Project Conclusion and Future Planning

The SWANI project concluded its work with the final Stakeholder Workshop/Steering Group meeting yesterday. The meeting reviewed the work of the project and noted that all of the key objectives had been achieved and outcomes delivered. It recieved the draft project report and discussed the content. Some minor amendments were made, principally the updating of the number of WBL forms now available in digitised form on the Joomla platform, and the report was then approved for submission to JISC.

The follow on work, dissemination and benefits realisation activities were discussed. It was agreed that a six month period of implementation, testing and evaluation would begin in January 2012, in parallel with the existing paper based WBL administration processes. The outcomes of that evaluation would then be discussed with all the WBL partners, with a view to full implementation thereafter. It was agreed that the successful outcome of the project would be disseminated through appropriate channels in 2012 and this would be led by Prof Toole who would identify and prepare for suitable conference presentation opportunities in the first half of the year. The possibility of organising a Webinar was also discussed.

The meeting concluded by thanking all of the stakeholders for their contribution and commended, in particular, the work of the technical team who created the digitised version of the WBL management and administration system.

End of Project Planning

The SWANI project is due to complete at the end of this month and the project team is in the process of producing the necessary paperwork, particularly the project final report. The latest draft was discussed with the Programme Manager, Rob Englebright, this morning and the final version will be released following the final stakeholder meeting scheduled at Coleg Sir Gar tomorrow.

The plan will now be, following the end of the project, for the new digitised system to run in parallel with the paper based system during the first half of 2012. A review of the system will then take place, in collaboration with all WBL partners, to decide on the future implementation of digitisation on a wider basis.

In terms of project dissemination, it is expected that the project outputs will be included in conference presentations in the new year, and that a journal publication will be planned, possibly as a technical note, that would be of value to others in the community of practice planning similar development.

Acceptance of Digital Pen System

Feedback from the WBL Manager and Auditor in the Welsh Government DfES has confirmed that the use of the digital pen system for signing off all audit documents in the work based learning system is acceptable. Their response states that it meets the requirements of the EU audit process and can be used as planned to complete the digitisation of the management and administration of the programme.