Needs to find a way to work with govt and related agencies or... ?
But that thread has been started elsewhere - here I would like to ask about e-portfolios, which is about to become mandatory in the UK. An e-portfolio is a collection of a pupil's (digital or digitised) acheivements from their entire school life. Having an e-portfolio module seems an easy enough thing to acheive as much of the capabilities are already in Moodle, just not collected together in the right security model or grouping (least not as far as I can tell).
These collections would need to be portable in the way that a course is i.e. pupils moving from school to school would need to be able to take them with them, but they would have to packaged in a way that the portfolio could be easily acquired by another system or even viewed at home (zip file?).
Thoughts?
Chris
Firstly, calm down as e-portfolios are not going to become mandatory! At least not in the short/medium term!
The only time over the next few years when you would need an e-portfolio is if you are doing something like the edexcel vocational gcse or dida. Even then, if you look at the edexcel website, it is hinted that e-portfolio <> website. In fact it is hinted that eportfolio = pdf. Either way, there will be strict requirements which the exam board will produce but they haven't told anyone what there are yet (imagine that!) apart from listing file types (pdf, swf, html ...). It wouldn't surprise me if they brought out there own free system as they are trying to undermine organisations like TT by providing and changing the content. Anyway, more here http://dida.edexcel.org.uk/home/faq-centres/faq-eportfolio/
There is already a portfolio add-on for moodle. If you search the forums you should be able to get it easy enough. That said, I don't know if it will be available for 1.5 and it is not (as far as I know) portable. If you want to get together on developing a portfolio system for moodle then let me know what your budget is as I know of a few people asking about this.
My concerns about portfolios at ks3 are that more time will be spent putting them together and monitoring them than actually teaching the kids something interesting / useful. Also having them publicly available is something I would not want for the little kids.
I read an interesting website recently about the different types of eportfolios but can't find it now
The only time over the next few years when you would need an e-portfolio is if you are doing something like the edexcel vocational gcse or dida. Even then, if you look at the edexcel website, it is hinted that e-portfolio <> website. In fact it is hinted that eportfolio = pdf. Either way, there will be strict requirements which the exam board will produce but they haven't told anyone what there are yet (imagine that!) apart from listing file types (pdf, swf, html ...). It wouldn't surprise me if they brought out there own free system as they are trying to undermine organisations like TT by providing and changing the content. Anyway, more here http://dida.edexcel.org.uk/home/faq-centres/faq-eportfolio/
There is already a portfolio add-on for moodle. If you search the forums you should be able to get it easy enough. That said, I don't know if it will be available for 1.5 and it is not (as far as I know) portable. If you want to get together on developing a portfolio system for moodle then let me know what your budget is as I know of a few people asking about this.
My concerns about portfolios at ks3 are that more time will be spent putting them together and monitoring them than actually teaching the kids something interesting / useful. Also having them publicly available is something I would not want for the little kids.
I read an interesting website recently about the different types of eportfolios but can't find it now
At a seminar on DIDA with Edexcel I was led to believe that ePortfolio for the course CAN mean website. Also they said that a portfolio website created from scratch by the student gave a better indicator of their capability than simply plugging other files into a school or LEA based Content Management System. Of course it also needs to be portable which rules out use of a CMS unless you can package it up.
Hi Chris,
I think proposed development of document management for Moodle may go someway to providing some aspects of the e-portfolio.
Have you had a look at elgg yet? It provides a portfolio, blog and social taxonomy tagging: there's a discussion here.
Elgg's now open source, and if you install a local copy you can, I believe, adjust the rather restrictive 10MB limit on filespace.
I too like the idea of integrating all of this into Moodle, but have been given pause for thought by comments in Derek Morrison's Auricle blog about diverse portfolios of e-tools fit fot their purpose as opposed to monolithic software projects (qv Linux vs Windows!); Derek's ideas are discussed here.
I think proposed development of document management for Moodle may go someway to providing some aspects of the e-portfolio.
