(part of InLOC work)

InLOC Guidelines approach

Rationale

For the Guidelines to be useful towards adoption of the InLOC outputs, they must provide the information stakeholders want and need, to complement the other outputs. The approach we are taking is designed to maximise the input from stakeholders, and the relevance of the Guidelines to them, and therefore to optimally promote the adoption of the InLOC outputs.

Contents of the Guidelines

The contents will be adapted both to incorporate the input we elicit from stakeholders, and to include what individual experts can contribute. Here is an approximate starting point.

1. Scope: helps readers understand whether the Guidelines are relevant to them.
2. Stakeholders: identifies stakeholder groups, so that they can recognise themselves. It will identify in essence what the InLOC outputs offer to the different stakeholder groups.
3. Learning outcomes in Learning Education and Training: gives background on how learning outcomes are currently represented in practice, and the future potential for use.
4. Job competences: gives some context on current employment practices, and future potential use cases and business cases.
5. Exposition of the InLOC model in detail: explaining the InLOC model features in terms of real examples. The e-CF will be used as a central example, with other examples of learning outcomes used to supplement it where it lacks particular features.
6. Application of the InLOC model to learning, education and training, to some employment practices, and to the relationships and interface between them, including guidance and mobility of learners, and helping learners move into employment.
7. Integration with European standards and processes: explains how the InLOC approach complements Europass (including EuroLMAI), MLO, the e-CF, and other related processes.

The interim version of the guidelines will not fully cover Application Profiles or Bindings, because the work in these areas is scheduled for after the interim drafts have been distributed. The standardization agenda in the InLOC areas, and recommendations for future development, will be reported on to the Workshop, but are not seen as appropriate for Guidelines aimed at users of the InLOC outputs.

Approach to composition

Work on the Guidelines will depend on input received from stakeholders, and information collated from other sources. These are covered in the stakeholders work. The team will review and confirm agreement about the chapter and section headings for the guidelines, aiming to cover stakeholder wants and needs but without unnecessary extra material, and these will be revised in the light of the information actually elicited from stakeholders. Team members will then draft material relevant to the stakeholders they are engaged with.

The Guidelines will then be assembled and edited to comprise a draft CWA, submitted with the Interim Report, by 2012-06-15. This interim version will not fully cover work on Application Profiles or Bindings. Team members will present the interim Guidelines to their stakeholders, and gather feedback from them. This vital feedback will be used in improving the Guidelines to meet the needs of stakeholders, and to make adoption most likely.

Responding fully to feedback from the Workshop and others, and integrating material relevant to the Application Profiles and Bindings, the final version will be prepared in good time for endorsement by the January 2013 meeting of the Workshop.