BSc

Access to Profile
The Profile website has two main areas: an open access public area and a secure e-portfolio area. The open area is accessed by the links at the bottom of the login page. The e-portfolio area is accessed through the login.

Login access
Only users whose details appear on Profile's databases have logins. If you have not received a login and password from Profile then you will not be able to gain access to the secure e-portfolio area. As yet, there is no self-sign up to obtain an e-portfolio or to view behind the login page. A self-sign up option will be available shortly but for the moment, please read through the material below as it will give you an idea of the features of this system upon which you can decide whether to contact us.

Background
It may help to know a little about the background to Profile. It is funded by HEFCE (the funding body of Higher Education in England & Wales) and is based in the Faculty of Applied Sciences (FAS) at the University of the West of England (UWE), Bristol. The developers can be contacted through: profile@uwe.ac.uk.

Generic & highly flexible e-portfolio
The developers of Profile have produced a generic and highly flexible e-portfolio that can be used free of charge by Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to remotely track and assess their students' learning or personal development planning (PDP). Further Education and any UK educational organisation are also included. The system also contains a communication tool that serves as an audit trail for dialogue between the stakeholders for any one e-portfolio.

Profile is made up of autonomous, self-contained areas called 'realms' Each realm represents a particular type of activity that you would like to capture. For instance, at FAS at UWE, we have one realm for undergraduate science placement students, another realm for postgraduate environmental placement students, and another for PDP for all students in the Faculty.

The secure area of Profile is made up of autonomous, self-contained areas called 'realms', each representing a particular type of activity and managed by its Administrator.

If you are involved in placements, PDP or CPD or any form of remote management of activities and would like to provide e-portfolios to the group of people you manage, you will be provided with your own realm which you manage autonomously.

Each realm has its own Administrator, or an Administrator can look after a number of realms. Once we have set you up with a realm you are then fully autonomous and there is no need to refer to us in the day-to-day management of your activities. In this way, there are no bottle-necks centrally. We will obviously provide you with support when needed but otherwise you just get on with your work.

The Administrator has two main roles: maintaining the user database and uploading and configuring web-forms.

Maintaining the user database. The Administrator can provide any number of students with their own, individual, private and highly secure e-portfolio by simply adding the students' email addresses to a simple Excel spreadsheet and uploading the spreadsheet to their realm. All that is needed to set up an e-portfolio is an email address. All email addresses are unique (unlike other forms of user name) and any email address can be used: university email, work email, hotmail etc. A person can even change their email address and continue to use their e-portfolio so long as they inform the Administrator of their realm of their new email address and the database can be updated. The advantage of using any email address (and not being restricted to the university's or company's email address) is that the e-portfolios can continue to be used when the student has graduated and can form part of lifelong learning or CPD.
The Administrator can also add the email addresses of academics and work supervisors to the user list and these types of users can be invited by the student to view and sign off evidence of learning in the e-portfolio. In this way the work of the student can be authenticated or verified. A template Excel spreadsheet is provided to the Administrator to manage his/her realm.

Uploading & configuring web-forms Most of the interaction with the e-portfolio is through web-forms. If you manage a task using Word forms, then that task can be managed more effectively through Profile by turning those forms into web-forms. Help is provided in how to do this. Essentially, any activity that involves forms (be they portfolios, project management, remote management) can be handled by Profile.

Special feature of Profile web-forms
The Profile software allows certain parts of web-forms to be completed by certain types of user. So, for instance, you might want students to complete a form related to work-experience and also want the work supervisor to 'sign-off' the work. A form can be configured so that certain sections can only be completed by the student and on the same form have other sections to be completed by a tutor or supervisor and Profile can deliver this capability.

Uploading attachments or evidence
Profile allows web-forms to have attachments such as Word documents, graphics, video & audio files, Excel spreadsheets etc. Anything that can be digitised can be attached to the forms. For instance, students evidencing learning might wish to attach materials as supporting evidence and Profile handles this feature.

Communication tool
Each Profile e-portfolio contains a communication tool through which stakeholders can hold discussions and exchange messages which are saved and therefore serve as an audit trail.

What to do next ...
The above provides a brief overview of the Profile system. If you are interested to find out more, then email us on profile@uwe.ac.uk and we will advise you on how you can start using Profile.