For ten years the physician teachers of the Medicine Faculty of Paris Descartes have focused their efforts on the structuration of knowledge and on self-apprenticeship. The medical students’ program of studies is collected in a portfolio which stays with them throughout their three years of study. This follow-up was achieved through the use of a paper portfolio compiling each student’s work. The teachers wished to use an online tool that was easy to use, reachable from everywhere, that allowed a fine management of access rights, that could broadcast protected contents and insure the progressive validation, by tutors, of the skills acquired during the three years of study. An experiment on the social network of Paris Descartes University, in collaboration with the TICE department (ICT for Education) lead to the creation of an educational plan for skill acquisition and evaluation. A system of e-Portfolios of medical students was set up in 2010. It is an original solution relying on a community of learners in a network. It is a virtual space, which is not a simple on-line copy of paper documents, but an environment in which collaborative work can occur. The interface personally involves all members of the medical practitioners department. It is organized on a personal workspace allowing the user to present him or herself and to be identified within the university. The student uses his or her e-portfolio, bringing together his work, alternating editorial sections (clinical narratives, track of learning, balance assessment of the meetings with the tutor) and declarative sections (index cards of training course, self-assessment of the skills with link towards the contents described in the other sections). The tutor sees a follow-up and assessment board, allowing him or her to guide the student in the progress of his/her work and writing, to spot possible delays and failures before formal on-line assessment. The work produced by the student is easily useable for research: it contributes to the description of the practices and the situations, made exploitable by the tool, which allows the transverse export of the data. This is a flexible tool, in the service of the evolution of needs. This e-portfolio favors the emergence of innovative educational solutions, harmonizes the various places of learning, federates the teaching team and facilitates interactions. It brings the students into a dynamic of educational research. It increases the digital visibility of the students, the teachers and the course within Paris Descartes University. The medical is a precursor within the Paris Descartes University of the use of on-line e-portfolios. This social Learning tool is extremely useful for students who alternate brief periods in the Medical College with training periods in a medical office and/or in a hospital. It allows a simplified teaching follow-up for the tutors of medical studies.

1. A Learning Social Network
using an e-Portfolio for
Medical Practitioners Studies
epfMG : ePortFolio de Médecine Générale
Thierry Koscielniak, ICT for Education Executive Director

2. Contents
S Context and issues at General Practice Office
S e-portfolio : tutor’s view and student’s view
S Network and communication
S Evolutions and benefits

3. Paris
Descartes
University
S Multidisciplinary
university
S Spread over 9 colleges
and 1 institute of
technology
S 38,000 students
S 200 PhD granted each
year
S 4,000 members
S Faculties, researchers,
staff and technical
people
S 1,300 researchers
S 82 research labs

4. Paris
Descartes
University
Institute of Technology
Biomedecine
Maths & Computer Sci.
Human & Social Sciences
Headquarters + Medecine
Pharmacy
Psychology
Sports
Odontology
Law – Economics

5. General
Prac3ce
Office
S The DES of Medical Practice is a postgraduate
professionalizing study (3 years)
S A pedagogy based on self-apprenticeship used
since 6 years
S A pedagogy focused on mentoring
The distance between the sites of courses and tutors justifies the
use of an online educational tool

6. General
Prac3ce
program
S 330 students using
epfMG (100 students
each year of studies)
S 80 tutors (mainly GP)
S More than 1,000 reports
done on it since 2010
S Minimum 2 reports a
semester/per student

7. Mentoring
at
General
Prac3ce
department
S The students’ work is to :
S Produce researched and written works
S Accountable for their learning
S The tutors’ work is to
S Help and accompany a future GP in a constant,
formative, and progressive assessment

8. Individual
and
central
tools
S On line
S Use everywhere
S Access control : tutors, epfMG members
S Enable to illustrate and to document skills
S Easy
S For supervision and tracking of students
S For sharing information
S For progressive validation
S For certificate students

9. Tools
S Contents of student portfolio
S Editing tool
S Communication tool
S Personal space
S Self-assessment tool
S Contents of tutors tracking
S Validation tool
S Communication tool
S Personal space
S Dashboard

10. The
student’s
view
Name of the tutor
Validation requests

11. The
tutor’s
view
Direct access to students’ portfolios
Pending validation requests

12. A
student
porBolio’s
exemple
:
medical
story
The student writes his or her The tutor validates and
clinical narratives comments the clinical
narratives

13. The
tutor’s
dashboard
Global vision of students on-going works

14. The
network
S The network is focused on the
student-tutor relationship
S Working groups
S Students’ shared knowledge
S Mentoring
Works on an elgg platform
Open Source Social Networking Engine

15. Working
groups
S Forum
S Files exchange
S Shared agenda

16. Personal
Workspace
S All his/her
writing's works
S Displaying his/
her own
qualifications
profile
S Digital identity
S Messages

17. Evolu3ons
S Develop validation and assessment tools via a Moodle
connexion
S The e-portfolio could concern other medical practice
trainings in partner universities
S To help tutors with more training : let them be more
efficient while using epfMG

18. Benefits
S Simplify teaching follow-up for tutors
S Encourage a regular work pace for students and tutors
S Strengthen the communication and relationship between
students and tutors
S Federate the teaching team and facilitate interactions
S Create of an environment in which collaborative work occurs
S Increase digital visibility of the students within Paris
Descartes University
S Promote innovative teaching solutions

19. Contact
us
The associated GPs ICT for Education Paris Descartes
Thierry Koscielniak, Dir.
Dr Jean-Claude Schwartz thierry.koscielniak@parisdescartes.fr
jean-claude.schwartz@parisdescartes.fr
Guylène Lefèvre, Prj. Mng
Dr Robert Sourzac guylene.lefevre@parisdescartes.fr
robert.sourzac@parisdescartes.fr
Yann Sallou, Lead dev.
yann.sallou@parisdescartes.fr
eportfoliomg@parisdescartes.fr

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« In this building
formerly Hotel of York
on September 3rd, 1783
David HARTLEY
in the name of the
king of England
Benjamin FRANKLIN
John JAY
John ADAMS
in the name of the
United States of America
have signed the definitive
peace treaty recognizing
the independence of the
United States »
Thierry Koscielniak, ICT for Education Executive Director