E-portfolios in Support of Informal Learning

Nowadays, informal learning is very much part of everyone’s life, even when individuals are not aware that they engage in informal learning. Therefore it is vital that individuals and organisations become aware of the value of informal learning. Not only that, but individuals need to take control of their informal learning and make it known to others. In this article we illustrate how e-portfolios, as a store of learning activities and resulting products can support reflection on the learning process by allowing learners to monitor their learning behaviour. Findings indicate that ease of use is crucial. User interface design should accommodate the needs of the learner to promote uptake of the tool. The e-portfolio has to be an integral part of the learner’s working and learning processes, and assist the learner by tracking and presenting his learning activities for easy inclusion into the e-portfolio.Part of this work has been carried out in the context of the Trailer project with the support of the Lifelong Learning Program of the European Commission. Project Reference: 519141-LLP-1-2011-1-ES-KA3-KA3MP. This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein

E-portfolios in lifelong learning

Brouns, F., Vogten, H., Janssen, J., & Finders, A. (2013). E-portfolios in lifelong learning. In F. J. García-Peñalvo (Ed.). Proceedings of the 2013 Conference on Technological Ecosystems for Enhancing Multiculturality, TEEM2013 (pp. 535-540). November, 14-15, 2013, Salamanca, Spain. "© [Brouns] [2013]. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Proceedings of the 2013 Conference on Technological Ecosystems for Enhancing Multiculturality Conference Proceedings, http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2536536.2536618."The current knowledge society requires its citizens to continuously maintain and update existing knowledge and competences and thus engage in lifelong learning. Acquiring key competences, such as digital, intercultural and communicative competences is crucial to keep up with the fast changing ways of society. As people need to combine their competence development with work and family life, they need flexibility in content and logistics. Consequently, informal learning and social learning in networks play an important role in this. However, it might be difficult to get their informally acquired competences recognized. In this paper we describe how an e-portfolio could assists learners in gathering, maintaining and organizing their informal learning and competences in order to show and share this with others and present how this is implemented in the TRAILER e-portfolio.Tagging, Recognition and Acknowledgment of Informal Learning ExpeRiences project (TRAILER) that is funded by the European Commission's Lifelong Learning Programme. Ref. 519141-LLP-1-2011-1-ES-KA3-KA3MP [http:// trailerproject.eu]. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein

E-portfolio's voor informeel leren

Brouns, F., Vogten, H., Janssen, J., & Finders, A. (2013). E-portfolio's voor informeel leren. Trailer exploitation workshop. Utrecht, Nederland: Open UniversiteitDe Trailer toolset, met als hoofdcomponent het e-portfolio, is ontwikkeld om informeel leren te documenteren en vast te leggen. The toolset is gepresenteerd aan potentiale exploitanten en gebruikersTagging, Recognition and Acknowledgment of Informal Learning ExpeRiences project (TRAILER) that is funded by the European Commission's Lifelong Learning Programme. Ref. 519141-LLP-1-2011-1-ES-KA3-KA3MP [http://trailerproject.eu]. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein

ID3.24 - Updated design for release 6.0 of the TENCompetence software

Vogten, H., Martens, H., Heyenrath, S., Lemmers, R., Alberts, J., Finders, A., & Schaeps, L. (2009). ID3.24 - Updated design for release 6.0 of the TENCompetence software. TENCompetence.Describes the software architecture of release 6.0 of the PCM, the final release of the project, to developers that need to use, extend or change the PCM server. The views from the 4+1 approach by Kruchten are used to describe the software architecture.The work on this publication has been sponsored by the TENCompetence Integrated Project that is funded by the European Commission's 6th Framework Programme, priority IST/Technology Enhanced Learning. Contract 027087 [http://www.tencompetence.org

Enhancing informal learning recognition through TRAILER project

Conde, M. A., García-Peñalvo, F. J., Zangrando, V., García-Holgado, A., Seoane-Pardo, A. M., Alier, M., Galanis, N., Griffiths, D., Johnson, M., Janssen, J., Brouns, F., Vogten, H., Finders, A., Sloep, P. B., Marques, M. A., Viegas, M. C., Alves, G. R., Waszkiewicz, E., Mykowska, A., Minovic, M., & Milovanovic, M. (2013). Enhancing informal learning recognition through TRAILER project. In F. J. García-Peñalvo, M. Á. Conde, & D. Griffiths (Eds.), Proceedings of the Workshop on Solutions that Enhance Informal Learning Recognition (WEILER 2013) (pp. 21-30). September, 18, 2013, Paphos, Cyprus. http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1039/The evolution of new technology and its increasing use, has for some years been making the existence of informal learning more and more transparent, especially among young and older adults in both Higher Education and workplace contexts. However, the nature of formal and non-formal, coursebased, approaches to learning has made it hard to accommodate these informal processes satisfactorily. The project aims to facilitate first the identification by the learner (as the last responsible of the learning process), and then the recognition by the institution, in dialogue with the learner, of this learning. To do so a methodology and a technological framework to support it have been implemented. This project has been tested in several contexts showing that an informal learning dialogue between learners and people in charge of the institutions is possible.Tagging, Recognition and Acknowledgment of Informal Learning ExpeRiences project (TRAILER) that is funded by the European Commission's Lifelong Learning Programme. Ref. 519141-LLP-1-2011-1-ES-KA3-KA3MP [http:// trailerproject.eu]. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein

Connect The Dots! Reflection Tool 2.0

Rajagopal, K., Schaeps, L., & Finders, A. (2012). Connect The Dots Reflection Tool. [Software]. Available under the GNU LGPL licence version 3 or higher.The Connect The Dots! Reflection Tool can be used by individuals to build and articulate their personal knowledge on a domain. The tool can also be used by communities or a group of people to capture their shared understanding of a domain of common interest. At this moment, the tool is implemented as a set of portlets for the Liferay 6 EE (version 6 SP2) portal. Sources can be downloaded from the code repository of the Open Universiteit at Sourceforge http://sourceforge.net/projects/openu

Trailer e-portfolio CE

Janssen, J., Finders, A., Vogten, H., & Brouns, F. (2013). Trailer e-portfolio CE [Software]. Heerlen, The Netherlands, Open Universiteit.The Trailer e-portfolio allows a learner to manage informal and formal learning activities, associate these with competences and create showcases consisting of learning activities and associated competences. The e-portfolio consists of a combination of regular and custom made Liferay portlets. Portlets are developed for the Liferay 6.0.12 EE (version 6.0.12 SP2) portal. This release has been converted to the Liferay 6.1 CE edition and is made available under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL3).Tagging, Recognition and Acknowledgment of Informal Learning ExpeRiences project (TRAILER) that is funded by the European Commission's Lifelong Learning Programme. Ref. 519141-LLP-1-2011-1-ES-KA3-KA3MP [http://www.trailerproject.eu]. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein