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Curriculum and Assessment Site

RCGP ePortfolio Version 5.0 Release Notes

26th July 2010

The RCGP is pleased to announce that Version 5.0 of the ePortfolio is now live. This release has a large number of changes and focuses on an updated Educational Supervisor’s Review Process, which should make the review process smoother and more straightforward to complete.

 

This release also updates the messaging system within the ePortfolio to make it more user friendly, has some updated administrative functions and will also introduce a new look. The new layout is more in keeping with the RCGP website style, and scales to fit window size and screen resolution. This will help with removing long columns of text that can appear in some pages.

 

Further details of the changes are listed below.

Review Changes

The Review system has been updated to ensure all relevant parts of the ePortfolio are looked at and completed appropriately for each review. These updates include:

 

  • Competence Ratings being made review specific for both Trainees and Educational Supervisors.
  • The review is now completed as the Educational Supervisor looks at the relevant parts of the ePortfolio. This should ensure the ES has easier access to the information they are being asked to comment on.
  • Each step of the review will need to be completed in turn before the next step can be started.
  • A review of the PDP is now included in the review.
  • Several of the text boxes have been re-labelled to remove closed questions and allow for more open detailed reflection.
  • Case based Discussion – competences for CbD’s rated with “insufficient evidence” no longer link to the summary table ‘stream-lining’ the review process.
  • Evidence contributions will now map to the correct competence ratings to make this more useful.
  • Curriculum Coverage will now be more review specific – when looking at older reviews you will only see the curriculum coverage that was relevant at that time.
  • The Trainee Self-Rating of Competence must be completed by a Trainee in order to sign off a Review
  • Out of Programme (OOP) Reviews can now be completed more easily.
  • The Trainee Declarations now become more review specific (see details below)
  • Layout of several boxes changed so as to be easier to read and fill in.
  • Progress of Review is now saved and can easily be returned to at a later date.
  • Guidance for the New Educational Supervisor's Report (Word doc, 295 KB)
  • Power Point slides demonstrating the New Educational Supervisor's Report (Power Point document, 1.7Mb)

 

Deanery Administration Changes

  • Import System for new Trainees – Some Deaneries (ie, those who requested it) will now have the option of importing a file containing new Trainee Post information. This should reduce administrative work somewhat at the start of a training year.
  • Guide to Import Posts (pdf, 300Kb)
  • Manual Trigger of ARCP forms – Under certain conditions, Deaneries can now trigger an ARCP form without a review. These include ‘Out of Post’, ‘Outcome 5 – review of additional evidence’ and ‘Trainee Resignation.’ 
  • AKT/CSA booking – If a Trainee has booked to sit the AKT or CSA, this will now appear under Progress to Certification.
  • New filter options for sorting and selecting Trainees.
  • Status Reports added to Main Reports section.

 

Trainee Targeted Changes

  • Updated Declarations system – We have updated how the Declarations system works within the ePortfolio. Instead of all declarations needing to be signed every post, they now need to be signed as follows:

  • Educational Contract has been renamed as the Educational Agreement.
  • ‘Probity: Professional Obligations’, ‘Health: Professional Obligations’ and ‘Educational Agreement’ need to be signed at the start of Training in a Deanery. If you change Deanery, you will need to resign these.
  • You will not be able to enter Learning Log entries without these three being signed. Your Educational Supervisor will not be able to start a review, without countersigning the Educational Agreement.
  • Probity: Convictions and disciplinary actions, and Health: Regulatory and voluntary proceedings now must be signed for each review. There will be a review by review option for you to sign these. You cannot accept a review without signing them
  • The above two declarations now have an ‘opt out’ if you are unable to agree to them for whatever reason. You will be able to enter a reason for this and it will count as being signed for review purposes.
  • All previous Declaration signings will still be visible historically.

 

 

In order to implement the new system, All Declarations will need to be re-signed once Version 5.0 is released

 

Steps to be completed at the start of the training year/new review period:

 

  1. The Trainee should sign the Educational Agreement as soon as possible at the start of training.
  2. The Educational Supervisor should countersign the Educational Agreement at the start of training. Please note that the Trainee will not be able to enter any learning log entries until this has been countersigned.
  3. The Educational Supervisor should create (not complete) the Trainee’s review (6 month period) as soon as possible at the start of a review period (or at the end of the previous one).
  4. The Trainee should sign the ‘Probity: Professional Obligations’ and ‘Health: Professional Obligations’ declarations at the start of each training year.
  5. Before completing a review the Trainee should sign the ‘Probity: Convictions and disciplinary actions’, and ‘Health: Regulatory and voluntary proceedings’ declarations.

 

If any of these steps are missed, an appropriate advisory message will appear on the website.

 

 

  • Updated Competence Self Rating – The 12 competence areas are now mandatory for each review (except OOP reviews). There will be a new section called Self Rating that will give you the option of completing these for each review. You will not be able to sign off a review without completing these. There are multiple links and reminders to take you there. The two review specific declarations will be signed in this section as well.
  • Competence Headings – Once validated by an Educational Supervisor, these headings are ‘locked’ and cannot be updated by a Trainee unless released for editing again by the ES.
  • Skills Log – The skills log has been slightly redesigned. The Foundation Skills are no longer listed. The Trainee Self-Rating is also more clearly labelled. Completed DOPS are still listed, but there is a second column that will list only DOPS that have at least a Borderline for completion outcome.
  • Learning Log – Now defaults to view 10 per page but you can specify the number of logs to display at once. This will be remembered for each user.
  • Learning Log – Now includes a Search facility for searching by Keyword
  • How to Produce Good Learning Log Entries (Word doc,300kb)
  • PSQ - You will now see how many PSQ results have been entered on a particular ticket code and at what stage the PSQ process is at.

Other changes

  • Calendar updates – We have improved the calendar system so date boxes can now have dates typed into them
  • Educators Notes and Learning Log Comments – Both these sections have had the maximum number of characters increased
  • Personal Details – The update password function has been separated from the other details so it will no longer be required to update your password when updating other details. Trainees still need to update their details via the RCGP members site.