Simon Grant of CETIS

17. The discussion of NOS in the previous post clearly implicated assessability. Actually, assessment has been on the agenda right from the start of this series: claims and requirements are for someone "good" for a job or role. How do we assess what is "good" as opposed to "poor"? The logic of competence partly relies on the logic of assessability, so the topic deserves a closer look.

The Scottish e-portfolio scene seems to have comparatively many colleges, many of which use or are interested in Mahara. It may be even more promising than England for exploring company e-portfolio use, and we should try to ensure Scots are represented in any work on skills frameworks for e-portfolio tools.

The other European project I'm involved in for CETIS is called ICOPER. Over the last couple of weeks I've been doing some work improving the deliverable D2.2, mainly working with Jad Najjar. I flag it here because it uses some of the conceptual modelling work I've been involved in. My main direct contribution is Section [...]

This conceptual model now includes basic ideas about what goes on in the individual, plus some of the most important concepts for PDP and e-portfolio use, as well as the generalised formalisable concepts processes surrounding individual action. It has come a long way since the last time I wrote about it.
The minimised version is here, [...]

This version of the conceptual model (of learning opportunity provision + assessment + award of credit or qualification) uses the CmapTools facility for grouping nodes; and it further extends the use of my own "top ontology" (introduced in my book).
There are now two diagrams: a contracted and an expanded version. When you use CmapTools, you [...]

Last Thursday (2009-04-16) I went to a very interesting meeting in Leeds, specially arranged, at the Leeds Institute of Medical Education, between various interested parties, about their needs and ideas for interoperability with e-portfolio tools - but also about skills frameworks.
It was interesting particularly because it showed more evidence of a groundswell of willingness to [...]

I've been telling people, for quite a while, that I will write up suggestions for how to deal with abilities (competence, competencies, knowledge, etc. etc.) for many reasons, including particularly e-portfolio related uses. Well, here are my current ideas for the New Year.
They are expressed in a set of linked pages, each dealing with a [...]

As I've been involved with GMSA in various ways including through the ioNW2 project, I went to their seminar on 14th May introducing GMSA Advance.  This is to do with providing bite-sized modules of Higher Education, mainly for people at work, and giving awards (including degrees) on that basis - picking up some of the [...]

I've only been hearing and thinking about plagiarism in the last few days - since going to the Assessment Think Tank in York in fact, but since then reading in many places. One of the debated ideas is encouraging students to use plagiarism detection services. Another, heard at York, is that the more adventurous students [...]

Assessment think tank, at The Higher Education Academy, York, 31st January to 1st February 2008
Several of these events appear to have been arranged, and this one was with the Subject Centres both for History, Classics and Archaeology (HCA), and for Philosophy and Religious Studies (PRS).
Around 20 or so delegates were present, mostly from representative subject [...]