How to use your new ePortfolio - Top Tips

You should use the Helpdesk button to raise a ticket and include a full description of the problem, with screenshots if possible, so that the support agents can address queries more quickly.

FourteenFish will aim to respond within 5 days of the initial query and a unique ticket reference number will be generated. You should escalate to [email protected] if the response is inconclusive or unclear – please include the reference number in your correspondence.

Click the green Portfolio button at the top of the screen to access the Portfolio Overview page, from which you can:

• find the Learning Logs to upload other evidence (audits, certificates, etc.)
• start assessment forms (Educational Assessments)
• check progress (Portfolio Summary and Training Map)
• locate/download historical data from the old system, if applicable (Educator Notes)

Your supervisors and assessors should receive emails from the system when you send them an assessment. If they are not getting these emails, you should raise a ticket with the Helpdesk as it might be an individual issue. Remember also that:

• you have to invite your ES and NCS to view your portfolio, and they have to create an account before they can access your evidence.
• GSATs and EPAs need to have items linked to them for the ES and NCS to review – you will not be able to get these assessments signed off without providing the required evidence. Any learning outcome can be tagged to any entry or assessment for the relevant level. However, no item should be linked/tagged more than three times.

The Curriculum Handbook outlines who signs which assessments:

• You should send EPAs to your NCS to sign off.  The NCS should normally only sign off an EPA in their own special interest area. However, local solutions might be necessary in some specific areas.
• You should send GSATs to your Educational Supervisor to sign off. If the GSAT is signed by an NCS in error, you should contact the Helpdesk. It is likely that you will need to repeat the entire process with the correct supervisor.
• You have to do one GSAT, one EPA and one ESR every six months.
• The term “formative tool” used in the EPA is used for occasions when you might wish to demonstrate progress but are not yet ready to have that competence fully assessed. DOPS or OSATS can be used as formative rather than summative assessments. These can be tagged/linked in exactly the same way as other items.

Please note that the full functionality for duplicating a GSAT or EPA for a new Review Period is not yet in place. Where evidence from previous years needs to be used, you can upload the documents in Learning Logs and then link them to the new EPA or GSAT.

This was a one-off exercise and only specific documents needed to be uploaded after the transfer in August 2024 (requirements were determined by the curriculum you follow).  It is not necessary to upload more evidence for competencies already signed off in the old portfolio system. You should follow the set of instructions after clicking the catch-up button.

You can change the ‘tagging to’ order and switch between Level 1 & 2 and level 3 & 4 domain/ learning outcome coverage.

If you experience technical difficulties, please contact the FourteenFish Helpdesk.

Please consult the Help Centre for more details and to watch the video demonstration.

The ESR requirement has not changed and is still 2 per year, i.e. one per rotation/6 months.

For both curricula, ESRs are constructed in stages by both you and your ES, using the Prepare button in the Portfolio Summary. For the old curriculum, the Core Curriculum Progress field (Portfolio Summary) is where to record information regarding progress with General Ophthalmology and other special interest areas. This mirrors the previous system’s workflow.

You must ensure that all evidence relevant to the current Review Period has been added to the system before following the Prepare process. You should consult the Curriculum Handbook, particularly the Level Guides, and Section 7 ARCP for full details of the evidence that you need to submit. Remember that the overarching principle behind the new Programme of Assessment is that professional judgement is now based on the quality of evidence, as opposed to quantity or recommended numbers. 

Please do not attempt to complete an ESR too early as this will lock the report, and you will be asked to start a new Review Period. If your ESR form is locked before you managed to complete it, please raise a ticket with the Helpdesk.

It is recommended to use multiple windows to review information with your ES.

Your historical data – ARCPs, assessments and other documents previously stored as Additional Evidence – have been manually migrated by FourteenFish to an area called Educator Notes (bottom right-hand corner of the Portfolio interface). 

It is worth noting that historical data cannot be mapped and therefore will not automatically populate the Portfolio Summary or Training Map.

If you need to share specific items with your educational team to inform discussions, you should locate and download them from the zipped folders in the Educator Notes and then upload to your Learning Logs. No other historical item will need to be uploaded manually.

