This higher school located in a big city of Portugal represents one of the public schools of engineering in Portugal and counts with more than 6000 students. The pilot focused on a course at Automobile Mechanics degree, involving 30 first year students. From this universe, a sample of 14 students (with ages between 18-25 years old) engaged with the TRAILER tool and was considered active user, showing 52% of actions performed in the 2 platforms.  However the students’ participation was very low. The had a low average of competences added per informal learning activity (ILA), as in defining users competences: no one defined new competences, because as they stated, the general list of competences was so rich that they did not saw the need to add new ones. In terms of published activities, merely half of them were made public. This low usage issues might be related with the fact that the majority of students were freshman and therefore were not familiar with this kind of extra activities, not giving them great value. In fact the students who ended participating the most were some second year students, who were also enrolled in that course.

Initially they presented a fair recognition of informal learning (IL), which improved with the work developed in this pilot. The most important activities mentioned were: “Reading” and “Trial and error”. In general, comparing with other cases, they show the higher level of agreement relatively to the need for IL activities in “developing deeper knowledge”.

They stressed that one of the advantages of this idea was being able to make their IL visible to others, which would become useful to present along with their CV. They also identified some benefits in their academic life: in classes (in helping the teacher make more informed choices – namely defining students groups or managing course content), to course directors in managing and redirect job offers or to choose students to specific traineeships.

However the teacher in charge of this course, even though agreeing with these advantages, was much more reserved concerning their actual feasibility in traditional higher teaching in general. He argued that teachers cannot change the teaching model and it is not easy to perform different curricula for their students. However he considers that the tool might be worthwhile for students, yet they must first realize their IL as valid and useful.

Even though some usability issues were identified, some students considered the tool to be very useful and would like it to be available so they could use it on a regularly basis.

This small technology-based company located in a big city in Poland, specialized in Training – Consulting and Management had its core business administration, professional trainers and informatics. From the 13 employees, 10 were part of the learner perspective piloting trial phase of TRAILER. Typically the employees had a degree or a MSc and their age was between 26 and 40 years old. The majority had a very good prior recognition of IL, which was reinforced after the pilots. The most important activities mentioned were “Watching other people”, “Conversations” and the lower and particularly low in “Online tutorials”. In general, comparing with other cases, they show the higher level of agreement relatively to the need for IL activities in: “learn to perform particular tasks” and “developing a deeper knowledge”.

During the first piloting – the learner perspective phase, employees showed a fair percentage of active users (67%), but few competences (below average) were added per informal learning activities (ILA’s).  81% of actions were completed on both platforms (an average of 3 ILA’s per user). Regarding the phase of sharing their IL activities and competences, their results were also very low: the majority of the collected activities were not made public and only 50% of users’ competences and 25% of ILA’s associated competences were published.

The lowest score on usability issues of the tool was found for this group which area of business was not so much related with IT, even though they did considered it professionally useful in order to “collect IL in intuitive way and provide the team with the appropriate competences”. The major reported problems on usability were the limited type of activities possible to add in the collector, problems in sending those activities to the portfolio, the too extensive catalogue of competences and transparency issues regarding the use of competences definitions, which might be named differently (use of different words) by different users. As they alert, this problem with synonymous competences might generate difficulties or even biases, if not properly taken cared when employers use this data.

The CEO of this company was well aware of IL’s importance in recognizing, organizing, monitoring and validating informal processes, which could be used in several processes such as recruitment, promotion or motivation.

In the overall, this company considered that the high value of this TRAILER idea was in the promotion of collecting activities and be able to share it. This group is one of the cases that refer that an interface to work on smartphones or androids should be developed, and that it could be helpful to human resources management.

This small technology-based company located in a big city of Spain specialized in engineering-IT Specialists has its core business in areas like e-commerce, communication and the organization of corporate events and activities. All the 10 employees were part of the piloting trial phase of TRAILER. Typically the employees had a high school education or a degree and their age was between 26 and 40 years old.

Typically they had a fair prior perception of informal learning (IL), improved after the pilots, and higher importance was given to “Reading”, “Online tutorials” and “Searching in the Internet”. In general, comparing with other cases, they show the higher level of agreement relatively to the need for IL activities in “learn to perform particular tasks”, although the goal of “amusing myself” also had one of the highest scores found, particularly after the pilots.

During the first piloting – the learner perspective phase, employees showed a fair percentage of active users (80%), with 61% of actions completed in both platforms (an average of 5 informal learning activities (ILA’s) per user. An average number of competences were added per ILA of 2.4, but a low number of activities per day was reported (1). However, the great majority of the collected activities were not made public; only 50% of users’ competences and 25% of ILA’s associated competences were published.

This fact reduced the work that could have been accomplished in the second pilot – the employer perspective, since the company CEO could only act upon the published competences. As his employees, the CEO thinks this tool has great advantages in allowing the collection and organization of individual and company’s IL. This could clearly lead to benefits while managing competences in an institution. In fact, the company CEO stated that he always tried to put value in their employees’ IL and this tool allowed him to get a better idea of their employees’ competences and interests. He thought the tool was intuitive to navigate and was generally well organized.

