Insights into electronic portfolio interoperability

1
Insights into electronic portfolio
interoperability

• Simon Grant
• Independent consultant
• Information Strategists

2
Interoperability

• If e-portfolio systems are to be used for
  lifelong learning, they should interoperate
• Several specifications have been suggested
• How can an e-portfolio system be built or made to
  be interoperable?

3
Outline agenda menu

• Do the definitions make sense?
• Do we share understanding of the items?
• What is interoperability?
• How items are represented by specs
• Europass instruments
• E-portfolio systems architecture
• Interoperable skills and competences

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E-portfolio items (1)

• Achievements
• qualifications certificates awards prizes
  etc.
• Products
• works things created, tended, managed
• Competencies (by whatever name)
• knowledge skills attitudes
• achievements/products can be evidence

5
E-portfolio items (2)

• Goals
• a sense of direction as in action planning
• Activities
• past as record to present and reflect on
• future planned as part of action planning
• Evaluations (formal)
• of activities or products

6
E-portfolio items (3)

• Interests
• what personally motivates, including values
• Assertions
• by self or others, testimonials, free format
  evaluation by others
• Reflections
• as part of PDP self-evaluation

7
E-portfolio items (4)

• Organisations (reference)
• point of reference for several things
• Affiliations
• details of relationship with organisations
• Other people of significance (reference)
• mentors friends people that wrote assertions

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E-portfolio items (5)

• Identification
• names, addresses, photos, date of birth
• Relationships
• many highly significant between items
• metadata
• not an item in itself, but a record of rights
  over any item dates of creation, revision

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E-portfolio items review

• Is there anything that doesnt fit in those?
• Do those categories distinguish properly?
• between things of different form/structure
• How do these relate to lifelong learning?

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What is interoperability?

• Portability of e-portfolio records OR
• Different systems concurrently offering and using
  related services
• To be useful, interoperability specifications
  must be based on real practice
• What are your scenarios?
• What services are implied?

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Semantic interoperability

• Can the item of information in one context be
  meaningfully interpreted in another?
• think of particular PDP scenarios
• Role of type vocabularies
• to distinguish semantically different things with
  the same or similar structure
• Could items with types form a sufficient basis
  for making useful distinctions?

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Current specifications

• IMS LIP
• 2001 large and complex
• UKLeaP (BS 8788)
• 2004/5 attempting to make LIP usable
• IMS ePortfolio
• draft 2004, final 2005
• HR-XML

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What do we want of a standard?

• Various trade-offs
• Simple complex
• XML RDF
• well-defined flexible
• monolithic segmented (speclets)
• early (untested) late (tested)
• Development / revision easy or hard?

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Europass instruments

• http//europass.cedefop.eu.int/
• Europass CV
• Europass Diploma Supplement
• (Certificate Supplement is not personal)
• Europass Language Passport
• Europass Mobility

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Europass issues

• Europass representation challenges
• Who is working with Europass instruments?
• How and why?
• May there be a future need to generate the
  Europass instruments from an e-portfolio system?

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E-portfolio systems architecture

• Distributed nature of item storage
• items held by originating institutions?
• Need for aggregation/distribution
• future concept PIADS personal information
  aggregation and distribution service
• See WS4RL
• http//www.elframework.org/projects/ws4rl

17
WS4RL diagram
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Skills interoperability

• What happens when institutions describe skills in
  different ways?
• evidence here does not connect over there
• But uniform standards not feasible
• Need a meta-framework for skills
• enable relationships across frameworks
• http//www.elframework.org/projects/spws

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SPWS diagram
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Concluding comments?

• Is interoperability feasible now, or when?
• Transfer or concurrent use?
• What stands in its way?
• Is the fundamental approach sound?
• Or is there a better way?
• Can you take this forward?