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Bob Sproule, University of Waterloo

MERLOTAugust 9, 2007

Integrated Learning and Student Engagement Using ePortfolios

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Where We Started

• National Coalition on Electronic Portfolio Research (http://ncepr.org/ncepr/drupal)

• The University of Waterloo’s context

• The University of Waterloo’s research issues:

– How does engagement with ePortfolios map against other engagement indicators (NSSE)?

– Do ePortfolios assist students to document their learning in different contexts and promote transfer between them?

– Do ePortfolios transform how students view learning?

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Where We Started

• Reflection is what makes us learners; we need to practice, assess and perfect it.

• Four criteria characterize the concept of reflection:

– Reflection is a meaning making process

– Reflection is systematic, rigorous and disciplined; with roots in scientific inquiry

– Reflection needs to happen in community

– Reflection requires attitudes that value personal and intellectual growth

• Defining Reflection: Another Look at John Dewey and Reflective Thinking, Carol Rodgers, Teachers College Record, Volume 104, Nol. 4, June 2002, pp. 842-866

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Where We Started

• Our study group – accounting students starting their academic program in the fall of 2006.

• Their work to date – create an ePortfolio and reflections / artifacts to date.

• Our pilot project group – accounting students who started their academic program in the fall of 2004.

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Contextual Comments

• University/College setting tends to focus on the academic setting only.

• Professional accounting organizations have developed competencies for their profession.

• Government funding for post secondary institutions is increasingly focused on demonstrated learning outcomes.

• Our program and curriculum mapping.• ePortfolios support higher order thinking consistent with

Bloom’s taxonomy.• Changes in our world, as a result of technology and

globalization further support the need for integrative learning.

• ePortfolios facilitate : connections, benchmark performance and plan for the future.

• Importance of feedback.

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Results of Investigation to Date

• Making connections by reflecting on one’s experience is a learned skill, one that students need to develop.

• The opportunity to make connections will foster development:

– “I would just like to say that I never knew just how important the team reflections from AFM 131 would be, until I began preparing for interviews for summer internships at accounting firms. I figured they would ask about teaming [sic] experience (which they did) and I was fully prepared to answer their questions because I referred to what I had wrote [sic] in my team reflections. On a side note, I have received an offer… and I owe a lot of that to the reflections! Virtually all of their questions were about experiences in teams.”

• Student email, February 25, 2007

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Results of Investigation to Date

• In one-time contexts we need to scaffold student learning.

• Expected outcomes that reflections address need to be clearly articulated.

• Analysis of the first 3 reflections from the pilot project group show random progressive demonstration of:

– Meaning making– Reflection in community– Attitudes that value personal and intellectual growth

• ePortfolios need to be program based.• ePortfolios provide context to one’s learning.

– “I had a new perspective on learning, a new appreciation on how my life was connected, and a new tool to organize my thoughts with. I realize now that my personal interests have value in my education, and my education in the way I live my life outside the classroom”

• From a student, July 2007.