Have you had a look at elgg yet? It provides a portfolio, blog and social taxonomy tagging: there's a discussion here.
Elgg's now open source, and if you install a local copy you can, I believe, adjust the rather restrictive 10MB limit on filespace.
I too like the idea of integrating all of this into Moodle, but have been given pause for thought by comments in Derek Morrison's Auricle blog about diverse portfolios of e-tools fit fot their purpose as opposed to monolithic software projects (qv Linux vs Windows!); Derek's ideas are discussed here.
Hi Miles
As you may remember (most recently we were both at Becta's open source seminar), I work in education ICT solutions, and read more new build/refresh tenders than anyone should have to.
I've started two threads recently to try and get people on board with making Moodle compliant with DfES/Becta standards for both altruistic (I like Moodle!) and commercial reasons (I need to get paid).
Tenders coming out now are already asking for e-portfolios, are starting to ask about Shibboleth (well, they ask for Single-Sign On, but they mean Shibboleth!) and will very soon ask, if not in formal tender then in clarification or interview "how well does your VLE offering, Moodle, fit with the new standards?"
I think you're right that we should consider whether Moodle should be extended to cope with storing or managing e-portfolios, but...
I was presenting to a school yesterday that (if we win!) will absolutely become the flagship school for all sorts of developments, including ICT. They are interested in implementing eportfolios as soon as the new building is complete - and have an expectation that part of the e-portfolio will be created automatically i.e. an assignment in their VLE becomes an entry in the e-portfolio once marked.
We can either do this through a Moodle module or by ensuring Moodle complies with the interoperability standards and using another application that equally complies with those standards. I think I prefer the latter, if only because it helps the new open standards have open source support.
Any budding developers among your pupils?
Cheers
Chris
As you may remember (most recently we were both at Becta's open source seminar), I work in education ICT solutions, and read more new build/refresh tenders than anyone should have to.
I've started two threads recently to try and get people on board with making Moodle compliant with DfES/Becta standards for both altruistic (I like Moodle!) and commercial reasons (I need to get paid
).Tenders coming out now are already asking for e-portfolios, are starting to ask about Shibboleth (well, they ask for Single-Sign On, but they mean Shibboleth!) and will very soon ask, if not in formal tender then in clarification or interview "how well does your VLE offering, Moodle, fit with the new standards?"
I think you're right that we should consider whether Moodle should be extended to cope with storing or managing e-portfolios, but...
I was presenting to a school yesterday that (if we win!) will absolutely become the flagship school for all sorts of developments, including ICT. They are interested in implementing eportfolios as soon as the new building is complete - and have an expectation that part of the e-portfolio will be created automatically i.e. an assignment in their VLE becomes an entry in the e-portfolio once marked.
We can either do this through a Moodle module or by ensuring Moodle complies with the interoperability standards and using another application that equally complies with those standards. I think I prefer the latter, if only because it helps the new open standards have open source support.
Any budding developers among your pupils?
Cheers
Chris
Just a quick response - open standards are important, I agree, and we are always improving that. Quite a lot of stuff is in development or starting soon.
One example relating to what you mentioned - Moodle 1.5 supports Shibboleth out of the box.
One example relating to what you mentioned - Moodle 1.5 supports Shibboleth out of the box.
Extremely pleased to hear about the Shibboleth support - should have guessed you'd be on the ball on that one! You may have noticed I dropped off the Moodle radar a little recently (pressures of work 
), so I'm not as in touch as I probably should be.
Will it be easy to add support for the UKeduPerson once it is defined? If not, do you know if a UK based developer is engaging with Becta/JISC on this UK attribute set?
Cheers
Chris
Will it be easy to add support for the UKeduPerson once it is defined? If not, do you know if a UK based developer is engaging with Becta/JISC on this UK attribute set?
