Workstream Four
Development of an open source (WordPress)
CPD tool to log professional development and
manage training provision
Aims
Provision of a robust and usable framework to record skills and training.
To support the implementation of career pathways work, higher education institutions
will be provided with free open source software to capture training and CPD.
CPD Criteria
The Continual Professional Development platform currently being developed will:
• Encourage participants to reflect on learning activities
• Allow them to express their experience in multiple formats
• Permit sharing and networked learning
• Allow supervisors to focus effort on developing staff rather than administration.
The chosen platform is WordPress, already used extensively in every government
department website.
Methods
Using WordPress - a free open source publishing platform as the framework, we have
developed a plugin that turns a standard Wordpress installation into a Continual
Professional Development platform which allows staff to record CPD in the form of
a personal journal.
This can also serve as a portfolio, e-assessment and personalised tutoring technology.
The software is free and can be installed at any institution provided they meet the
hosting requirements.
Next Steps
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Currently under test at the University of Sheffield, capturing trainees CPD and
assessment.
Once local testing has finished we will select a pilot institution to conduct further
testing.
Further development and bug fixes.
At the end of the project - official version 1 roll-out to all pilots with supporting
documentation.
HEFCE Catalyst Project
Development & embedding of career pathways
for technicians across the
Higher Education Sector.
www.sheffield.ac.uk/tdm