In addition to the piloting of the SWANI project outcomes by partners in the SAWSW WBL partnership, the PotsPan project also has the objective of exploring the benefits of using electronic signatures more generally in institutional management documentation. Project Workpackage 3 addresses this objective and the work is being carried out at Swansea Metropolitan, recently merged with University of Wales Trinity St David.
This evaluation exercise was not constrained by the EU requirement for 'wet signatures' and was therefore able to explore the use of electronic signatures applied directly to digitised documents, rather than using a digital pen. The pilot is currently under way at Swansea Met and has a specific focus on the potential benefits for online assessment authentication for work submitted by distance learners.
The pilot plan is outlined in the document below:
Friday, 30 November 2012
Friday, 16 November 2012
Preparations for the Digitised WBL System Pilot
The main preparation activity for the PotsPan project WBL system pilot exercise has been the updating and refinement of the Joomla document management system. Tony Toole has been working with Lewis Jones at CSG to identify where improvements can be made and to implement those improvements.
To a great extent these have been editing and format issues relating to the website and the forms it contains. However, it has also been an opportunity to re-examine the administrative and management workflows and how these can be made more efficient and better support the work of the training advisors in particular.
The main piloting activities will be carried out at Coleg Sir Gar and Pembrokeshire College and the digital pens to be used in the exercise have been purchased and distributed. The period before the end of 2012 will enable the system to be trialled by those participating in the pilot at the institutions: for them to become familiar with the structure of the Joomla system and the use of the digital pens.
The full pilot exercise will begin in the new year with cohorts of work-based learners chosen by the partners.
A further pilot exercise will be carried out at Swansea Metropolitan University with an online distance learning development involving WBL delivery to the armed forces deployed in Germany and elsewhere. Included in this exercise will be a mapping to the JISC work-based learning toolkit.
To a great extent these have been editing and format issues relating to the website and the forms it contains. However, it has also been an opportunity to re-examine the administrative and management workflows and how these can be made more efficient and better support the work of the training advisors in particular.
The main piloting activities will be carried out at Coleg Sir Gar and Pembrokeshire College and the digital pens to be used in the exercise have been purchased and distributed. The period before the end of 2012 will enable the system to be trialled by those participating in the pilot at the institutions: for them to become familiar with the structure of the Joomla system and the use of the digital pens.
The full pilot exercise will begin in the new year with cohorts of work-based learners chosen by the partners.
A further pilot exercise will be carried out at Swansea Metropolitan University with an online distance learning development involving WBL delivery to the armed forces deployed in Germany and elsewhere. Included in this exercise will be a mapping to the JISC work-based learning toolkit.
Monday, 5 November 2012
The Digital Pen System
The Swani project and now the Potspan project are continuing to explore different ways of achieving the objective of establishing an electronic signature system that is acceptable to the EU for audit purposes and hence also acceptable to the Welsh Government.
The recent presentations have shown how applications like Adobe Acrobat can create PDF documents that meet the EU requirements, but that it was unrealistic to expect an agreement to be in place before the end of the projects.
Hence the 'quick and dirty' solution of using a digital pen remains at the centre of the Potspan pilot project and will be in action later this month.
The Destiny pen, together with Fastdox software are being used and the whole system is explained below:
The recent presentations have shown how applications like Adobe Acrobat can create PDF documents that meet the EU requirements, but that it was unrealistic to expect an agreement to be in place before the end of the projects.
Hence the 'quick and dirty' solution of using a digital pen remains at the centre of the Potspan pilot project and will be in action later this month.
The Destiny pen, together with Fastdox software are being used and the whole system is explained below:
JISC Online Conference 2012
The Jisc Innovating e-Learning Online Conference 2012 is a week long event from the 19th to the 23rd November and the programme can be viewed at: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/elearningpedagogy/elpconference12/programme.aspx.
Prior to the conference is an activity week and a range of interesting initiatives are being presented over four days beginning on 13th November. full details can be seen at: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/elearningpedagogy/elpconference12/activityweek.aspx
The Swani/Potspan project outcomes will be presented on the 13th November and the slides (based on the ALT-C presentation, but now with soundtrack!) are shown below:
Prior to the conference is an activity week and a range of interesting initiatives are being presented over four days beginning on 13th November. full details can be seen at: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/elearningpedagogy/elpconference12/activityweek.aspx
The Swani/Potspan project outcomes will be presented on the 13th November and the slides (based on the ALT-C presentation, but now with soundtrack!) are shown below:
Thursday, 27 September 2012
Project Team Meeting and Updated Project Plan
The project team met at Coleg Sir Gar today and agreed plans for the next phase of the digitised WBL system development. Following the data mapping exercise and the evaluation of system functionality, plans were agreed for updating and refinement of the JOOMLA content management system and associated database.
Lewis Jones will be implementing the technical changes in collaboration with Tony Toole who carried out the evaluation and continues to liaise with the system stakeholders, particularly the WBL Training Advisors.
The aim will be to have the whole system complete and tested by mid-November when the piloting by partners can begin. The intention is to have a practical workshop at that time, possibly 16th November though this has yet to be confirmed, for partners who will be engaged in the pilot exercise.
The project plan has been updated to reflect how the progress of the project is unfolding in practice. The changes are relatively minor and can be viewed in V2 of the project plan shown below. There is no change in either project deliverables or overall timescale.
PotsPan Project Plan v2
Friday, 21 September 2012
Data Field Mapping and Workflow Optimisation
Current project activity is concentrating on the mapping of core data fields across the various WBL forms that use them in order to optimise workflows. One of the objectives of the digitisation of the WBL administrative system was to eliminate the repetitive input of the same data on different forms (a major frustration and inefficiency of the paper based system). The main source of this repetition is with core data relating to the three main stakeholders in the system: the learner, the employer and the training provider. The plan is to maintain a database core record for each of these which can then be used to populate all the forms that use that data. Simple yes? Not in practice! Each of the 25 or more forms that are part of the system were created at different times for different purposes by different people. Hence the structure of the data fields and their interpretation vary from one form to another. The current exercise involves an alignment of the interpretation of core data fields and a change in the way the information is reported on the forms so that the anticipated efficiencies can be achieved. This is being carried out in consultation with the stakeholders to ensure that the resulting system meets their administrative needs.
Monday, 20 August 2012
PotsPan Dissemination: ALT-C 2012
The outcomes of the JISC SWANI Project and the subsequent PotsPan Piloting are being presented at the ALT-C conference in Manchester next month. It will be an opportunity to network with others addressing similar issues and will hopefully contribute to project planning and dissemination. The draft presentation is shown below:
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