E-Portfolios in the UK: recent work of the JISC

Formerly known as the Joint Information Systems Committee and now simply as Jisc, this body has been in the forefront of developing approaches to e-portfolio practice in the UK.  Some of their key recent work is summarised here.

In 2012, Jisc launched a wiki-based e-Portfolio Implementation Toolkit, developed by the University of Nottingham, which is freely available for use. The Toolkit has been designed to assist managers and practitioners considering large-scale e-portfolio implementation in a range of contexts, and includes 18 written case studies, five video Stories of e-Portfolio Implementation, and guidance drawn from the experiences of the participating institutions.

The key messages from these resources are synthesised in a short publication, Crossing the threshold: Moving e-portfolios into the mainstream (Jisc 2012). The publication, aimed at managers and practitioners involved in implementing e-portfolios in further and higher education, outlines the key stages of a large-scale implementation and, using evidence from the e-Portfolio Implementation Toolkit and video case studies, provides an overview of what has been learnt from the two studies.

Effective Practice with e-Portfolios Guide (Jisc 2008), introduces e-portfolios, and investigates the concept of ‘e-portfolio-based learning’ from different perspectives – those of the learner, the practitioner, the institution, a professional body and a potential audience, summarising key points of guidance in each case. The guide was developed in tandem with the online e-Portfolios infoKit, and is a further source of e-portfolio guidance. It provides the main drivers, purposes, processes, perspectives and issues around e-portfolio use.

A series of introductory workshops on ‘How can e-portfolios support 21^st century learning?’ were developed and are continuing to run around these resources. See here for details of earlier workshops, with access to workshop materials.

Jisc have also played a leading role in the development of the Leap2A e-portfolio interoperability specification. See the Leap2A site, article and briefing paper for further information.