 Rwy'n credu'n gweithio, a'n fyddo i'n meddwl am y ffordd. Ieithaf, Ieithaf, Carynoginti a'r GMI T. Roedd yma'n cael ei bod yn gwneud i'n ffordd yma i'ch ddweud i'r hoffodd i'r hoffodd. Mae'n ddim yn ymgyrch o'r 6 oed. Mae'r colegau, Sarah, yn ymgyrch o'r hoffodd i'n hoffodd i'n hoffodd i'n hoffodd i'r hoffodd i'n hoffodd i'n hoffodd i'n hoffodd. Felly Rydym yw'n dweud, rydym wedi gweld o'ch bitcoin celfynia, rydym wedi gweld o'ch fwy oedd y mae'r Newspaper fiant yn gwneud i ddweud y canfion a fyddwn i'n dda i ddweud herfodol i gwneud yn ei ddweud ym Mhaglach Rhyw Llywgr Caerdyddol. Mae'r ddweud amddangos o wybodaeth gyda cyhoedd yn ichi morllid ac rydym wedi oedd yn llent ar gyfer Mhaglach Rhyw Llywgr Caerdyddol. But there was a number of outcomes and a number of deliverables that came from that. So it wasn't just a case of delivering on-site clonics and workshops, there was a whole build-up time to that and post that. Actually there was activity still going on because this project was in existence before we even started theEl enhancement piece that my experience project was established probably about 2 or 3 years ago as part of the Mond sink section. a we set about to develop an assessment tool for RPL applicants using E portfolio technologies and we looked at Moodle as the platform for that. So the opportunity arose through the enhancement fund to develop an online skills course for staff to access so that they were more comfortable with dealing with RPL applicants coming through but also to provide an information website to provide some some tools around understanding, certified and experiential learning and also to share the assessment tool that we have developed with other institutes. So not just within the COA, testing and trialling and working through using that assessment tool but also we engage with Waterford Institute of Technology and Dublin City University DCU and as I said it goes on to the engagement and the partnership and the sharing of knowledge go beyond the project and I'll talk you through that now in a moment, okay? So why did we do this and what was the nature of the problem and why I suppose we came about to look for the funding in the first place and what it's helping to achieve. So a lot of the facts you're probably familiar with life-long learning participation rate is quite low in Ireland when we consider to the EU average. Even in the employed sector we're very low as well, we're only at 6.2%. Compared to the EU which is at 11.2%. So there's lots of opportunities for looking at recognised prior learning and looking at work-based learning and opening up opportunities for people to come into higher education at different levels. But we also need staff to be trained to deal with that and that was part of I suppose one of our main objectives as well is to provide some training tools and resources around that so staff would be more comfortable in dealing with and assessing RPL applicants. Other things that have arisen, there's a lack of awareness around RPL, lack of marketing and promotion. I suppose that was our objective around developing myexperience.ie. There's a marketing focus to that. It can be packaged very nicely and used in a campaign for different markets whether we're dealing directly with the RPL applicants or if we're dealing with staff in general who want to upscale and be more aware of RPL assessment skills. So learners are also unsure how to build a portfolio and structure evidence of learning. Part of what this project has done is provide video tools for applicants that talks them through different elements how to build the portfolio tool and all of that links back out of the website myexperience.ie. And then also the other side is academics are unfamiliar with assessing experiential learning. There is a fear factor around that. So that was our idea around developing this open online course that we showcased and we made part of our RPL roadshow. And that's at... Actually I'm going to give you another plan with that. Okay, so what did we do? We ran the clinics, we did a whole revamp on the website. We needed to make it more mobile friendly. We needed to think about the different market groups that we were targeting and who our information was aimed at. It was important. I suppose the main drive behind doing the roadshow and visiting sites and putting clinics on site in the COA was to demonstrate the e-portfolio assessment tool and to show how it was designed and developed in Moodle and show how it was such a great tool for assessing learners and how it can help manage that whole process for the applicants and for the assessors. One of the features that we were able to build into the tool as part of the feedback and the different people that were engaged with us we were able to look at building in an area on the Moodle site that is for adding extra assessments. So sometimes when people submit RPL applications and you're looking at matching the learning outcomes and you're looking at all their experiential learning and what they've achieved and sometimes there is gaps in their portfolio of evidence and academics sometimes struggle with how do I bridge that gap and how do I bring them over the line? So part of one of the features that we developed on the tool was that there was an added assessment feature where you could assign a specific assignment to that candidate or perhaps a particular challenge or a scenario or a role play or something else that they had to do or submit by a certain date so that would be taken into account as well. So we're about to release version three of the tool. We actually can't demonstrate that to you today because it actually doesn't come through until July 1 so those of you who are familiar with Moodle the new version of Moodle is coming through in July and that's where we'll be sharing the updated version of our tool our assessment tool with all of our partners so Waterford IT and DCU are also getting this plug-in the most up-to-date plug-in to activate again in their institute and to engage in the same processes that we've been working through and as a result we're growing a network of practitioners that are sharing knowledge and expertise around this challenging space of RPL. So the assessment tool I'm not going to demo it but there is a little video that I'll give you a link to that you can have a look at as well just to bring this up as well more recently we presented Gavin and I at there was a national e-portfolio symposium it was held in DIT and it was a great conference because it brought together people from all over the country that were demonstrating or working in e-portfolio tools and at the time we presented on the My Experience tool but we thought it was very interesting Helen Barrett was a keynote at the event and all the messages around