E-Portfolio FAQs

What is the purpose of the ePortfolio?

This ePortfolio is designed to support learning by providing a secure record of appraisal discussions, an ongoing personal development plan, workplace assessments plus reflection on clinical and other learning events. The ePortfolio links to the relevant GMC approved curricula appropriate to your stage of training.

The ePortfolio is designed to help gather and organise evidence in a way that is trainee centred and user friendly. The emphasis for this the trainee with support from their supervisor.

For the 2011 training year the UK Foundation Programme Office have provided the following table to clarify the purpose and different perspectives of the FP e-Portfolio

Foundation doctor /
  • To provide a tool to help plan learning, progression and reflection
  • To provide a mechanism for gathering evidence of achievements mapped to the FP Curriculum
  • To provide a facility to monitor satisfactory progress against the FP Curriculum
  • To provide a mechanism for capturing additional evidence to demonstrate excellence and support ST applications

Trainer/Supervisor /
  • To provide a tool to help trainers/supervisors to assist foundation doctors to plan their learning
  • To provide information to monitor a foundation doctor’s progress in line with the requirements for satisfactory completion of the Foundation Programme
  • To identify opportunities to support doctors who demonstrate excellence and or doctors who may need additional support
  • To provide access to evidence which will help inform judgments when completing the End of Placement report
  • To provide information to support supervisor continuity

e-Portfolio Administrator /
  • To support local education provider quality control/deanery quality management
  • To support the foundation doctor, educational and clinical supervisor, foundation school director and other user of the e-portfolio

FTPD/FSD /
  • To support foundation doctors during the Foundation Programme and in particular doctors who demonstrate excellence and/or doctors who may need additional help
  • To provide information to monitor a foundation doctor’s progress in line with the requirements for satisfactory completion of F1 and the Foundation Programme
  • To provide access to evidence which will help inform judgments when completing the F1 and Foundation Programme sign off

Who can see my portfolio?

  • Supervisors, tutors and programme directors who have been assigned to you on the system
  • Administrators in your trust and deanery
  • ARCP review panels (where used)

Reflections which you have not shared cannot be seen by anyone other than you.

Can I save a copy of the data on my PC and work on it off-line?

No. You can download text versions but you can only work on the ePortfolio data online.

How does the ePortfolio link with the GPs ePortfolio?

The RCGP ePortfolio is based on the same original software but is run separately; there is no connection between the systems.

Who enters information into ePortfolio?

The student mentor has to take personal responsibility for the main parts of the ePortfolio and should complete most of the data entry, e.g.

  • Evidence items
  • Learning Action Plan
  • Protected Learning
  • Meeting forms with the supervising mentor
  • Links to the NMC Nurse Mentor Competencies

It is the student mentor’s responsibility to arrange for their witness testimony assessments and their supervision of sign-off assessments and to ensure that these are completed.

The supervising mentor should assist the student mentor throughout the attachment.

Is there a description of the roles within ePortfolio?

The Access Rights table (located in the Help section) contains a definition of which roles have access to which information.

What should I use the messaging system for?

The Messaging System is used to communicate with users regarding Support Queries.

The ePortfolio Messaging System is also an optional tool for messaging other users of ePortfolio, eg student mentors, supervising mentors and administrators.

What is the timeout, before you can no longer browse back to the last page?

When completing a form, you have unlimited time to complete the form as long as you are actively typing. Once you stop typing, you will be logged out after 60 minutes (you will see a pop-up message informing you of this). If at any point during the 60 minute window you resume typing the 60 minutes clock will be reset.

Extending this timeout period longer further increases the risk of unauthorized users accessing an account, particularly in public environments.

How will local issues be raised to NES?

There is an established ePortfolio users group which will report to the Council of Postgraduate Medical Deans (COPMeD) Portfolio Management Group, and will approve non-core content change requests (some ePortfolio content is deemed ‘core’ by COPMeD and is managed by a separate group).

The user group is known as the ‘ePortfolio Foundation Team Advisory Group’ (often shortened to TAG). Each of the deaneries who use the NES foundation ePortfolio has the opportunity to send both administrative and clinical representatives to this group.

Can the system be set up so that trainees have to complete two of each assessment by a certain timeline?

NES began with a very comprehensive alert system that prompted various things to be done at specific times – feedback from users was overwhelmingly that this was too rigid and didn’t allow for exceptions (which there always are). The Foundation programme is designed so that there is flexibility in completion in different locations, but guidance is given about recommended targets. The Target Timeline functionality can be used as a guide.

