Personalised Learning has moved to the forefront of educational pedagogies. The notion that learners are engaged in development that goes beyond the learning outcomes of their main study programme is not a new concept, but the title of personalised learning is. The 5 stages of Recognising and Recording Progress and Achievement (RARPA) are seamlessly entwined with individual targets and the use of formative and summative assessment.
As a consequence, the ILP moves beyond a administrative hoop to be jumped through and evolves into a key document that supports the development of an autonomous learner based on their own motives, interests, styles of learning, talents and needs. Additionally, the ILP provides evidence of learners performance that can be used motivationally by tutors when discussing progress, developments and outcomes.
Challenges that are common barriers to the effective use of an ILP are issues relating to physical access and ownership. If the ILP is in a filing cabinet and only used in formal tutorials, then the students doesn’t have access. If the ILP is in diary form and in the possession of the learners the tutor is reliant on the learner to bring that document to a 1 to 1 tutorial.
In essence, ILPs need to be simultaneously accessible by the 3 main stakeholders in a learner’s college life:
i) The learner themselves
ii) The personal tutor
iii) The unit teacher
By having this type of access a truly organic commentary on performance can be established overcoming the contrived ‘hoop’ jumping that can result from a mechanistic approach. This process involves a participatory approach enabling frequent feedback from tutors and teachers; reflection on external and internal feedback leading to progress and achievement and a clearer understanding and ownership of targets and performance. The process will also increase the time in which a learner can reflect on their performance and to plan improvements independent of tutors and teachers at opportunities that are convenient to them and that fit round other commitments.
A number of options existed to the team. Commercial providers offer a range of options that possessed the capability to use technology to provide simultaneous and secure access to ILPs. However, it was evident that the existing Blackboard VLE used on the campus could be customised to provide a format that enabled a similar package to be created without the need for and potential problems with interoperability. In short, the use of Blackboard enabled the team to trial an e-ILP approach with minimum risk in terms of finance, time, technological capabilities and training.
