Why Use Leap2A?

Using Leap2A offers benefits for learners, e-portfolio systems managers as well as vendors and suppliers of e-portfolio tools and systems.

Leap2A enables learners to transfer information from old portfolio systems to new ones as they move between colleges, universities or into the workplace. Learners will no longer need to copy and paste information from one system to another. Where learners use several e-portfolio tools or systems, methods are being developed using Leap2A to allow them to synchronise the information across systems. It also provides a format for learners to back up the e-portfolio information they already have.

It will be easier for staff supporting e-portfolio use to persuade learners to develop their e-portfolio if they know that they can take their Leap2A formatted data with them when they leave, or use it in other systems at the same time.

For e-portfolio system managers, Leap2A makes it possible to migrate from one e-portfolio system to another without the need for a customised data migration solution, reducing the risk of data being ‘locked into’ one system. Eventually, where the college or university management information systems can interoperate with Leap2A, it will become feasible to integrate information between systems such as the e-portfolio system and the student records system, thus reducing the duplication of data.

e-Portfolio system suppliers and vendors will be able to reassure customers that the information they put into their system will be able to be reused in the present and retrieved in the future.

A JISC briefing paper titled ‘Assessing the Business Case for Standards’ outlines the wider benefits of developing and using open standards in education, and is reinforced by a recent Cabinet Office policy note (pdf) promoting the use of open standards wherever possible.