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