ePortfolios at Virginia Tech

Dr. Marc Zaldivar,Director,ePortfolio Initiatives

Dr. Jennifer Sparrow,Director,Emerging Technologies

Dr. Teggin Summers,Associate Director,ePortfolio Initiatives

A definition…

• A portfolio is a purposeful collection of student work that exhibits the student's efforts, progress and achievements in one or more areas. The collection must include student participation in selecting contents, the criteria for selection; the criteria for judging merit, and evidence of student self-reflection.

– Northwest Evaluation Association (1990). Portfolios and Assessment. Paper presented at the Annual Conference for the Northwest Evaluation Association.

ePortfolios: balancing process and product

• Individual learning portfolios

• Course-based learning portfolios

• Programmatic assessment portfolios

• External accreditation portfolios

Assess

Share

Select Reflect

Collect

ePortfolios: balancing goals and functionality

Learning

AssessmentProfessional Development

Academic Accreditation

Learning Portfolios

Departmental Development

eP@VT

• Year-long, two-course sequence

• Primarily private, only shared w/teacher

• Student is main audience

• Highly cyclic• Feedback & Reflection• Scaffolded learning

experiences

https://sites.google.com/site/livinglearningserving/service/subtle-service

Learning: SERVE Community

Advantages of “Folio Thinking”

• Aids students’ self-assessment• Enables the tracking of student development

over time• Emphasizes process over product• Highlights connections between assignments

(and courses)• Facilitates academic richness - personal

contact with instructors, advisors, and mentors

Professional Development: Kelly Anne Stahl

Professional Development: They are watching…

• CareerBuilder.com (2009) survey of ~3000 HR managers• Primary finding: 45% used social networking sites

to research job candidates.

Professional Development: They are watching…• Why they did NOT hire employees:

• Candidate posted provocative or inappropriate photographs or information - 53 percent

• Candidate posted content about them drinking or using drugs - 44 percent

• Candidate bad-mouthed their previous employer, co-workers or clients - 35 percent

• Candidate showed poor communication skills - 29 percent• Candidate made discriminatory comments - 26 percent• Candidate lied about qualifications - 24 percent• Candidate shared confidential information from previous

employer - 20 percent

Professional Development: They are watching…• Why they DID hire employees:

• Profile provided a good feel for the candidate’s personality and fit - 50 percent

• Profile supported candidate’s professional qualifications - 39 percent

• Candidate was creative - 38 percent• Candidate showed solid communication skills - 35 percent• Candidate was well-rounded - 33 percent• Other people posted good references about the candidate -

19 percent• Candidate received awards and accolades - 15 percent

• Doesn’t that sound like a portfolio?

Professional Development: ePortfolios offer…• Focus on Growth and Continuity of Learning• Networked and Symphonic Selves

(Cambridge, 2009)• Controlled and Presented by the Student• Direct (multimedia) examples of abilities and

skills• Easily coordinated to professional standards

What is The Process for Assessing Student Learning Outcomes?

2. Gather and AnalyzeInformation About

StudentAchievementOf Outcomes

3. Use InformationGathered

To ImproveStudent Learning

1. IdentifyAnd Articulate

StudentLearning

Outcomes

ePs for Assessment

• Help us to provide evidence of our students’ achievement of learning outcomes.

• Provide students and faculty a tool for organizing their assessment work.

• Provide opportunities for students and faculty to reflect on teaching and learning.

“We are being pummeled by a deluge of data and unless we create time and spaces in which to reflect, we will be left with only our reactions.”

– Rebecca Blood

Learning and Assessment• “For me, my ePortfolio was a personal learning

space that I could tailor to reflect the teacher I had become at this point in my teaching career. By taking the time to intricately tie together all I had learned, I found that I had a better understanding of pedagogy and application within the English classroom as well. Thus, the connections that link together each page within my ePortfolio truly create a rich realm of learning, reflecting, and applying.”

-- Crystal Beach, ’09, Secondary English Education, M.Ed.

How do we do ePortfolio?

• We have two tools:• Portfolio templates (for self/programmatic

reflection and showcase portfolios)• Matrix/Forms (for scaffolded learning and high-

level assessment)

The Portfolio Template • Student-centered• Program-customized

• Flexible• Sharable: Public or

private?

The Matrix: Summative assessment

Students choose (“are guided to choose”) what goes here, as the term/year progresses

Students reflect, on the “big” level, about goals at the end of the term/year.

Goals can be customized to include programmatic goals for each program. You can design your reflection prompts, also.

Some other examples…

• Examples can be found athttps://eportfolio.vt.edu/gallery.html

8 Issues Central to Implementation (Chen & Penny-Light, 2010)

5. Including multiple forms of evidence

6. Using rubrics to evaluate ePortfolios

7. Anticipating external uses of evidence

8. Evaluating the impact of ePortfolios

1. Defining learning outcomes

2. Understanding your learners

3. Identifying stakeholders

4. Designing learning activities

Conditions for Success(Knight, Hakel, & Gromko, 2008)

• eP-based curriculum• Feedback• Include engagement and personalization• Examples• Time for development• Faculty promote value of eP• Technical assistance

Faculty Visioning Process

• When and from where will student work be collected?

• Are there specific assignments that correspond to specific goals?

• Who will evaluate student work?• Who has access to student work?

Putting it all together

Learning

AssessmentProfessional Development

Academic Accreditation

Learning Portfolios

Departmental Development

eP@VT