10 Tips: e-Portfolios for WBL
Derrin
"I believe Work-Based Learning is a creative, expressive candidate-led
process which can be facilitated by a “proper” e-portfolio tool such
as Mahara ( http://mahara.org ).
I am continuously learning how Mahara, Moodle and other Open Source
Technologies can be called upon to improve the delivery of Work-Based
and other Vocational Learning.
These are some tips I have come up with….
Tip 1: Model the NVQ / QCF Process in Mahara. Mahara is excellent for
facilitating and encouraging reflective Work-Based Learning, but
people need to be shown how this is done in order that they may
emulate the process. Show the learners examples of other candidates
using Mahara for their own work-based learning journeys.
Tip 2: Adopt a Candidate-Led Approach with Mahara. It is important
for us to think of Work-Based Learning as a Candidate-Led Process. We
are here to encourage genuine interest in the topics behind the QCF or
NVQ Units…. not just to tick boxes. Mahara encourages learners to
think about and to explore the learning topics.
Tip 3: Use Moodle as well as Mahara to Structure Learning Tasks into
your programme. Moodle is much more than a repository for the files we
used in our training room last week. Moodle is both a Course
Management System (for delivering distance learning) and a Learning
Management System (for recording learner progress and grades online
and offline). A WBL provider can integrate Moodle behind Mahara if
they want to underpin the development of the candidates’ portfolios
with social tasks (online or offline) - where learners work in groups
and pairwork activities to learn new things.
Tip 4: Make those tasks part of a Curriculum. Effective “Social
Constructivist” Trainers seek to sequence learning objectives during
the progression of a work-based learning programme such as an
Apprenticeship.
Tip 5: Facilitate reflection. Too often a WBL learner will describe in
Mahara what they have been doing rather than describe how they have
grown. eg a learner will say: “I painted a wall and got too may
runs” instead of (eg) “Next time I am going to buy better quality
paint, mix it to a different consistency and apply the paint more
thinly. In order to facilitate reflection like this we can easily
provide prompts in our Mahara QCF / NVQ Unit templates such as: What
went Well? / What Went Badly? / What have I learned? / How have I
changed? / Next time I am going to….
Tip 6: Support buddies / partners as well as mentors. WBL providers
traditionally (and should continue to) establish workplace mentors who
monitor the progress of the candidates and interface with the Training
Provider to facilitate and track this Work-Based Growth. But now we
have Mahara as a distance learning tool, we can easily go further than
that. We can set up e-portfolio buddies, working in the same
organisation - or even working for other employers - who can work
together to advise, feedback on and encourage each other along each of
their learning journeys.
Tip 7: Always be seeking to extend the different ways which we can
facilitate and record learning. Let’s continuously focus on and
exemplify the different content types which our learners could use to
populate their work-based e-portfolios. eg
* Reflective Summaries (as a blog or as general text boxes within
a view where they provide evidence for their NVQ Unit)
* Photos of themselves in action in the workplace
* Videos of themselves in action in the wokplace (most will
probably prefer to upload these videos straight into Mahara rather
than put them up for public viewing on the likes of YouTube).
* Reports on experiments (Get learners trying out new approaches
to things in their working contexts and then have them reflect and
report back on how successful they think the experiment was)
* Essays (Okay, okay, this may not sound very WBL-like… but think
about it…. if you can set learners written tasks which urge them to
write about their working tasks you will not only have a context for
evaluating their written literacy, you will also have a context for
intervening on any misunderstandings they hold in order to improve
their workplace efficiency).
* Mind Maps: Get learners to produce and export a mind map as
a .jpeg image produced in eg Freemind. This is nice way to get people
to tell you about various aspects of their jobs. Branch titles could
include: Duties, Responsibilities, Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities, Risks, etc.
* Interviews: Not only recorded professional discussions between
the assessor and the candidate… but what about interviews where the
WBL Learner interviews superiors and colleagues about the aspect of
the NVQ or QCF unit which they are focussing on? As WBL Training
Providers, we are not only in the business of collecting evidence…..
we are also in the business of growing our candidates’ understanding
of their job roles. How else are they going to improve their skills?
WBL is not only about PRACTICE and RECORDING OF ACHIEVEMENT…. it is
also about REFLECTIVE PRACTICE which leads to SKILLS GROWTH
* Reuse files as evidence for different units. The beauty of
Mahara is that it separates out the storage of (personally owned and
fully exportable) files from the submission of evidence for QCF / NVQ
units - which is achieved in Mahara via the submission of
“Views” (probably templated Views) to a Controlled Group led by an
assessor and monitored by verifiers.
Tip 8: Use Mahara to allow Learners to Personalise and Showcase their
own learning, knowledge and skills. Moodle alone is too limited a
platform for effective WBL delivery. Mahara allows a WBL learners to
develop and showcase their skills in a highly personalised way.
Tip 9: Make the point that there is a point. A Portfolio of learning
which someone builds in Mahara can be exported and reused, or even
just exported as a website for future reuse. A learner can use it to
visually highlight their growth and their successes. Too much
evidence collection in WBL seems to go nowhere beyond the
qualification. In Mahara learner is encouraged to see themselves as
gathering evidence of their own learning and skills along their
lifelong learning journey. They can use this learning as RPL for
future courses or, even better, to showcase their skills - with a
simple hyperlink - for a promotion opportunity …or to a potential new
employer.
Tip 10: Do it yourself. Mahara serves as an excellent facility (better
than Moodle) for encouraging Communities of Practice amongst your own
staff. Get (eg) your Mathematics Functional Skills tutors sharing
their ideas, activities and resources with a Mahara Group which
carries your own organisational Branding… and which keeps all this
data safely stored within your own organisational database.
Please get in touch with us at http://TDM.info/contact-us.html
if you want to learn more about how to use Mahara for effective,
forward-looking WBL delivery."