be found on the website at http://www.lipidproject.org.uk.

MELaS – SMS

This project was conducted in collaboration with Ultralab based at Anglia Ruskin University. The purpose of the project was to implement an Application Interface (API) which allowed authorized users to send text messages to students through a PebblePad gateway.

e-APEL

The project addresses a bottleneck in work-based learning which is that Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL) is a labour-intensive and difficult process both for students and the academic staff who operate it. This project will significantly enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of APEL by developing e-learning based services which:

use e-assessment technology to allow potential students to self assess their prior experiential learning and receive an indication of the credit they might be able to claim;
gather additional information from potential students to enable a well informed discussion to take place with an APEL academic advisor;
guide and support applicants in the compiling of their APEL claim using e-portfolio services based on PebblePad.

ePortfolio in Successful HE Admissions (PortisHEad)

Using a case study approach the PortisHEad project will implement an extension of the e-Portfolio Reference Model to enable groups of students from Wolverhampton College and the University of Wolverhampton to use their e-Portfolios to research, prepare and submit Higher Education applications via UCAS, to receive information, advice and guidance (IAG) about their applications from their school or college, to receive feedback from HE admissions staff and to form the starting point for enrolment and induction into an HE institution.

Using the ‘thin e-Portfolio model’, based on Web Services and a Service Oriented Approach, the project aims to put the learner, via the e-Portfolio, at the centre of the HE admissions process.

Flourish: the eCPD Project

Flourish is using PebblePad as part of the eAdministration strand of the Users and Innovation eLearning Programme. Staff at the University of Cumbria will be using Pebblepad for CPD, for appraisals and for courses like the PGCert in HE. Flourish will also be working with bodies like the HEA (Higher Education Academy); SEDA (Staff Educational Development Association), CILIP (Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals) and ALT (Association of Learning Technology) to allow its members to make applications to join or to be accredited by them through eportfolio submissions.