Rebecca WilsonProject Manager

25 June 2010

ACU ePortfolio Project

A purposeful collection of information and digital artefacts that demonstrates development or

evidences learning outcomes, skills or competencies

An electronic tool that helps you successfully achieve your goals by better understanding yourself

and receiving valuable feedback from others

Definition

Project Overview

Why we did it Selection

criteria

Evaluation stage

Implementation

and Review

Why we did it

• Desire to extend the online learning systems to include a personal learning space

• Curriculum requirement for certain faculties

• Aid with transition from learning to working environments

• Provide students with an ePortfolio for life

Project Sponsor

Paul Campbell, Director of IT

Project Steering Committee

Dean of EducationAssociate Dean of Health SciencesExecutive Manager, Office of Student SuccessDirector, Learning and TeachingDirector of IT

Project Working Group

Project ManagerDirector of ITAssociate Dean EducationeLearning Coordinators (Education, Health Sciences)LecturersManager, ACUOnline (support and training)Library representativeOffice of Student SuccessIT Client Services

Project Teams

Monthly meetingsWeekly meetings

Scop

e of

the

Proj

ect

12 month pilot – starting February 2010

Students in select course units across Health Science and Education faculties

All academics teaching those course units

All academics

Easy to use, web-based

Ability to present in a multi-page website

Store a wide range of digital artefacts, reflections and presentations

Able to personalise and customise presentations

Ability to communicate with and assess student portfolios – to be adopted as a choice by lecturers

Students able to flag content using the University’s approved attributes

Flexible file size and storage limits

Ability to statistically report on ePortfolio use

Sustainable after graduation

Selection Criteria

? Integration with LMS for marks, assessments, artefacts

Mahara• Relatively inexpensive solution

• Good community base

• Unable to create multipage views

• Limited theme design and customisation by student

• Unable to rate against graduate attributes

Pebblepad• UK based with AUS rep• Rate against graduate attributes, and

self made attributes• Customisable presentations• Wizard-like system• Interface is childlike• Flash technology and potential issues

on different platforms in use

Desire2Learn• Canada based with AUS rep• Web-based, platform independent• Simple interface for data input• Able to customise and personalise presentations• Management of graduate attributes• Not previously in use at Australian universities

Careerhub• Australia based• Aligned with an existing project at ACU• Good resume building tool• No theme design or customisation by student, difficult to manage content• Poor tracking of experiences and reflections

Product selection

and

evaluation

Graduate Attributes

Desire2Learn Competencies

Graduate attributes created as

Learning Objectives

Activities can be created under each Learning Objective

Activity results can be measured

Engage ACU and D2L project teams

Identify/purchase hardware

Software installation by D2L in Canada, including ACU branding

Integration to AD for same sign on

Integration to Banner for student enrolment details

UAT by ACU

Implementation

Trainingo Train the Trainer sessions

o eLearning Coordinators, IT staff, Learning and Teaching staff

o Students and academics provided with online self-paced tutorials and documentation

o Academics trained by their faculty eLearning Coordinators

October 2009

November 2009

December 2009

January 2010

Review process has just commenced

Initial statistics:

Mid Pilot Review

1st week To date

No. of user accounts 4336 4428

No. of active users 223 2473

No. of logins 431 21288

No. of items created 174 18292

Artefacts 71 12416

Reflections 60 3439

Collections 11 749

Presentations 32 1688

Shared items 0 5945

Feedback

…taken to the assignment tasks like “ducks to water” and I have not heard one complaint from any of them. I find all this student activity quite amazing…

Student motivation to learn and self assess has improved. They are learning more independently.

The immediate benefit that I experienced with Desire2Learn was the paperless assessments. Being able to access students work from home without have to take it home was great. A definite time saver.

There have been no problems reported to me by staff or students associated with not understanding how to use the software…

Problems were related to equipment and space, the usual problems…

Initial problems with students not accessing ePortfolio – this was improved with the addition of formative assessment/class activities built around ePortfolio

Some anxiety around using ePortfolios. Resolved with regular small training bite sessions.

Lessons Learnt

Coordinating with LMS project

Involvement of faculty staff

Keep up the momentum

Support resources

Thank you

Questions?