ePortfolios for Adults - AAEEBL 2012

Employability ePortfolios with

Mahara

A Community-Based Solution for Adults AAEEBL

July 17, 2012

Don Presant

E-learning resources & services

Learning community support

Consulting

Learning AgentsAccelerated learning systems

Manitoba & CanadaSmall province in a small country

• Challenging geography• Diverse demographics

– French/English, Aboriginals, Immigrants

• Federal political structure• Manitoba: “Canada’s social science

laboratory”

Regional solutionsInspiration for Manitoba

Career Portfolio ManitobaCurrent stakeholders: WEM & WPLAR

• Nonprofit partnerships of Government, Business and Labour

• WEM: workplace education in Essential Skills

• WPLAR: workplace Recognition of Prior Learning

wplar.ca

wem.mb.ca

Adults in TransitionUse cases

• Immigrants• Twenty-somethings• Return to workers• Displaced workers• Career shifters• Mature workers

Different learning needs of adults?

• Relevance• Assessment, accreditation• Intervention window• Urgency• Vulnerability

Canada’s Essential SkillsContextualized by workplace occupation…

1. Reading text2. Document use3. Writing4. Numeracy5. Computer skills6. Oral communication7. Thinking skills

– Problem Solving, Decision Making, Critical Thinking, Job Task Planning and Organizing, Significant Use of Memory, Finding Information

8. Working with others9. Continuous learning

Essential Skills ePortfolioProgram overview

• Adapt an existingpaper curriculum

• Leverage the “e” factor• Embed authentic ICT skills

– Useful software, accessible hardware– Digital identity literacy

Vision for Career Portfolio ManitobaCareer development for life

• For all Manitobans• Learner owned• Lifelong• Lifewide: home, community, school,

work...• Based on (not restricted to) Essential Skills• Built through partnerships of stakeholders,

with WEM and WPLAR as “anchor tenants”• Globally aware, locally relevant

Featured elements

• Portfolio building course– Video tutorials, support

• Templates– Pages (soon collections)

• Job Match Summary

• Fictional exemplar• Extensive use of Web 2.0

– YouTube, Screenr, LinkedIn…– Embed.ly as the glue

Applications for Adults

• Pre-employment– Getting hired

• Workplace development– Career advancement, performance management

• Recognition of Prior Learning– Challenge for credit

• Continuing Professional Development• Knowledge portfolios• Life portfolios

On the horizon

• Self directed course, mobile access• Spin-offs• Open Badges

Lifelong journey ownership“Small pieces, loosely joined”

StudentRecords

OnlineCredentialVerification

Job Boards, Recruitment

Sites

PersonalNetworks,

Communities

OnlineMentoringServices

LocalizedLabour Market

Information

Employer HRManagement

Systems

GovernmentInformation

Portals

ePortfolio

Web 2.0YouTubeLinkedInTwitter…

LMS Moodle,

D2L, etc.

Useful links

• Career Portfolio Manitoba– http://careerportfolio.mb.ca– http://bit.ly/eP_example

• Workplace Education Manitoba– http://wem.mb.ca

• WPLAR– http://wplar.ca

• Mahara User Group Canada– http://mahara.org/group/view.php?id=1008

• This presentation– http://bit.ly/aaeebl2012_dp

don@learningagents.caTwitter: donpresant

Skype: dpresant

Don Presant