Features | Ecordia E-Portfolio

Features & Functionality

Online Meetings

This feature enables assessment staff to host or join online meetings. Candidates, workplace managers and expert witnesses can also join meetings.

And all, simply, through your web browser with no software download required, and includes:

Host a meeting and invite one or many participants.
One-to-one & one-to-many & many-to-many video conferencing.
Screen-share.
Record meeting video & screen-share.
For more information click here!

• For evidence gathering, professional discussion, witness testimony.
• Agree assessment plans & feedback.
• Include the employer in the meeting as well.
• Save on mileage costs & time travelled.
• Improve quality & communication with your candidates.
• No software or download required.
• Fully integrated into Ecordia, browser based.
• Compatible across many web browsers.
• Recorded meeting sessions can be placed into portfolios.
• Online Meetings Dashboard.
• Multi-person meetings & Concurrent meetings.
• Control – you can specify who can host meetings.

Showcase / EPA Portfolio

Showcase is for recording achievements towards the Assessment Gateway and presenting evidence for End-point Assessment for the new Apprenticeship Standards and is used to:

Share evidence with the Independent Assessor/End Point Assessor
Enable you to record achievements towards the Assessment Plan and Assessment Gateway
Sharing evidence with an Independent Assessor / End Pont Assessor

Users can go to the Evidence tab and simply select the evidence they would like to make available to their EPA.

Assessment teams can record achievements towards the Assessment Plan and/or Assessment Gateway:

Centres and assessment teams can configure the outcomes they want to track against the assessment plan or assessment gateway:

Access for Independent Assessors / End Point Assessors
The Showcase / Portfolio of Evidence can be shared with one or more End Point Assessors at any time. The EPA will only be able to access this portfolio tab and only the evidence which is shared.

Management Dashboard

Clicking on any section of the graphs provides more details and enables the user to drill-down and directly access the relevant information or the specific candidates’ portfolios that the graphs are referring to.

The graphs provides intelligence and an instant global overview, helping users achieve greater efficiency and management control, whether as an administrator, assessor, IQA or training manager.

Fully Configurable For All Awarding Bodies

Ecordia is an awarding body-independent system. It is fully configurable to work with any awarding body.

Our customers work with many different awarding bodies very successfully and the feedback from EQAs has been exceptionally good. EQAs love using Ecordia!

Work Templates / Schemes of Work

Creating the same work plan repeatedly can be very time consuming and monotonous whether you are creating it from scratch or copying and pasting. But by using our Work Templates feature, you only need to create the plan once and you can then apply it to multiple candidate portfolios on the same course with a click of a button.

Features:

Work Templates can be created by Administrators, Assessors or IQAs
Access can be restricted to the creator or shared with other centre Users
Templates can be applied automatically via Course Events
Flexible application – you choose the status of the Plan when it is applied ie. Draft, Proposed or Active

Benefits:

Time-saving feature as Plans only need to be created once
Centre Administrators can create Course Events to apply the Work Templates automatically at the appropriate time
Standardisation of Plans which can also be personalised via the Candidate portfolio if required
It’s FREE to use!

Online Tests

Ecordia is so versatile that, in addition to creating a portfolio of evidence, you can also create online tests for candidates to complete. Online tests could range from in-house tests through to practice tests for more formal qualifications.

Using the Online Tests functionality, training providers can check for candidates’ underpinning knowledge regarding the qualification they are working towards.

Features:

Online Tests can be created by Centre Administrators.
Choice of question types ie. multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank or short answer.
Online Tests can be pre-linked to the criteria.
Flexible scoring – you set the pass-rate.
You can set a retake option for those who fail the test.

Benefits:

Time-saving feature as tests only need to be created once.
Test can be applied to multiple candidates.
Automatic marking and instant results.
It’s FREE to use.

Gap Report

The Gap Report is available to the assessment team & the candidate. It allows a user to quickly see the gaps in a portfolio. Ideal for assessment planning and for use during assessments, because the Gap Report can be viewed on screen or exported to a PDF file.

The course builder on Ecordia can be configured to support the various assessment requirements for different qualifications, such as how many times a criteria needs to be covered – and even if it need to be covered by a specific evidence type before being complete. This information is used to update the Gap Report, ensuring your assessment team and candidates do not miss an important requirement, which could ordinarily lead to a delay in achievement or certification.

Portfolio Export

Portfolios can be exported as a read-only copy of the portfolio, designed so that users can refer to the portfolio without the requirement of internet access – very handy if you have a laptop on site but no internet access. Also, exported portfolios are a great way for the centre and the candidate to store or archive a copy of the portfolio once the training has ended.

EcordiApp - Mobile App

EcordiApp is the Ecordia mobile application providing a quick and convenient way for assessors and candidates to upload evidence to a portfolio and view course progress even without internet access.

