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Electronic Portfolios and Student Success:

A Framework for Effective

Implementation

WASC Resource FairJanuary 19-20, 2012

Helen L. Chen, Ph.D.Stanford Universityhlchen@stanford.edu

Assessment Methods(Leskes & Wright, 2005)

� Portfolios

� Capstone Experiences

� Performances

� Common assignments, secondary readings, and other embedded assessments

� Classroom assessment techniques, action research

� Local tests

� Commercial tests

� Course management programs

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What�might�go�into�a�

student�ePortfolio?

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Sketch … what might go into a student ePortfolio. Don’t think too much. Put your pen to paper and start drawing.

Multiple forms of evidence in various media

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Multiple curricula within higher education as they are…

Delivered

Lived

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Why ePortfolios?

The Problem

Students’ intellectual experience of higher education is fragmented due to:

• Lack of curricular coherence

• Increasing demands of an information-rich environment

• Growing importance of out-of-class learning experiences

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http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2010/10/21/henderson

Our country is rearing a group of intelligent young men and women with lots of skills and enthusiasm but little self-knowledge.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/consumers-surveys-breed-feedback-fatigue-15312009#.Txfi129ST2Y

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The Folio Thinking Approach

Provide structured opportunities for students to:

1. create learning portfolios

2. reflect on learning experiences

Enable students to:

• integrate and synthesize learning

• enhance self-understanding

• make deliberate choices in their learning career

• develop an intellectual identity

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ePortfolio Implementation Framework(Chen & Penny-Light, 2010; Penny-Light, Chen, & Ittelson, 2012)

� Defining Learning Outcomes� Identifying & Understanding

Learners and Stakeholders� Designing Learning Activities� Informing Assessment of

Student Learning� Using ePortfolio Tools and

Technologies� Evaluating the Impact of Your

ePortfolio Initiativehttp://www.documentinglearning.com

What are you hoping to achieve using the ePortfolio?

How will ePortfolios enhance the learning experience you are designing for your students?

What types of learning do you want to capture and document?

Defining Learning Outcomes

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AAC&U’s Essential Learning Outcomeshttp://www.aacu.org/value

� Inquiry and analysis

� Critical thinking

� Creative thinking

� Written communication

� Oral communication

� Quantitative literacy

� Information literacy

� Foundations and skills for lifelong learning

� Teamwork

� Problem solving

� Civic knowledge and engagement – local and global

� Intercultural knowledge and competence

� Ethical reasoning

� Integrative learning

Studying abroad gives you the chance not only to see and travel in a foreign country, but to actually learn about how the people there have values that are different to those that your country holds.

http://macaulay.cuny.edu/eportfolios/lilachgez/

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Who are we designing the learning experience for?

What are their characteristics?

What technologies are they comfortable with?

What support will they need to create their ePortfolios?

Understanding your learners

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Who are today’s students?

“Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach.”

—Marc Prensky

� Digital Natives vs. Digital Immigrants (Prensky)

� Net Generation, Millennials (Educause Learning Initiative)

� Born Digital (Palfrey & Gasser, Harvard)

� Generation M(ultitasking) (Kaiser Family Fdn.; Ophir, Nass, & Wagner, 2009)

� Older Wiser Learners (OWLs)

How does being continually connected affect how students interact with each other and how they experience college?

http://chronicle.com/article/Bleary-Eyed-Students-Cant/129838/

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What’s being lost in this environment?

“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, weblog historian

� Communication skills (writing and in person)

� How to think

� How to be contemplative

� How to reflect

--Chronicle for Higher Education, 10/5/05

� Empathy?--Konrath (2010)

What data already exist?

� What methods can we use to learn about our learners?

� Example: U. of Rochester’s anthropological study of "What happens when a professor assigns a paper to a student?“

� Focus groups, interviews, questionnaires, etc.

� What existing sources of data are available and accessible? Who owns this data?

� NSSE, Alumni surveys, Admissions/Registrars

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How can these stakeholders benefit from adopting ePortfolios?

What can these stakeholders contribute to the ePortfolio initiative?

Identifying Stakeholders

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How will ePortfolios be used by external audiences and stakeholders?

How can ePortfolios inform program evaluation and institutional accreditation needs?

Anticipating External Uses of Evidence

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Mapping Overview

Kevin Kelly, SF State

http://teachingcommons.cdl.edu/eportfolio/resources/dop/mapping.html

Mapping Case Study: Using tags

LEAP

• Personal and Social Responsibility• Anchored through active involvement with diverse communities and real-world challenges

• Knowledge of Human Cultures & the Physical & Natura l World• Focused by engagement with big questions, both contemporary and enduring

Institution

• GE Content Objective: Acquire an understanding of the interrelationships between science, economics, ethics and policy in environmental decision-making by society.

• Campus Strategic Goal: To create a vital and collaborative living and learning experience for students, who will appreciate and embrace the local, regional, and global communities of which we are all a part.

College

• College of Behavioral & Social Sciences - Goal : Continue to develop community service and research partnerships that enhance student learning and community involvement.

Dept

• Department of Environmental Studies - Objective: Recognize the interconnectedness and interdependence of political, economic, and social complexities inherent in environmental problem solving, and demonstrate the ability to apply this interdisciplinary training to environmental problems of local, regional, national, or global significance.

Course

• Environmental Studies 010: Life on a Changing Plane t• Student Learning Objective: Demonstrate ways in which science influences and is influenced by complex societies, including political and moral issues.

Artifact

• Assignment: Calculating Your Carbon Footprint• Upload your final papers/projects from this class in your ePortfolio tagged with "science", "ethics", "policy", "environmental problem-solving", "real-world challenge" (See assignment description for details)

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How will you evaluate the impact of your ePortfolio project?

How will you define success for you? Your students? Your faculty? Your institution?

What constitutes evidence of YOUR success?

Evaluating the Impact of ePortfolios

Defining “Success”(Venezsky, 2001)

Imagine that your ePortfolio project is completed and that it succeeded in all of its goals. You are to appear tomorrow at a press conference to explain what you have accomplished. Write a press release to distribute at this meeting

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National & International ePortfolio Initiatives

For more information

� Helen L. Chen, Ph.D.

Center for Design Research & Office of the Registrar

hlchen@stanford.edu

� EPAC ePortfolio Community of Practice wiki and listserv

http://epac.pbworks.com

https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/epaccoplist

� Association for Authentic Experiential Evidence-Based

Learning (AAEEBL) – annual conference in Boston in July 2012

http://www.aaeebl.org

� Association of American Colleges & Universities – VALUE, LEAP, and Quality Collaboratives projects

http://www.aacu.org