E-portfolios: What Do We Know and What Do We Need to Know

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E-portfolios: what do we know and what do we need to know? Darren Cambridge Peter Hartley

description

Keynote presentation given with Peter Hartley at the Researching and Evaluating Personal Development Planning and e-Portfolio International Research Seminar, Nottingham, England, April 26, 2010.

Transcript of E-portfolios: What Do We Know and What Do We Need to Know

Page 1: E-portfolios: What Do We Know and What Do We Need to Know

E-portfolios: what do we know and what do we need to know?

Darren Cambridge

Peter Hartley

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This session: Work in progress!

Introductions Aims to:

Offer a starting point in terms of overview and a potential future agenda.

Start the discussion – have we got it right? Have we identified the most critical issues?

Our approach: we did say this was work in progress …

Structure: 20 things we think we know. 10 things we need to know. 10 suggestions for how we do it.

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Opening thoughts from us

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Opening thoughts from Gartner

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What we know: about definitions and traditions

We do not have an international (or even national) consensus definition of ‘e-portfolio’.

Different e-portfolio initiatives offer very different underlying assumptions, approaches and organisations.

Portfolios and e-portfolios do have a significant history of use and research base in certain contexts.

The interrelationship between reflection and evidence is central to practice in most mature contexts.

Across contexts, there are different ‘cultural traditions’ that affect both the adoption and uptake of PDP and e-portfolios.

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What we know: about impact on learning

Some students on some courses benefit significantly from learning activities, including PDP, which involve e-portfolios.

E-portfolio composition can improve student engagement and retention.

E-portfolio authors benefit from control over the organization and visual design of their portfolios.

The e-portfolio genre is especially valuable for synthesizing experiences across contexts, both academic and otherwise.

The e-portfolio genre can help learners cultivate integrated professional, disciplinary, and civic identities.

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What we know: about supporting learning

The role of the academic tutor is absolutely critical to the successful adoption of both PDP and e-portfolios by students.

Tutors use e-portfolios in very different ways. Students’ peers can also powerfully support

the effective use of e-portfolios. Courses that offer multiple opportunities to

document and reflect on learning are more likely to engage students.

Students are motivated by connections to intrinsically meaningful audiences for their e-portfolios.

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What we know: about institutional context E-portfolio teaching, learning, and technology

requires ongoing and long-term support from staff and the institution, including training and familiarisation.

E-portfolios have efficacy for certain types of assessment and evaluation.

E-portfolios are most effective when an articulated and coherent educational philosophy and mission guides practice.

Effectively implementing e-portfolios requires collaborations across institutional roles.

Eportfolios are disruptive: They require transformative change throughout the university to fulfill their potential.

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One organisational journey

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What we need to know

What are the long-term impacts of e-portfolio adoption and use?

Can we expect a single e-portfolio platform and/or process to suit every student (or even most students)?

What are the underlying psychological factors and processes which support or impede the take-up of portfolios?

How important is IT-confidence and skill? How can we persuade/encourage reluctant

tutors? What are the most significant institutional

barriers and enablers?

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What we need to know

How can e-portfolios be used for transition (e.g. between school and university, university and workplace, home and abroad, employment and retirement)?

How can e-portfolio assessment processes best capitalize on the distinct affordances of the eportfolio genre?

How can we understand and support the multiple audiences for e-portfolios (not just students and tutors)?

How can multiple technologies be used together to effectively support e-portfolio processes?

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How can we best research these issues?

We need more research on what students and staff really do (as opposed to what they tell us they do!).

We need more sophisticated philosophical and psychological analysis of different student and staff patterns of engagement with PDP and e-portfolios.

Can we use a broader range of methods and approaches, drawing on diverse disciplinary epistemologies?

How can we arrive at more shared methods and approaches so we can collate and compare data across institutions?

How do we/should we evaluate long-term impact?

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How can we do it together?

We need to find ways to link up research and practice across institutional, disciplinary, and national boundaries and across levels of education.

We need to find ways to connect our work to complimentary scholarly movements to improve teaching and learning in higher education.

We need to find ways to translate our findings into forms and forums that impact public policy

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And finally:

Collaborative models such as I/NCEPR and NARN offer promising models for connecting research and influencing practice.

So, how do we build on and consolidate this approach?