Training organisations gather a lot of data about their learners and are custodians of very valuable information, including learner results.

In recent work to support the key VET E-portfolio Roadmap goal of ‘Verification’ and ‘enable electronic verification of educational attainment data, membership of professional associations or trade/occupational licensing information’, the E-portfolios business activity produced the ‘Verifying VET Learner Attainment Data Positioning Paper‘.  The positioning paper describes the verification needs of third party users or ‘consumers’ of VET learner information such employers, professional associations and occupational licensing boards etc.  The paper also highlights that by giving learners online access to their training results learners have more streamlined opportunities to transition between training and employment, such as:

• gain RPL (recognition of prior learning)
• getting a job
• gaining an occupational licence
• gaining membership of a professionalassociation and/or
• gaining entry to another course (via a tertiary admissions centre) etc.

At the moment, the Ministerial Council for Tertiary Education and Employment (MCTEE) are overseeing the National VET Data Strategy.  The National VET Data Strategy aims to “expand the breadth and depth of national VET data and to improve its collection, storage and accessibility.  The Strategy also aims to improve the timeliness, accuracy, effectiveness and relevance of the VET data collections.”

The National VET Data Strategy Action Group have been charged with managing this process and is made up of representatives from the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR), the South Australian, Victorian, Queensland and Western Australian governments, and the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER), and is broken into eight sections:

• Protocols for Data Sharing
• Data Management Practices & Processes
• Total VET Activity
• Enhancing Survey Data
• Unique Student Identifier
• VET Data Portal
• VET Finance Data
• VET in Schools

Of particular interest to the E-portfolios business activity is the Unique Student Identifier (USI) for Australia’s VET System Consultation Paper. A USI is a number or combination of numbers and letters which are allocated to all learners to “track students as they progress through education and training (and to) further support a seamless schooling, VET and higher education experience for students” (pg 1).

The USI Consultation Paper discusses a ‘National Qualification Register’ as a central repository of student achievement. The ‘Verifying VET Learner Attainment Data Positioning Paper’, released four months before the USI paper, contains the concept of a “Learner Record System” or LRS which could act as an independent repository of VET learner information, including how a LRS could interconnect to an individual’s e-portfolio. This amended version of the LRS diagram indicates how the suggested National Qualification Register could be an LRS.

In the Rationale for a USI for the VET sector within the Consultation paper there is reference to improving the capability of learners to “access their academic achievement information and empower them to use that information to advance in further training, skills recognition and employment opportunities” as was detailed in the ‘Verifying VET Learner Attainment Data Positioning Paper’. The USI paper also mentions that “this expectation will potentially be met through parallel development of ‘e-portfolio’ products that are anticipated to be created in tandem with the development of the national VET Data Portal Project“, and that “e-portfolios are successfully used to foster skills development and lifelong learning, support workers facing redundancy, track continuing professional development and support articulation of training opportunities” (pg 4).  The USI paper also states that “an Australian-wide USI for VET students (could) become the ‘enabler’ for ‘e-portfolio applications”.

These are all very encouraging words for the continued uptake of e-portfolio in the VET sector.

Current consultations with VET Regulators and Managers of Learner Information by the E-portfolios business activity for the ‘Accessing VET Learner Attainment Data‘ research is highlighting that any consideration of improving the collection of VET learner data should also take into consideration the learner and the use of appropriate data and storage standards for learner access.  This research aims to determine the willingness and ability of registered training organisations (RTOs) to offer their learners electronic access to their results, together with determining VET learners’ opinions on whether they would care for this type of access.  Hence, this research is very timely and a final paper is due out early in 2011.

Anyone interested in learning more about this ‘Verification’ work can contact the E-portfolios Business Manager, Allison Miller, either on (+61) 08 8207 8872 or Allison.Miller@flexiblelarning.net.au.

Although consultation for the USI paper has closed, it is still available at http://www.training.com.au/Documents/Unique+Student+Identifier+consultation+paper-+July+2010.pdf

The E-portfolios business activity aims to establish an understanding of the standards requirements to enable e-portfolios to effectively support learner transitions. The E-portfolios business activity undertakes a range of activities to achieve this aim, including action-based research such as the E-portfolios Implementation Trials (EIT).

As in 2009, this year the E-portfolios business activity has made available seed funding to three vocational education and training (VET) organisations to implement an e-portfolio system to support learner transitions.  These trials support the VET E-portfolio Roadmap’s key goals of Embedding and Transitions.  Successful trial participants will also trial the draft VET E-portfolios Privacy Draft Guidelines to provide feedback on the usability of these draft Guidelines, and help develop resources to support learner privacy in an e-portfolio environment.

