6 steps to the design and development of an ePPSME unit webfolio template

Please ensure that all validation and quality assurances processes are complete or underway before you start to design the learning materials and webfolio templates. Details of these processes can be found here

Step 1: Download the appropriate unit webfolio template from the ePPSME gateway

The template you will download is made up of a Webfolio that has content pages and a number of embedded blog pages that are used for recording activity responses. These pages contain guidance, hints and tips for customising the Webfolio for a particular context. Before starting work on the template please have a look at the Guidelines for designing webfolio content to give you an holistic view of what needs to be included in the webfolio. When working with the template please be aware that content pages and activity blog pages are edited slightly differently and instructions for both are given below

There are templates available for units 1-4. There is also an examples gateway where existing unit templates can be seen.

Step 2: Editing informational content pages

There are a series of informational pages, welcome, introduction and unit guide. These are already populated with contextual information but require specific unit information being supplied at points throughout. These points are signified by a number of ‘xxxxxx’ placeholders that require editing. (image saying intro, unit guide etc)

Step 3: Editing weekly content pages

After the informational pages there are a series of weekly content pages to be edited. If you are working on a unit 1 template the week 1 content and activity pages are pre-populated with an introduction to PebblePad. The remaining weeks (and all weeks in unit 2-4 templates) require content and activities.

You can find ideas for designing content to be delivered online here 

Hints and tips

• It is recommended that content be prepared in Word in advance of working with the template. When doing this do not do any formatting or make any hyperlinks as this will need to be done when transferring the material into the Webfolio template. Any formatting or hyperlinks made in the Word version will not copy over when you transfer the content into PebblePad.
• To edit Webfolio pages you will use the ‘edit this asset’ option. Once in the editing mode use the ‘images in text’ mode (seen in the image on the right) to allow easier editing of the Webfolio. It will enable the Webfolio page to be split into sections and to make separating out the content easier at the design stage (The page will be seen as a seamless page once finished, the sectioning is a design feature) Working in this mode will also allow for images to be place throughout the text (where appropriate)
• Be aware that when moving to a new Webfolio page to edit that the default positioning of the page will be at the bottom and that you will need to scroll up for pages that already contain content.
• Week 10 has no content. This is a short reflective account to bring the unit to a close.

The following are help materials to help with the editing Webfolio pages(webfolio editing page 1-13)

Step 4: Editing activity blog pages

For each week of content there is an accompanying activity page. These activity pages are made up of embedded blog pages and so are edited slightly differently than the Webfolio pages shown above. Open the Webfolio using the ‘view this asset’ option.

Hints and tips for activity blog pages

• Aim for no more than 3 activities per week (more importantly remember activities and content have to be achievable in the 5 hours per week allotted time).
• Try to make activities wherever possible relate to the learners work content and encourage in context responses.
• Give an indicative word count and time to spend for each activity
• On some weeks include a collaborative blog activity as well as individual tasks (see group blog section below)
• Ensure on the introduction pages you have set your feedback expectations. Make sure learners are aware that they won’t get feedback on every activity, but it is recommended that if possible that 1 activity per week per learner is commented on. The important thing is that learners know what to expect in relation to feedback on activities.
• To edit your activity pages you will use the ‘post new’ button in the top right of each activity page. Put your activities in the page in reverse order as the blog organises thins chronologically.

Please see the following help materials for full details on editing activity pages (activity page editing page 14-17)

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Step 5: Group blog

• Group blog page – this requires a link to the group blog set up in the gateway for each cohort. It is recommended you do this during the final gateway set up for the unit. At this stage there is an editable 'xxxxxx' section to put in the start date of the cohort to ensure the group blog links match the date set. There are full details of how do the link to the group blog on the Gateway set up’ page that follows

Step 6: Checking the uneditable pages

• Personal blog page – this page requires no editing
• Evaluation – these are embedded online forms that cannot be edited but the responses will be collated on the gateway

At this point it is advised that you use the webfolio completion checking tool now to check the entire webfolio for completion

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Once the webfolio is complete you will need to do the Gateway admin and preparation shown on the gateway admin page.