Good CoP

Free book :OD

In 2009 the Australian ePortfolio Project < http://www.eportfoliopractice.qut.edu.au/ > conducted a series of semi structured interviews from 14 online communities across the globe.  This research project was designed to elicit a picture of the types and methods of engagement afforded to these "virtual" eportfolio communities of practice (CoP).  RSC East & West Midlands very own virtual eportfolio CoP < http://groups.google.co.uk/group/rscmeg?hl=en > was discussed in terms of platform types, level of management/ facilitation, and participation engagement.

This type of facilitating and supporting subject specific "forums" either F2F, online, or both, has long been a strength of the JISC  Regional Support Centres, and we were merely continuing the good work already being carried out across the UK by all RSC's.  The very nature of the online domain to support embryonic CoPs presents many new challenges, in terms of maintaining a manageable balance between facilitation, engagement by its members, and choice of platform. We were influenced by local successful CoPs, specifically as the elearning Best Practice run by Helen Walmsley(former RSC member),   http://learning.staffs.ac.uk/moodle/login/index.php  .

This collaborative venture between myself & Ben Williams (RSC East Midlands) also prove that cross RSC projects are essential, by reaping the benefits of sharing effective practice both internally and externally. It is hoped that others may learn from our experiences when considering supporting similar CoPs in their own areas.

See also our wiki page that covers all things eportoflio , plus the excellent EPAC - USA based wiki pages - my original inspiration the http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/e-portfolios

While I'm on the subject of eportfolios, I saw a demo of in-folio the other day.  It's been funded by JISC Techdis and developed (by the RIX centre)with UK specialist Colleges. I was impressed at it's ease of use and straight forward interface. Two years in the making, it goes from strength to strength, and was mentioned that it will be released as Open Source.

They have even developed an innovative image based log in function to assist those who cannot type. This project alone looks like it has potential to made logins easier for many (to eliminate the bane of multiple passwords) : http://www.clippi.com/where.php