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Conclusions and Outcomes

Outcomes and results

During the course of our project, the discussions we have had with our partners, with students and employers in the South West, and in addition, with colleagues from other regions and from the Netherlands, leads us to believe that the specification of PDP processes and outcomes, which is potentially unlimited, is likely to remain contentious for some time to come.

During the course of our project, the discussions we have had with our partners, with students and employers in the South West, and in addition, with colleagues from other regions and from the Netherlands, leads us to believe that the specification of PDP processes and outcomes, which is potentially unlimited, is likely to remain contentious for some time to come.

Our Dartington conference demonstrated the variety of challenges associated with PDP and e-portfolios, from the tightly specified competences of health care to the individuality of the creative industries. Our Bournemouth conference at the end of the extension period again included presentations from both the CI and health areas that heralded the move into the next phase of development of the ioPortal in partnership with Phosphorix through PDP4XL2. It also raised the issue of the relationship between e-portfolio systems and next generation technologies that are already having a significant impact on learners’ attitudes to their use of technology for PDP.

PDP4Life has made a significant contribution to the body of knowledge on PDP through the development of the draft specification which is one of the major outputs. The draft specification was mapped to UKLeaP; the further development of the ioPortal prototype and our contribution to incorporating guidance on PDP processes within it was an unexpected output achieved through the funded extension from October 2006-April 2007. Further development and evaluation is being continued through the work of PDP4XL2.

We have raised the profile of PDP processes and approaches in the Creative Industries and contributed our findings about PDP for this domain into the debate about the value of PDP through the extensive dissemination activities undertaken during 2006.

We have raised awareness of PDP approaches and tools in the South West and encouraged the sharing of information between HEIs through case studies. One partner piloted PebblePAD and another used PROFILE, adding to our knowledge base of these tools.

Our dissemination activities have been numerous and wide-spread. In addition to the project website and project conferences we have disseminated details about the project though conference presentations and publications as listed in Appendix 1. We have also given three reports to HERDA SW Teaching and Learning SIG in March and July 2005 and September 2006 and one presentation was given to HERDA SWICT in June 2005.

Conclusions

This project has been a useful vehicle for raising the profile of PDP approaches among the Higher Education Institutions in the SW. It has been interesting to note the diversity of these approaches and the different stages of development across the partners, from single departmental initiatives to institute-wide implementation. This has obviously had an impact on each partner’s engagement with a project like this.

It has demonstrated that more work needs to be done to explore the issues relating to PDP and its support for learners’ transition between FE and HE in the region. Further work on this has been identified that could be carried forward through the Lifelong Learning Networks as they begin to consider and develop their systems for PDP.

Specific benefit for the education community has been achieved by highlighting the perceptions of stakeholders in Creative Industries towards PDP. This can inform curriculum development and careers guidance within HE programmes that support students’ progression into employment in this sector.

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