EcordiApp is compatible with most Apple and Android mobile devices such as iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch using iOS5.1 or above and Android devices using Android 2 and above – ecordiApp is available FREE from iTunes for Apple devices and Google Play for Android devices.

More Information Here.

Fast & Simple Cross-Referencing

Cross-referencing evidence is a quick and simple process on Ecordia.

Simply tick the items of criteria accordingly and you can link to as many units as you wish, saving assessors precious time.

Integrated Word Processor

Ecordia has a fully integrated word processor!

There is no need to ensure the tablet, computer or laptop you are using has its own local copy of Microsoft Office, for example. The integrated word / text processing and editing tool allows users to type directly into the Ecordia system for written evidence, messaging, assessments and plans! It works in much the same way as a normal word processing software package, however it’s there ready for you whenever it’s needed.

● Text Formatting including Bold, Italics, Font size, Font Type, Underline, Font colours.
● Create tables
● Spell Checker
● Text Align

Evidence Templates

This works very similar to the Work Templates feature. Creating the evidence requirement repeatedly, for every candidate, can be very time consuming and monotonous.

But by using the Evidence Templates feature, you only need to create the evidence requirement once and you can then, via the work templates feature, apply it to multiple candidate portfolios on the same course with a click of button!

Interactive Progress Report

One of the many requirements placed upon a training provider is that of continuous tracking of learner progress. This cannot only be an onerous task for assessors with a large case-load, it can also be very time-consuming – not to mention the quality assurance process by centre administrators. With this in mind, Ecordia have developed the Interactive Progress Report.

Using our Interactive Progress Report can take the stress out of tracking learner progress.

Month-by-month log of candidates’ progress
Separate log for each candidate
Add/Edit an entry at any time during the current month
Comments from previous months are locked
Report can be exported in CSV format for viewing/further manipulation in Excel

Excellent progress tracking at a glance
Assessors can update all their candidates on one screen
Quality Assurers can monitor candidate progress at the click of a button
Easily identify candidates at risk

Contact Log

Ecordia’s Contact Log is a very useful feature which allows contact to be recorded by the Candidate, the Assessor and any other centre users with a relationship to the Candidate’s portfolio.

Log Entry Types can be tailored to your centre requirements by the Centre Administrator or Quality Assurer via a few simple steps.

Entries can be restricted to centre staff only for viewing purposes thereby creating a confidential means of recording contact.
Contact Log Types can be linked to courses, so you could have different entry types for different courses.
Once a log entry has been saved attachments can be uploaded to it. This could be anything from a Review form to a copy of an email that has been received or a screenshot of a text message conversation.
Furthermore, Contact Log entries feed into the Contact Log Report which can be filtered according to your search criteria, providing an excellent audit log which can then be exported to PDF or CSV file.
Ensure the Candidate is receiving the correct amount of contact and guidance.
Save administration time by having a built-in Contact Log that is also FREE and reportable.
Improve quality assurance by customising how the Contact Log works for different courses.

Guidance Requested

Guidance Requested is a feature for candidates which helps ensure the feedback loop is maintained so candidates can continue with timely progress on their qualification.

There are points in the process, for example, before submitting work, where they can specifically request guidance from their assessor.

Very Easy To Use - Visually-based on the Paper Porfolio

Here’s what Ecordia customers say about our e-portfolio system:

“It’s so simple to upload evidence and give feedback remotely”.

“Having used Ecordia for many years, I still believe this is the best e-portfolio”.

“Everything is always easy to find and to see when work has been assessed, IQAed and exactly which unit it has been linked to and when a unit has sufficient evidence included in it to sign it off”.

“Ecordia is easy to use, so straight forward”.

“I love how easy it is to use and how they have adapted it and updated it when needed”.

“When supporting learners to use the system you can talk them through quite easily over the phone, to guide them how to access plans, feedback and locate their standards. The learners are able to write directly within their e-portfolio evidence box or upload work depending on their preferences”.

“Ecordia is user friendly and easy to work with”.

“Ecordia is fab! Easy to use and navigate the system. The Help Console gives you step by step guides and videos so you can’t go wrong. Highly recommend!!”

“Love Ecordia, it is so easy to use and they have continually updating the system”.

“I have worked with this system for a few years now, I have been impressed with the easiness of the whole online portfolio, it is user friendly, it is easy to navigate and work with, it does everything I need to support assessors and the learners in my cohort and they find it easy to use”.

“Our centre has worked with Ecordia for 5 years. Our learners and assessors find the system easy to use and the team are very responsive in their support”.