Learner transitions in the VET sector means:

• transitioning into VET - through RPL (recognition of prior learning) or meeting minimum entry requirements (MER) or help individuals re-identify themselves as learners
• transitioning through VET - by supporting workplace training and assessment, fasttracking of qualifications or improving the chance of course completions or
• transitioning out of VET - into further education, employment, promotion or self employment

Growing interest in the use of e-portfolios is evident in the variety applications received (20) for this year’s EIT’s, including:

• RTO types - Public RTOs (15), Private RTOs (3), Community/ Other (2)
• Qualification levels - Cert I & Adv Diploma (1), Cert II & Other (2), Cert IV (4), Cert III & Diploma (5)
• Industry Areas/Learner Groups - Artists (1), Bakery (1), Bus Admin (1), Childcare (1), Education Support (1), Farmers (1), Hairdressing (1), Homeless (1), Hospitality (2), Indigenous (2),  Lab Technicians (1), Nursing (3), TAA (1), Trades (1), VCAL (2)
• E-portfolio Systems - Mahara (14), Pebblepad (2), Others: Sharepoint E-portfolio, vumi, in house, Skills book (1)

The three successful VET training organisations were:

• Centre for Adult Education (CAE), Victoria - e-Pathways: This trial will investigate the positive impact that e-portfolios can have on the personal development of disengaged and at-risk young people. Using the Mahara e-portfolio system, learners will create and maintain an e-portfolio to record and monitor their progress in achieving personal and academic goals.
• Polytechnic West, Western Australia - Mahara and regional RPL: This trial will investigate the potential of a Mahara e-portfolio system as a RPL (recognition of prior learning) tool for regional and remote laboratory technicians undertaking a Certificate IV in Laboratory Techniques.  The introduction of an e-portfolio system will help trainees provide evidence of competency and skills they have gained through on-the-job training, helping them to up-skill to either a diploma (Diploma in Laboratory Technology) or a university degree (Bachelor of Science in Laboratory Medicine).
• Royal District Nursing Service, South Australia - E-portfolios for nursing: In this trial, Diploma of Nursing students will use the PebblePad e-portfolio system to compile and present evidence to support a range of course and professional competencies, including those required by the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Council.  The use of an e-portfolio system is expected to overcome complexity in integrating, applying and translating evidence of competencies required under both course and professional frameworks and to meet increased regulatory requirements around learning evidence.

To date, all three teams have completed their project plans, participated in an online induction, and have started their trials.

To learn more about these trials, including the final reports and resources from the 2009 EITs, go to: http://www.flexiblelearning.net.au/content/e-portfolios-funding

This blog post is based on a 2009 Ascilite Paper by Gordon Joyes, Lisa Gray and Elizabeth Hartnell-Young entitled: “Effective practice with e-portfolios: How can the UK experience inform practice?”, and reinforces the key themes and findings from the 2009 E-portfolios Implementation Trials

JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) is a UK based organisation which supports colleges and universities in the use of digital learning technologies.  JISC has sponsored a range of e-portfolio projects over the past few years as a growing interest in lifelong, learner-centred and personalised learning emerged through the UK’s Personal Development Planning (PDP) policy in 2005-06, as well as through a growing interest in the notion that the “process of learning can be as important as the end product” (JISC, 2008)

These JISC sponsored projects have identified that implementing an e-portfolio is a particularly complex process, which requires implementers to work through and understand five key ‘threshold concepts’.

Joyes et al (2009) describe a threshold concept as an idea which is central to the mastery of a subject or skill. This underpinning knowledge is required to make the practical outcomes possible and tries to overcome some of the common misconceptions about implementing an e-portfolio into a learning process.

