Report on Identity management for lifelong learning

The final report on Identity management for lifelong learning in UK higher and further education undertaken by Oakleigh Consulting Ltd is now available.

A full copy of the report can be downloaded from http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/elearningcapital/imdfinalreport.doc

The study was intended to describe current practices, envision future processes in identity management and explore identity management issues within the context of lifelong learning.

The study set out to detail the identity management lifecycle in a series of episodes within the educational journey of a lifelong learner, both in an ideal world and also as they are currently. It also looked at how far existing initiatives were meeting these requirements and to map the differences between the ideal world and what happens currently.

The use cases in the study were expected to cover provisioning of identity, maintenance of identity, deprovisioning of identity and provision of authenticated information about learners to other organisations.

The study was commissioned to aid understanding of the challenges facing the education sector in identity management for lifelong learning, and to support JISC in future planning in this area.

The report makes several recommendations for JISC

to work more closely with MIAP to make use of the learner registration service and unique learner number. To look at working with the UK AM Federation

to look at how a multi-tier model of access and information sharing can be addressed, undertaking pilots with selected consortia that are facing these issues in practice and at an operational level

to build upon work on e-Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (e-APEL) to understand how identity management can contribute to the recording of APEL to build up a record of lifelong learning.

The JISC welcomes comments or questions to further clarify the issues and needs raised in this report.