Cheers
Chris
Hi Chris,
I share your concerns about Moodle and the e-strategy. At the BECTA seminar, I chatted over lunch with David Hassell (director of research?), about Moodle and the learning platform conformance regime. They're happy for Moodle to be registered and thence included on their list of learning platforms, even if we can't tick all the boxes about 'searching and finding resources using curriculum online metadata' etc.
I've e-mailed Martin off list about this, but I wonder if you'd be interested in working together on the documentation, and perhaps one of us could then act as the point of contact between Moodle and the UK bureaucracy.
Miles.
I share your concerns about Moodle and the e-strategy. At the BECTA seminar, I chatted over lunch with David Hassell (director of research?), about Moodle and the learning platform conformance regime. They're happy for Moodle to be registered and thence included on their list of learning platforms, even if we can't tick all the boxes about 'searching and finding resources using curriculum online metadata' etc.
I've e-mailed Martin off list about this, but I wonder if you'd be interested in working together on the documentation, and perhaps one of us could then act as the point of contact between Moodle and the UK bureaucracy.
Miles.
All help with this would be much appreciated! 
Be extremely glad to work with you on this - would also happily liase with bureaucracy on the subject, particularly as part of my paid job involves liasing with Becta anyway. And my unpaid job in Schoolforge-UK encourages me to keep them close too!
Do you understand who is allowed to submit? The document talks about "providers" i.e. seems to assume an organisation rather than a community. I'll give David a call and get his view.
Cheers
Chris
Do you understand who is allowed to submit? The document talks about "providers" i.e. seems to assume an organisation rather than a community. I'll give David a call and get his view.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Chris,
At the moment, BECTA seem to viewlearning platforms (note,not virtual learning environments - anyone like to comment on the distinction?) in terms of providers and procurement, hence the phrasing in the conformance regime documentation, as well as their latest leaflet on learning platforms.
For open source projects, this model doesn't fit so comfortably, hence some of the paradigm differences that were quite apparent at the BECTA seminar a fortnight ago - they seem happy enough with open source as an alternative to proprietary software, but don't yet think in an open source way, esp. wrt the users!
My conversation with David suggested that for an open source project, they're happy for 'the community' to register its work, although there will be a need for a point of contact.
I did put some notes on this up on schoolforge.org.uk, which might provide a suitable venue for putting together the data BECTA need from us.
In order to fully conform to the present standard (and it's worth saying that BECTA reserve the right to change the requirements), Moodle will need to:
The above is based on a relatively cursory glance at the requirements; I suspect there may be a few surprises in store when we get down to the nitty gritty of filling in the forms.
At the moment, BECTA seem to viewlearning platforms (note,not virtual learning environments - anyone like to comment on the distinction?) in terms of providers and procurement, hence the phrasing in the conformance regime documentation, as well as their latest leaflet on learning platforms.
For open source projects, this model doesn't fit so comfortably, hence some of the paradigm differences that were quite apparent at the BECTA seminar a fortnight ago - they seem happy enough with open source as an alternative to proprietary software, but don't yet think in an open source way, esp. wrt the users!
My conversation with David suggested that for an open source project, they're happy for 'the community' to register its work, although there will be a need for a point of contact.
I did put some notes on this up on schoolforge.org.uk, which might provide a suitable venue for putting together the data BECTA need from us.
In order to fully conform to the present standard (and it's worth saying that BECTA reserve the right to change the requirements), Moodle will need to:
- be able to search and find resources using the aforementioned Curriculum Online Metadata, and
- there may be further issues on the technical specifications of IMS / SCORM interoperability.
The above is based on a relatively cursory glance at the requirements; I suspect there may be a few surprises in store when we get down to the nitty gritty of filling in the forms.
This web event may be useful for metadata models (UK and beyond):
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [LTSC-LOM:] ProLearn LOMI Research Seminars
Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2005 21:04:07 +0200
From: erik duval <erik.duval@CS.KULEUVEN.AC.BE>
This is the "official launch" announcement for and a cordial invitation to
the ProLearn LOMI research seminar series on Learning Objects, Metadata
and Interoperability. The LOMI seminar series is a roughly bi-weekly
research seminar series over flashmeeting (http://www.flashmeeting.com), a
free web based video conferencing service.