‘Five Threshold Concepts for E-portfolio Implementation’ include

1. Defining the purpose for using an e-portfolio - there is no clear or global definition of what an e-portfolio is or can be used for, so learning organisations need to scope the purpose or reason for using an e-portfolio. Skills learned in using an e-portfolio in one learning setting may not offer transferable skills to other e-portfolio uses/purposes ie an e-portfolio used for reflection may not provide a learner with the skills needed to develop a presentation e-portfolio. And unfortunately not one e-portfolio system is suitable for all learning context (even across the one learning organisation).
2. Designing learning activities which incorporate the e-portfolio - e-portfolios need to be integrated into the learning activities of a course or subject, and they should not be seen as a separate unrelated activity.  Learners need to understand the connection between their e-portfolio, their learning activities and what is it for them (ie the instrinsic value such as career planning, achieving professional competencies etc).
3. Both technical and pedagogical support is required - learners will need inducting into any new e-learning space, including e-portfolios and they will also need support developing the skills on how to be effective reflective thinkers or how to present themselves online for a variety of audiences.  While educators and mentors will need similar upskilling especially in the use of a variety of digital technologies, as well as in areas of sharing what is a ‘picture of competence’ looks like to their learners, providing effective feedback and feedforward, as well as developing self and peer assessment activities.
4. E-portfolio processes and outcomes are OWNED by the learner - this will encourage consideration of the portability of a learner’s e-portfolio and encourage the use of a range of digital devices to capture evidences eg mp3 recorders, digital cameras.  However, this does not mean that an individual will need to use the same e-portfolio system for life.  However, they should be able to ‘export/import’ or link their data from a range of sources and systems.  It should also be recognised that learners prefer to use their own technologies eg camera, video and audio functionalities on their mobile phones, but will need support to understand the privacy and intellectual property of others when capturing evidence in a workplace situation and what good ‘evidence’ looks like.
5. E-portfolios will create distruptions to existing teaching, learning and workplace practices - adopting an e-portfolio process requires a ‘paradigm’ shift by educators and administrators in the way learning organisations manage learning and e-portfolios can not be viewed as the ‘holy grail’ to cost-effective online learning.  The adoption of an e-portfolio takes a lot of time to plan, implement, trial and evaluate, and can not simply replace a portfolio approach to learning and assessment.  Human Resource departments, recruitment agencies and employers will need to be ‘educated’ about the benefits of e-portfolios for their selection and performance management processes, and not all learning organisations are quite ready to accept an e-portfolio as part of their admissions process. And, unfortunately, not everyone has access to the internet or devices to use an e-portfolio.

Joyes et al (2009) recognise that technological, pedagogical, institutional, lifelong and lifewide learning perspectives need to be taken into consideration during an e-portfolio implementation. A good understanding of e-portfolios is best experienced through small implementations and trials using an Action/Project-based Learning approach, as the ‘mastery of a threshold concept often involves messy journeys back, forth and across conceptual terrain” (Cousins, 2006) and “e-portfolio implementation can be like a game of snakes and ladders, where initial rapid progress can suffer major setbacks due to poor understanding of the nature of e-portfolios ie lack of understanding of the threshold concepts” (Joyes et al, 2009).  While involving all stakeholders is important during all stages of the implementation process, this does add to the complexity of an e-portfolio implementation.

As a personal online space which can help us manage our ‘life streams’ and ‘learning streams’, defining what an e-portfolio is tricky, as their purpose can be endless.  Developing a common understanding and language which focuses on the e-portfolio practice (and not the tools) is also important during the implementation process.  And like any good educator knows, you can’t teach or instruct others until you have mastered the skills and knowledge yourself, so adopting an e-portfolio approach to your own professional development is paramount - as you can’t teach someone how to drive if you have never driven yourself.

Other articles related to this topic include:

• Evaluating e-portfolio software
• Criteria to consider when selecting an e-portfolio
• What e-portfolio tool should I use?

In 2009, a new core unit was introduced into the new South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE) called ‘Personal Learning Plan‘ (PLP).  This Stage 1 subject is “designed to help students make decisions about their personal development, education and training.”

To support the teaching and learning in the PLP subject, the SACE Board decided to introduce the Studywiz e-portfolio system, to allow students to “gather and store evidence of their learning, while being able to refine and add to their body of evidence during their SACE studies. The tool also allows teachers to deliver the Personal Learning Plan in a contemporary way for students, with the flexibility to access their work anywhere, anytime.”

Currently there are around 60 South Australian (SA) Secondary schools using an e-portfolio with their students for the PLP subject, with 40 more schools’ staff trained and ready to go, and an additional 40 schools will start in 2nd semester 2010 and 2011.

Paul Heinrich, Project Manager for the roll out of the SACE PLP e-portfolio system says the key messages from the introduction of an e-portfolio includes:

• the introduction of the e-portfolio system has been a change management process which is offering teachers a 21st century approach to teaching and learning for the new millennium
• the most successful use of the e-portfolio for PLP is when the subject is NOT taught as an ‘ICT Subject’ where students are shown how to use the e-portfolio system, but when the class time is used to teach the skills of PLP, and the students access their e-portfolio outside of class time either at lunchtime or at home
• teachers using this facilitated approach recognise that this does take some getting used to at the start but after looking back over a semester of doing it this way they wonder how they ever did it the traditional way
• this highlights that the teacher need not be the expert in using technology anymore, as the students already have the ICT skills to use the e-portfolio

Paul notes that the PLP e-portfolio won’t be able to do everything that everyone wants, including being a ’social networking tool’, but this is about formal learning and we have ‘Facebook, etc.’ for socialising online.