assessment of learners and using e-portfolio tools and that it really hit a chord with us in relation to our e-portfolio assessment tool so that's one of the reasons why I'm sharing that with you today as well so as I said we've created an open online skills course and we've put digital badges in that as well now the beauty of this course I think I've given you an outline of it you'll have a copy the beauty of this course is it is not restricted to to just the partners that were involved in this project it's going to be open to everybody in the country so we've designed it on an independent online learning platform it's built on Moodle it's called cpd.learnonline.ie anyone across the country can go in and you just put in your role or the institute that you work in and you can actually link from the website myexperience.ie but we purposely made it independent and I'll show you a link to it in a moment because we feel there's great potential to add more courses and more online courses and more materials to this independent cpd site in the future so again what we've done initially part of the RPL Roadshow on the project we shared it with staff in the CUA which is GMIT, IT Sligo, letter Kenny IT Waterford IT then and DCU who are our partners for the Roadshow so they are all getting access to this course and those materials but as I said something we want to do next year is promote it and make it open to anyone in the country who would like to do the course okay and there's digital badges as I said built into that so this is I suppose the look and feel when you go into that cpd course when you link it off let me see can I show it here so when you're in the website for my experience there's a link there there's an outline of the course and it just goes through and then you create or sorry person can go in and create an account and say what institute they're in and then the outline as I said is outlined in the letter there what's nice about this course is the mixture of expertise that came together we were fortunate to meet a great lady called Meg Bank who's really Meg Bank she's really experienced in the whole RPL feel in the States and she had been over doing a full bright scholarship with I believe with Waterford IT so that's how I got to meet her but she was willing to participate and contribute to this course so there's a nice international perspective on the course we also I also had a lady in the UK or sorry in Scotland from QAA in Scotland who delivered an overview of what they were doing in Scotland we had contributions from Waterford IT from Mave of Grady from DID and Murphy she's a really I suppose an advocate to be strong in this space in RPL and then contributions from ourselves so there's a nice mix and there's a reflective task built in and it's three hours just if somebody wanted to go on and do a 10 credit module which is in the teaching and learning space that could go towards let's say an MA or their own professional development you can do that also by registering following up after that which EMI T and we have a 10 credit RPL module and it would be a case of them completing the assessment strategies there's some onsite and online work as well so there's lots of opportunities there somebody can do it short and sweet or they can go and take that as a bridge to the next level okay so just to go back to the course as well just to make a note it's just quite timely the student success toolbox I know it's another project it's not being talked about here today but it's very timely it was just released there and we thought it was a great tool connection to have within my experience side because primarily who this site is targeting at is mature learners are people looking to get back into higher education and this initiative again which was funded by the forum is a whole set of skills and resources and tools and guides for people at the mature space in their life were considering higher education so it's nice that we're able to connect that in with the programme okay so I suppose a few details around the learning outcomes of the programme they get your reflection, evaluate on policy and procedures, legislation so it's nice we see great opportunities to expand and build on this in the future there's a lot of work being taken place now at the moment nationally with the QQI around RPL and RPL practitioner network has been set up and the forum are also looking at RPL because there's a big job ahead next year in relation to professional development and rolling out the professional development framework and looking at RPL and RPLing teachers and lecturers to work in higher education so there's opportunities perhaps to link in our tools with that as well okay so the local and national impact we have as we said the website enhancements there's been some nice PR in social media and when the whole project was launched and when we commenced the road show the clinics that took place on site we generated lots of debate and discussion as I said we formed lots of really nice contacts in that space that are fed into the training programme and we've showcased at the portfolio conference that was more recently held in DIT the course available as I said it's available there to all higher education institutes the online course which is great and we've created a network of partners in Ireland in Scotland and US that will continue to work and this project is still living and breathing as I said my experience is here to stay and will develop further so other things evaluation and feedback well yes we've seen tangible outputs achieved that are open and available as I said to all higher education institutes great resource tool I suppose giving feedback on our experience of the I suppose the tail, weak enhancement funds and that there was restrictions around having it within March and within that time now and you probably know that Easter fell and St Patrick's Day and then academic holiday so that did present challenges on availability and stuff and that's why what worked out brilliant was the online tool the flexibility of that and giving access to people having a launch time having clinics around that and then giving them access and getting feedback after Easter which was great so year long tail development enhancement funds we would say would enable more flexibility and timing of workshops and also sustainability long term as well ok and then the last point despite the timing and restrictions we are planning installation of version 3 as I said which is coming through in the summer which is great so there's really lovely enhancements that are coming through on the tool and that's the result of the engagement of the partners over the last six months and the staff can feedback and RPL applicants which is great so I'm probably going to have more time