The primary purpose of a scenario is to identify how a portfolio is used, by whom and for what purpose. Scenarios can be used for many purposes such as defining better specifications for e-portfolio applications, help decision making as regards to the use of e-portfolios, and to promote and transfer good practices. Eventually, they can also be used to identify the needs of specific communities of users to create an application profile that fits to their needs.
Scenarios to help make better applications

Once we understand better how people actually use e-portfolios, we can also create better applications and systems that support these diverse ways of using them for learning. It happens too often that e-learning systems are too restrictive in terms of ways that they can be used for learning, rather than give power to users to be in control and creative. For instance, scenarios of e-portfolio use in assessment as well as in pedagogical practice can help e-portfolio providers to create tools that actually do what people want them to do. More formal use cases and even UML diagrams can be created out of scenarios.

Scenarios as a tool to support decision making

Also, a better and deeper understanding of e-portfolio practices can support decision makers like school heads, e-learning planners, and policymakers to take better decisions based based on see what can actually be done with e-portfolios, and more importantly what should be taken care of when for example learner is moving from one educational level to another. Scenarios can help them to understand how things should inter-relater and thus to create better policies that actually do help the use of e-portfolios in education as a tool for lifelong learning. Scenario building can also be a powerful tool for decision makers to shape their visions, a scenario does not need to be in implementation, it can be a route map towards which to work on.

Scenarios as good practices

Scenarios can also be a source of inspiration for other users who are already using e-portfolios in some way or planning to start using them. Browsing through a rich database of practices of other people real use can be inspirational and give a feeling that "hey, if they are doing it, why could I not also start doing it!". A good categorisations of scenarios and they uniform way of describing them allows people to read them by country, by educational level, etc.

What is in a scenario?

The main story element should be told from several different perspectives looking at what different stakeholders do and what they require from the e-portfolio. A scenario would, for instance, tell what a learner will do with the portfolio and what are his/her expectations, as well as what kind of a role a teacher, a tutor or some other third part has. A third party could be for example a parent who is interested in following child's progress at school, a university admission staff interested in reviewing an application, or a recruter who is reviewing an electronic job application.

From a scenario to an application profile for e-portfolio community of users

Scenarios also become useful for creating e-portfolio application profiles for different learning communities. Through scenarios we gather deeper analysis of the community's needs, which helps in creating an application profile. An application profile normally defines the needed dataelements and vocabularies that should be used for the given community. For examples EPICC partners will work to create an application profile for the area of medical studies. A profile of IMS LIP might be produced for example to provide information about a medical student going "on rotation" to undertake work experience in a hospital. This might be sent to the supervising doctor.

The scenario template developed within the EPICC project attempts to identify the behaviours and processes which a profile of a type of package of information is intended to support. Once a scenario is described in using the web-based completer's it can be turned into Use cases, which still is in natural language. The semi formal information captured by scenarios and use cases can then be rendered formally in UML (if this is required). This is a process of gathering the patterns of the behaviours and processes stakeholders (say a medical educator) requires.

The point of gathering "patterns" is that they allow us to infer how re-usable profiles are. For example if we understand the processes and behaviours of a work placement for both medical and engineering students we can determine whether the structure of the data (as opposed to the content of the data) can best be conceived of as a common service and a single profile produced. If profiles are re-usable in this way, then the complexity and cost of implementing e-portfolio is very significantly reduced.

In the UK it is proposed to develop a reference model specifically to confirm the re-usability of a profile of a student aged 16 transferring from a school to a college for the transition at age 19 from college to university or employment and for graduates into masters degrees or employment. A single profile will be created and variations (expansions) produced. A single overarching profile of this part of the e-portfolio domain will be produced.

So scenarios are intrinsic to the development of profiles.

Lifelong Learning Support Project: Project scenarios

Apart from EPICC's efforts, other actors are also interested and active in creating scenarios. With JISC (UK) support scenarios have been produced for a programme called Managed Learning Environments for Lifelong Learning (MLE4ALL). These scenarios are available at http://www.cetis.ac.uk/members/llsp/scenarios

See an examplar scenario The use of an e-portfolio to support transitions between episodes of Learning
at: http://www.eun.org/goto.cfm?did=33719