in-folio blog

185 users, 181 student accounts, 15 groups, 273 assets and counting!  Yes, they are the stats for the first 30 days of Portland College’s In-Folio usage.  It’s been quite a month really and so I thought it might be useful to fill you in on what we’ve done so far and then hopefully get some feedback on what you have been up to too.

Training:

In September I delivered a total of eight hours’ training with, I’m guessing, over 40 members of staff taking part.  The sessions ranged from large introductory sessions with fifteen/twenty participants through to 1:1 guidance and in-class support.

In all cases I’ve covered the basics - what in-Folio is, potential uses, the benefits of compiling an eFolio as opposed to a paper-based Record of Achievement etc.  On top of that, we’ve looked at how to create an eFolio including the uploading of media, creating and editing tabs, pages and blocks.

Fingers crossed, but all seems to have gone well so far.  I mentioned this at the roll-out event back in July, but I still find that taking a physical file (complete with file dividers and pages) in with me and relating the dividers to the eFolio’s tabs etc helps people understand what they are tying to create.

Uses:

It’s obviously early days, and so we’re not yet seeing much content beyond learners adding their photos and statements to the ‘About Me’ page.  The staff are keen to take things forward though, and so we are currently sharing ideas on how we use this across the Learning and Skills Department.  At the initial training back on September 1st I told staff that they could have a few weeks to experiement and then we would get back together again and discuss how to take things forward.  That discussion was yesterday and it was interesting to hear the range of opinions on how staff felt the eFolios could (and should) be set out.

I’ve been keen to stress that In-Folio represents a great example of personalised learning, and that learners should be encouraged to set theirs out as they wish; likewise in terms of changing the colour of their eFolios, opting to use a picture-based login etc.  I used this argument when playing devil’s advocate to those who wanted a standardised system for their learners.  However, as eFolios are a totally new concept not only for our learners but also for our staff, many did feel that templates would be useful initially to help users understand the concept of what they were building and why.  I could see the logic in this too, and so created a set of exemplar templates and assigned these to colleagues’ (learner) accounts.

The outcome of the meeting yesterday was exactly what I’d expected (and secretly hoped for!) - namely that there is no one way of setting out an eFolio, and moreover nor should there be.  From an institutional perspective I appreciate that there is certain information that we would like all learners to record, but how they present it is totally down to the individual.

So how is In-Folio being used at Portland then?  Well, every learner within the Learning and Skills Department has an account set up.  That’s over 120.  Tutors are currently using their Review and Transition sessions to support learners in adding content, with the initial focus on their ‘About Me’ statements and also on a new tab entitled ‘Personal Profile’ which has pages relating to ten or so separate areas (likes, dislikes, important people, learning styles etc), all of which were previously covered by their Transition Passports.

It also seems that some tutors are setting up tabs for each college year, with pages for each subject.  Others have set up tabs for subjects with pages for individual aspects within that.  For example, you could have a tab for AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) and then pages representing specific AAC-related skills, such as maintaining eye contact, switching skills etc.  I’m sure that once the initial information has been added we will see the real developments in terms of layouts, but that’s where we’re up to at the moment.

Finally on the design side, a colleague told me today that one learner has decided to create a ‘Home’ tab.  His parents are very proactive in encouraging him to work on things outside of college time, and so he’s going to use this tab, with the support from his parents, to upload files relating to the things he does when he’s not at Portland.  That way, when he comes back after a holiday or weekend away, he can show various people what he’s been up to.  It’s a simple idea, but I really like it.

Admin:

Right now I’m the only active administrator within the college, although that should change in the coming days.  I have started to talk briefly about the admin side of things to a couple of colleagues and, in preparation for them coming on board, I’ve started to create groups for colleagues’ tutor groups or groups of learners they have for specific sessions.  This has been extremely beneficial when assigning tab templates (relating to specific subject areas) to large numbers of learners.  The admin interface is very easy to use, and it should save a lot of time in the long run.

General:

Obviously In-Folio is a fantastic way of allowing learners to collect, organise and show multimedia evidence.  The one thing to remember with all this is that it increases the expectation on staff in terms of them having to support learners in getting this evidence in the first place.  We coincided the In-Folio roll-out with giving all tutors a new Flip Mino video camera.  It’s not rocket science, but if you’re expecting people to collate quality evidence then you have to support them and give them the means to do so.

In addition to the Flips, all trainees have had the opportunity to take copies of the Rix handouts relating to using digital cameras, Audacity and also the information sheet on the benfits of using multimedia with people with learning disabilities.  With these resources and ongoing support I’m sure that our learners’ eFolios will soon be filling up nicely.

And I suppose that’s pretty much where we are right now.  I’m not too sure what October will bring yet, but my money’s on loads more groups being created and a few more administrators coming on board.  Oh, and I can see some training sessions on tagging evidence in ‘My collection’ being needed too.

I’d be really interested to hear how other organisations are getting on, so please post your comments on here and share the good practice!

Thanks,

Matt