The Independent Specialist College e-Portfolio project

In-Folio is the new name for the Independent Specialist College e-Folio which has been produced for Colleges by the Rix Centre, with funding from the Learning & Skills Council (LSC) working with JISC TechDis. The application is the final stages of build and the test colleges are using it to load and store multimedia materials for learners.
In-Folio allows learners to arrange their own images and video clips along with their other materials, documents, drawings and so on. It allows tutors and support colleagues to upload materials which they can allocate to groups and classes. The In-Folio content for each learner will be portable and will enable them to take the content with them when they leave college.

The system was officially launched at the NATSPEC conference. We demonstrated the system in use by taking images, sound and video clips of the conference and then uploaded these during the workshop to show how the system has progressed.
In order to encourage all colleges to take up the opportunities that can be provided by In-Folio, the LSC provided further funding for a programme to encourage its use as the natural place for colleges and learners to place and store digital materials.

A series rollouts took place in July at the following Independent Specialist Colleges; National Centre for Young People with Epilepsy (NCYPE), National Star College, Derwen College, Bridge College, Portland College and Henshaws College. In-Folio is going out to Independent Specialist Colleges with the intention for it to be in full use by September 2009. The Rix Centre is due to continue hosting the system for the next year, with the aim for the system to eventually be hosted by the Colleges themselves. Funding is currently being sought to enable this to happen and also further disseminate the In-Folio system to other Colleges and other sectors.

For the latest updates on In-Folio, see the In-Folio Blog.

For further information on the provision of access to the In-Folio application and for server options please follow the link to The LSC Funding Programme for Independent Specialist Colleges section.

The History of In-Folio

As a result of the bidding process for funding for the LSC Innovation2 funding opportunity facilitated by JISC TechDis a group of colleges identified a need for an application which could take forward work with students, many of whom have learning difficulties. Colleges have been using applications like PowerPoint in a way first identified by the Home Farm Trust in their Life Stories programme to encourage young people to identify and record material about their lives and experience. For many students this process has been a revelation, giving them a sense of their own life and place in the world and giving them a way of explaining who they are and what they can do to people they meet.

Colleges wanted to take this work forward, and add to it by using multimedia information to enhance the experience for students and to make the basis of an effective progression measuring system. Another requirement was to make the student the owner of the information and to enable them to always have the ability to access it and to continue to add to it after they leave college.

There are now four Colleges who have funding to look into producing an application to fill these requirements they are National Star College, NCYPE, Oakwood Court and Portland College. They decided to work together with JISC TechDis to find a system that would suit not only their need but those of other Specialist Colleges as well. To this end a meeting was arranged to discuss the requirement at with other colleges who had shown an interest in using this type of application were also invited. There was agreement at the meeting about what the application would need to do including forming a basis for Colleges to use the multimedia information collected to form the basis of a progression monitoring system. The Colleges have commissioned the Rix Centre, a charity based at the University of East London to be their technical partner and to investigate what is available to fill the requirement and to suggest a way forward. The Rix Centre started work at the beginning of September and produced a report laying out the options in December. The project report looked at the available e-portfolio systems including both commercial and Open Source variants. Almost all of the software seen was too complex and distracting for a large number of users in Independent Specialist Colleges.

The requirements for continuing use after learners have left college at little or no cost and the very large range of abilities that would have to be catered for meant most of the existing applications were unsuitable.

Following a presentation from the Rix Centre it was decided to commission the first stage of an Open Source application meeting the requirement of the colleges involved. The development will be a joint activity at all stages and as each stage is reached the colleges will trial and feedback on the value and utility of what has been produced. The first phase which the group have commissioned The Rix Centre to undertake involves the production of some of the basic modules required based on the existing Elgg Open Source application. This will include design of the prototype interface with a switch access facility, a gallery of images and objects, both assisted and graphical log on mechanisms and models showing the proposed text-to-speech and administration facility.

These are the basic elements in an application that will provide a simple robust application capable of being ‘tuned’ to suit the level of the learners using it. The objective is to have a model based on the ‘loose-leaf binder' approach, able to be set so that it has a variety of folders available to the user or just one. The structure of each installation will be decided by the College to suit their learner’s needs. Learners will be able to add content to their pages by uploading themselves or by choosing from a gallery of materials. Materials, either shared or dedicated, can be uploaded by staff at convenient times. The application will be as accessible as possible with several systems to allow easy logging on and the self-voicing of content and navigation for the learner. The capabilities of the application which can be controlled by the administrator will allow, or not, various types of social interactions and the giving of control of their content to learners.

Further Resources

The Rix Centre
National Star College
NCYPE
Oakwood Court College
Portland College