Overview

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Publications

Business Processes

Ionode

Learner
Records

Evaluation
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Details

Learner Records

The approach to learner records was originally specified in terms of a transcript (formal record of qualifications) and personal development planning (spanning a rather wider range of recordable events, experiences, skills or capabilities). 

In June 2002, the Standards team met to agree the underlying philosophy and broad structure of the transcript. The specification was considered by the University Quality and Standards Committee, who recommended changing the terminology to that of a 'record of achievement' in view of the legal status of the existing University transcript, indicating that the learner record would at best sit in parallel with existing records.

Early in 2003, with work on the learner record specification now complete, the focus then shifted towards designing a specification of a multi-institutional personal development record (PDR).  It was decided to split this work into two parts, effectively dividing the PDR into a) a record of skills and competencies, and b) a record addressing the personal reflective elements of the PDR. In May 2003, the team decided to adopt the Skills and Competencies framework of the DfES/QCA.  However, it became quickly apparent that very little information on skills and competencies was currently recorded electronically, and this was to provide a significant hurdle to the project.

A range of IT based approaches to recording these skills and competencies were considered by the standards team during the Summer of 2003, with a view to developing a learner record portal.  As part of developing this portal, a qualitative research brief was developed and used as the basis for a series of focus groups held across the consortium, sampling views from participants at school to postgraduates.  The results of this study were fed back to the project team to inform the development of the portal, and the findings formed the basis of a conference publication titled: Personalised records of lifelong learning in the UK: What do our learners want?

The development of the learner record portal was contracted to ICO³, who worked in conjunction with Phosphorix to develop an interface to the learner records database. The delays in technical development meant that the portal was developed later in the project than originally intended.  Furthermore, difficulties in obtaining agreement across the project consortium in respect of the PDR meant that the learner record portal was limited to providing records of achievement at this stage. Very few PDP systems were in use within the consortium at that time, with the project partners taking a relatively diverse view of data. 

To see the learner record portal in action, take a look at the SHELL Project Video (Windows Media, 15Mb). Screenshots are also available on this website, showing you user views of:

• registration for access to the learner record portal (JPG 170Kb)

• a summary of their records (JPG 170Kb)

• the facility to print or download selected records from the portal (JPG 100Kb)

Project Website managed by Jon Yorke