Departmental Considerations

The ePortfolio sub-committee for Best Practices for Faculty Incorporating ePortfolios was comprised of Angela Lumpkin, Lindsey Slaughter, and Marcus Tanner. We met to discuss the following charge: Best practices for faculty incorporating ePortfolios and Departmental Considerations: Product vs. process, quick start guide, possible portfolio components, goals\learning outcomes for portfolios, questions to ask yourself about the purpose of a portfolio, rubrics to assess ePortfolios, What does the department need to consider before implementing a portfolio requirement? Who needs to be "at the table" to think about portfolios on a departmental level? How will this be communicated to the department?

This document is framed as "quick start" guide to provide some suggestions for best practices in utilizing ePortfolios, primarily at the department/program level but also includes general suggestions and resources for faculty. Learn about the following;

Best Practices for ePortfolio development and design

Adding an ePortfolio to curriculum

Implementing ePortfolio Use in Departments

Potential Synergies between Student ePortfolios, Student Learning Outcomes, and Program/Degree Assessments

Other Links

A Guide for Departmental (and Faculty) Consideration

"Portfolios are portable collections or electronic spaces where [students] can showcase artifacts that communicate identity, interest, skills, talents, and qualifications for a particular career of industry" (Tanner, M. Introduction to Integrative Studies. (2nd) 2016, Kendall Hunt, p. 127). Offering any type of portfolio in an online environment transforms a portfolio into an ePortfolio.

More specific types of Portfolios

• Career Planning Portfolios
• Interview Portfolios
• Graduate School Portfolios
• Interdisciplinary Portfolios

 

"The learning portfolio is a flexible, evidence-based tool that engages students in a process of continuous reflection and collaborative analysis of learning. As written text, electronic display, or other creative project, the portfolio captures the scope, richness, and relevance of students' intellectual development, critical judgment, and academic skills. The portfolio focuses on purposefully and collaboratively selected reflections and evidence for both improvement and assessment of student learning." [Zubizarreta, J. (2009). The learning portfolio: Reflective practice for improving student learning (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., p. 20]

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Best Practices for ePortfolio development and design

Three overarching types of ePortfolios may guide the development of them at the department or course level.

Process

• Student reflections on their learning journey (begin in first year and finish with graduation); examples of students' learning goals addressing what do they want to learn, what did they learn, and how have they grown
• Student formulation of a thesis statement for portfolio, supported by included artifacts. (e.g. "I have learned...", "I have achieved...")
• Recommend structure for portfolios through use of templates, emphasizing connections between artifacts (nodes), deemphasizing linear or chronological structure

Product

• Inclusion of purposeful artifacts of student learning along with descriptions of these
• Description of knowledge, skills, and abilities learned while earning college degree
• Description of co-curricular and extra-curricular learning experiences, such as study abroad, volunteer activities, leadership experiences, and internships
• Educational achievements, such as membership in honor societies

Bridge

• Career preparation for job seeking through portability of ePortfolio; examples of student career goals
• Adaptable ePortfolio content that can be used to create different portfolios for different jobs
• Transferrable ePortfolio design that can be easily taken with students and adapted to other platforms or hosting services after graduation

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Adding an ePortfolio to curriculum?

The following four questions are meant to help guide a department in determining if an ePortfolio will be an effective and purposeful addition to the program, what goals/learning outcomes should be associated with such a tool, of the many types of portfolios which is the most useful to your students, and what components or artifacts are necessary to make the portfolio effective for the department and purposeful for the student.

Why would departments want students to create an ePortfolio?

• Assessments of assignments with teacher feedback
• Student learning
• Student reflection on the learning
• Job seeking

What kind of ePortfolio do departments want students to create?

• Student descriptions about the why and how of their learning
• Student reflections
• Career preparation
• Collection of best artifacts
• Capstone document

Will the ePortfolio be used for program level assessment(s)?

• Potential use to demonstrate and assess departmental Student Learning Outcomes
• If yes, could specify artifacts, maybe one per required course in major, inclusive of grades and teacher feedback
• ePortfolios may provide potential use for Communication Literacy assessment.

What are the necessary components to the ePortfolio?

• Demonstration of learning throughout a degree program
• Reflection about the meaning and values of their learning
• Portability and ability to make edits
• Connecting learning to career preparation
• Inclusion of purposeful artifacts of student learning along with descriptions of these
• Description of knowledge, skills, and abilities learned while earning college degree
• Description of co-curricular and extra-curricular learning experiences, such as study abroad, volunteer activities, leadership experiences, and internships
• Educational achievements, such as membership in honor societies

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Implementing ePortfolio Use in Departments

Stakeholders within the department are important when making decisions. They are as follows;

• Department Chairpersons
• Faculty with high portfolio development activities or requirements in courses
• Recruitment and assessment coordinators

See Practice, Pedagogy and Assessment of Portfolios for resources on departmental implementations of ePortfolios.

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Potential Synergies between Student ePortfolios, Student Learning Outcomes, and Program/Degree Assessments

There is a potential for rich synergies with student ePortfolios demonstrating the achievement of student learning outcomes through program and degree assessments. The faculty have already developed program and degree assessments aligned with student learning outcomes. There may be a lack of connectivity, however, between assessment data collected (and reported to SACSCOC) and students' understanding of how these assessments provide evidence of their learning. A possibility...

1. The faculty would identify, or revise as needed, student learning outcomes and list these on every course syllabus comprising a program or degree.
2. The faculty would develop, or revise as needed, an assessment for each (or most) required course(s) linked directly with one or more of the student learning outcomes in a program or degree. Students would be informed specifically about these linkages.
3. Students would be provided with a program- or degree-specific ePortfolio template where they would upload a designated course assignment that exemplifies his or her best work showing achievement of one or more of the student learning outcomes in this course. Students must provide a reflective statement regarding the meaning and learning outcome of each assignment.

 

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Other Links

Faculty Resources

Student Resources

Practice, Pedagogy and Assessment of Portfolios

 

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