The PLP E-portfolio is free to all SA Secondary Schools whether they are in the public, catholic or independent sectors.  This system has the capacity for up to 100,000 users. In the first semester of 2010 usage was approximately 2000 students and 400 teachers.

Although students can not continue to use their PLP e-portfolio after leaving secondary school, they are able to ‘export’ their work as a ’snapshot’ of their senior secondary schooling.

This blog post was written with the kind input from Paul Heinrich, Senior Consultant, Intec Group
Email: Paul.Heinrich@intecgroup.com.au
Website: www.intecgroup.com.au

This is an article written by one of the Australian Flexible Learning Framework’s Brand Management team, after attending a ‘Create your own e-portfolio’ workshop with Allison Miller, the E-portfolios Business Manager.

Never used an e-portfolio before? Want to get started but aren’t sure how?

The Australian Flexible Learning Framework’s (Framework) E-portfolios Business Manager, Allison Miller visited Brisbane in June to conduct a workshop for vocational education and training (VET) practitioners – so as an e-portfolios amateur, I went along to find out.

My knowledge of e-portfolios was limited. I knew e-portfolios were an online repository, holding digital information demonstrating a person’s experience, achievements and evidence of learning. And when used as an online repository, e-portfolios can streamline the transition between education, training and the workplace by capturing evidence of a learner’s skills and experience.

But what does this mean in practice and how do e-portfolios achieve this?

During Allison’s workshop I discovered that e-portfolios are a great driver for professional development, especially within the VET sector. We explored how using e-portfolios in this capacity allows employees to gauge their progress and identify future goals; while employers can review progress, provide feedback and plan/set goals for their employee’s future development.

To demonstrate how this is achieved, Allison led the group through setting up our own e-portfolio using VETSA E-portfolio*. VETSA E-portfolio is a secure online environment (only accessible by approval) set up by the South Australian Framework team to help support the uptake of e-portfolios in VET.

Setting up your e-portfolio profile involves:

- uploading your CV and cover letter
- sharing your personal, professional and career goals
- including personal, academic and work skills
- establishing networks with ‘friends’ and ‘groups’ (like Facebook)

I was also able to synchronise my personal blog to my profile using the external RSS tool. This functionality is a great example of how e-portfolios allow you to demonstrate your skills and experience in a practical, real-world way. If you don’t have an external blog of your own, you can always use the internal blog application within your e-portfolio.

As someone who had never seen an e-portfolio before, I was encouraged by how intuitive the system was to use. The level of help content available on the VETSA E-portfolio homepage provided ample guidance and the extensive privacy customisation provided peace of mind.

Allison also gave examples of organisations using e-portfolios to promote professional development and assist in the RPL (recognition of prior learning) process. In particular, Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is leading the field in embedding e-portfolios. QUT has developed an Australian ePortfolio Toolkit for stakeholders including academics, institution employees and learners to maximise learning outcomes and encourage professional development. (Please note that vocational education and training (VET) versions of these concept brochures are available from the E-portfolios Resource Bank)

Allison’s workshop showed me that e-portfolios really do encourage a holistic view of learning and experience in terms of academic attributes and employable skills. For learners, the connection between what has been learned and how they have learned it becomes clearer; while teachers are able to gain a unique insight into their learner’s progress, allowing individualised academic advice and guidance.

Visit Allison’s e-portfolio profile to learn more. If you are interested in trialling an e-portfolio profile you can register in the top right hand corner.
* Teachers and trainers are encouraged to trial VETSA E-Portfolios for free with small groups of learners (<20).

The following blog post is adapted from an AAEEBL press release.

The worldwide Association for Authentic, Experiential and Evidence-­Based Learning (www.aaeebl.org) is holding a major international ePortfolios  conference in Boston, USA, on 19-22 July, 2010.