The basic intent is to facilitate exchange of opinions, ideas, plans and
results on the overall theme of learning objects, metadata and
interoperability. The intended audience includes PhD. students, their
supervisors, researchers, etc.
The sessions will be quite flexible. A typical scenario would be a brief
introductory presentation, to set the context, 30 minutes of focused
discussion and 30 minutes of more general exchange of news.
We will get started next week. The sessions planned so far are:
3 May, 15:00-16:30 CEST
23 May, 16:00-17:30 CEST
7 June, 15:00-16:30 CEST
21 June, 16:00-17:30 CEST
5 july, 15:00-16:30 CEST
The URL to connect to for the first session next Tuesday is
http://flash.kmi.open.ac.uk:8080/flashmeeting/index.php?code=3fea3f-1034&room=fm1034.
(PLEASE RECONSTRUCT THE URL IF IT IS BROKEN IN DIFFERENT LINES BY YOUR
EMAIL PROGRAM!)
The inaugural session will be concerned mainly with introductions, getting
up and running, expectations, ... Your presence and active contribution
would be very much appreciated! There is no cost involved.
If you plan to "attend", then please send me a brief note, so that we can
prepare some of the logistics.
VERY much looking forward to this opportunity to work together and "get
better at getting better" as a research community!
--Erik Duval
http://www.cs.kuleuven.be/~erikd
--
Phil Barker Learning Technology Adviser
ICBL, School of Mathematics and Computer Science
Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, EH14 4AS
Tel: work - 0131 451 3278 home - 0131 221 1352
Web: http://www.icbl.hw.ac.uk/~philb/
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [LTSC-LOM:] ProLearn LOMI Research Seminars
Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2005 21:04:07 +0200
From: erik duval <erik.duval@CS.KULEUVEN.AC.BE>
This is the "official launch" announcement for and a cordial invitation to
the ProLearn LOMI research seminar series on Learning Objects, Metadata
and Interoperability. The LOMI seminar series is a roughly bi-weekly
research seminar series over flashmeeting (http://www.flashmeeting.com), a
free web based video conferencing service.
The basic intent is to facilitate exchange of opinions, ideas, plans and
results on the overall theme of learning objects, metadata and
interoperability. The intended audience includes PhD. students, their
supervisors, researchers, etc.
The sessions will be quite flexible. A typical scenario would be a brief
introductory presentation, to set the context, 30 minutes of focused
discussion and 30 minutes of more general exchange of news.
We will get started next week. The sessions planned so far are:
3 May, 15:00-16:30 CEST
23 May, 16:00-17:30 CEST
7 June, 15:00-16:30 CEST
21 June, 16:00-17:30 CEST
5 july, 15:00-16:30 CEST
The URL to connect to for the first session next Tuesday is
http://flash.kmi.open.ac.uk:8080/flashmeeting/index.php?code=3fea3f-1034&room=fm1034.
(PLEASE RECONSTRUCT THE URL IF IT IS BROKEN IN DIFFERENT LINES BY YOUR
EMAIL PROGRAM!)
The inaugural session will be concerned mainly with introductions, getting
up and running, expectations, ... Your presence and active contribution
would be very much appreciated! There is no cost involved.
If you plan to "attend", then please send me a brief note, so that we can
prepare some of the logistics.
VERY much looking forward to this opportunity to work together and "get
better at getting better" as a research community!
--Erik Duval
http://www.cs.kuleuven.be/~erikd
--
Phil Barker Learning Technology Adviser
ICBL, School of Mathematics and Computer Science
Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, EH14 4AS
Tel: work - 0131 451 3278 home - 0131 221 1352
Web: http://www.icbl.hw.ac.uk/~philb/
I have installed the latest version of Elgg on www.eteach.org.uk . Some updates, including a table for the database, were required. Early days yet, but this looks a promising venture by Elgg developers.....