Why is my connection slow while I'm at work?

The ePortfolio is a web-based service available via any internet connection. The speed that the ePortfolio appears to work at is largely dependent on the speed of the network connection that you use to access the website.

The most likely cause of the ePortfolio running slowly if you are using a NHS computer is that the NHS internet gateway can be a bottle-neck to external websites (the ePortfolio is hosted externally to the NHS N3 network). This means that the ePortfolio can run slowly for users, but there is nothing the ePortfolio team can do to avoid this.

If your connection speed is slow, this may affect your access to the ePortfolio site, and the speed at which each page opens. Your local IT department may be able to provide further information about internet provision and connection issues.

If connecting from outside the NHS network, for example on a home broadband connection, you should notice that the site runs a lot faster.

You can check your connection speed using one of the EXTERNAL speed testing sites below:

Do all ACCS trainees have to use the ePortfolio?

For convenience we tend to refer to the ePortfolio for CMT, but ACCS for physicians is included and anyone on an ACCS (Medicine) programme should be given access. For ACCS trainees on an Emergency Medicine or Anaesthetics path their arrangements for recording training will be as specified by the appropriate college, but JRCPTB has no objection to them being given access for the purpose of recording progress in medical attachments.

How do Foundation trainees access Foundation e-learning materials?

To access Foundation e-learning materials, Foundation trainees can use: reception.e-lfh.org.uk.

They will be advised of their username / password through their Foundation school. Once they have logged into this site, there will be access to the Foundation Learning Management System where all the courses relevant to them will be stored. Users will be able to search for materials and create learning paths to link materials together in a logical way.

How does the JRCPTB ePortfolio link with Foundation ePortfolio?

A version of the ePortfolio is being used by Foundation trainees in most UK deaneries. The JRCPTB and Foundation ePortfolios are a single common system, but with different content and tools – trainees will see a view of the ePortfolio that varies according to their stage of training and speciality. The ePortfolio will build up as a single record from Foundation carrying on into specialty training.

Minimum system requirements

Connection Speed:

We recommend at least 1.0Mbs

Another factor that may affect ePortfolio performance is the computer hardware and software that you use to access the ePortfolio. Outdated equipment or software may cause suboptimal performance.

Minimum PC specification:

This will be dependent on the specifications required by the web browser (i.e. Internet explorer, Firefox, etc.) that you use. Please see their requirements for minimum specifications.

ePortfolio Server Details

The ePortfolio Server is hosted in a Secure Data Centre with multiple 10Gbps access connections which provides capacity for up to 1,000 concurrent users.

How does the ePortfolio apply to SpRs already in training?

There is currently no expectation that SpRs should use the ePortfolio.

How does the ePortfolio apply to StRs in years ST3+?

We are encouraging all StRs to use the ePortfolio now but we recognise that there is currently variation by locality and speciality. This is acceptable to JRCPTB as long as deaneries make it clear to trainees and supervisors what their expectations are for ARCP. From August 2009 all new StRs should use the ePortfolio.

Who enters information into the ePortfolio?

The trainee has to take personal responsibility for the main parts of the portfolio and should complete most of the data entry, e.g.

  • Declarations and agreements
  • Self assessment
  • Personal development plan
  • Initial appraisal meeting forms with advice at the meeting from the educational supervisor (unless the supervisor prefers to enter these forms)
  • Mid point appraisal (unless the supervisor prefers to enter these forms)
  • All elements of personal reflective practice

It is the trainees’ responsibility to arrange for their workplace assessments and to ensure that the assessments are completed.

The educational supervisor should monitor the record of curriculum competencies throughout a placement and write the end of attachment appraisal and supervisor's report.

Remember that supervisors do not have to carry out the majority of assessments for their trainees

How do I improve the print out of my ePortfolio?

Items within ePortfolio can be printed either by directly printing from the web browser window (i.e. selecting "Print" from the File menu of the browser), or by downloading all or parts of you ePortfolio to a PDF file, and printing this.
When printing directly from a web page it is recommended that you first go to "Print preview", and select "Page settings" (the cog icon in Internet explorer). Here, select "Shrink to fit", and also check the option "Print background colours and images".
Printing from a PDF file shouldn't require changes to printer set up but if you do observe problems with printing (such as the right margin being cropped) you may have to check the settings on your printer, and possibly also in you PDF reader (such as Adobe Acrobat).
The above options will not solve the problem of form items being cropped at the bottom of the page. At present the ePortfolio team is working to find a solution to this.

Assessment

Can trainees request assessments or SLEs for previous posts?

