New e-portfolio service launched for all HSST trainees

The National School has this month rolled out its new e-portfolio service – using the e-portfolio product OneFile – to all HSST trainees from the first three cohorts on the programme. This follows the launch of the service to new 2017 HSST starters last October.

To support HSST trainees and their supervisors to begin to use the service, the School has created a set of ‘How to …’ videos for both trainees and for supervisors to guide them through some of the key tasks they will be required to perform in OneFile. The videos for trainees can be found at http://bit.ly/2m3hJby and the videos for supervisors can be found at: http://bit.ly/2CEqKOM

With access to OneFile, HSST trainees from the first three cohorts now have access to a service that is quite radically different from the current OLAT e-portfolio. The principal differences for HSST trainees are:

• OneFile provides a place to store and manage evidence prior to its collation and submission for assessment
• Trainees are expected to use the service to record evidence of training planning
• When submitting evidence of workplace activity and learning (planned with reference to the HSST curricula) trainees will map that evidence against the Higher Specialist Scientist Standards of Proficiency.

In setting up the new service for HSST participants and their supervisors, the National School have continued to be led by research into the needs of users of the e-portfolio service. A programme of research into the experience of HSST trainees and supervisors using OneFile has begun and is already providing the School with valuable insights which are being acted on to adapt and support the service.

Stuart Sutherland, Head of the Digital Team at the School said: “OneFile is a service that provides trainees with greater flexibility than the OLAT e-portfolio ever could. With that flexibility comes the need to put in a bit of time to learn how to take advantage of the service. We hope that HSST participants find it to be a place where they can do something meaningful with their evidence of workplace activity and learning. Here in the School’s Digital Team, we intend to put in significant effort to ensure that we understand what it is like for trainees and supervisors to use the new service and to seek to improve that experience as much as we can.”