Online Library

Ecordia has a resource library within your Ecordia account. This is a centralised store/repository, with a search feature, for all kinds of documents, files and resources for your centre. Access is restricted & granular, so you can set permission levels for the resources based on all types of parameters, such as by course, learning aim, units, the specific user roles. For example there maybe an internal document for all assessors, needed for reference, but candidates should not have access.

Any file types can be added, such as Word docs, spreadsheets, PDF, video and audio files. Links can also be added to portfolios so the candidate just clicks on the link to access the document or file.

Mentor Role For Workplace Manager

When evidence is being created or uploaded you may wish to share it with another person within the workplace. This person could be an Independent Witness or someone who is supporting the Candidate through their qualification such as a Supervisor or Workplace Manager. With this in mind Ecordia has the Mentor role and evidence can be shared with them by either the Candidate or the Assessor.

Mentors have their own username and password.
A workplace can have multiple Mentors.
Mentor/Witness comments are added by a click of a button.
Once the Assessor accepts the Mentor comments they are locked and become “read only”.
Secure access – Mentors can only leave comments or upload supporting evidence when evidence is shared with them by either the Candidate or the Assessor.
Timely response – Mentors receive a message advising them that evidence has been shared with them and can access the item direct from the message.
No need for separate preparation of witness testimonies as Mentor/Witness comments are displayed on the item of evidence.
The Assessor can view the Mentor/Witness comments when considering their assessment decision.

IQA Matrix

The IQA Matrix enables the creation IQA sampling events for IQA/IV users when IQA activities are required to take place.

The IQA Matrix can then be accessed by IQAs and SVs. The matrix will show the user what sampling has been planned and what has been completed for the portfolio.

Course Events & Alerts

The system can be setup to automatically alert and notify users (assessors, training managers etc) when certain pre-set events have occurred. It’s a great feature to help assessors and training managers become more proactive in managing candidates and their progress.

Alerts can be setup for course, learning aim, portfolio, IQA etc.

Examples include:

Alert when all units are confirmed complete for an aim by the IV.
Message to candidate when their progress reaches X%
Or for example if portfolio has not reached 5% by 2 months since start date.
Or for example if portfolio has not reached 5% by 6 weeks since start date.
Apply a Work template at a given step.
Notify IQA/IV when all units are confirmed complete by assessor.
You can also create learning aim events for events which are not course specific, but specific to a learning aim, regardless of the course it is linked to.
Portfolio events work in the same way as course events, but are at the portfolio level rather than course level, therefore they will only trigger for the portfolios the event is applied to or created in.

Unlimited File Uploads

With Ecordia you can upload as many files as you like (either to resources, or candidates within their portfolios).

There’s no additional cost or limit on total storage capacity.

Multiple User Access

Ecordia has user roles to suit all requirements and the different roles have restricted access, keeping the correct confidentiality of the portfolio.

There are standard roles such as:

Candidate
Assessor
Training manager
Admin
Super Admin
IQA
EQA

And additional roles such as:

Course admin
Workplace manager
Mentor
Tutor
Quality Assurer
Expert witness
Enquiry admin

Plagiarism Checker

Plagiarism is defined as “the presentation of another person’s thoughts or words or artefacts or software as though they were a student’s own”, and can be an issue for some training providers.

To assist training providers, Ecordia has a built-in Plagiarism Checker to allay suspicion of any plagiarised activity.

Whilst this advanced functionality does attract a further subscription, we have a tiered pricing structure starting at just £27.50+VAT* per month and feel this is money well spent.
*cost of checking up to 1 million words per annum.

Coloured indicator to show the stage the plagiarism check is at.
On-screen instructions for downloading the plagiarism report.
Plagiarism report generated in Word format.
Plagiarised matches are detailed down the right-hand side of the page and indicate possible sources.

Built-in to Ecordia – no need to access external systems.
Timely response – Results available within 24 hours at peak times.
Documents can be checked multiple times if required.
A course setting enables checks to be carried out by the Assessor, the Candidate, or both.

Enquiries Feature

At Ecordia we understand the importance of candidate procurement but the monitoring of enquiries can be time consuming and easily overlooked.

Let Ecordia ease the strain and use the built-in Enquiries feature.

Build a database of enquiries within Ecordia
Facility to enter all personal details including workplace and potential course of interest
Enter notes via the Contact Log entry
Turn the enquiry entry into a Candidate record at the click of a button

No double-data entry within Ecordia
No separate database or CMS required
Filter your enquiries using the Search facility
Easy tracking of pipeline enquiries

Fantastic Support For Your Staff & Learners

There is a dedicated support team at Ecordia, offering support to users through email and telephone that aim to resolve any issues, where possible, within 24 hours. The support team keep users notified of progress to resolution with updates and information.

