Category — News

This article was recently published in Campus Technology magazine. The article focuses on a number of e-portfolio iniatives, including the University of Iowa, the University of Minnesota-Duluth, and Villanova University. The article nicely compares the varied approaches to curriculum integration and technical implementation at each of the schools.

Read the article: Hi-Octane Assessment

We survived the first week of September…the sudden population explosion on campus, the long food lines, the crowded buses, the launch of new e-portfolio pilots!

Here’s a brief synopsis of what’s new on UBC’s e-portfolio landscape this fall:

• Dave Tosh (UEdinburgh) is here on campus putting a personal touch on his research in some of our pilots. You can contact Dave through our office for now.
• We launch 4 new pilots this year: English (Sept), Medicine (Jan), Pathology (Sept), International Peer Program (Sept). More info on each of these new pilots & our continuing pilots can be found on the e-Learning website.
• The Science project will be presenting at the ISSoTL Conference here in Vancouver this fall.
• Our iWebfolio users (mostly faculty members through TAG’s pilot) have been moved to the new version of the software. Alison & Bjorn demo-ed this new release at our July CoP meeting. If you’d like more info or to see a demo, please contact Alison.
• We have postponed our e-Portfolio Conference to March 2006. As this is our final year of funding for the campus-wide pilot it makes more sense to hold the conference closer to the end of the academic year. This will really give our pilots an opportunity to report out on their investigations and findings. More information on confirmed dates and venues will coming soon!

Dave & Ben from Elgg recently launched Elgg.net Radio. Check out this interview/podcast with George Siemens on connectivism and social software.

• A conversation with George Siemens.

This may be old news for some of you as WebCT already announced this at their annual conference in San Francisco in July. But, for those of you who haven’t heard this news yet, I’ve posted the press release.

Download file.

John Ittelson & George Lorenzo have co-authored a recent article for Educause, titled “An Overview of E-Portfolios.” It is now available on
Educause’s website.

This article pulls together the multitude of facets (ownership, technology, promoting reflection, engagement, policy, etc.) that should be considered when implementing e-portfolios as well as a number of good examples. Of special note, on page 20, the authors list our very own Bjorn Thomson’s teaching e-portfolio as an example!

Eifel’s 2005 Conference will present and debate the latest progress made in e-Portfolio implementation, policies, state-of-the art technology and hear direct from the e-Portfolio users about the benefits for their own learning and development.

The conference, which will take place in Cambridge (UK) on October 27th and
28th and the provisional programme is now available.

by Trent Batson
Website: http://www.educause.edu/LIVE0513

The core value of e-Portfolio is *student ownership*

–> eventually lead to life-long learning

Uses for e-Portfolios:

# Individual reflective portfolio
# advising management system
# resume builder
# faculty portfolio
# showcase portfolio
# identity development portfolio
# assessment management

Motivation coming from: School of Education

Work retained by students in an Assessment Management System; produces reports through aggregations of these students’ portfolios.

National e-portfolios (workforce portfolio):

* for life-long learning
* documenting/record experience one has
* more than the academic community

*The e-Portfolio Market*

# iWebfolio
# Folio
# e-Portfolio – Chalk and Wire
# FolioLive – McGraw Hill
# WebFolio Builder – TaskStream
# College Live Text
# Connecticut Distance Learning Consortium
# True Outcomes
# Masterfile e-Portfolio Manager – Concord
# Angel e-Portfolio – Angel Learning
# Blackboard
# TK-20
# OSP 2
# efolio — Avenet

*Implementation Models*

# subscription – students buy an account on a remotely hosted portfolio for a resume-builder
# subscription plus installed by client on site
# open source
# buy the license and support services

*Which have Assessment Management Systems:*

* nuventive, with Trac Dat
* Chalk and Wire, with Rubric Marker
* TaskStream
* College LiveText
* True Outcomes
* OSP 2.0, r*smart [reporting tools in 2.1]
* Angel [reporting tools in next release]

*Cautions*

* Market shake out
* Should enterprise e-portfolio be hosted off0campus?
* Is open source as sustainable at the application level as at server level?
* Demand and expectations ahead of market
* No definitions; no standard e-portfolio lexicon
* e-portfolio for life makes it harder to switch
* portability: can keep student files in a university digital repository, but may lose:
** comments
** association with learning goal
** and perhaps permissions
* check for compliance with IMS e-Portfolio specification 1.0

*Tips*

* It will all mean nothing if students aren’t taught how to do “folio thinking” and how to build an e-portfolio
* and will succeed if faculty use the production of e-portfolio as the main project in the course
* student ownership

*Websites*

* www.educause.edu/ELI/5524
* www.eportconsortium.org
* www.ibritt.com/resources/stu_eportfolios.htm
* Helen Barrett

Dave Tosh, our research collaborator from the U of Edinburgh, has recently posted to his blog on some early findings/trends that are emerging from his data collection both here at UBC & at UWaterloo…

From Dave’s post:

“It is clear that as students

Dr. Helen Barrett points out that there is a new resource on the Saskatchewan Learning Website

A JOURNEY OF SELF-DISCOVERY: Facilitator’s Guide to Reflection and Portfolio Development (PDF)
This guide has been developed to support facilitators as they lead learners through a process of thinking about what they know and can do (reflection). Through involvement in these activities, learners identify the knowledge, skills, and attitudes they have developed, and create evidence of their learning. These general activities are intended to be adapted by facilitators to meet the needs of any group.

This is a useful resource for designing and facilitating e-portfolio and reflection assessments.

Scott Wilson, Assistant Director of CETIS, has posted a ppt that gives an excellent and very thorough overview of the world of e-portfolios. He covers a lot of ground in the presentation and does a great job of trying to answer these 4 core questions:

1. What are e-portfolios for?
2. What do they contain?
3. Who owns and manages them?
4. How can standards help?

Definitely worth a careful read-through.