The latest update includes some changes to the language that is used in the system when talking about the people who make up arcp panels.
There are two discreet concepts to be aware of when using Portfolio Online to do ARCP.
- There is a designated pool of people for a given school that have permissions that allow them to take part in ARCP
- It is possible to assign people from this pool to a given ARCP date (or panel)
Previously we referred to these people as "Panel Members". This is confusing because it implies that these people are on an ARCP panel, when in fact they only have the potential to be assigned to a panel.
A better description of the pool of people would be 'ARCP Reviewers' - and this is how the system now refers to them.
It also helps to make it clearer when we say that ARCP Reviewers have access to Trainee Portfolio's during the two week window up to and including the review date. What this means is that all arcp reviewers have access, regardless of whether they are assigned to the panel.
This is an important change to how the system used to work prior to August 2014. In the old system access to the portfolio was dependant upon the Reviewers being assigned to a panel. Our experience was that sometimes panel members may not have been assigned correctly, and that this would cause issues with those panel members not having the correct access to trainee portfolios, which in turn would hamper the ARCP online process.
The consequence of this is that Deanery Administrators should ensure that the list of ARCP Reviewers is kept up to date. If an ARCP reviewer is no longer needed then you should press the 'end' button to cease access. In this fashion you will build a historical record of ARCP Reviewers.
This leads to the question of why it is still possible to assign reviewers to a given date? The answer to this, lies in the outcome form. When the outcome form is generated, one of the questions asks you to specify which panel members took part. To avoid having to type this information each time, the system allows you to select from a pre-generated list of ARCP Reviewers. This list corresponds to the list of ARCP Reviewers that have been previously assigned to the date.
We have updated the various screens where we refer to panel members, to now refer to ARCP reviewers. Functionality has not changed but this change in language should make it clearer what is happening. There are still a couple of place where we refer to panel members, but these should only be where we are specifically referring to that person in the context of them having been assigned to a panel for a specific arcp/date.