In overall, they thought TRAILER tool’s usability was good, but could benefit from some improvements, such as management of long lists (to avoid excessive scroll), integration of the two platforms, simplifying the definitions required and enlarge the possibilities of activity type’s. After some of these improvements, they were willing to use this tool in the future in their daily business.

This big state office (with 903 employees) located in a big city of Spain was Military–training group, involved in virtual learning environment courses. The 67 persons contacted were part of a group enrolled in the Virtual Learning Environment Program, so quite familiar with computers and learning technologies. From this group, only 11 were able to engage in the pilots (the dropout registered was one of the highest). Typically the employees had a degree and their age was between 41 and 60 years old.

These military participants developed a good increase on informal learning (IL) recognition during the pilots. The higher importance was given to “Reading” and the lower to “Trial and error” and “Online tutorials”. In general, comparing with other cases, they show higher level of agreement relatively to the need for IL activities in: “learn to perform particular tasks” and “developing a deeper knowledge”.

Even though the drop out was high, the learners who participated were in majority active users (69%) and 49% of their activity was completed in both platforms, an average of 4 informal learning activities (ILA’s) per user. The number of activities per day was the higher scored (8) as the number of competences per ILA (4). They had also recorded the highest percentage of collected activities made public, with 90% of published users’ competences and 80% of ILA’s associated competences. They have also showed a high number of users’ competences.

These participants showed the higher receptivity to the idea and they thought it promote important reflections about their learning’s. They thought TRAILER tool could bring benefits to manage competences in an institution. Personally they considered its most value was to give them an opportunity to visualize learning. Regarding the tool, they emphasized some issues as the weakest: activity type with limited choices, and competences definition are too complex. They considered the tool needed usability improvement and that the piloting phase was too short to test it more realistically.

The person who acted as employer, a Captain and military academy teacher, considered that the TRAILER tool could act as a facilitator in the selection process and identification of new skills.

This big state office (with 1063 employees) was located in a big city of Spain and the contacted department was specialized in informatics. From the 7 employees in that department, 4 were part of the piloting trial phase of TRAILER (the dropout registered was one of the highest). Typically the employees had a degree and their age was between 26 and 40 years old.

The employees showed the lowest score of prior recognition of informal learning (IL) and even though this recognition improved after the pilots, it was still one of the lowest. The activities they considered more important in developing IL were “Reading”, “Trial and error” and “Searching in the Internet”. In general, comparing with other cases, they show higher level of agreement relatively to the need for IL activities in: “learn to perform particular tasks”,  “developing a deeper knowledge” and “amusing myself”.

During the first piloting phase – the learner perspective, the few employees who started, finished the piloting (showed a percentage of 100% of active users), but few competences were added per informal learning activities (ILA’s), in average only 1. But 82% of actions were completed on both platforms (an average of 10 ILA’s per user). However, the great majority of the collected activities were not made public.

This group of employees considered the tool’s usability was not very good, however they considered its usefulness high.

The person who acted as employer, the Director of the Web Environment Services, considered that the TRAILER tool could act as a facilitator in selection and identification of new skills processes; he also stated that participants had the opportunity to reflect on what they know and how they have learned it, which represents an unusual but necessary process.

This small technology-based company located in a big city of Portugal specialized in engineering has its core business in areas like space, energy, transports and health. From the 12 employees, 11 were part of the first piloting phase of TRAILER. Typically employees had a degree or a MSc and their age was between 26 and 40 years old.

This company CEO had already a clear understanding about informal learning (IL) and what it represents in their daily knowledge management. He and his employees already acknowledge IL’s importance and some develop IL activities regularly. So, the majority had a good prior recognition of IL, which was slightly improved after the pilots. The most important activities that could trigger IL were recorded as: “Reading”, “Trial and error” and “Searching in the Internet”. In general, comparing with other cases, they show the higher level of agreement relatively to the need for IL activities in: “learn to perform particular tasks” and  “improve their professional status”.

During the first piloting – the learner perspective phase, they showed a good percentage of active users (80%), but few competences were added per informal learning activities (ILA’s), in fact, in average only 1 per person.  Also only 52% of actions were completed on both platforms (an average of 3 ILA’s per user). Regarding the phase of sharing their IL activities and competences, their results were very low: none of the collected activities were made public and only 25% of users’ competences and 20% of ILA’s associated competences were published. This fact undermined the work that could have been accomplished in the second pilot – the employer perspective. Since he could only act upon the published competences, his work was reduced.

In spite of this constrain, the company CEO was able to understand that the main areas of work and interests of their employees were more or less common with the company line of work. He was able to validate some of his employees’ user competences and add some institutional competences to his original list of institutional competences.

His prior work and the work made in the pilots allowed him to reinforce the importance IL management plays nowadays in a company. He considered that even though the TRAILER tool has some usability problems that should be overcome, it presents an excellent way to aid knowledge management within the company, but as any other tool, it should have a control point somewhere in time (in order to clean some unclear or untrue entries). He believes that for employees it can also become useful namely in increasing their awareness of the importance of their individual and/or team’ work. The employees considered the tool needed usability improvement and that the piloting phase was too short to test it more realistically, however they also agreed it could be useful in a company after fully developed.