2010 ePortfolio intersects with National and State goals

In late January and early February I had the pleasure of listening to two influential education leaders.

U.S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, spoke at the National School Boards Association, Federal Relations Network meeting in Washington DC on February 1, 2010. Copy is available at http://www2.ed.gov/news/speeches/2010/02/02012010.html.

And California State Superintendent of Instruction, Jack O’Connell delivered his 7th Annual State of Education Address on January 22, 2010. Copy is available at http://www.cde.ca.gov/eo/in/se/yr10soetxt.asp.

There were many times during each presentation that I nodded and mumbled “ePortfolios”, restraining the urge to jump up and shout it out for all to hear. (Note: Jack O’Connell and Arne Duncan are not the same person.)


Jack O’Connell

“Students are now being prepared for college and careers by a new approach to high school that links strong academic focus with real world, work-based learning in a wide range of fields. Linked Learning is a promising high school improvement approach that is helping to give many students more options for life after graduation.”

ePortfolio intersect: Work-based certificates and documents can be housed within an ePortfolio system. Specific systems (such as Minnesota’s) can link to employment development databases to match qualifications applicants to open positions. Our current economy and the increased need to have multiple skills will require continued learning and documentation of that learning.

Examples:
La Guardia http://www.eportfolio.lagcc.cuny.edu/
eFolio Minnesota http://www.efoliominnesota.com/

“Comprehensive research studies evaluating our education system have all come to the same conclusion, a conclusion that is simple and straightforward: we need to invest in an education for every student that prepares them for success in the 21st century global economy.”

ePortfolio intersect: The global economy will require flexibility and a vast array of skills and knowledge. Keeping a ‘treasure chest’ or history of learning that is easily accessed can allow for change and continued learning.

Examples:
The JISC (from the UK) http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/e-portfolios
New Zealand http://akoaotearoa.ac.nz/communities/eportfolios-new-zealand
Australian Flexible Learning Framework http://pre2009.flexiblelearning.net.au/flx/go/home/pid/494

Dr. Helen Barrett, a leader in the ePortfolio world, “ePortfolios, 21st Century Skills and ISTE Standards: Planning for Implementation” http://electronicportfolios.org/NH/ePortfoliomodel-changeNH-BW.pdf

"We are part of a consortium of states working to develop a new set of assessments aligned to the common core standards: assessments that ensure validity and reliability across the state, but use multiple measures to evaluate success. This is a tall task, but my friends, man landed on the moon more than 40 years ago. Surely we have the capability to figure out how to assess knowledge in a valid and reliable way beyond a single bubble-in test!”

ePortfolio intersect: Aligning standards and student learning outcomes is an ePortfolio benefit.

Examples:
See presentation from Mary Bold, Ph.D., CFLE the Academic Program Review Director, and Lynnette Olson, Ed.D. , Project Director for Assessment & Effectiveness within the Office of the Chancellor and consultant/evaluator for WASC and the Higher Learning Commission/NCA at http://teachingcommons.cdl.edu/eportfolio/resources/6a.html

Also, San Francisco State University’s presentation with Dr. Maggie Beers, Director of Academic Technology, Linda C. Buckley, Ph.D., Associate VP of Academic Planning and Educational Effectiveness at SFSU, and Gail G. Evans, Dean of Undergraduate Studies at SF State. http://teachingcommons.cdl.edu/eportfolio/resources/4a.html

San Francisco State University’s presentation on mapping ePortfolio artifacts or assignments to objectives at all levels--class, program/department, college, campus, and even national (e.g., AAC&U LEAP Expected Learning Outcomes). http://teachingcommons.cdl.edu/eportfolio/resources/dop/mapping.html

"To successfully implement the Race to the Top, and to reach the goals that I mentioned earlier — preparing all students for success in college or careers — we need to use our creativity, leveraged by the Race to the Top award, to build a new way of running California's educational enterprise. The new system must be less hierarchical and more collaborative, student-centered rather than adult-centric, and data-driven with mutual accountability at all levels.”

ePortfolio intersect: Evidence of leaning can include artifacts, which allow us to tangibly see students develop during the process of learning. ePortfolios should be student-centered, and develop through a collaborative process.