The conference theme – ePortfolios and the Emergent Learning Ecology – brings together  world renowned ePortfolio leaders from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Finland, and  Australia, including the Australian Flexible Learning Framework’s E-portfolios Business Manager, Allison  Miller as a ‘featured speaker’.

ePortfolios are vitally important to learning in today’s learning landscape because they provide a means for students/learners to be mobile and lifelong learners. The ePortfolio is therefore a critical tool
 for the transition of education from last century to this century’s very different learning environment.

ePortfolios allow students to store their work in a permanent online repository which allows them to collectand organise their work, selectively present their
 work (as in a resume or for a result in a course), set permissions as to who can see the work, and to continually integrate their work over time through comments and reflections, thereby developing meta-cognitive abilities.

This AAEBBL conference celebrates the coming-of-age of the ePortfolio movement as more than half o
f all American colleges and universities use ePortfolios in one way or another, and many K-12 school systems are also adopting ePortfolio practices appropriate for those ages.

The reason why this conference
 is so important is that ePortfolios provide a permanent learning space for students of all ages, providing continuity from course to course, from institution to institution, and from one degree to the next and on to periodic professional development or workforce development activities throughout life. The technology is a revolutionary technology that has gained major traction around the world as a way to learn in this century.

The 
conference
 will 
provide 
95 
presentation showing
 the
 many
 ways 
that 
ePortfolios 
are
 used
 from
 early
 childhood 
to
 graduate
 school,
 from vocational training to digital story-telling, and from course portfolios to institutional assessment management systems.

Terrel Rhodes, Vice President for Quality, Curriculum and Assessment at the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) said of this conference: “ePortfolio technologies help colleges and universities re-organise their curriculum for this century. At this world conference, AAC&U’s VALUE  project, which produced prototype rubrics for higher education that were just released, will be featured. We’re delighted to be a part of this important new conference.”

“From Rutgers University to Brooklyn College to Connecticut’s Norwalk Community College, our Making Connections campuses are very excited about this conference,” said Dr. Bret Eynon, a founder of the multi campus Making Connections programs and Dean at LaGuardia Community College, who will be the key note speaker at the ePortfolios Australia Conference 2010.  “Our 32 Making Connections campuses have been learning from LaGuardia’s ePortfolio successful experience and, increasingly, from each other’s pilot projects. Now they can learn from ePortfolio innovators from around the world.”

The keynotes include: internationally known “Grandmother of ePortfolios”,  Helen Barrett; Director of Georgetown University’s Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship; Assistant Provost, Randy Bass; The Kellogg W Hunt Professor of English at  Florida State University and co-director of the Inter/National Center for Electronic Portfolio Research, Kathleen Yancey.

AAEEBL is a year old association that emerged from the existing world ePortfolio community. It is funded by institutional memberships and by corporate affiliates.  AAEEBL is a non-profit organisation with a Board of Directors and By-Laws. AAEEBL’s goal is to help educators and institutions make the transition to a portfolio-based learning paradigm, while also helping to expand the market.

For more information contanct Trent Batson, AAEEBL Executive Director, trentbatson@mac.co

Being able to electronically verify learner information, such as educational qualifications, has the potential to help streamline employment applications, course admissions and RPL (recognition of prior learning) processes.

The ‘Verifying VET Learner Attainment Data‘ 2010 positioning paper is the latest release from the E-portfolios business activity to support the VET E-portfolio Roadmap key goal - “Verification - to enable verification of educational attainment data, memberships of professional associations or trade/occupational licensing information‘.

This paper discusses the different types of learner verification services available and their applicability to the VET sector.

The paper is also based on widespread consultation with employer groups, industry groups, occupational licencing organisations, unions, recruitment agencies, tertiary admission centres and professional associations, named as ‘information consumers’ in the paper.  It highlights the verification needs of these ‘information consumers’ of VET learner attainment data or student results.

The paper also contains use cases highlighting the benefits and issues of electronically verifying learner information.

Work into electronically accessing VET learner information by the E-portfolios business activity will continue in 2010 with an investigation of registered training organisations’ willingness and ability to offer electronic learner data as well as the attitude of learners to such services.

The paper forms part of the E-portfolios Resource Bank – a comprehensive and central online resource including reports, articles, news, blogs and events dedicated to e-portfolios and their application in VET.

Skilling Solutions Queensland is the Queensland Government’s free training and career information service which provides a one-stop-shop, face to face service for:

- formal recognition of prior learning (RPL),
- career pathways,
- training options,
- apprenticeships and traineeships.

To support this service and life long learning, Skilling Solutions Queensland offers all of its customers access to an e-portfolio.  The e-portfolio helps their customers compile their application for RPL (recognition of prior learning), by capturing information about their work experience and on the job development.   It will also assist customers with job applications using the e-resume functionality.

