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A presentation given with Lesley Smith at Praxis, Pedagogy, People: Writing in the DC Metropolitan Area, January 9, 2009 in Washington, DC.
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The Use of Evidence in Electronic Portfolios: A Typology
Praxis, Pedagogy, and People
Washington, DC
January 9, 2009
Our ePortfolio Team
Juliet Blank-Godlove, Director of Leadership Education and Development
Darren Cambridge, Asst. Professor, New Century College
Kara Danner, Director, Portal Communications
Kimberly Eby, Assc. Provost for Faculty Development/Director, CTE
Heather Hare, Asst. Director, Center for Leadership and Community Engagement
Julie Owen, Asst. Professor, New Century College
Lesley Smith, Assc. Professor, New Century College
Complicating Evidence
Link between evidence and reflection distinguishes eportfolios and other digital means for
– Supporting reflective learning– Managing and assessing information about knowledge, skills,
abilities and experiences
“Evidence” is the documents included in a portfolio on which the author reflects
Use of evidence in practice is more complex than the eportfolio literature often acknowledges
– Whitehaus (2005) makes the same argument for writing in general
Evidence in Reflection
Research at Alverno College suggests that, as students become more skilled at reflection, they– Draw on analysis of their own experiences rather
than appealing to external authorities– Reference a wider range of activities and artifacts
Research deals only with the content of the reflections, not the evidence itself
Types of Evidence
Types of evidence in science portfolios (Collins, 1992): – Artifacts– Attestations– Reproductions
Focuses on context of creation rather than role in portfolio
Project Background
Portfolio contexts: Integrative approach to learning with specific attention to classroom-based, experiential, and co-curricular learning
NCC and portfolio-based assessment Intentional collaboration with University Life Small data sets over two cohorts (spring ’07; spring
’08); additional cohort beginning in fall ’08 Member of cohort 3 of the Inter/National Coalition for
Electronic Portfolio Research (I/NCEPR) Design research and grounded theory
An Emergent Typology of Use of Evidence in ePortfolios
Characteristics of item used as evidence– Agency– Media
Purpose of incorporating evidence– Rhetorical Function– Object
Characteristics of associated learning activities– Sponsorship– Participation
Matches and Mismatches
Reflective description of evidence Content of evidence Local – site of specific evidence use Global – the whole portfolio Match and mismatches yield more
sophisticated understanding and resources for supporting portfolio authors
An Example: Richard Zepp’s ePortfolio
Patterns for Further Investigation
Media– Match of mismatch between content of images and
reflection– Do images require more framing, or do educators need to
become better readers of images?– Do images reveal more tacit / unconscious understanding
than text? Level of participation
– Match or mismatch between level of participation in content of evidence and reflection
– Is this do to the legacy of the portfolio as a highly individualistic, print genre?
We’d love to hear from you
Darren Cambridge, [email protected] Smith, [email protected]
ncepr.org/darren/presentations.html. (Slides from this presentation will be linked to from this site.)
More information about New Century College: ncc.gmu.edu.
More information about University Life: ulife.gmu.edu.