Is it easy to get around ...
Elgg must be installed on the root of a domain - for example,
at http://elgg.net/, as opposed to http://elgg.net/subdirectory/.
As this could be a problem !!!
and Stephen Knowles has been talking about this recently as well.
They sound good. However, they will drive students crazy, trying to learn all those different interfaces. Image if you have 4 courses per semester with 4 teachers all using a different collection of diverse tools, you'd spend most of your time learning how to use the tools! And then next semester, 4 more teachers, etc.
The big advantage of a 'monolithic' system is a reasonbly consistent interface so the studetnts don't have to spend more time learning to use the tools than learning the material.
IMO this is where Moodle shines: reasonably consistent interface with low barriers to customizating existing components and/or new component building.
I just don't think these 'diverse portfolios of etools' will work well in practice, unless every instructor at an institution uses the same 'diverse portfolio', or the tools of the portfolio share a consistent interface. In which case you could now call that set a 'monolith'
.
They sound good. However, they will drive students crazy, trying to learn all those different interfaces. Image if you have 4 courses per semester with 4 teachers all using a different collection of diverse tools, you'd spend most of your time learning how to use the tools! And then next semester, 4 more teachers, etc.
The big advantage of a 'monolithic' system is a reasonbly consistent interface so the studetnts don't have to spend more time learning to use the tools than learning the material.
IMO this is where Moodle shines: reasonably consistent interface with low barriers to customizating existing components and/or new component building.
I just don't think these 'diverse portfolios of etools' will work well in practice, unless every instructor at an institution uses the same 'diverse portfolio', or the tools of the portfolio share a consistent interface. In which case you could now call that set a 'monolith'
Some development on an e-portfolio module for Moodle is (hopefully) about to commence.
This is part of a JISC project that I have been working on with Goldsmiths College.
Early days yet, but I'll you posted.
Sean K Beardie
This is part of a JISC project that I have been working on with Goldsmiths College.
Early days yet, but I'll you posted.
Sean K Beardie
May have a school prepared to commit resource (possibly even money!) to adding this functionality to Moodle - separately may have some developer resource to put on this in the summer.
Cheers
Chris
Cheers
Chris
We work on a simple one.
Hi, let us know your intended approach. We're (NZOSVLE project) also interested in e-portfolio functionality and may be able to help out.
cheers
Richard
Would this be a good time to spin off an e-portfolio module forum?
Cheers
Chris
Cheers
Chris
Well, perhaps once we have something, but this is not an official moodle.org/com project.
Sean K
Sean K
Not sure what the intended approach is overall, but here's a few thoughts (based on the UK government view)...
The portfolio must be portable, able to move from site to site with the student, rather than be hosted in one place for all time; the development of "portfolio object model" would be a good start to promote this. At a guess XML is the right basis, but we would need the right metadata and DTD to ensure it could cope with all the information/resources that an individual might want to store over their lifetime. This would include electronic entries for all qualifications, essays, graphics etc., as well as individual learning plans and ??
There probably should be an element of automation whereever possible i.e. test results, submissions to VLEs, ILPs etc. all transfer into the portfolio without user intervention - this should reduce the time it takes for maintenance and help the portfolio be a record of learning rather than a distraction from learning.
In the UK we need to ensure we engage with related agencies, not least for the potential of funding for research and development. In my idealistic moments I would want to see collaboration internationally on the development, looking for a Shibboleth type approach, where the resulting open standard has an open source implementation to ensure true openness.
Comments??
The portfolio must be portable, able to move from site to site with the student, rather than be hosted in one place for all time; the development of "portfolio object model" would be a good start to promote this. At a guess XML is the right basis, but we would need the right metadata and DTD to ensure it could cope with all the information/resources that an individual might want to store over their lifetime. This would include electronic entries for all qualifications, essays, graphics etc., as well as individual learning plans and ??
