Demonstrating Competencies with E-Portfolios:

The Carolina MPA

Stefanie Panke & John Stephens University of North Carolina

at Chapel HillAACE E-Learn 2014

October 27th

New Orleans

What are e-portfolios?

Learning and assessment are two

sides of the same coin, and they strongly

influence each other.Gulikers, Bastiaens &

Kirschner (2004)

Why Portfolios?

From ‘assessment of learning’ towards ‘assessment for learning’

Knowledge imparted by the instructor (input) Competencies

students can apply (output).

Integrated, complex construct of knowledge, skills and attitudes that can be used in order to solve arising problems and succeed in handling (new) situations (Baartman et al., 2007).

Combination of knowledge, skills, understanding, values, attitudes and desires, which lead to effective, embodied human action in the world, in a particular domain. (Buckingham et al., 2012)

Competence-based Curriculum

http://mpa.unc.edu

Competencies

Reflective Leadership and Professionalism

• Enter shared-goal conversation that values the leader and his or her expertise (Hyland & Kranzow, 2012)

• Fostering critical reflection as means of developing expertise, critical self-surveillance whereby professional experiences are revisited and explored (McNeill, Brown & Shaw, 2010).

Types of Portfolios (Hewett, 2004)

• Documentation portfolios: growth toward learning goals

• Process portfolios: phases of the learning process

• Showcase portfolios: accomplishments and competencies

Showcase & Process Portfolio

Carolina MPA E-Portfolios

• Graduation requirement(portfolio/ oral exam)

• Campus-wide WordPress Multisite

• PUBA 746 portfolio course (peer feedback/ milestones)

• Portfolio Guide• Competence Memo Template• Portfolio Assessment Rubric

Benefits of e-portfolios • Encouraging reflection

(Roberts, Maor & Herrington, 2013).

• Promoting self-regulation (Abrami et al, 2008, Meyer at al, 2010).

• Improving knowledge management (Chang, Tseng, Liang & Chen, 2013).

• Acknowledging diversity and transfer learning (O’Toole, 2013).

Benefits of e-portfolios • Fostering digital

literacy /multimedia storytelling (Wakimoto & Lewis, 2014).

• Supporting career development (Reese & Levy, 2009).

• Strengthening organizational ties (cf. Lorenzo & Ittelson, 2005; Reese & Levy, 2009).

Barriers to Implementation & Use

• Implementing e-portfolios is a complex process fraught with challenges and dilemmas (Chau & Cheng, 2010).

• The promotion of reflective thinking and practice are not an automatic result of creating a portfolio (Wray, 2007).

Barriers to Implementation & Use

• Tensions between personal reflection and institutional requirements (Tosh, Light, Fleming & Haywood, 2005)

• Written reflection vs. metacognitive processes (McNeill, Brown & Shaw, 2010)

• Unclear expectations and assessment strategies

• Conflicting portfolio goals

Portfolio Evaluation• Faculty focus group • Course evaluation

results PUBA 746 • Student online survey. • Participants: • 18 students (15

female, 3 male) • 17 faculty members

(10 female, 7 male).

Student Online Survey• Administered 2 month

after graduation• Survey software

Qualtrics• Incentive $10 gift

certificate• 23 Likert scale items:

Strongly Disagree (1) - Strongly Agree (6)

• 3 open-ended questions• 15/18 students (83%)

http://tinyurl.com/nzk7lr6

Learning Trajectories and Transfer Learning

• 60% included products created outside class. • 73% agree that the portfolio brings together

classroom learning with professional experiences and personal background.

• 2% plan to use the portfolio in the future.

Foster Digital Literacy

% who agree or strongly agree• Web publishing is an important skill: 73% • The portfolio has improved

the general technical abilities to develop a professional website: 1%

• It was easy to set upthe portfolio in WordPress: 53%

Support Career Prospects

• Only one student shared the portfolio with a potential employer.

• ‘It's too personal. Changing the portfolio to be less introspective would make it a less useful assignment, though’.

• ‘By the time I could share the portfolio, I had a job’.

Assessment

Students diagreed:• that the assessment process was fair: 40% • that they received helpful feedback: 33% • that the committee reviewed thoroughly: 33% • ‘a bit of inconsistency with the expectations of

different faculty committees made the process seem unfair’.

• ‘by allowing us to put as much material in the portfolio as we wanted, it was simply too much for them to review’.

Reflection

• 80% were proud of their portfolio. • 93% agreed that the portfolio process prompted them

to reflect their competencies as public service leaders.

• ‘extremely worthwhile exercise’.• ‘excellent opportunity to increase self-awareness and

plan for future development’ • ‘Overall, the portfolio did help me reflect on what I

learned in the program’.• ‘I appreciated the flexibility we were given to design

our portfolios to reflect our strengths’.

Summary

Positive Outcomes• Dialogue on how to

interpret central learning outcomes of the program

• Bridge between classroom reality and professional experiences

• Reflective leadership

Areas for Improvement• Consistency in

assessment: clear and shared expectations

• Increased ownership: Roadmap for future use of portfolio

• Balance between structure and autonomy during portfolio porcess

Outlook

• Currently: 2 online students are completing portfolio process

• Next spring: Cohort of 35 online and residential students

• Faculty Learning Communities• Sample Portfolios