1. Opening up the competency store
Leading innovation in technology assisted learning
Opening up the competency store
Dave Waller – Operations Director

2. Supporting Competency based learning and development since 2000:
Extensive experience of competency definition consultancy and support (Retail Academy, NHS Diabetes Care)
Provision of comprehensive competency analysis tools (Capability Matrix, NHS, Delta-Afrik, CIPD, local authorities)
Supporting competency development through e-portfolios (ALPS, Foundation Degree in Retail, University of Leeds School of Medicine)
Strong, ongoing relationship with a number of SSCs and NSAs (most notably the Nuclear and Process Industries – Cogent, NSAPI and NSAN)
Development of a robust platform for competency framework management (Multi-Port framework powered by .NET and SQLServer)

3. Challenges emerging: Increasing demand for integrated solutions
Inconsistent structure, definition and publication of frameworks
Wide ranging definition of “competency frameworks” including:
National Occupational Standards
Skills frameworks
Competency frameworks
Assessment criteria
Differing approaches within single institutions
Varied commercial / business models when working with professional institutes and Sector Skills Councils

4. The MyKnowledgeMap Multi-Port framework
Functional components
Framework management tools
Competency analysis tools
Assessment management tools
e-Portfolio / reflective learning tools
e-Learning content management tools
Core Multi-Port framework application
Data storage layer
User data
Learning content
Competency frameworks …

5. A review of the current approach:
Interoperability with other systems can often be problematic (especially with non-.NET applications)
Different Multi-Port core functions are available in different ways (XML, SOAP, JSON, HTML)
Some Multi-Port core functions are only available through other .NET ASPX pages
A noticeable shift away from the monolithic application delivered by a single vendor
Institutions want to use a variety of tools, each with their own strengths (VLEs, portfolios, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, etc)

6. How can Multi-Port be “opened up”?
Core Multi-Port framework application
Data storage layer
User data
Learning content
Competency frameworks …
MKM functional components
The Web 2.0 Cloud
VLEs
e-portfolios
Blogs
Wordpress
Flickr
Twitter
Assessment tools
Facebook
ELGG
Multi-Port open API

7. What can be done with this approach?
Competency frameworks loaded through web-services
Evidence loaded from Flickr using the open Flickr API
Twitter API used to draw tweets as evidence
Drag-n-drop mapping of evidence against competencies
RSS feeds bring evidence from blogs or other sources
A custom PHP application hosted separately from the core Multi-Port framework

8. Moving forward…
Multi-Port continues to be “opened up” with more open web-services
Robust competency management, storage and delivery functions are becoming available through the API
Work continues to adopt open standards (LEAP2a, RDFa, and standardised web-service conventions)
But, how should we open the competency functions to make them usable and interoperable?

9. Thank you Leading innovation in technology assisted learning
Dave Waller – Operations Director
MyKnowledgeMap
Dave Waller – Operations Director
MyKnowledgeMap