Welcome to the

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Welcome to the Skills-Based introduction to the
ePARs Personal Evidence Database (PED) Keep
clicking and this slideshow will take you through
the system
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What you can put into the Personal Evidence
Database (PED)

• Information about your key activities and
  achievements useful for
• progress review meetings with tutors
• job interviews
• CV writing
• Evidence of your academic and employability
  skills
• Capture your skills experience while the details
  are still fresh in your mind
• Retrieve the details whenever you need them,
  e.g. for a module report or to quote to a
  potential employer

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What you can get back from your PED

• An at-a-glance visual display of how your
  skills evidence is growing.
• Instant updating of your Skills Progress Chart
  every time you enter a new piece of information
• Selections of your data emailed to you, for use
  in reports, review meetings, job applications,
  job interviews, CVs etc
• Direct export of your data into the ePARs
  CV-builder coming soon

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Welcome page How to start
Access the Skills Progress Chart anytime via the
menu bar, which appears at the top of every
screen
The welcome page offers you two good ways into
the PED, when you begin
1. Try the SKILLS route Which skills have you
already got? The PED helps you locate some to
get you started
Or 2. Try the ACTIVITY route Taking a key
module? Working part-time? Running a society?
Doing community action? Travelling? Start
capturing the key aspects of it here.
A note for later Once youve got data in the
PED, the Skills Progress Chart could be your
favourite way into the system
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Please note Some sections of the PED are
PRIVATE Other sections are SHARED
The Activity route provides a log or notes, as
well as skills evidence. The log and notes are
private to you, but you can opt to share items
from them with tutors and students in
your School if you wish. In a few Schools, the
PED is used within the curriculum and it may be
a module requirement for you to share logs or
notes with your tutor.
Your Skills Progress Chart -- and the evidence
you enter behind it -- are shared with your
personal tutor, automatically (read only). The
chart may be useful to look at in personal
tutorials. The skills evidence will help your
tutor write references for you.
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Once you get going, please yourself!

• The two routes illustrated behind the help links
  on the Welcome page are just to get you started.
•  
• Once you get going, you can mix and match them,
  picking out the sections that work best for you.
  
•  
• Unless your School requires you to work with part
  of the PED, its all optional, so you can use as
  much or as little as you like.

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This introduction to the PED shows the
Skills-based route
From the PED Welcome page you click here to go
to the Identify Skills page
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This is the Identify Skills page
You start with a simple, fun exercise to
identify your skills
When youve done, click Submit
Which of these qualities do you have? Click the
boxes next to all the words which describe you.
Your selections come back highlighted. Click on
one to go through and enter some evidence.
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Note Introducing your material to the database
in this way makes it possible for you to search
it later
Next Link your highlighted quality to an
activity where you have used it
Is the specific activity already on your list of
activities? (A few students PEDs contain
modules entered by their Schools.) Select it from
the drop-down menu here.
Think of a specific activity where you have shown
the skill. First, does it relate to Study,
Work-based experience or Further activities? Set
the Activity Type from the drop-down menu.
If you need to add a new activity to the list,
click here.
Your highlighted quality falls within this broad
skills area
It relates to this specific skill
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The PED takes you to the New Activity page
First set the Activity Type choose Study,
Work-based experience or Further activities from
the drop-down menu. Then enter
the title of your new activity.
Now fill in further information if you wish. But
you can come back later to do this, if you prefer.
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Lower down the same screen
Fill in these boxes, if you wish, for an activity
that is ongoing
Then click submit
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Now write about how you used the skill in that
specific activity
Every entry you make in the PED is dated for you
automatically
Enter your evidence in the Notes textbox
If you wish, click a button to indicate how
confident you are feeling with the skill. The
rating will appear on your Skills Progress Chart
Click Submit
Note Your entries will build up and be displayed
lower down on this page
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The PED will then show you the whole entry What
would you like to do next?
You now have some further options
Stay with the same activity and add evidence for
same/different skill
If you need stronger evidence of this skill, turn
it into a target (creates an orange square on
your Skills Progress Chart)
Or stick with the same skill and add evidence
from a different activity
Click here to display your dated entries in
ascending or descending order
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Your skills evidence changes the display on
your Skills Progress Chart
Also the broad skills headings. (You can click
on these to get to the specific sub-skills)
The chart shows the three basic areas of
activity. (You can click on these to get to the
specific activities you have entered)
Each grey square represents a specific skill.
Hover with the mouse to see the name. Click on
it to make it a target or to enter evidence.
Once evidence is entered for a skill, its square
changes colour. Click on it to go to the
evidence. The number is the latest confidence
rating (optional).
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This is what is displayed below the chart on
the same screen
You can call up a snapshot of your progress for
any time-window you like.
There are links to other sites with ideas for
further activities
You can print the chart out, e.g. for a meeting
with a careers adviser. For any screen, use a
PED Print button or the print function on your PC
The chart uses 5 colours. Heres the key
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Using the To Do list
This tool is private to you
Access it from the menu bar
The PED can remind you to review your To Do list
if you wish
Click here to add an item to the list. Enter
details and set priority level. Press submit.
Your items come to the top of the list, in
priority order
You can edit and delete them
Target skills come next, automatically. Click on
evidence skills to add some evidence
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Using the Select Outputs tool
This is the tool you use to get the read-outs of
your data which you will need for various purposes
Theres a choice of 5 ways to collate your data,
depending on what you want it for
Click on any heading and you can go on to choose
the specific material you want. Press an email
button and the PED sends you the collated details
as an email attachment.
You can then incorporate them in reports, jobs
applications, CVs, etc
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Thank you and Good Luck but before you go

• The PED is NEW. It was developed in 2002-03 with
  the help of Nottingham students and staff. The
  ePARs team hope you will find it useful and enjoy
  using it.
• You are one of the first people to see it. We
  would really appreciate receiving your feedback,
  so that we can improve it during 2003-04.
• Please send us an email ePARs-ped_at_nottingham.ac.uk
  You can use the email link on the PED Welcome
  page. Let us know of any problems tell us what
  you do like and what you dont like send us
  your suggestions
• Click on the other help link on the PED Welcome
  page if you would like to tour the Introduction
  to the Activity-based Route.