Examples:
Cambridge, Chen, Johnson http://teachingcommons.cdl.edu/eportfolio/resources/2b.html
ePortfolio Concept Map: http://teachingcommons.cdl.edu/eportfolio/eportposter.html

The Honorable Arne Duncan

“We want an accountability system that factors in student growth, progress in closing achievement gaps, proficiency towards college and career-ready standards, high school graduation and college enrollment rates.”

ePortfolio intersects: Documenting student growth, alignment with standards.

Examples:
As mentioned above,
http://teachingcommons.cdl.edu/eportfolio/resources/6a.html
http://teachingcommons.cdl.edu/eportfolio/resources/4a.html
http://teachingcommons.cdl.edu/eportfolio/resources/dop/mapping.html

And, see the UK’s JISC site on “Widening Participation” at http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/e-portfolios/widening-participation.

“The president also wants to add $500 million to the Investing in Innovation program. He wants to reserve $150 million for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics programs. He also wants to give rural schools a competitive advantage in the competition because understands the challenges they face.”

ePortfolio intersects: these disciplines are all based on scaffolded learning … step-by-step processes leading to culmination. Also, ePortfolios can break distance and socio-economic barriers and rural schools can partner with urban or suburban schools allowing students to ‘buddy up’ with distant co-classmates.

“And because NCLB narrowed the curriculum, we're looking to expand it again so that our children get a well-rounded education—one that includes rich content in history, the arts, foreign languages, and financial literacy.”

ePortfolio intersects: ePortfolios allow for rich multi-media use, especially valuable in these disciplines.

Acrobat 9

Earlier today I watched the electronic portfolio presentation by Adobe’s Steve Adler and Mark Caruso. (ppt attached) Very interesting evolution of Acrobat 9 . . . it’s come a long way.

One comment they stated many times: purchasing Acrobat 9 is supported by Obama’s stimulus plan, and it meets the criteria on many levels.

If Acrobat 9 meets the criteria it seems ePortfolios should as well. Something to think about …

The Future of Electronic Portfolios: Do They Help with Accreditation?

Wow! I'll be published. Reminds me of my grandma saying "I'll be damned!"

Dear Kathleen Willbanks:

Thank you for your submission to ED-MEDIA 2009--World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia & Telecommunications to be held in Honolulu, HI, USA, June 22-26, 2009. http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/

We are pleased to inform you that the Program Committee of ED-MEDIA 2009--World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia & Telecommunications, after rigorous peer review, has decided to ACCEPT your submission for presentation. (Review Policy: http://www.aace.org/reviewpolicy.htm)

Please note that the reviewers may have recommended and, therefore, accepted your proposal under a different presentation category. Reviewers of your submission may have written author comments to offer recommendations on how your submission can be modified or improved. If provided, these comments appear at the end of this e-mail.
______________________________________________________________________
Paper ID: 26699
Title: The Future of Electronic Portfolios: Do They Help with Accreditation?

>> Accepted as: Full Paper: Other <<

NPR 4/14/09 re: "Tuning"

NPR – Talk of the Nation : April 14th Show
Sure, everyone takes Psych 101. But do you think we all actually know the same stuff? A new approach at some universities will require that your degree reflect a defined set of skills rather than another multiple choice test. In our first hour today, Phyllis Safman, assistant commissioner for academic affairs at the Utah System of Higher Education, and Gary Rhoades, General Secretary for the American Association of University Professors and a Professor of Higher Education at the University of Arizona, will examine whether or not education "tuning" is better, or just different. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103095104 More info on Utah: You can follow the progress of this effort by monitoring the Undergraduate Studies web site at http://www.ugs.utah.edu or you can see the specific web tools that Mark has created for assessment of Gen Ed courses at https://evals.ugs.utah.edu/woot3.php

IMS Standards article

Wired Campus op ed piece:

Opinion: Demanding Educational Software Standards that Work
http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/3707/opinion-demanding-educational-software-standards-that-work?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

by Charles F. Leonhardt, principal technologist for Georgetown University and the university’s representative to the IMS Global Learning Consortium.

The IMS Global Learning Consortium is developing a new standard called “Learning Information Services” to provide student, course, and enrollment information from student-information systems to other systems, including course-management systems. So far, support for the new standard has been announced in products released by Inigral (for Schools on Facebook), Oracle (for the Student Administration Integration Pack), and Unicon (for Sakai). Companies including Angel Learning, Blackboard, Desire2Learn, Moodlerooms, and SunGard have all announced their intention to release products based on the standard.

ePortfolios 301 - Implementation and Adoption

Once you've decided on the product, you need to make a plan like every other software installation or adoption. If you are hosting the servers yourself you can go right into the adoption planning.