Here’s what Ecordia customers say:

“Customer Service is excellent and responses are almost immediate, changes needed to the system are taken on board and actioned. Staff are friendly and always keen to help.”

“Ecordia staff reply to support enquiries really quickly”.

“Any issues that have arisen the Ecordia support team have dealt with effectively and efficiently.”

“Always helpful and are able to quickly adapt be bespoke and respond to our needs.”

“the team are very responsive in their support.”

“Responses to emails have been swift and very helpful.”

“The support from Ecordia when we are not sure how to do something is excellent.”

ILPs - Individual Learning Plans

The ILP is a feature which can be used to assess the candidate’s strengths and weaknesses prior to starting the qualification, which can also be of benefit when choosing units appropriate to the candidate’s job role.

The ILP unit selections are on the Individual Learning Plan within the system.

One star indicates that Unit activities are completed ‘Sometimes’, two stars is ‘Often’ and three stars is ‘Always’. With the ILP you can type information relating to the Initial Assessment, Induction and Review Arrangements for the candidate.

Online Reviews

Allows the creation of feedback templates for specific evidence types. When the assessor then clicks ‘prepare assessment feedback’ the template will appear for the assessor to complete. This should be particularly useful for online progress reviews, IAG, ILPs and BTEC assessments.

Sampling Plans & Automatic IV Alerts

Create sampling plans for your courses, ensuring portfolios are sampled when required, automated alerts for IQAs on their dashboard.

Sampling can be increased or decreased easily for each candidate or cohort depending on assessor experience.

Integrated Online Learning Materials

Need to fulfil the 20% off-job training requirement? The use of online learning materials or e-learning – to support apprenticeships, QCF, Diplomas and BtECs – count towards the off-job training requirement.

The Ecordia platform enables delivery of e-learning qualification content, which can be fully integrated into the e-portfolio and work plans, using visual, auditory and kinaesthetic styles to enhance the learning experience.

Additional resources such as workbooks and PDFs to support further reading and research.
Suggested links to other websites and resources.
HTML5 slideshows – accessible on most devices & platforms.
Integrated online tests to consolidate learning.
Built in optional tasks, linked to criteria.
Easy transition between e-learning content and evidence recording.
Tried and tested materials written by industry experts.
Courses grouped and colour-coded by subscription model/costs.
More courses and modules are being added all the time.

Course Builder

The course builder feature enables your centre to create bespoke courses if required. The Ecordia support team can always help centres when setting up courses, however if a centre wants to setup a bespoke course on their own, this is easily achievable with the course builder feature.

UCAS Points

If you have candidates working towards BtEC Diplomas at Levels 2, 3 or 4 using the grading system of Pass, Merit or Distinction, who are required to generate UCAS points then Ecordia has functionality that will display UCAS points on the portfolio front page automatically!

The UCAS points functionality is primarily aimed at BtEC courses, but can also be used for other qualifications.

Integrated Course Standards

Ecordia’s user interface design means that the course standards are easily accessible and view-able without having to navigate away from where the user currently is in the system. The standards are dynamic too, so they’ll always show the user, including the candidate, what criteria have been planned or completed!

Integrated Messaging System

The in-built messaging system enables users to quickly and easily message candidates, either individually, or as a group – for example to inform if you are away on annual leave.

Users can also message training managers, the workplace manager or your colleagues. Email obviously has its uses, but by using the Ecordia messaging system, you can keep all candidate-related messages in one place and it’s quick and simple to use.

Pre-canned Reports & Bespoke Reports

Ecordia has a great collection of ready-to-go reports for your assessment centre to interpret areas of information . Users can also export certain data into Excel to generate quick reports or if there is a specific report required that is not listed, then the Ecordia technical team are ready to create it for you.

Autocomplete Evidence Logs

When linking evidence/cross-referencing, the Ecordia system automatically updates the evidence log sheet for each unit.

This saves duplication of effort for the assessor, enables quick & convenient tracking of progress and access to evidence for internal and external sampling quality assurance procedures.

Unit Grading

An essential feature for the delivery of BtECs and Diplomas. This allows assessors to grade units on completion.

The grade and unit credit value are then used to calculate and display UCAS points, ensuring your candidates know how their achievements gain them UCAS points. Also to help motivate candidates to achieve the required grades for their chosen University/Higher Education course.

SMS Text Alerts

With the SMS text alerts feature, you can text your candidates:

SMS reminders when meetings are due.
SMS notifications when a scheme of work has been applied.
Send ad-hoc SMS messages.
Send automated SMS progress reports detailing unit and overall progress.

With 14 years of development and working closely with some of the top training providers and FE Colleges in the UK, Ecordia has a wealth of features and customisations so that the system fits-in seamlessly with your organisations and operations.

Here are some of the most popular features of Ecordia.