Indiana Jones and the crusade for Large-scale ePortfolios: The forgotten questions

1. Indiana Jones and the crusade for Large-scale ePortfolios:The forgotten questions • Eky Fioole & Rudi ClauseAvans University of applied sciencesThe Netherlands

2. Download the presentation • http://avans-elearning.blogspot.com/

3. Avans University of applied sciences • 20.000 students • 2.000 staff & faculty members • 20 Schools • 60 bachelor degree programs • 3 locations (Breda, Tilburg and ‘s Hertogenbosch) • 1 VLE (Bb Academic Suite) & ...

4. Our view on Learning and teaching • Our main drivers are: • To produce excellent professionals who will continue to further develop themselves and their profession. • For selected businesses and organizations we are their partner for knowledge development and knowledge sharing. • In learning and teaching we opt for people (students, lecturers and professionals) to connect, cooperate and collaborate in acquiring knowledge and becoming competent.

5. School 6 -> 20 School 1 School 2 School 3 School 4 School 5 Assessment Reflection Show Case Implementations of ePortfolio, our approach in the past Student

6. Innovative projects with a limited number of schools • Focus on early adaptors / innovators (passionate, opinionated) • Bottom-up approach (parallel processes) • Focus on Learning how to use ePortfolios • Collaborating with students • Very different use of ePortfolios (outcome / output) • Resulting in…. • Flexibility, Engagement and Complexity, but also a lot of Learning Experiences!

7. Facing new challenges: scaling up 2006 - 2008: Large-scale implementation of ePortfolios The forgotten questions

8. Scaling up: Facing new challenges, new questions: • How different is scaling up?  Can we use the same strategies? • How did we become successfull in our earlier projects? • What are our own opinions and beliefs? • Who are our stakeholders in this? • How complex are the changes we ask our lecturers and students to make? • How can we address both the small and the big issues in change? • And above all ….. • What are those forgotten questions?

9. Identification of different phases in the implementation of ePortfolios • Phase 1: The start: motivated members, small projects, strong beliefs, opinionated stakeholders, use of portfolios as a tool to enhance and assess student learning on campus. •  using ePortfolios off campus (work placements, graduation assignments) and use by facultymembers for their professional development and yearly reviews • Phase 2: The large scale implementation: large scale use of ePortolios, more variety in how ePortfolios are used  leading to complexity, larger projects. • Phase 3: New context, new challenges, new tools, the evolution of ePortfolios.

10. What else is new in Phase 2? • Involvement of a much larger group (the majority of users) • Dealing with a higher level of insecurity • A great variety in the use of ICT • Much more diversity in wishes & believes • The stakeholders have less in common • Greater variety in students (full-time and part-time) • Increasing complexity • Different strategies • How to create Engagement?

11. Question …. • If all this is true … • What does it mean for the approach and strategy in phase 2? • What questions did we ask ourselves? • What did we do? • What would you do?

12. What did we do? • We organized a Community of Practice, supported by a community on Bb • We made our own ideas on ePortfolios more explicit • We made active use of our stakeholders (in different roles) • We developed and used a new model (The Maastricht Model) • But most of all: • we used the Avans view on learning and teaching as our starting point • we really tried to listen to our stakeholders • we kept the Forgotten Questions in mind.

13. Reflection Assessment Assessment Assessment Reflection Show Case Show Case Show Case Show Case School EAC Student Staff The Maastricht Model • Based on: • Our own beliefs • The Model of Brussels • Our experiences so far and our expectations of the future

14. School 12 School 1 -5 School 6 -11 School 13 -> 20 Phase 2a Assessment Assessment Reflection Reflection Show Case Show Case Student Staff

15. Student School 1 -12 School 13 Staff School 14 -> 20 Phase 2b Reflection Reflection Assessment Assessment Assessment Reflection Show Case Show Case Show Case EAC

16. School 1 -14 School 15 School 16 School 17 -> 20 Phase 3 Reflection Assessment Assessment Assessment Reflection Reflection Show Case Show Case Show Case Show Case EAC Student School Staff + +

17. The Pitfalls • Copying a ‘blueprint’ for implementation in order to: • Copy earlier successes • Trying to speed up the implementation process • Working with implicit ideas and not making them explicit (our own opinions and beliefs) • Not linking ePortfolio implementations to your view on Learning and Teaching • Making no use of our stakeholders • Expecting a model to have all the answers

18. Our Lessons Learned • It’s hard to overcome your own role as an expert. • Copy/paste actions or blueprints don’t work • Allow participants to create and live their own learning process and be patient • Keep an open mind in regard to the expected results • Keep involving students!

19. Our Wishes and Challenges for the future • We have started our crusade, but we have no idea what (new) challenges we will have to deal with on our way. We are still facing a lot of (unknown) questions and challenges, such as: • How to achieve that the present Community of Practice will evolve into an active Community of Learners • Will we still be using Bb in a few years from now? • What impact will social software (web 2.0 / 3.0) really have? • How will we collaborate with new stakeholders? • Does the Model of Maastricht really help us?

20. Still …. • We have our maps, we have some of the necessary equipment, we have started the expedition and we are looking forward to new adventures

21. Questions?Discussions?Need to share ideas? • Eky Fioole: ey.fioole@avans.nl • Rudi Clause: rlth.clause@avans.nl

22. Community of Practice ePortfolio