1. Electronic Portfolios
and Student Success:
A Framework for
Effective
Implementation
WASC Resource Fair
January 19-20, 2012
Helen L. Chen, Ph.D.
Stanford University
hlchen@stanford.edu
Assessment Methods
(Leskes & Wright, 2005)
Portfolios
Capstone Experiences
Performances
Common assignments, secondary readings, and other
embedded assessments
Classroom assessment techniques, action research
Local tests
Commercial tests
Course management programs
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2. What might go into a
student ePortfolio?
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3. Sketch… what might go into a student ePortfolio.
Don’t think too much. Put your pen to paper and start drawing.
Multiple forms of evidence in various media
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4. Multiple curricula within higher
education as they are…
Lived
Delivered
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5. Why ePortfolios?
The Problem
Students’ intellectual experience of higher education is
fragmented due to:
• Lack of curricular coherence
• Increasing demands of an information-rich environment
• Growing importance of out-of-class learning
experiences
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6. Our country is rearing a group of intelligent young
men and women with lots of skills and enthusiasm but
little self-knowledge.
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2010/10/21/henderson
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/consumers-surveys-breed-feedback-fatigue-15312009#.Txfi129ST2Y
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7. The Folio Thinking Approach
Provide structured opportunities for students to:
1. create learning portfolios
2. reflect on learning experiences
Enable students to:
• integrate and synthesize learning
• enhance self-understanding
• make deliberate choices in their learning career
• develop an intellectual identity
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8. ePortfolio Implementation Framework
(Chen & Penny-Light, 2010; Penny-Light, Chen, & Ittelson, 2012)
Defining Learning Outcomes
Identifying & Understanding
Learners and Stakeholders
Designing Learning Activities
Informing Assessment of
Student Learning
Using ePortfolio Tools and
Technologies
Evaluating the Impact of Your
ePortfolio Initiative http://www.documentinglearning.com
Defining Learning Outcomes
What are you hoping to achieve using the
ePortfolio?
How will ePortfolios enhance the learning
experience you are designing for your students?
What types of learning do you want to capture
and document?
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9. AAC&U’s Essential Learning Outcomes
http://www.aacu.org/value
Inquiry and analysis Teamwork
Critical thinking Problem solving
Creative thinking Civic knowledge and
Written communication engagement – local
Oral communication and global
Quantitative literacy Intercultural knowledge
and competence
Information literacy
Ethical reasoning
Foundations and skills
for lifelong learning Integrative learning
Studying abroad gives you the
chance not only to see and travel
in a foreign country, but to
actually learn about how the
people there have values that are
different to those that your
country holds.
http://macaulay.cuny.edu/eportfolios/lilachgez/
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10. Understanding your learners
Who are we designing the learning experience
for?
What are their characteristics?
What technologies are they comfortable with?
What support will they need to create their
ePortfolios?
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11. Who are today’s students?
“Today’s students are no longer the people our
educational system was designed to teach.”
—Marc Prensky
Digital Natives vs. Digital Immigrants (Prensky)
Net Generation, Millennials (Educause Learning
Initiative)
Born Digital (Palfrey & Gasser, Harvard)
Generation M(ultitasking) (Kaiser Family Fdn.; Ophir,
Nass, & Wagner, 2009)
Older Wiser Learners (OWLs)
How does being continually connected affect how students
interact with each other and how they experience college?
http://chronicle.com/article/Bleary-Eyed-Students-Cant/129838/
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12. What’s being lost in this environment?
“We are being pummeled by a deluge of data and unless we
create time and spaces in which to reflect, we will be left with
only our reactions.”
--Rebecca Blood, weblog historian
Communication skills (writing and in person)
How to think
How to be contemplative
How to reflect
--Chronicle for Higher Education, 10/5/05
Empathy?
--Konrath (2010)
What data already exist?
What methods can we use to learn about our
learners?
Example: U. of Rochester’s anthropological study of
"What happens when a professor assigns a paper to a
student?“
Focus groups, interviews, questionnaires, etc.
What existing sources of data are available and
accessible? Who owns this data?
NSSE, Alumni surveys, Admissions/Registrars
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13. Identifying Stakeholders
How can these stakeholders benefit from
adopting ePortfolios?
What can these stakeholders contribute to the
ePortfolio initiative?
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14. Anticipating External Uses of Evidence
How will ePortfolios be used by external
audiences and stakeholders?
How can ePortfolios inform program evaluation
and institutional accreditation needs?
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15. Mapping Overview
Kevin Kelly, SF State
http://teachingcommons.cdl.edu/eportfolio/resources/dop/mapping.html
Mapping Case Study:
Using tags
• Personal and Social Responsibility
• Anchored through active involvement with diverse communities and real-world challenges
• Knowledge of Human Cultures & the Physical & Natural World
LEAP • Focused by engagement with big questions, both contemporary and enduring
• GE Content Objective: Acquire an understanding of the interrelationships between science,
economics, ethics and policy in environmental decision-making by society.
• Campus Strategic Goal: To create a vital and collaborative living and learning experience for
Institution students, who will appreciate and embrace the local, regional, and global communities of which
we are all a part.
• College of Behavioral & Social Sciences - Goal: Continue to develop community service and
research partnerships that enhance student learning and community involvement.
College
• Department of Environmental Studies - Objective: Recognize the interconnectedness and
interdependence of political, economic, and social complexities inherent in environmental
problem solving, and demonstrate the ability to apply this interdisciplinary training to
Dept environmental problems of local, regional, national, or global significance.
• Environmental Studies 010: Life on a Changing Planet
• Student Learning Objective: Demonstrate ways in which science influences and is influenced
Course by complex societies, including political and moral issues.
• Assignment: Calculating Your Carbon Footprint
• Upload your final papers/projects from this class in your ePortfolio tagged with "science",
Artifact "ethics", "policy", "environmental problem-solving", "real-world challenge" (See assignment
description for details)
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16. Evaluating the Impact of ePortfolios
How will you evaluate the impact of your
ePortfolio project?
How will you define success for you? Your
students? Your faculty? Your institution?
What constitutes evidence of YOUR success?
Defining “Success”
(Venezsky, 2001)
Imagine that your ePortfolio project is
completed and that it succeeded in
all of its goals. You are to appear
tomorrow at a press conference to
explain what you have
accomplished. Write a press release
to distribute at this meeting
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17. National & International ePortfolio Initiatives
For more information
Helen L. Chen, Ph.D.
Center for Design Research & Office of the Registrar
hlchen@stanford.edu
EPAC ePortfolio Community of Practice wiki and listserv
http://epac.pbworks.com
https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/epaccoplist
Association for Authentic Experiential Evidence-Based
Learning (AAEEBL) – annual conference in Boston in July 2012
http://www.aaeebl.org
Association of American Colleges & Universities – VALUE,
LEAP, and Quality Collaboratives projects
http://www.aacu.org
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