Institutionalizing the ePortfolio

1. Institutionalizing the ePortfolio Judith Kirkpatrick Kapi’olani Community College Benefits, challenges, answers, and how to succeed at implementation. For students, faculty, and administrators.

2. Benefits for Students ePortfolios: • Teach reflection, analysis, and integratelearning across the full educational experience • Integrate knowledge and experience • Assist with management of educational andprofessional records • Provide a place to maintain a catalog of accomplishments over time • Prepare for career selection and the job search • Enhance self-esteem and confidence

3. Benefits to faculty and administrators • Course-level assessment for student learning • Program-level assessment for student learning and accreditation • Enhanced student-faculty relationships • Improved advisement • Enhanced professional development • Streamlined contract renewal

4. Benefits of ePortfolios • A window for parents into their children’s education by providing an opportunity to: • View learning presentations and products • Share more directly in experiences like study abroad and service learning • A resume-enhancing tool that provides employers with critical information about applicant skills and learning • A means for colleagues to exchange information and feedback about research, teaching, committee work, and service • And, of course, a means to assess programs, learning outcomes, and the enhancement of a transcript

5. Limited faculty and student time and energy Lack of funding Lack of understanding of the value of ePortfolios in enhancing student learning The willingness of faculty and administrators to promote the ePortfolio and folio thinking The need for faculty and students to develop the skills to use ePortfolio Inadequate technological resources and support Fear of technology Resistance to change Educating ePortfolio audiences for viewing Challenges to ePortfolio Use

6. Answers to Challenges • Time and Energy:Portfolios use the same time to more benefit by empowering users to: • Document their own educational and professional progress • Get the feedback they want and need • Become more self-directed in their learning • Money:Once implemented, ongoing costs are minimal if you adopt a solution such as the SAKAI/Open Source Portfolio • Value of Reflection:Reflection improves everyone’s learning through promoting higher level thinking

7. More answers to challenges • Skills:The software is easy; the habit of documenting and reflecting upon one’s learning is more difficult • Fear of technology:ePortfolio is a user-friendly technology • Resistance to change:Folio thinking necessitates new ways of thinking about learning • Educating ePortfolio audiences: encouraging opportunities for academic, community and family interface (internships, service learning, study abroad) helps train ePortfolio users in soliciting and preparing comments that can guide viewers feedback

8. Student Development Admission Student orientation Advisement Assessment of Learning Course & Program level Professional certification Institutional Assessment Learning Beyond the Classroom Study Abroad Co-Curricular Activities, Service or Experiential Learning Career DevelopmentFaculty Concerns Faculty development Promotion & tenure Curriculum development Campus Implementation

9. Campus Activities • Initiate conversations among faculty, administrators, and students about • Benefits of ePortfolios • Challenges to ePortfolio use • Provide hands-on learning about ePortfolios through • Faculty & student orientation sessions • Master student classes and first year seminars • General education courses • Advisement • Faculty development • Faculty contract and/or tenure documents • Provide resources for pilots in various campus units/programs

10. Motivate Faculty • Reward faculty for implementing ePortfolios with: • Release time • Summer institutes or retreats • Small grants from institutional money • Assistance in seeking external grants • Showcasing effective faculty portfolio use • Encourage faculty to use their own development to learn and model ePortfolio use • Demonstrate how ePortfolios can streamline faculty workload by: • Decreasing paper flow • Minimizing lost assignments • Assisting with assignment review & feedback • Improving assessment of student learning • Enhancing benefits already present in a course management system

11. Demonstrate to Administrators • The Flexibility and Possibilities • Strengthening and streamlining the advisement process • Providing students with view access to their student records • Encouraging students to document and appreciate their • learning in and beyond the classroom • Developing and accessing data on learning assessment • Encouraging interdisciplinary collaboration in curriculum development • Developing and submitting contract/promotion and tenure files • Streamlining applications for grants and awards (UM-Duluth – Baldridge)

12. Get students to use them! • Enhancement of self-esteem by • Becoming aware of how much & how deeply one has learned • Being able to demonstrate one's progress to faculty, peers, family, & employers • Improved learning outcomes through • Additional scaffolding and incorporation of standards • Enhanced feedback from faculty and peers • Increased learning, creativity, and control • Integration of learning in and outside of the classroom • Recognition of learning relevance to the real world • Better positioning for career choice and job search • Enhancing ability to apply for a academic and co-curricular opportunity

13. How to Succeed • Begin small • With pilot groups • Specific colleges, programs, or activities • Cohorts of students • By discipline • By year or semester • Expand as demand builds • Incrementally by adding units, activities, or cohorts • To include as many common interest groups as possible

14. Promoting ePortfolio Thinking • Academia values the creation, organization, and refinement of knowledge • Folio thinking gets to the heart of these academic values • Through folio thinking, students define and refine their relationship to knowledge • Folio thinking promotes deep learning through • Organization • Reflective analysis • Evaluation • Creative manipulation of information

15. Providing Curricular Coherence • Integrative Learning and Reflection • Synthesis and Analysis • Co-curricular and Extra-curricular learning • Making sense out of the college process

16. Provide Incentive for Colleagues • Employing value motivators, frustration points, and strategic thinking to encourage ePortfolio use • Demonstrating the educational value and benefits that can be obtained from implementing ePortfolios and folio thinking in the classroom • Showcasing faculty and students who have gained new enthusiasm for teaching and learning through ePortfolio use

17. Example: Document today’s workshop for your ePortfolio • The ePortfolio XML databasing way • In the system, fill out a form with the basics, when, where, why • Upload to the system: Write accompanying notes, plans, things you would like to remember and • Affiliate your form with your notes via a presentation on professional development • Share your presentation with colleagues, deans, administrators, via emailed links/announcements or even put the presentation as a permanent link on your website (if you have one)

18. Want to try this out for the next seven months? • Put your name/email and institutional affiliation and role on a piece of paper or hand in your business card to Sharon Hamlton. You will be added to our eportfolio system in a Common Interest Group (CIG) called CW2005 • http://eportfolio.kcc.hawaii.edu • The CIG has about 80 other faculty from around the country who’ve come to workshops I’ve held over the last six months. • You can join the faculty CIG in the system if you like or use your access to demonstrate an eportfolio campus-wide system • The access will end May 31, 2007

19. Our philosophy and policies • The ePortfolio system is available for anyone affiliated with our College • The ePortfolio system is a value-added opportunity for our College • The ePortfolio system is a continuing, free for users, place. Users are archived offline after five years of disuse • This is a model. It’s not the only model, but it works for us. We want people to use it over time and over lifelong learning.

20. http://eportfolio.kcc.hawaii.edu • My email: • kirkpatr@hawaii.edu • Thank you for signing up for this workshop. • Aloha a hui hou