JISC Brief Progress Report Template Project Document Cover Sheet Project Acronym Project Title eppsme Project Information An e-portfolio based Pedagogy for SMEs Start Date April 2009 End Date March 2011 Lead Institution Project Director Project Manager & contact details Partner Institutions Project Web URL Programme Name (and number) Programme Manager Co-ordinator of Work-based Learning Institute for Learning Enhancement MI001, Wulfruna Street, WOLVERHAMPTON WV1 1LY None http://www.wlv.ac.uk/eppsme JISC Institutional Innovation Programme Ruth Drysdale Document Title Reporting Period Mar 2010 Sept 2010 Author(s) & project role Document Name Project Interim Progress Report eppsme 2010 09 26.doc Project Manager Date 26 th Sept 2010 Filenames n/a (see this file) URL www.wlv.ac.uk/eppsme Access Project and JISC internal General dissemination Document History Version Date Comments Page 1
Progress Report Template Project Name Project Website Report compiled by An e-portfolio based Pedagogy for SMEs (eppsme) www.wlv.ac.uk/eppsme Reporting period March 2010 - September 2010 Section One: Summary The primary work on the project is complete; it is on budget and has met all key programme dates. The third of the three retreats was held in June 2010 and the processes and guidelines have been finalised. Three pilot units have been completed and the learning from each unit has informed the research for and development of the subsequent pilot units. A fourth pilot is due to complete in early December 2010, feedback and evaluation from this will be included in the final report. Evaluation interviews with those involved in the project, employers, learners and University staff have been completed during August and September. Findings from the project have been disseminated at a number of conferences and JISC events and two papers have been submitted to peer reviewed publications. The project team and seven partners submitted a successful bid for a Benefits Realisation Project to develop an e-portfolio pedagogies community of practice (epcop) which will run until end March 2011. Section Two: Activities and Progress Activities and progress since last interim report in March 2010 are shown. Work package 1: Project Management Two Steering Group meetings have been held in the project period (18 th May and 21 st Sept). The JISC Programme Manager and the SSBR Link Manager attended the meeting on 21 st Sept. All reports to date submitted to JISC by deadlines. Work package 2: Baseline review This package was completed in June 2009. Work package 3: SIG A workshop at an e-portfolio conference in spring 2010 identified interest in a community of practice and this led to the SSBR bid. The eppsme project will work in parallel with the epcop project to identify existing networks and whether or not the needs of an e-portfolio pedagogies group can be best met through these or a new group. Work package 4: Retreat 1 This package was completed in October 2009. Work package 5: Retreat 2 Event evaluation and the associated action plan were presented to the Steering Group in May 2010 and used to inform project developments and Retreat 3 (see below). Draft guidelines were finalised and a risk analysis collated and reviewed at Retreat 3 (see below). This package was completed in May 2010. Page 2
Work package 6: Retreat 3 The event was held on Monday 21 st June 2010. The draft continuation strategy was presented, discussed and agreed. The provisional risk analysis developed at, and following, Retreat 2 was reviewed. Best practice guidelines were finalised and outputs presented via the project web-folio. The external evaluator attended the event and collated feedback from the attendees which was presented, with the action plan, to the Steering Group meeting in Sept 2010. Work package 7: Documentation Project website and project blog continue to be updated with relevant events and materials The e-portfolio has been used for internal distribution and sharing of templates and draft documentation, meeting minutes etc. Progress reports submitted to JISC by deadlines set Project deliverables to be published in a webfolio; link to be provided to JISC Programme Manager. Work package 8: Quality Assurance Ongoing overview and input to activities, process developments, reporting and evaluations. Work package 9: Reporting Data gathering and report writing ongoing; all critical deadlines have been met. Work package 10: Dissemination All abstracts submitted have been accepted. Presentations on work in progress have been made to: JISC Conference (London); CEPPL (Plymouth), WBL Futures 4 (Middlesex), CRA/NARN (Nottingham), Pebble Learning (Shropshire), International Conference on Professional Vocational and Workplace learning (Cyprus), UALL WBL Network (Teesside), ALT-C (Nottingham). Papers submitted to two peer reviewed publications, awaiting feedback from reviewers. A workshop will be delivered at the Festival of Assemblies, October 2010, to link with the work on the SSBR epcop project. A Have-a-Go workshop has been accepted for the JISC Innovating e-learning conference in November 2010. A narrated walk-through of a learning web-folio will be available alongside an interactive demonstration web-folio. Blog and project website updated with relevant activities, events and progress. Project deliverables webfolio is being finalised; URL will be published in early Oct 2010. Work package 11: Evaluation Evaluation of Retreats 2 and 3 are completed and action plans have been published. Interviews have been conducted with a range of project participants and will be evaluated in October 2010. Section Three: Institutional & Project Partner Issues No issues to report. Noted that this project has involved a range of support departments within the university including Registry, IT Services, Learning Information Services and the Quality and Academic Standards Division. New processes and procedures for on-line student registration, module and unit validation and learning pedagogy have required innovative approaches and work-around solutions to software applications and procedures that have been developed for different student needs. Issues have arisen at various stages throughout the project but these have been successfully resolved at each stage. Section Four: Outputs and Deliverables All stated milestones/deliverables are complete, to date. Page 3
Section Five: Outcomes and Lessons Learned Lessons Learned: The importance of a whole systems approach to introducing a new pedagogy and the need to involve senior management from all key departments. There are many potential solutions but usually customisation in needed to meet all stakeholder requirements. Action research is an appropriate approach and allows the change to be designed, adapted and implemented in a step-by-step way. Throughout the design and development identify where blockages occur and design a solution for each blockage as it occurs. Section Six: Evaluation The project is being evaluated at each key event e.g. Retreats 1, 2 and 3, at mid-point and end of each pilot. Evaluation reports are reviewed and action plans prepared to implement any changes / adaptations needed. End of pilot evaluation interviews have been conducted in August / September 2010; the summary findings will be report in the project webfolio and relevant information fed into the pedagogy and the next interim / final report. Section Seven: Dissemination See Section two, work package 10. Section Eight: Issues and Challenges No significant issues or challenges. Project is on plan and target to achieve outputs within agreed budget. Section Nine: Collaboration and Support We have attended a number of events and have identified links with other projects in the LLLWD phase. We continue to liaise with the other projects as our work develops and we are now managing a BR project, epcop to develop some of the links identified. We have recently provided summary information about our project to UWIC, following a request from their Project Officer. Page 4
Section Ten: Financial Statement Total Grant 142,406 Duration of project Reporting Sep 2009 - Mar 2010 Period Budget Headings Total budget Further information allocated Expenditure this reporting period Total expenditure to date Staff 72,430 24,097 63,597 Travel & Subsistence 800 300 700 2 years (to final report deadline) Equipment 2,000 500 2,000 All expenditure complete Dissemination activities 10,000 7,050 8,850 Evaluation activities 5,000 2,400 4,500 Other (please specify) 0 0 0 Retreats 10,000 4,000 10,000 All activities complete Estates 5,393 2,154 4,854 Based on completion Dec 2010 Indirect costs 36,783 14,605 33,105 Based on completion Dec 2010 Total 142,406 55,106 127,606 Checklist: Before you return this report: Ensure that your project webpage on the JISC site is up to date and contains the correct information. Attach details of any required amendments to this report. Project webpages can be found from: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/projects.aspx - No changes needed If there have been any changes to the original project plan and/or work packages, ensure that amended copies of the relevant sections of your project plan are attached to this report. No changes needed Page 5