From Paper Portfolio to eportfolio: One Program s Experience Donna Vinton Director of Academic Assessment University of Northern Iowa AALHE Conference, June 2012
Purposes for this session To outline the steps taken as the University of Northern Iowa s MAE program in Postsecondary Education: Student Affairs moved from a paper portfolio to an eportfolio To illustrate some key decision points and action steps involved in creating a portfolio for assessment To share some strategies for involving faculty, students, and alumni in the creation of a program portfolio
Background on UNI and the Program Comprehensive university of 13,000 students 120 undergraduate majors and 60 graduate programs, primarily master s level programs Postsecondary Education: Student Affairs (PSE) produces around 12 graduates each year. PSE courses are taught by the program chair and adjunct instructors, most of whom are working student affairs professionals UNI.
Why Move From Paper to eportfolio The current process was not working as well as it might. We wanted to: Strengthen the overall assessment process for the Postsecondary Education program Strengthen the value of the portfolio as a tool for assessing student learning in the program Increase accessibility of student portfolios to faculty as well as to students
The eportfolio Technology Modular, customized, web-based electronic portfolio system Developed as a response to a campus-wide need to institute outcomes assessment at the University of Iowa Adopted by University of Northern Iowa in 2010; a collaborative venture between the two Regents institutions http://its.uiowa.edu/support/portfolio/
Key Issues for eportfolio Development Purpose needs to be aligned to context: The diversity of purposes for e-portfolios can lead to misunderstandings and ineffective implementation. There needs to be clarity over this at the start of implementation. Learning activity needs to be designed to suit the purpose:...conscious pedagogic decisions to be made about used; an understanding of the scaffolding students need to carry out the e-portfolio based learning activity. From The e-portfolio implementation tool kit, https://epip.pbworks.com/w/page/40808690/implementation%20guidance%20for%20practitioners
Steps in the Overall Process Describing/designing the eportfolio Implementing the eportfolio Evaluating the eportfolio http://www.aacu.org/meetings/generaleducation/gened2012/documents/w5handouts.pdf
Goals for the Change Process Involve current students and alumni Involve faculty Create a portfolio that is integral to the program, rather than an add-on at the end Develop an assessment process that provides specific evidence of student abilities related to program competencies as well as directions for ongoing program improvement
Designing the eportfolio Purposes
Gathering Alumni Views How did you learn about portfolio requirement? How useful were information sources on the portfolio? How easy/difficult was it to identify artifacts to include? How did you decide on the look of your portfolio? When did you begin work on your portfolio? How did you make use of your portfolio? How useful would (purpose/feature) be? What would you think of an online portfolio?
What Alumni Told Us Most information on the portfolio came from the program chair; little came from program faculty. Some competency areas were harder to link with artifacts than others. Nearly half of the alumni didn t start their portfolio until the last semester in the program. Fewer than 70% of alumni thought the portfolio helped them feel confident about their skills or showed them how they had grown over the course of the program 75% of alumni would have liked more feedback on their portfolio.
Gathering Faculty Views Survey based on definitions and content for three types of portfolios growth, presentation, and evaluation provided by Instructional Assessment Resources at the University of Texas/Austin http://www.utexas.edu/academic/ctl/assessment/iar/ Provided vocabulary for discussing what the portfolio should include and do and areas for discussion as the portfolio was developed
Faculty: The Portfolio Should... Include reflection as a key component Enhance student engagement in the program Encourage student involvement in planning for their courses and their degree program as a whole Support student development as professionals Provide evidence of the student achievement with respect to identified program outcomes Provide both consistency across students within a cohort and some individual choice with respect to artifacts chosen
Implementing the eportfolio Content
Deciding on Content: Competencies General agreements Build the core of the portfolio around competencies Include some artifacts that will be common across students Allow for student choice of some artifacts Require a minimum of two artifacts per competency Documents without grades/instructor comments preferred Identifying artifacts Gathered syllabi Mapped assignments & other artifacts to PSE competencies Switched to ACPA-NASPA competencies; mapped again Developed descriptions for artifact choice options
Deciding on Content: Building in Ongoing Development Goals in addition to competency assessment: Enhance student engagement in the program Encourage student involvement in planning for their courses and their degree program as a whole Build in portfolio activity throughout the program Support student development as professionals Provide students with feedback on their portfolio Increase faculty involvement with the portfolio Decisions: What do we add to the portfolio/portfolio processes to achieve these goals? Required? Optional?
Implementing the eportfolio Scaffolding
Clarification of Students Task Initial Emerging Developed Highly developed Instructions to students for portfolio development provide insufficient detail for them to know what faculty expect. Instructions may not identify outcomes to be addressed in the portfolio. Students receive some written instructions for their portfolios, but they still have problems determining what is required of them and/or why they are compiling a portfolio. Students receive written instructions that describe faculty expectations in detail and include the purpose of the portfolio, types of evidence to include, role of the reflective essay (if required), and format of the finished product. Students in the program understand the portfolio requirement and the rationale for it, and they view the portfolio as helping them develop selfassessment skills. Faculty may monitor the developing portfolio to provide formative feedback and/or advise individual students. From: http://www.wascsenior.org/findit/files/forms/portfolio_rubric_4_08.pdf
Student and Alumni Feedback Once a fairly complete draft of the e-portfolio had been developed, we: E-mailed second-year students a link to the e-portfolio and invited them to review the site and send feedback E-mailed selected alumni a link to the e-portfolio and invited them to review the site and provide feedback Invited second-year students to a meeting to get their thoughts, suggestions, and questions We also included a question about the e-portfolio with the exit interviews with members of this year s graduating class who opted to use e-portfolio over the paper portfolio.
Some Comments I wanted to let you know that I thought the site looked great! Very organized and easy to follow. The suggestions about what to use as evidence is super helpful! Much more user-friendly than my huge binder:) Let me know if you need anything! Great work! Alumna
Some Comments, continued One thing that I found confusing was the layout. I assumed that the competencies section were the only requirements. However, there are other sections (i.e. experiences and evaluations under professional development) where certain submissions are required... in that same section, some sections are optional and require no submissions. It would be helpful if it could somehow be laid out on one document what has required submissions versus what does not. Student graduating this year
Some Comments, continued I am LOVING what I am seeing on the ifolio site. Just browsing through it makes me feel so much better about the portfolio we are required to create. It makes much more sense to me in the format it is laid out on online than it does by just getting the little piece of paper we get explaining the competencies. I definitely want to do an ifolio over creating a hard copy.... I love that there is a section to include information about networking, potential jobs, etc. I think it is very helpful to have that information. I learned about some websites for my job search that I didn't even know existed :) Student graduating this year
Some Comments, continued I am LOVING what I am seeing on the ifolio site. Just browsing through it makes me feel so much better about the portfolio we are required to create. It makes much more sense to me in the format it is laid out on online than it does by just getting the little piece of paper we get explaining the competencies. I definitely want to do an ifolio over creating a hard copy.... I love that there is a section to include information about networking, potential jobs, etc. I think it is very helpful to have that information. I learned about some websites for my job search that I didn't even know existed :) Student graduating this year
Implementing the eportfolio A Timeline Summary of the Development Process
Portfolio Development Timeline July 2011 Faculty and alumni surveys Faculty discussions start August 2011 Gathered course syllabi Mapped assignments to competencies Brainstormed possible sections/content for the portfolio and portfolio pages September 2011 First draft developed Gathered faculty responses to first draft October 2011 Faculty discussions of artifacts and page content November/December 2011 Switched to ACPA-NASPA competencies and reworked artifact map Began to plan roll-out
Portfolio Development Timeline, cont d. January 2012 Completed decisions on artifacts by competency, including those that were not assignments Sent e-mail inviting secondyear students and selected alumni to review e-portfolio and provide feedback Meeting with second-year students to get their feedback on e-portfolio February /March 2012 Faculty discuss next steps Meet with graduating students concerning choice of e-portfolio or paper portfolio March/April 2012 Meeting with first-year students to introduce e- portfolio Faculty discuss rubrics and use of e-portfolio for program evaluation
Implementing the eportfolio Introducing the e-portfolio
Decisions and Action Steps Gave current-year graduates a choice of paper or electronic portfolio Set a cut-off date for using the paper portfolio: electronic portfolio required for anyone graduating after August 2012 Required current first-year students to attend a meeting introducing them to the e-portfolio requirement Setting up mentoring assignments for commenting on e- portfolio contents and end-of-semester reflections, as well as meeting with students once per semester Identifying course-related artifacts in Fall 2012 syllabi Planning a meeting to introduce e-portfolio to students in the incoming class
Student Voices
Monica Spring 2012 Graduate
Camelia Spring 2012 Graduate
Justin Current First-Year Student
Assessing and Evaluating
Putting the eportfolio to Use Reviewed portfolio rubrics and developed a reflection rubric, which we will practice with this summer and revise as needed Created a checklist for students and faculty to make sure all required documents are in the final e-portfolio Developed a survey for graduating students to provide quantitative, self-reported data about student learning in addition to information provided by students artifacts, students program evaluation documents, exit presentations, and reflection rubrics Will report on and archive discussions and decisions resulting from meetings on this year s findings Will continue to meet regularly as a faculty to discuss the eportfolio and program-related issues/topics To be continued!
Questions, comments, thoughts? Donna Vinton, Director of Academic Assessment University of Northern Iowa 319-273-2778 donna.vinton@uni.edu