If you have decided on a product that supports data aggregation, accreditation, or expect to use the system to collect data specific to goals and standards then you need to spend time planning out what I call the back-end web. (See the poster.)This is more administrative than technical as it requires breaking down which specific assignments, taught in which specific classes (and departments) meet which specific goals and standards. The most successful cases I’ve heard of involve many meeting to sort this out so allow time and make sure all the stakeholders are involved. (You can start this before you decide on a vendor.)

Plan your rollout carefully. Some products are specific to classes/departments and are only used internally. Others provide a broad umbrella of use. (See 201 for more vendor info.)

1. At least two vendors provide accounts to the students direct. The ePortfolio is for the student first and the institution second. With these products you can brand the instances and let the students play with it. The student logs in to their site, and customizes ePortfolios for different audiences. As the Department/Class embraces the ePortfolio system they can ‘push’ a template out to the students within their purview. The template will have ‘buckets’ for the student to submit assignments. (TaskStream, LiveText)


2. Other providers simply allow the students to post reflections and show their best work online.


3. And a third (basic) class is tied into LMS. While the student (usually) will not be able to have the account once they leave the institution, many of the items in #1 above apply.(Angel, Blackboard)

Each of these requires a different rollout. All require careful training of the professors.

It’s important to evaluate what each stakeholder will gain from using ePortfolios and being clear about the potential outcomes. Educate the users about why they should embrace ePortfolios – what’s in it for them.

These are POTENTIAL benefits (depending on the product):

• Student Benefits: a repository of sorts that allows for secure and selective access to specific people. A place to ‘show off’ their best work and reflect on what they’ve learned. A foundation to prepare for lifelong learning, and use for resumes and professional development documentation. As the model for the State of Minnesota states “. . . living showcase of your education, career and personal achievements.” (2/8/08 http://www.efoliominnesota.com/)
  
  Think critically over time, experience, knowledge, document learning, model professional practices, make conscious learning choices, enhance self-understanding, communicate, create a permanent record, develop learning objectives, think beyond, reflect tool for career connections.



• Faculty benefits (if the faculty have their own ePortfolio sites then refer to the listing above): Encourage lifelong learning, advanced pedagogy, faculty development, identify best work, promotion and tenure, collaborate, connect multiple disciplines, provide student guidance.



• Department benefits (see faculty benefits above): recruitment and retention, document faculty achievement, witness student achievement, demonstrate department and institutional success, data collection and data analysis, measuring outcomes.



• Institutional benefits (see above): Data aggregation, alignment of goals and standards, demonstrate clear relationship between graduating from the institution and gainful employment (workforce development).

ePortfolios 201 - Investigation/Preparation

If you know you/your school/your institution wants an ePortfolio system then it's time to figure out what the requirements are -- what you want IN an ePortfolios system. Know your user; know your user's needs. Review ePortflios 101 (previous post) so you know the theories behind what an ePortfolio system can offer. (See the poster.)

In 2002 - 3 we did a survey to collect what the schools of ed wanted in an ePortfolio system, and gave that to vendors so they could respond (an RFI or Request for Information). As I describe in an earlier post, the vendors did not have many of the features, but within a year they had made great strides to accommodate our every wish!

San Francisco State and San Jose State did pre-implementation surveys. San Jose ended up with one product for use campus-wide, and SFSU ended up with multiple products used in multiple disciplines.

In 2005-6 I was involved with the EduTools/WCET review of products. See http://eportfolio.edutools.info/static.jsp?pj=16&page=HOME. Seven partners determined the vendors to review and came up with a list of 69 features to be evaluated. We reviewed seven products. The information is from 2005 - 6, however, the data continues to be helpful and is reviewing the features and glossary.

Things to think about:

1. Know your users - think about who will use these and why.


2. Survey the users to determine their needs.


3. Review products carefully.


4. Keep your tech support staff in the loop.

About Accreditation:
Accreditation agencies have become more outcome driven, requiring examples of student learning as well as an aggregation of assessment data for internal program evaluation. In 2005 Ralph Wolff (WASC President - Western Association of Schools and Colleges) gave a speech claiming “We are moving from assessment to accountability. Shifting the National, State, and System levels as opposed to local” AND “assessment should be a systematic process about setting goals.” Some vendor products are design to help with accreditation, so choose carefully. (See the poster.)