Developing ePortfolios to Enhance Learning for Accounting

and Financial Management Students

Grant Russell, School of AccountancyTracy Penny Light, LT3 Centre

University of Waterloo

MERLOT International Conference August 4, 2004

Today’s Overview

• What are Competency Portfolios? • Use of Competency Portfolios at UW

– Accounting and Financial Management/History

– Teaching in Higher Education– Co-op Enhancement– Residence Life

• ePortfolios as a transformative technology

What are Competency Portfolios?

Competency portfolios provide: • profiles of competencies for learners to

develop within a given domain• opportunities for learners to document their

skills in different learning contexts• opportunities for reflection in different

learning contexts to integrate learning experiences

• opportunities for a more holistic approach to learning

Competency Portfolio Pilot Projects at UW

• Accounting and Financial Management

• History

• Teaching Excellence in Higher Education

• Co-op Enhancement

• Residence Life

Why ePortfolios in AFM?

• Motivation– AFM students take courses with other

undergraduates, have some specialized courses

– Need for an integrating technology for an otherwise disjoint undergraduate program

– Have distinctive program elements both within and between courses – where do they fit in?

– What organizing framework would apply?

Why ePortfolios in AFM?

• Motivation– AFM students see education as a

collection of courses, not the acquisition of skills

– Orientation of meeting course requirement statements of professional societies

– Accomplishment: give me a 75% and I’m happy!

The Project -1

• Review of literature• Identification and assessment of

potential software (KEEP toolkit, Carnegie Foundation)

• Development of competency categories– Relate to ICAO– Relate to CMA Canada

• Informing other faculty and staff

The Project - 2

• Orientation of AFM students to ePortfolios (introducing KEEP)

• Trial run with 1st year and 4th year students (start September, 2004)

• First year course has 800+ students and 4th year course has 160 students

• Assessment of trial run, (December 2004)

The Project - 3

• Focus on one specific “soft” competency: Team work

• Process: 3 sets of artifacts– Preliminary

• Group contract, background exposure to team concepts

– Intermediate• Reflection based upon group assignments• Intermediate peer evaluation

– Final• Reflection based upon entire term• Commentary by students on how ePortfolio was

helpful (survey, focus groups)

The Project - 4

Ongoing ePortfolio Development

• Tracking 1st year students into subsequent co-op and academic terms

• Longitudinal research on value of ePortfolios for learning and professional development

Anticipated Results

• Students will value the use of ePortfolios– Opportunity to differentiate for employment

interview purposes• Demonstration of value to professional

societies– Potential funding for future development

• Sharing of results with other ePortfolio developers

• Application to wider group of AFM students– Use with first year students and beyond– Develop other potential competencies / suitable

artifacts

Thank You!

Grant Russell

russell@uwaterloo.ca

Tracy Penny Light

tracy@LT3.uwaterloo.ca