Format assessment stimulates creativity

How to appreciate and assess non-verbal or visual reflection in e-portfolios

ePIC 2011, London, Lise Agerbæk

ePIC 2011, London, Lise Agerbæk

Lise Agerbæk• Assistant lecturer at University of Southern

Denmark, Odense, Denmark• Associated lecturer at Lillebælt Academy of

Professional Higher Education• Author of ”Portfolio Practice”

and contributor to ”Portfolio Issues” – both unfortunately in Danish

• Can both be bought here, should you feel so inclined

ePIC 2011, London, Lise Agerbæk

Agenda• The portfolios at Multimedia Designer

Education at Lillebælt Academy• A small philosophical detour on the nature of

the portfolio• Does reflection have to be based on words?• Ways of scaffolding non-verbal portfolio

content through assessment• A few reactions from students, teachers and

management

ePIC 2011, London, Lise Agerbæk

E-portfolio at the Multimedia Designer Programme• Since september 2003 every student have

created their own portfolio integrated into the curriculum

• In total 896 portfolios• We use a rubric to evaluate them at the

end of every semester

ePIC 2011, London, Lise Agerbæk

Examples of 4 portfolios

ePIC 2011, London, Lise Agerbæk

Obviously very different

But they share a predertermined structure- Or what we know as information architecture

ePIC 2011, London, Lise Agerbæk

No portfolio tool

• We did use a CMS created for this till 2009

• But now we ask the students to create their portfolios from scratch as websites

• Being multimedia students they have to show this competence

• But we stipulate the structure, and describe a mandatory content.

ePIC 2011, London, Lise Agerbæk

But how to assess this?

ePIC 2011, London, Lise Agerbæk

Allow me a philosopical

ePIC 2011, London, Lise Agerbæk

Lars QvortrupThe purpose of the portfolio is not (only)self observationThe communicated reflections transcends the privatness

How so?

Support system• “E-portfolio is a support system for the

learning context, the purpose of which is to give students and teachers an extra space for reflection and communication”

• Qvortrup, Lars (2006), Knowledge, Education and Learning – E-learning in the Knowledge Society, Samfundslitteratur Press

ePIC 2011, London, Lise Agerbæk

There is always someone else present• The students (through the portfolio) interprets

him/herself in dialog with an audience• This dialog can be silent and is often not directed at

an outspoken audience• But as soon as you communicate you leave the

privatness of self observation

ePIC 2011, London, Lise Agerbæk

Ricoeur• The experience as

experienced, as lived, remains private, but its sense, its meaning, becomes public.

• Communication in this way is the overcoming of the radical non-communicatility of the lived ecperience as lived

ePIC 2011, London, Lise Agerbæk

Do we only communicate in words?Kress and van Leuwen in the 1996 book Reading Images disagrees – and argues that using images is a meaningfull practice – that is open for interpretation as much, if not in the same way as words.

ePIC 2011, London, Lise Agerbæk

Our students are visually eloquent. Maybe as the first generation they

express themselves visually on a daily basis

ePIC 2011, London, Lise Agerbæk

Extension of the rubric

2 out of 9 criteria in the rubric

ePIC 2011, London, Lise Agerbæk

This one is not expressing anything in relation to the curriculum.And the design is traditionel – interaction banal

ePIC 2011, London, Lise Agerbæk

This one on the other hand expresses the sketching process – and the interaction (green post-it in the top) is innovative

ePIC 2011, London, Lise Agerbæk

ePIC 2011, London, Lise Agerbæk

This one on lets the eye of the figure create a playfull univers – a comment on that we are learning students to ”see”

So not just a matter of taste

ePIC 2011, London, Lise Agerbæk

Reaction to the new rubric

• Qualitative interviews with 12 students• And 4 staff members• 2 managers

ePIC 2011, London, Lise Agerbæk

What do the students think?

Generally they are positive”We have to learn to use relevant pictures anyway, once we get our own clients”

But some feel a little intimidated”Some of the other students are much better visually than me”

ePIC 2011, London, Lise Agerbæk

What do the teachers think

Also mostly positive reactions”My students have gotten much more creative, when it is asked of them to be more visually precise, and innovative in user interaction. They compete in this”

Some grumbling though”It is hard to have to justify your gut feeling to the students”

ePIC 2011, London, Lise Agerbæk

What does management think

On a positive note”I am proud when I hear students speak positively about their experience of the study. They always mention the portfolio”

On a more hesitant note”I have yet to see the result in employability numbers or in retention rates”

ePIC 2011, London, Lise Agerbæk

Thank you

• ela@eal.dk• Portfolio:

http://www.multimediedesigner.ots.dk/users/Lise%20Agerbaek

ePIC 2011, London, Lise Agerbæk