Welcome to the Activities-based introduction to the ePARs Personal Evidence Database (PED)

1. Welcome to the Activities-based introduction to the ePARs Personal Evidence Database (PED) Keep clicking and this slideshow will take you through the system

2. What you can put into the Personal Evidence Database (PED) Information about your key activities and achievements – useful for: progress review meetings with tutors job interviews CV writing Evidence of your academic and employability skills Capture your skills experience while the details are still fresh in your mind Retrieve the details whenever you need them, e.g. for a module report or to quote to a potential employer

3. What you can get back from your PED: An at-a-glance visual display of how your skills evidence is growing. Instant updating of your Skills Progress Chart every time you enter a new piece of information Selections of your data emailed to you, for use in reports, review meetings, job applications, job interviews, CVs etc Direct export of your data into the ePARs CV-builder coming soon

4. Welcome page How to start Access the Skills Progress Chart anytime via the menu bar, which appears at the top of every screen The Welcome page offers you two good ways into the PED, when you begin 1. Try the SKILLS route: Which skills have you already got? The PED helps you locate some to get you started Or 2. Try the ACTIVITY route: Taking a key module? Working part-time? Running a society? Doing community action? Travelling? Start capturing key aspects of it here. A note for later: Once you’ve got data in the PED, the Skills Progress Chart could be your favourite way into the system

5. Please note: Some sections of the PED are PRIVATE Other sections are SHARED The Activity route provides a log or notes, as well as skills evidence. The log and notes are private to you, but you can opt to share items from them with tutors and students in your School if you wish. In a few Schools, the PED is used within the curriculum and it may be a module requirement for you to share logs or notes with your tutor. Your Skills progress chart -- and the evidence you enter behind it -- are shared with your personal tutor, automatically (read only). The chart may be useful to look at in personal tutorials. The skills evidence will help your tutor write references for you.

6. Once you get going, please yourself! The two routes illustrated behind the help links on the Welcome page are just to get you started. Once you get going, you can mix and match them, picking out the sections that work best for you. Unless your School requires you to work with part of the PED, it’s all optional, so you can use as much or as little as you like.

7. This introduction to the PED shows the Activity-based route From the PED Welcome page you click here to go to the New Activity page

8. This is the New Activity page If the activity is a module, click here for a shortcut to completing this page If not, use the drop-down menu to set the type of activity. Specify Study, Work-based Experience or Further activities. Then give the activity a title Fill in further info as appropriate. You can edit this at any time.

9. Further down the same page … If your activity is ongoing, you can create an email link to a contact person, e.g. activity supervisor, organiser, tutor or mentor Set the PED to email you a Regular reminder to update the Activity record if you wish. Click ‘submit’

10. Next: Check the activity details and choose a tool You can choose any or all of these three ways to write about the activity … 2. The OVERVIEW NOTES tool helps you look back over all or part of it and sum things up 1. The ONGOING LOG helps you note key things about the activity while it is going on 3. The EVIDENCE SKILLS tool helps you record the skills you use in the activity You can amend the activity details. Click edit. You can remove the activity from the database. Click delete

11. The ONGOING LOG tool Aim of this log: tracking the experience as it happens There’s a choice of seven headings to help you analyse the experience of doing the activity and think about ways of enhancing what you achieve Click on any topic, any time, to open a notes textbox

12. Writing in the log Select a topic. Prompts appear under the heading, to help you decide what to write Enter notes in the textbox. Click ‘save draft’ if you might want to edit your text. Click ‘submit’ if it’s finished You can share any ‘submitted’ section of your log, specifying a tutor or other students from your School. Please get their agreement first! Everything submitted in the section at any time -- earlier or later – can then be read, until you switch the sharing off. To read feedback someone enters about a shared section of your log, click here Previous entries build up and are displayed here They are dated automatically

13. The OVERVIEW NOTES tool Aim of this tool: Summing up the activity If you have an Ongoing Log for the same activity, you can refer directly to it while working with the Overview Notes tool, and the other way about There’s a choice of seven headings to help you identify key outcomes of the Activity in relation to your performance, employability and forward planning As with the Ongoing Log, click on any topic to open a textbox with prompts for your notes – the process is the same, but the content is very different

14. Using the EVIDENCE SKILLS tool Select a skill used in the activity Here is the title of your activity Here is your area of activity Drop down the sub-menu alongside and select the specific skill. This fires you into the next screen Select the broad skills area you want from the first menu

15. A textbox opens up for you to enter some evidence Every entry you make in the PED is automatically dated for you Type your evidence here If you wish, click a button to indicate how confident you are feeling with the skill. The rating will appear on your Skills Progress Chart Click Submit Note: Your entries will build up and be displayed further down on this same screen

16. The PED will then show you the whole entry What would you like to do next? You now have some further options Stay with the activity and add evidence for same/different skill If you need stronger evidence of this skill, turn it into a target (creates an orange square on your Skills Progress Chart) Click here to display your dated entries in ascending or descending order ORStick with the skill and add evidence from a different activity

17. Your skills evidence changes the display on your Skills Progress Chart Also the broad skills headings. (You can click on these to get to the specific sub-skills) The chart shows the three basic areas of activity. (You can click on these to get to the specific activities you have entered) Each grey square represents a specific skill. Hover with the mouse to see the name. Click on it to make it a target or to enter evidence. Once evidence is entered for a skill, its square changes colour. Click on it to go to the evidence. The number is the latest confidence rating (optional).

18. This is what is displayed below the chart on the same screen You can call up a snapshot of your progress for any time-window you like. There are links to other sites with ideas for further activities The chart uses 5 colours. Here’s the key You can print the chart out, e.g. for a meeting with a careers adviser. For any screen, use a PED Print button or the print function on your PC

19. Using the To Do list This tool is private to you Access it from the menu bar The PED can remind you to review your To Do list if you wish Click here to add an item to the list. Enter details and set priority level. Press submit. Your items come to the top of the list, in priority order You can edit and delete them Target skills come next, automatically. Click on ‘evidence skills’ to add some evidence

20. Using the Select Outputs tool This is the tool you use to get the read-outs of your data which you will need for various purposes There’s a choice of five ways to collate your data, depending on what you want it for Click on any heading and you can go on to choose the specific material you want. Press an email button and the PED sends you the collated details as an email attachment. You can then incorporate them in reports, jobs applications, CVs, etc

21. Thank you and Good Luck – but before you go … • The PED is NEW. It was developed in 2002-03 with the help of Nottingham students and staff. The ePARs team hope you will find it useful and enjoy using it. • You are one of the first people to see it. We would really appreciate receiving your feedback, so that we can improve it during 2003-04. • Please send us an email ePARs-ped@nottingham.ac.uk You can use the email link on the PED Welcome page. Let us know of any problems – tell us what you do like and what you don’t like – send us your suggestions • Click on the other help link on the PED Welcome page if you would like to tour the Introduction to the Skills Route.