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Research Team: Common Understandin gs

EPortfolio Research Team: Common Understandings. ePortfolios are in their infancy Conversations with individuals and institutions involved with ePortfolios

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Page 1: EPortfolio Research Team: Common Understandings. ePortfolios are in their infancy Conversations with individuals and institutions involved with ePortfolios

ePortfolio Research Team:

Common Understandings

Page 2: EPortfolio Research Team: Common Understandings. ePortfolios are in their infancy Conversations with individuals and institutions involved with ePortfolios

ePortfolios are in their infancy

Conversations with individuals and institutions involved with ePortfolios have revealed that people across the country are in the beginning stages of this process

They too are grappling with the very same questions we are posing

There are not yet institutionalized answers to many of our questions

Page 3: EPortfolio Research Team: Common Understandings. ePortfolios are in their infancy Conversations with individuals and institutions involved with ePortfolios

Clarity of Purpose

LaGuardia has identified many purposes for the portfolio including: an institutional assessment tool, a student performance assessment tool, a transfer tool, and a resume-building tool

Our research has pointed us toward the need for a more focused purpose

A rationale for the ePortfolio needs to be articulated to the college community

Page 4: EPortfolio Research Team: Common Understandings. ePortfolios are in their infancy Conversations with individuals and institutions involved with ePortfolios

Institutions and their use of ePortfolios: AAHE ePortfolio Clearinghouse Alverno Elon Kalamazoo Wesleyan

Page 5: EPortfolio Research Team: Common Understandings. ePortfolios are in their infancy Conversations with individuals and institutions involved with ePortfolios

Institutional Culture of ePortfolios Faculty must be involved early on in the

process of development and implementation Students must be involved early on in the

process of development and implementation Linking core competencies to curriculum and

faculty development efforts is crucial to ensure widespread implementation, practice, and sustainability

A common language centered around ePortfolios and core competencies must be developed and spoken throughout the college community

Page 6: EPortfolio Research Team: Common Understandings. ePortfolios are in their infancy Conversations with individuals and institutions involved with ePortfolios

Institutional Culture of ePortfolios (continued) The ePortfolio may require rethinking

courses, curriculum, and student and faculty life

Successful implementation requires a transformation of the institutional culture; implementing a practice of reflection within an institution that values action and innovation may prove to be an initial struggle

Page 7: EPortfolio Research Team: Common Understandings. ePortfolios are in their infancy Conversations with individuals and institutions involved with ePortfolios

Reflection

A collection of on-line documents is a virtual file-cabinet; a collection of on-line documents with a carefully written reflective piece is a portfolio

Teaching students how to write the reflective piece has proven difficult at other institutions

Page 8: EPortfolio Research Team: Common Understandings. ePortfolios are in their infancy Conversations with individuals and institutions involved with ePortfolios

Ideal Practices/Hard Questions Should ePortfolios be required? In what other ways can we successfully

structure the ePortfolio without the ePortfolio becoming a barrier to student graduation?

Should ePortfolios be housed in credit-bearing, content courses?

Should ePortfolios be assessed at different benchmarks throughout a student’s career?

How do we imbed reflection in the curriculum? How do we attract wide-spread institutional

commitment?

Page 9: EPortfolio Research Team: Common Understandings. ePortfolios are in their infancy Conversations with individuals and institutions involved with ePortfolios

No Longer Questions… Paper versus Digital: Digital wins the day Plagiarism: Plagiarism is plagiarism The initial benchmark needs to take place almost

immediately and in a credit-bearing, content course The subsequent benchmarks should follow quickly to

allow students to engage in a sustained ePortfolio process

Privacy concerns: The software we choose will help to deal with this issue

The ePortfolio does require more work Since ePortfolios are primarily used at four year or

university institutions, they are not using them for transfer—what we decide to do may define this practice