Spring ETUG Workshop – Reflections

Earlier in June, I co-facilitated a day-long session on e-portfolios with Dave Tosh. Some of you likely remember Dave as the researcher from the University of Edinburgh we’ve been collaborating with on e-portfolio research this past year. Our session was titled “Through the Looking Glass: e-Portfolios for Reflection.” It covered many different angles, inlcuding:

• an overview of how e-portfolios are being used worldwide
• a presentation on UBC’s approach
• a summary of Dave’s research findings to date
• discussion topics (challenges, benefits, goals for use)
• reflective writing exercises
• demos of a number of software tools
• hands-on time to build an e-portfolio

Some of the issues raised in one of the discussion periods sounded very similar to those raised here at UBC by faculty & students. Here’s a sampling:

• portability/interoperability
• how do you assess them?
• what flexibilities do e-portfolios give us?
• we need to be convinced of the benefits before we’ll start using them.
• longevity
• how do they integrate with online communities
• what tools are out there and how do we access them?
• we don’t have support at our college? how & where do we start?

Dave and I have both posted our ppts from the session.

• Dave’s presentation
• Kele’s presentation

It was a very busy day, full of interesting discussions with and interesting questions from our participants. One of our participants, Jeremy Hiebert, has posted his impressions of the day to his blog.

On the second day, I attended 2 great sessions…one on authentic assessment online and the other, on weblogs & wikis, lead by our very own Brian Lamb and Jeff Miller. Brian & Jeff’s session was very entertaining and delivered with a lot of passion for the topic. It was a packed room and everyone was very engaged. Impressive for the last session on Friday afternoon!