I attended a Service Design workshop run by JISC CETIS/Snook in Birmingham recently and, as it was designed to do it got me thinking about our users and what we were trying to achieve. It also got me thinking about what the blockers might be. The EAT-PDP project is about engaging alumni – the clue is in the name. So what would be the major blockers to that? How about the alumni not having access…..
This list is about potential blockers but note that word potential. If we are to design an effective service that satisfies the needs of our users then we need to be aware of what could get in the way of that and work out how to avoid it.
Some headers would be:
Giving alumni access to Myfolio for as long as they want it. This one is pretty major but currently we only have agreement in principal to continue access for one year post graduation. Personally I don’t think that is enough. If we are believers in lifelong learning then how can we expect alumni to engage fully with a service to which they may no longer have access in one year’s time? Yes there is an export facility but its practical use for anything other than transferring content to another instance of Mahara is limited – severely limited. We have to find a way to offer myFolio for as long as alumni want it.
Providing enough storage space – of course we would set limits on this and encourage users to link to external artefacts, using Flickr, Picassa etc. But realistically anything less than 50Mb per user is going to limit the application’s usefulness. A few months ago it looked like the cost of storage was set to continue to plummet but the recent floods in Thailand have seen the price of some HDDs triple in one month. Which just goes to prove how volatile these things can be. It is difficult to make accurate predictions of what the take up by alumni for myfolio might be and hence how much storage we will need to provide, but we need to do this. And to work out how we can prevent dead accounts taking up expensive drive space.
Misuse. A Myfolio account allows a user to publish to the web. How do we monitor and control what is published? Should we do this? We need to assess the risks of alumni – over whom the university will have fewer sanctions – using their myFolio public space for commercial, inappropriate or even illegal purposes. We have Terms amd Conditions and Guidelines in place already for general use of the University’s systems but are we covering all bases? We might need legal advice on this but comments are welcome….
Lack of interest. If we build it will they come? And what do we do if they don’t? Key to avoiding this blocker will be instilling the PDP habit in our undergraduates and emphasising the value of an e-folio. Myfolio/Mahara is a good tool and we know PDP works. How popular e-folios will become only time will tell but it seems likely, especially, in professions where multi-media artefacts are essential to showcase an applicant’s strengths – the arts, film studies and architecture spring to mind. But even in disciplines more traditionally based on text, audio/video presentations may demonstrate the edge an employer is looking for. Continuing PDP is invaluable in any profession. So far the early results at Kent are encouraging – uptake is good and not just from courses with an emphasis on the visual.
Competition from other applications. I have noticed that some students are using myFolio but publishing their journals/blogs on third party software like Blogger and Tumblr. Some users may have previously had blogs with these providers so find it easier to continue, others might prefer the themes available or find them easier to use. However there are many good reasons to use the myFolio journal facility. Some separation from purely social blogs is one. Myfolio is University of Kent branded and this identifies it as part of the learning and development process rather than just another blog amongst thousands on a third party site. Myfolio users also have fine grained control over who can access their pages and when and can trust that the University will not exploit their files and artefacts. Although there are some overlaps with LinkedIn I don’t see it as an alternative to myfolio. In fact a link to a Myfolio showcase page will enhance a LinkedIn profile.
Ease of use Myfolio/Mahara has good functionality but the interface is not always as intuitive as it might be and it lacks some features that would increase its usefulness – resume printing springs to mind. This may also be a reason why some are choosing to use external blogging hosts.The EAT-PDP developers and UELT have already delivered some good improvements to Myfolio but more work needs to be done.
I am confident that MyFolio will prove popular and useful for Kent alumni but we need to design the service around the needs of students and alumni and we need to make sure they know just how good it is. This is something we can do.
On the issue of misuse, some years ago as part of a DCLG project we were told that the responsibility of the platform owner is to provide a ‘report’ button and adequate policies/support. In other words, you cannot be held responsible for misuse if you do this.
Of course, this advice is a few years old and will need to be checked in the light of the legislation since. Also, I understand that you are talking about policy misuse as much as legal misuse.
Interesting point Peter. Myfolio, as an in-house application, does have a ‘Report Objectionable Material’ button at the bottom of every page. If a page is made public however, that button disappears and there is only the facility to comment. I suppose one has to balance the likelihood of such a button generating lots of ‘nuisance’ traffic against the need to be informed of genuine concerns.
I think it would be vital to get alumni, in particular, to agree to a set of guidelines before they were given access to the service. Logically, like every other web service we sign up to, you would have users tick a box to say they had read and agree to T&Cs – only of course they likely would not have read them. We might be covered legally but what we want more than sanctions to deal with infringement is to educate our users not to infringe in the first place! We have to make sure the guidelines for publishing via Myfolio is explored and explained in training sessions whilst users are still students.
Is it possible to use cloud solutions like slicehost for storage?
Cloud solutions might provide a solution to the affordable storage problem though Mahara would need a bit of tweaking as by default artefacts are stored in root data store. It would be possible to point Mahara at a cloud location for the root data store but I am not sure it would be wise – or cost effective. There are different ways to approach this – providing a single cloud storage location for everyone’s artefacts or for each user to have their own location. I can see a set of problems presenting themselves with either scenario but it is certainly worth investigation. It might also be an answer to the issue of users retaining ownership and control of their data when (if?) their Mahara account is finally terminated.