e-Portfolios @ UBC – Archive of Projects

Teachers being prepared to perform in an increasingly digital world need to be experienced and competent in using digital technologies for their learning, evaluation and self-expression. In this pilot, students developed e-portfolios to demonstrate their learning, reflect on their learning and “market” themselves.

Contact: Robert Bruce at robert.bruce@ubc.ca

Evidence of teaching performance is often sought for purposes of hiring, promotion and tenure. Teaching portfolios are the accepted method for documenting evidence of achievement in teaching. This project supported the creation of teaching portfolios by UBC instructors. Parts of the teaching portfolio can form the ‘teaching’ component of an individual’s curriculum vitae. The teaching portfolio creation, development and storage process is being significantly enhanced and improved through the use of e-portfolios. The process of developing these electronic teaching portfolios is also contributing to good teaching by encouraging self-reflection, and by stimulating self-analysis and self-development.

Contact: Jan Johnson at janice.johnson@ubc.ca

Biology 240 is a lab course that uses guided inquiry. As part of the course assignments, students are required to fill in a lab journal at the end of each class. However, students were not required to reflect, over-all, on the entire process that is reflected in their journals. The e-portfolio project facilitates further reflection and integration of materials in the course and across other courses, and helps create meta-reflective individuals and peer-to-peer learning environments. This type of reflection encourages on-going dialogue and individual, instructor, course, and, potentially, program reflection.

Contact: Joanne Nakonechny at joanne.nakonechny@ubc.ca

A shift to a new outcomes-driven curriculum prompted the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences to pilot the use of e-portfolios. The e-portfolios provided a framework for students to document their progress and provide a comprehensive assessment framework for evaluating the effectiveness of the new curriculum.

Contact: Ingrid Price at iprice@interchange.ubc.ca

“Bacterial Infection in Humans” (PATH417) is a course that teaches students how to apply the knowledge they are accumulating about infectious diseases to an unknown situation or “case”. The course was delivered entirely online via WebCT. Students were given an infectious disease case accompanied by a series of questions along with suggestions on the resources that allowed them to acquire the knowledge and understanding to answer these questions. They were given a few days to work through the questions on their own before joining a group discussion of the case to arrive at a group consensus answer. The group answer was posted to a class discussion area that allows the different groups to compare and contrast their answers to the case questions. Students presented what they felt was their best work in their e-portfolios.

Contact: Niamh Kelly at niamh.kelly@ubc.ca

Portfolios are commonly used in medicine as part of professional development and evaluation to assess the professional attitudes of doctors. The Faculty of Medicine Undergraduate Program investigated the benefits of implementing e-portfolios as a means of looking at students’ attitudes towards learning, specifically by facilitating students’ recording, reflecting on, and evidencing the attainment of specific learning outcomes. As of June 2006, this pilot has not progressed beyond the investigation phase. A one-page summary for this project is not part of this report.

Contact: Justin Bonzo at justin.bonzo@ubc.ca

The BC Teacher Qualification Service (TQS) has asked that all Masters students in Education who are teachers show evidence of a “culminating experience” that provides evidence of professional and academic reflection over distance programs. This project implemented the e-portfolio as a way for students to document and reflect on their culminating experience. A key benefit to students in this project is that education graduate students will engage technology that is likely to have significant applicability in schools.

Contact: Marion Porath at morion.porath@ubc.ca

Professional staff supporting e-learning at UBC are a diverse group, with equally diverse backgrounds and skills. Learning Technology is a new and dynamic field, lacking the well-defined job roles and classifications of more established career areas. Professionals in these roles are called upon to advise faculty members on implementing technology for instructional purposes – a function that requires both technical and pedagogical knowledge. This project provided a scaffold for Learning Technology professionals to document and reflect on their skills, knowledge and experience, and assist them with identifying areas of strength and weakness.

Contact: Kele Fleming at kele.fleming@ubc.ca

Guided by the pilot project experience with a senior-level, career-oriented course, e-portfolio development was introduced in all core courses in the faculty. Students were initially introduced to e-portfolios in AGSC 100, the foundation course for all students in the faculty. The course provides an orientation to the programs, learning environment and core values of the Faculty. Building e-portfolios throughout the students’ undergraduate years has been an integral part of an active, reflective, learner-centered environment that includes Problem-Based Learning, career preparation, mentoring and experiential learning.

Contact: Cyprien Lomas at cyprien.lomas@ubc.ca

This program engages over 200 international students and 200 returning UBC students in an exchange of intercultural dialogue, practically supporting the academic, social, and cultural transition of new students. Folio thinking, in the context of creating e-portfolios, was used to elevate the learning for students and deepen their understanding of their place in the program and in society through reflection.

Contact: Michelle Suderman at michelle.suderman@ubc.ca