If you have correctly shared your portfolio these items will be visible by educational teams for review. Content from the old Additional Evidence tab which was too large to migrate is available on request ([email protected]).

Please contact [email protected] if your CCT date is wrong or missing.

You can upload any item to the Learning Logs for your own private purposes. If you decide that you want an item to be viewable by third parties, you will need to use the Request a Review button to trigger an email request to the chosen supervisor to acknowledge the item.  Items will become visible to educational teams and ARCP panels once they have been acknowledged by the chosen supervisor.

This is the only way to ensure that items are viewable by anyone other than you. The Request a Review button and the need for a supervisor to acknowledge the item is inherent to this ePortfolio and, despite multiple requests from the College, FourteenFish have advised that the process cannot be changed.

The workflow is as follows:

• Add item to Learning Logs tabs, save and tag the outcomes
• Click Request a Review to alert the supervisor
• Once acknowledged by the latter, items are added to your portfolio

If your supervisor asks why your Portfolio appears to be empty, make sure that you have asked them to review the items you have added. You must ensure that your supervisor has acknowledged your items in order that the ARCP panel can view them – if this is not the case, you should contact the TPD.

The Chair of the Curriculum Sub-Committee has developed a handy checklist for resident doctors, NCSs and ESs as to the forms that need to be completed at the end of each rotation.

The Curriculum Handbook contains full details of who completed what forms and when.

Time of out Training (TOOT) is only meant to be used for lengthy absences (e.g. parental leave, OOP). Sick, study and annual leave should be recorded within the ESR.

Anything that is recorded in the TOOT section will deduct from the WTE total days in training.

No examination result will show in the ePortfolio until later in the year (August 2025 is likely). You should retain all correspondence from the Examinations team and, in the interim, upload result emails to the Curriculum Catch-up tab.

The ePortfolio is not replacing the existing surgical logbook. You should use the same ESR button (Output Data) to generate your PDF report and then upload it to the Logbook tab in your Learning Logs.

Please consult the Help Centre for more details.

You will find all the information you need in the Curriculum Handbook, particularly in the Level Guides and Section 7 ARCP.

You should follow this guidance for completing your MSF and also consult the Help Centre articles for more details.

• Once past the self-assessment questionnaire, please add the appropriate mix of colleagues.
• The list of assessors must be discussed and agreed with the ES prior to starting the process. Failure to do so is a probity issue.
• Only professional hospital/Trust email addresses must be used. Personal addresses are not allowed.
• The system will automatically send reminders to any non-responders 10 days after their initial invites are sent out. Should you need any further reminders sent out, please contact the Helpdesk.
• You can add assessors to the MSF at any time. Once you have received 11 responses, the option toClose Survey will become visible in the Progress box.
• The ‘Collect patient feedback’ and peer benchmarking data (the percentages) should be disregarded as not applicable to Ophthalmology.
• The comparator data in the Summary Report should also be disregarded. It is a feature of the system that cannot be changed.

A one-off Educator Notes entry was created by FourteenFish as a way to give access to historical data (ARCPs, assessments and other documents). This is not their main function and, in this instance, was for the purpose of migration. Please disregard any MACOSX folders.

See also How to find your historical portfolio data above.

Other Educator Notes may be added by your ES, TPD and Deanery administrators.

ESs and NCSs alike must be invited by you to create their own account, which will give them access to evidence you have linked to EPAs and GSATs.

Assessors do not need an account to sign forms off. Assessment requests are sent directly by you, and emails will contain links to forms.

In some specific local circumstances, the NCS and ES can be the same person.

Please follow the link for more details about the different roles.

If you have a number of supervisors listed, this is because you have selected them yourself. You should only have an ES and NCS for each Review Period. You should try to remove the other names and raise a ticket if you need help.

Form R applies to England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The SOAR form applies to Scotland only. They are equivalent.

The Portfolio is a mechanism provided by the College for non-resident doctors and those pursuing the Portfolio Pathway to collate evidence. Instructions regarding the Review Period and ARCP do not apply.

You need an NCS to sign off your EPAs. The NCS must be working as a consultant to be able to supervisor your progress. Please consult the Specialty-Specific Guidance for more details.

Please note that currently the Portfolio is unable to generate exportable PDF documents.