1 ePortfolios Interoperability and Standards: What, Why, and How Ali Jafari, Ph.D. Professor and Director of CyberLab Indiana University Purdue University

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ePortfolios Interoperability and Standards: What, Why, and HowAli Jafari, Ph.D.

Professor and Director of CyberLabIndiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)

Electronic Portfolio Consortium/NLII EPAC MeetingNLII Annual Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana Sunday, January 26, 2003, 1:00 p.m. - 3:45 p.m. Claiborne Room, Hyatt Regency, New Orleans

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AcknowledgmentsThanks to the representatives of the 33 educational and corporate institutions participating in this meeting, with special thanks to those who made last-minute changes in their busy schedule and paid for premium airfare tickets to attend this meeting on January 26, 2003.

A. Jafari, “ePortfolios Interoperability and Standards: What, Why, and How, “ NLII Conference, January 26, 2003Copyright © 2003 The Trustees of Indiana University 3

About ePortConsortium

Visit http://www.eportconsortium.org


ePortfolios Scenario: Johnny the student Johnny begins his ePortfolios development when he

starts his college education at the University of Somewhere.

Before finishing his degree, Johnny transfers to the University of Elsewhere.

After receiving his undergraduate degree, Johnny then attends the University of Wherever to get his Master’s degree.

Johnny completes his schooling upon attaining his Master’s degree, and he begins work at his first job.

Johnny switches jobs every three to five years.


ePortfolios Scenario Johnny expects from ePortfolios to be able to:

Easily transport his ePortfolios collections from each of the three schools he attended;

Access all of his ePortfolios collections during and after his undergraduate and graduate education;

Continue his ePortfolios collections, presentation, and use after he completes his education.


ePortfolios Scenario Johnny will be frustrated and discouraged if:

He has to restart his ePortfolios work at each new school he attends;

He cannot access or reuse his ePortfolios collections from previous schools he attended;

He cannot access his ePortfolios collection when he graduates and is no longer associated with his school.


Need for Interoperability: WHY?FACTS

There will be more than one popular ePortfolios Management System: Commercial stand-alone systems developed by

software companies; Add-on modules or new features developed by

software companies; Home-grown systems by higher education IT

service units; Research outcomes from R&D laboratories.


ePortConsortium Website Survey

* Result of survey posted on the homepage of http://www.eportconsortium.org, Dec 2, 2002 – January 25, 2003.


ePortfolios Glossary

What is an ePortfolios Management System (EPS)?

A set of tools within a software environment that offers services for collection, reflection, selection, management, and presentation of various academic and professional credentials.

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We need to develop ePortfolios Glossary


CMS vs. EPS

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CMS (Course Management System) is a “course” based environment offering services within the period of a semester or quarter;

EPS (ePortfolios System) is an “individual” based environment expected to offer services for life-long, continuous portfolios use.


CMS vs. EPS

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CMS is meant to serve a known set of registered students within an academic course;

EPS is expected to provide content to affiliated and public groups.


CMS vs. EPS

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CMS features and expectations are fully understood and defined;

“ePortfolios” is still a buzz word with various connotations.


Core Components of ePortfolios:

An Electronic Document is one of the primary core components of the ePortfolios package. Examples of Electronic Documents include term papers, class projects, published papers, artistic drawings, or other document saved in digital format.

Electronic Document



Electronic Documents come in various formats, such as text files, move clips, audio clips, images and graphics, or any combination thereof in a multimedia package.

Electronic Document



An Electronic Document is tagged with a series of metadata information such as who created it, when it was created, for what purpose it was created, who assessed it, identification of its media type, etc.

Electronic Document

ID ---Creator ---Date ---Assessor ---Class ---Media Type -------



An Electronic Document may also contain a series of thoughtful reflections created by the author relative to educational growth and development.

Electronic Document

My reflectionThis paper substantiates my understanding of culture and ….

Signed -----


Core Components of ePortfolios:Electronic Documents may

uploaded to and maintained on a secure server to protect them from changes to original content once submitted or assessed. This offers a certification feature which verifies that the content of the document is the same as the original content at the time of creation.

Electronic Document


Core Components of ePortfolios:An Electronic Document

may be given access rights making it possible for various individuals or groups within or outside an institution or a community to view or to be restricted from viewing that particular document.

Electronic Document

Public

A Colleague

Faculty members in my School



The ePortfolio profile contains data consisting of personal and biographical information, academic accomplishments, professional experiences, skills, affiliations, interests, etc.

User Profile



Community of Science (www.cos.com) offers a 17-category profile.

Epsilen Portfolios includes 22 categories, encompassing all 17 COS categories in addition to five new fields needed by undergraduate students.

Profile

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How can we develop ePortfolios specifications and interoperability measures ?


Developing ePortfolios Specifications and Interoperability Measures

Method 1:

Raise tons of money, hire staff, and build a new organization.



Method 1:

Raise tons of money, hire staff, and build a new organization.


Method 2:

Raise pennies and use in-kind intellects from .edu and .com experts to do the job.



Collaboration Model

1. Each ePortfolios interoperability and specification task will be led by a group chair.


Collaboration Model

2. The group chair finds and recruits subject matter experts (from .edu and .com) and forms his/her working group.


Collaboration Model

3. The focus groups meet in person and virtually (each focus group will be hosted by ePortConsortium corporate and developing members)


Collaboration Model

4. Focus groups will develop and release:

A) White papers;

B) Technical specifications; and

C) Open source codes.


Collaboration Model

6. After a rounds of drafts, the ePortfolios Specifications (EPS) will be widely distributed to ePortfolios developers and conceptual thinkers.


Example of EPS deliverables

White papers to define and specify functional requirements for career portfolio, faculty portfolio, course portfolio, etc.



White papers to identify and specify interoperability and integration requirements among ePortfolios systems, course management system, and student systems, etc.



Technical documents such as database schema for the ePortfolios profile specifications (i.e.. number of tables, fields, naming convention, etc.)



Review IMS Meta-data Specification, Content Packaging Specification, and Enterprise Specifications for potential refinements to support the requirements of ePortfolios applications

IMS Specifications


Real Collaboration

The ePortConsortium facilitates and leads the development and dissemination of the ePortfolios specifications and interoperability measures through collaborative efforts among ePortfolios experts and leaders within higher education and corporate institutions.

. COM. EDU


Funding Model

Resources to develop ePortfolios interoperability specifications: In-kind contributions from:

ePortConsortium developing members ePortConsortium Corporate members ePortfolios interest communities

(EPAC members) Membership fee from:

ePortConsortium developing members ePortConsortium corporate members


Next Steps

Before discussing the next steps, should we have a short 15 minutes break???