Practice, Pedagogy and Assessment of ePortfolios

This page comprises of resources on the following;

Practice & pedagogy of ePortfolios

Portfolio Assessment 

Sample ePortfolio Reflective Assessment Assignment

Practice & Pedagogy of ePortfolios

Implementing portfolios come with some difficulties. Below are some resources to facilitate an effective execution;

• The National Council of Teachers of English shares these principles and practices. This resource also has provides links to "well-conceived e-portfolio projects" from several colleges and  universities. Additionally, it has "examples of professional e-portfolios created by scholars and teachers in composition studies".

• Dr. Michael Day (director of Northern Illinois University's First-Year Composition program) on implementing ePortfolios on a programmatic and inter-institutional level: electronic-portfolios

• The Inter/National Coalition for Electronic Portfolio Research (I/NCEPR) "convenes research/practitioners to study the impact of eportfolios on student learning and educational outcomes. Each year ten institutions selected through an application process constitute a three-year cohort. Each campus works on an individual project that asks "What learning is taking place as a function of electronic portfolios?" and "How do we know?"

• Publications on ePortfolio: Archives of the Research Landscape (PEARL) is a database comprised of articles on ePortfolios. It excludes books, conference presentations, white papers, etc.
• The International Journal of ePortfolio's (IJeP) mission "is to encourage the study of practices and pedagogies associated with ePortfolio in educational settings. The journal's focus includes the explanation, interpretation, application, and dissemination of researchers', practitioners', and developers' experiences relevant to ePortfolio.
• Electronic Portfolios 2.0: Emergent Research on Implementation and Impact. Darren Cambridge, Barbara L. Cambridge, and Kathleen Blake Yancey. Stylus Publishing, LLC., 2009. "This book features emergent results of studies from 20 institutions that have examined effects on student reflection, integrative learning, establishing identity, organizational learning, and designs for learning supported by technology. It also describes how institutions have responded to multiple challenges in ePortfolio development, from engaging faculty to going to scale".
• ePortfolio Performance Support Systems: Constructing, Presenting, and Assessing Portfolios. Edited by Katherine V. Wills, and Rich Rice. The WAC Clearinghouse. 2013. This book "interweave(s) twelve essays that address the ways in which ePortfolios can facilitate sustainable and measurable writing-related student development, assessment and accountability, learning and knowledge transfer, and principles related to universal design for learning, just-in-time support, interaction design, and usability testing."
• Portfolio Teaching: A Guide for Instructors. Nedra Reynolds and Rich Rice.
   Bedford/St. Martin's Professional Resources. 2006. "Brief but thorough, Portfolio Teaching: A Guide for Instructors provides the practical tips and pedagogical support that instructors and program managers need to successfully integrate portfolios into their courses, as well as create their own teaching portfolios."

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Portfolio Assessment

Assessment plays a critical role in portfolio development, student growth, and opportunities for reflection. The American Association of Colleges and Universities has developed the well-known VALUE Rubrics (Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education), and many faculty have adapted these rubrics for their own course and problem level assessment purposes. The following collection of links archived by Jennifer Hughes provide other helpful assessment resources:

• The VALUE of Assessment: Transforming the Culture of Learning 
  Terrel L. Rhodes (2016). The Magazine of Higher Learning. This article discusses the benefits of using the VALUE rubrics to create an institutional culture of assessment as a high impact practice for improvement and learning. It chronicles the creation, adaptation, and advantages of the VALUE rubrics over standardized tests.
• On Solid Ground
  In a report released on February 23, 2017, AAC&U shared the results from the first two years of data collection for the VALUE (Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education)initiative, a nationwide project that examines direct evidence of student learning. It concludes "it is possible to evaluate undergraduate students' achievement without relying on standardized tests and by using existing material".
• Big Progress in Authentic Assessment, But by Itself Not Enough
  Daniel F. Sullivan & Kate Drezek McConnell (2017). The Magazine of Higher Learning. This article emphasizes the usefulness of VALUE Rubrics due to the ability to deconstruct its results into specific dimensions. It utilizes the MSC (Multi-State Collaborative to Advance Learning Outcomes Assessment) Demonstration Year (2015-2016) results to conduct this research. Analyzing assignments using the VALUE rubric dimension can enable faculty adjust assignments so that time is allocated to the outcomes of an assignment least engaged by the students, or where new assignments can be created to engage that outcome. It ultimately contends that faculty should be able to decide on what kinds of pedagogical approaches even when strong evidence favors some kinds of pedagogy over others.
• MSC Demonstration Year (2015-2016) Results 
  Download PowerPoint slides of MSC (Multi-State Collaborative to Advance Learning Outcomes Assessment) Demonstration Year (2015-2016) Aggregate Results
• MSC Pilot Year (2014-2015) Aggregate Results 
  Download PowerPoint slides of MSC (Multi-State Collaborative to Advance Learning Outcomes Assessment) Pilot Year (2014-2015) Aggregate Results
• It's Time to Get Serious About the Right Kind of Assessment 
  A letter from Daniel F. Sullivan, President Emeritus, St. Lawrence University; Senior Advisor to the AAC&U President; and Chair, AAC&U Presidents' Trust (May 2014) regarding the importance of providing meaningful evidence of learning. The VALUE rubrics are suggested as a solution.
• How Reliable Are the VALUE Rubrics? 
  Ashley Finley (2012). This article presents results of a national inter-rater reliability study on the VALUE rubrics. "This    study was [...] designed to address the degree of reliability and consensus in scoring across faculty    from different disciplinary backgrounds". It engaged "three of the fifteen existing VALUE rubrics —critical thinking, integrative learning, and civic engagement".
• List of Informational Webinars and Links from the MSC 
  (Multi-State Collaborative to Advance    Learning Outcomes Assessment) The States (aka SHEEO) are comprised of nine states—Connecticut, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Oregon, Rhode Island and Utah.

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Additional suggestion:

A Sample ePortfolio Reflective Assessment Assignment: Inserting a Reflective Assignment into a Culminating Semester Assessment
This is a reflective assessment assignment that could be modified for an ePortfolio. It includes a link to a sample reflective memo rubric.

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