There probably should be an element of automation whereever possible i.e. test results, submissions to VLEs, ILPs etc. all transfer into the portfolio without user intervention - this should reduce the time it takes for maintenance and help the portfolio be a record of learning rather than a distraction from learning.
In the UK we need to ensure we engage with related agencies, not least for the potential of funding for research and development. In my idealistic moments I would want to see collaboration internationally on the development, looking for a Shibboleth type approach, where the resulting open standard has an open source implementation to ensure true openness.
Comments??
Hi Chris,
A lot of the work you're talking about is being done by a combined IMS/CETIS collaboration (see http://www.cetis.ac.uk/content2/20041102005853 for a news release titled "IMS releases ePortfolio spec" )
What do you think?
Mark
A lot of the work you're talking about is being done by a combined IMS/CETIS collaboration (see http://www.cetis.ac.uk/content2/20041102005853 for a news release titled "IMS releases ePortfolio spec" )
What do you think?
Mark
It appears there is work in progress - question is whether the IMS/CETIS standards as being followed by OSPI:
http://www.theospi.org/
will fit UK schools needs/interests. Anyone played with this properly e.g. with students? Seems a tad closed in attitude e.g. not cross platform in its outlook (instructions for webdav only for Windows and Mac, for instance), and it broke when I looked at the demo!
Next big question is will it comply with the interoperability framework for data interchange or is that going to form part of a varient e-portfolio standard?
Would seem at first glance that it wouldn't be easy to integrate into Moodle, unless we can just get them talking and focus on similar look and feel.
Last thought on OSPI - can you see 6 year olds using the interface?
http://www.theospi.org/
will fit UK schools needs/interests. Anyone played with this properly e.g. with students? Seems a tad closed in attitude e.g. not cross platform in its outlook (instructions for webdav only for Windows and Mac, for instance), and it broke when I looked at the demo!
Next big question is will it comply with the interoperability framework for data interchange or is that going to form part of a varient e-portfolio standard?
Would seem at first glance that it wouldn't be easy to integrate into Moodle, unless we can just get them talking and focus on similar look and feel.
Last thought on OSPI - can you see 6 year olds using the interface?
One of my Doubts about the ePortfolio movement is that it tries to cure the disease of bad educational coaching.
Having the refined system of Moodle with all its monitor and (self)reflection tools and a good teacher, I wonder what is left for ePortfolio:
Major types according IMS:
- Assessment ePortfolio's: (Moodle has more assessment variation to offer, including Lesson, eWiki, exercise, workshop and Rubrics schemes)
- Presentation ePortfolio's: (Missing in Moodle)
- Learning ePortfolio's: (Moodle has more visual planning support to offer in the concrete course formats: weeks, topic, social and soon: project)
- Personal Development ePortfolio's: (Journal function? + my files?+ old William's Bookmarks for ToDo's + eWiki + missing Dashboard page)
- Multiple Owner ePortfolio's: (My files & weblink block and/or eWiki?)
- Working ePortfolio's (again: personal Dashboard needed, to integrate the actions and the results of the others)
And all this in one system, so I agree strongly with Michael Penney. The only flaw is that it must be possible to export it one day in an standard exchange format (IMS)
Hi Ger
You are quite right, I think.
I have my hope into the new Blog module, sheduled to 1.6 (this summer??)
I see it as a key addition to Presentation/working-development portfolios. With that, and a kind of subtasks (a la LD), what would be not possible within Moodle?
- Enrique -
You are quite right, I think.
I have my hope into the new Blog module, sheduled to 1.6 (this summer??)
I see it as a key addition to Presentation/working-development portfolios. With that, and a kind of subtasks (a la LD), what would be not possible within Moodle?
- Enrique -
The 'disease' is not with teaching, but with a shift of emphasis from teaching to technology. As far as I am aware the e-portfolio movement has not been driven by teachers, and I am certainly not aware of any consultation/discussion with teachers relating to the use/relevance and applications of these new 'initiatives' . Far greater than technological flaws is the human factor flaw .....