The e-portfolio system being used is called ‘Vumi‘ and was developed by the Queensland Creative Industry Skills Council to allow users to create multimedia rich e-portfolios.

Skilling Solutions Queensland also recognises that this e-portfolio will assist their customers in the on-going management of their life long learning.

After first discovering the ‘vumi’ e-portfolio system in June 2008, Linda Bradley, Director of Skilling Solutions Queensland, expressed Skilling Solutions Queensland’s interest in using the tool with their customers.

After completing staff training in early 2010, Skilling Solutions Queensland customer service centres have been providing their customers with a demonstration of the e-portfolio system since May 2010. Confidential reports from the e-portfolio system are being used to measure the uptake of the program.

Training is being provided to RPL assessors at the registered training organisations (RTOs) contracted with Skilling Solutions Queensland to provide the smooth transition of RPL candidates from Skilling Solutions Queensland to the training organisation.

This information was kindly shared by Jenny Ryan, Vumi Business Development Manager and Linda Bradley, Director, Skilling Solutions Queensland.

The opening Key note speaker for the national, tertiary sector e-portfolio event, ePortfolio Australia Conference 2010 (EAC2010) will be Dr Bret Eynon, Assistant Dean for Teaching and Learning from La Guardia Community College, New York City.

Dr. Bret Eynon has based at LaGuardia since 2000, and he directs the LaGuardia Center for Teaching and Learning, guiding faculty programs on topics from inquiry learning to ePortfolios.  As a national faculty member for the Association of American Colleges & Universities, Dr Eynon recently founded LaGuardia’s FIPSE-funded Making Connections National Resource Center on Inquiry, Reflection, and Integrative Education.  Dr Eynon, in collaboration with Georgetown University’s Randy Bass, led the Visible Knowledge Project, a network of 20 college engaged in scholarship of teaching projects.  http://www.academiccommons.org/user/beynon-lagcc-cuny-edu.

In line with the conference’s theme of ‘Widening Participation - engaging the learner‘, Dr Eynon’s presentation will be:

Making Connections:  ePortfolio as a Resource for Learning, Assessment & Institutional Change
Linking innovative pedagogy with digital technology and new thinking about assessment, NYC’s La Guardia Community College has built an extensive and successful ePortfolio project. Each year, led by academic faculty, more than 9,000 high risk students enhance their learning with ePortfolios, making LaGuardia an international leader in ePortfolio pedagogy and practice. Building on this data-demonstrated success, LaGuardia has launched the Making Connections National Resource Center, currently working with more than 30 US campuses, guiding them as they plan and implement advanced ePortfolio projects.  Drawing on this broad experience, Dr Eynon will review lessons learned from LaGuardia and other campuses and discuss strategies for advancing broad integration of ePortfolio in higher education.

For more information about EAC2010 go to: http://www.flexiblelearning.net.au/e-portfolios-australia and to register for regular updates about this event go to: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FN8K9VJ

The ePortfolios Australia Conference 2010, being held in Melbourne from 3-4 November, will bring together national and international educators and thought leaders to showcase current e-portfolio practices and the ways e-portfolios support learners to transition between education and training, employment and industry areas.

Themed Widening participation – engaging the learner, the conference will be one of the first cross sectoral e-portfolio events in Australia with presenters and delegates from vocational education and training (VET), higher education (HE) and adult and community education (ACE).

Educators and organisations engaging with e-portfolios are invited to submit abstracts for full papers, reports, case studies and posters.

Abstract submissions close 4 June, and should relate to one or more of the following sub-themes:

•    key government educational initiatives
•    responsive learning and assessment practices
•    career pathways and lifelong learning
•    implementing e-portfolios: successes and sustainability.

For full information on submission requirements and due dates, visit: http://flexiblelearning.net.au/e-portfoliosaustralia

All enquires about the submission process to: studenteportfolio@qut.edu.au

The ePortfolios Australia Conference 2010 follows the success of the VET E-portfolios Showcase 09, hosted by the Australian Flexible Learning Framework (Framework); and past Australian ePortfolio Symposia, funded by the Australian Learning & Teaching Council (ALTC).

Organisations supporting the ePortfolios Australia Conference 2010 also include Queensland University of Technology; Curtin University of Technology; the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR); and the Association for Authentic, Experiential and Evidence-Based Learning (AAEEBL).

Register to receive regular updates about the ePortfolios Australia Conference 2010:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FN8K9VJ