Assessments, SLEs or other necessary forms (for example an ‘initial meeting form’) should usually be carried out in post and recorded promptly. However it is possible to record an assessment against a previous post if necessary. When the form is ‘ticketed’ (requested from an external assessor) or ‘created’ (entered direct via an account) there will be a ‘post-select’ drop down menu. This menu defaults to the current post, but manually selecting a previous post will allow a form to be saved,

This access to previous posts is time limited as follows:

  • Trainee
  • Educational supervisor
  • Clinical supervisor

Is there an audit trail available if an assessment or other form is deleted?

Yes, this information is stored in the system. To retrieve this for a specific form, please submit a Support request including the name, email address and/or username of the trainee as well as the type of form and the date it was originally submitted.

Should supervisors or administrators request assessments or SLEs for their trainees?

Ultimately, it is the trainee’s responsibility; nevertheless if you feel it is appropriate following a review of your trainee’s development, you do have the ability to request assessments or SLEs.

If a CBD is entered, do you get a confirmation?

CBD is like any other "ticketed" form at the moment. The trainee can see if it has been completed on the "Request External Assessment" page by either a green tick or red cross icon, and of course, if the completed form is showing in their Supervised Learning Events list.

Am I allowed to edit an assessment or a SLE?

Once an assessment or SLE has been saved it cannot be edited.

Why can’t I see my TAB results?

A key principle of the 360° appraisal tool TAB (Team Assessment of Behaviour) is that the individual forms are submitted anonymously and then a collated feedback summary.

Any individual TAB from submitted will be visible to a trainee in their work-based assessment summary page, but the trainee will be unable to open the form and read its contents.

A supervisor can see individual TAB assessment forms when submitted. They can also see a summary table. When a sufficient number of individual returns have been completed the supervisor can release the summary table at which point it will appear in the trainee’s ePortfolio.

How do 'Attention items' work?

For administrators or supervisors viewing a trainee’s ePortfolio a yellow attention icon is shown next to any form within 'Work-based Assessments' or 'Supervision and meetings' or when there is any answer that has a value which warrants attention. This is intended to draw the attention of a supervisor or relevant administrator to any possible development requirements that a trainee may have.

The icon can be clicked to open a new profile section called 'Attention Items'. Within this section, administrators or supervisors can:

  • Mark an attention item as having been dealt with, in which case warnings are suppressed for that item.
  • Enter an 'Ignore until' date, in which case warnings are suppressed for that item up to the date entered.
  • Enter text (Notes) against the attention items.

Step-by-step instructions to how to use the 'attention items' section can be found in both the 'supervisor' and 'administrator' user guides.

Users shown in search results will also have a warning icon if there are any - again this can be clicked to open profile page.

An additional filter has been added to show only users with active attention items in the 'Search Users' function for administrators. In order to access trainees having 'Attention Items' only, administrators just need to check that checkbox while searching for trainees using the 'Search Trainees' option.

Is there a way for customising forms/assessment templates or are they a standard set?

Customisation is always possible, but the controlling body for UK’s Foundation Training Programme (the United Kingdom Foundation Programme Office (or UKFPO)) wishes to standardise assessment processes and forms for Foundation programmes across the UK. The standard set is automatically available to all, and any changes to these need to be approved by a UKFPO/COPMeD governance committee called the COPMeD ePortfolio Curriculum Delivery Group.

How do I complete a Patient Survey / Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire?

Patient Survey is not a required assessment method for CMT/ACCS. Patient Survey will be required for specialty training from ST3 and JRCPTB and the RCP Education Department are piloting this. We expect this to use a paper form for patients to complete but with the ability for the summary results to be held in the ePortfolio. No such facility exists at the moment.

Can there be a function to ‘Request Meeting’ and not just ‘Request Assessment’?

No, a meeting form should be created when the trainee and Educational Supervisor are together in a meeting.

What were the drivers for changes to the assessment process in Foundation?

The assessment process in Foundation has been changed to address the concerns raised in Foundation for Excellence, which was commissioned by Medical Education England. Professor John Collins, who led the review of the Foundation Programme, recommended that

20: The range of assessment tools and the number of times assessment must be repeated in the Foundation Programme should be reviewed, with a view to reducing these to the minimum required by 2013. The opportunity to avoid repetitive assessments, by improved transfer of information between undergraduate and schools, should be actively explored.

How has the assessment process changed?

There has been a radical revision and clarification of the assessment process within foundation training.

The following tools are no longer used as formal assessments in the Foundation Programme: