Eportfolios: The Joys of Disruption

Eportfolios: The Joys of Disruption

Darren CambridgeTufts University

December 1, 2011

Overview

I. ExamplesII. Definitions and disruptive innovation III. Embracing disruption through inquiry and

low-threshold practices

EXAMPLES

Queensland University of Technology

• Twelve university-wide “faculties” mapped to– Languages of disciplines,

professionals, and programs

– Languages of employers• Short narratives with

evidence

• Linking curricular and lifewide learning

• Making tacit knowledge explicit– Generative

interviewing– Philosophy statements

• Understanding self as change agent

Kapi’olani Hawaiian Values Portfolio

• Organized around six native Hawaiian values and four stages of the journey of a canoe

• Bridging home and academic cultures

• Gains in student engagement and study skills

Learning Record Online

• Five dimensions of learning and course goals• Observations and samples of work throughout semester• Interpretation and grade recommendations • Moderations

Human Biology at Indiana• Interdisciplinary integration through reflective writing over four

years• Assessing teamwork in physiology through reflection and

tracking strategies

Accounting at Waterloo A skill that I have developed, but still need to continue to improve is the ability to say “no” to being overworked. As per AMF 131, leaders are not there to control, but to help adapt. In order for me to become a better leader, I have tried to understand when I have too much work, and even been able to delegate others to it when they have little or no work. … Moreover, in terms of saying “no”, I am now better able to determine when I have too much on my schedule and to kindly decline additional engagements when it is appropriate. As per the feedback on my mid-term evaluation, managers do in fact respect work-life balance as it could interfere with the quality of the work you produce.

Liberal Education for America’s Promise• Knowledge of Human Cultures

and the Physical and Natural World– Through study in the sciences

and mathematics, social sciences, humanities, histories, languages, and the arts

• Intellectual and Practical Skills– Inquiry and analysis– Critical and creative thinking– Written and oral

communication– Quantitative literacy– Information literacy– Teamwork and problem solving

• Personal and Social Responsibility– Civic knowledge and

engagement—local and global

– Intercultural knowledge and competence

– Ethical reasoning and action– Foundations and skills for

lifelong learning

• Integrative Learning– Synthesis and advanced

accomplishment across general and specialized studies

VALUE Intercultural Rubric

Virginia Tech English Education

Discussion

• Which of these models is most appealing to you given the goals of your program and/or courses?

• What existing values or objectives could it support?

DEFINITIONS AND DISRUPTIONS

History

• 1980s: From assessment to learning • 1990s: Digital• 2000s: Interactive

European Language Portfolio• Funded by the European Union • A variety of frameworks for different national contexts

and languages • Three components– Passport – Europass– Dossier– Biography

PassportSelf-assessment of multiple dimensions of language ability according to common standards

ELP Biography

Key elements of an eportfolioEvidence of learning• Authentic• Diverse• In multiple media

Reflection on evidence and identity• Interprets change over time • Examines performance across contexts• Articulates commitments and future aspirations

Interpretation using a common conceptual framework• Connects evidence and reflections to shared standards• Facilitates conversation

Archive

• Authentic and diverse artifacts in multiple media and modalities• Reflections, feedback, assessment

Toolset

• Interaction• Scaffolding and analysis

Message

• Selections from archive • Interpreted and integrated in relationship to identity and

competencies

Research on Impact• Learning

– Reflective and metacognitive abilities (Rickards, 2008, 2009; Peet, 2005; Syverson, 2000; Cambridge, et.al., 2008)

– Student engagement (Eynon, 2009; Kirkpatrick, 2009) – Retention (Eynon, 2009; Easterling, 2009)– Learning skills, self-efficacy, and self-regulation (Kirpatrick, 2009; Atwell, 2007;

Hartnell-Young, 2007; – Professional, role, and disciplinary identity (Cambridge, 2008; Hughes, 2006, 2009;

Stevens, 2009; Young, 2009; Peet, 2005)• Assessment

– General skills, such as writing (Hamp-Lyons, 2000; Fournier, 2007; Loernzo, 2005; Acker, 2008, Yancey, 1998, 2004; Hallam, 2000)

– Learning competencies, such as self-regulation and self-assessment (Rickards, 2008; Meeus, 2006; Ross, 2006)

– Ineffable outcomes, such as ethical reasoning and social change agency (Chickering, 2005; Peet, 2005)

Implementation Threshold Concepts

• Purposes must be aligned to context • Learning activities must be consciously designed and

supported• Processes for creation and use must be understood and

supported• Students must have ownership of eportfolio processes

and outcomes• When brought to scale, eportfolios are disruptive,

pedagogically, technologically, and institutionally--Jones, Gray, and Hartnell-Young (2010)

A Disruptive Innovation

E-Portfolio “projects … at their most effective … are (in very good ways) highly disruptive. They throw up needs for organizational change; change in governance; changes in the roles of many [faculty], and the consequent need for [faculty] development, changes in pedagogy, and hence to the nature and shape and form of [majors], and the consequent needs for educational development support; changes to the student’s ‘contract’ with [her institution] … If they are to deliver maximum effect … projects must accept and embrace all of these areas of implication, and no doubt others.”

−David Baume

Don’t use Eportfolios if

• You aren’t willing to substantially reexamine—and perhaps transform—conventional understandings of student learning and the practice of supporting it

• All you want to do is demonstrate learning, not develop learners

Discussion

• How are approaches to supporting student learning at Tufts—at the institutional, programmatic, and classroom levels—different than the conventional model in US higher education? How should they be?

• What existing efforts to redefine and measure what you value about teaching and learning could be enhanced e-portfolios?

THE GOOD NEWS

Embracing disruption through inquiry and low-threshold practices

Leapfrogging

Institutionally, Tufts may well positioned to embrace disruptive innovation because it is

• already invested in innovative uses of IT to support learning

• dedicated to moving into new areas of excellence

• adept at collaboration across disciplines and roles

Happy Problems and Baby Steps

At the individual level, Tufts faculty can gain from eportfolio disruption through

• Embracing teaching as a process of inquiry into supporting student learning

• Beginning with low-threshold practices that contribute to an eportfolio culture

In scholarship and research, having a "problem" is at the heart of the investigative process; it is the compound of the generative questions around which all creative and productive activity revolves. But in one’s teaching, a "problem" is something you don’t want to have, and if you have one, you probably want to fix it. … How might we make the problematization of teaching a matter of regular communal discourse? How might we think of teaching practice, and the evidence of student learning, as problems to be investigated, analyzed, represented, and debated? —Randy Bass

Three curricula

Lived

Delivered

Experienced

Kathleen Yancey, Reflection in the Writing Classroom

Practical Reasoning

It's important for students to learn to think, to reason, to interrogate text and understand it; but that is not enough. It's also important that students learn to act, to do, to perform—but this still is not enough. Today's undergraduates must learn to think and act responsibly, with integrity, civility and caring. Practical reasoning integrates these three habits—of mind, hand and heart—that are essential for the formation of today's students. – Lee Shulman

Evaluating More of What You Value

• Ineffable outcomes: Things we all think are important but don’t think we can measure– E.g., ethics, leadership, social responsibility

• Essentially contested concept (Gallie, 1956)

– More optimal development because of contestation

Eportfolios for Contested Outcomes

• Measurable learning outcome: Ability to articulate a reasoned stance based on evidence

• Makes multiple understandings of outcomes visible

• Requires reasoning to be articulated• Grounds understanding in evidence and

experience• Puts multiple positions into conversation

Connecting the classroom to the world

Low-Threshold Practices

• Assignments that support the development of reflective practice

• Assignments that use multiple media and social software to document experience and identity

What is Reflection?

• The act of stepping outside of acting and believing to examine out what it means

• A cycle of planning, acting, and interpreting• A part of any discipline or profession, but frequently

called something else• Eportfolio reflection is reflection on evidence

included in an eportfolio

Reflection as an End of Its Own

• Dewey: Rigorous analytical thinking• Schön et. al.: Key to professional practice and

human thought• Friere et. al.: Understanding and challenging

domination• Boud: United cognitive and affective

Integrative learning

• Students need to be prepared for real world challenges that require multidisciplinary solutions

• Students need to make connections between disciplines

• Students need to connect their learning in the classroom to their learning throughout life

• Students need to find patterns in their learning over time

• Students need to connect their learning to their identity

Reflection in Design Engineering

• Reflective “Idealogs” composed throughout the semester

• “Big take-aways”• Using wikis and blogs• Including photos,

drawings, and samples of writing documenting designs and process

• Peer and TA responses

Multimedia Documentation

• Compared to just five years ago– Many cheap or free and easy to use tools– Many cheap or free services for sharing

• Application to research dissemination as well as teaching

Photostory

Joys of Disruption

• Eportfolio as a means toward simultaneously demonstrating and developing proficiencies

• Teaching an inquiry and eportfolio as window into student learning

• Low-Threshold Practices + Integrative Eportfolio Experiences = Eportfolio culture that produces self-directed, self-aware change agents

Stylus, 2009

@dcambrid

ncepr.org/darren (slides here)

dcambridge@air.org

Bibliography: http://bit.ly/tuftsepbib Jossey-Bass, 2010