ePorfolio pilot study & beyond

“a vehicle for a learning journey through life”

“an additional personal marketing tool” (Owen & Hastings, 2006)

Alfredo Gaitan, Rob Manton & Maja Jankowska (CETL)

• Institution wedded to Blackboard

• Decision taken 2006 to use Blackboard based ePorfolio

Background

• Institution wedded to Blackboard

• Decision taken 2006 to use Blackboard based ePorfolio

Background

• Psychology – 17 2nd year volunteers (all female)– Linked to personal tutor scheme.– Assessed formatively

• Computing – 100+ 2nd year students on PDP module – Required to submit assessment using

ePortfolio for PDP module.

Study details

The process 2006-7  n w2 w3 w4 w5 w6 w7 w8 w9 w10 w11 w12 w13

Survey 1 * 81                        

 36                        

Training                         

                         

Focus group 1                         

                         

Implementation                         

                         

Interviews                         

                         

Submission eportfolio                         

                         

Focus group 2                         

                         

Survey 2 *16                         

15                         

* Open to all Level 2 students.Computing

Psychology

Survey 1 (online): Inventory of Academic/PDP practices & use of electronic

resources

21 practices

Sample (Survey 1)

Subject Frequency %

Computing 81 69.2

Psychology 36 30.8

Total 117 100.0

Age Frequency %Cumulative

Percent

18-20 44 37.6 37.6

21-24 48 41.0 78.6

25-30 9 7.7 86.3

31-35 7 6.0 92.3

36-40 5 4.3 96.6

41-45 2 1.7 98.3

45+ 2 1.7 100.0

Total 117 100.0

Sex Frequency %

Valid Female 50 42.7

male 67 57.3

Total 117 100.0

Mode Frequency %

Full time 112 95.7

Part time

5 4.3

Total 117 100.0

Country Frequency %

1. UK 69 59.0

2. EU 31 26.5

3. Overseas

17 14.5

Total 117 100.0

General picture from Survey 1:

Comp Psych Diff Total

Type of PDP practice

M SD M SD M SD

Collect/archive 3.3 .69 3.2 .78 .1 3.3 .72

Record learning experiences

2.5 1.01 2.5 .87 0 2.5 .96

Reflective thinking 3.6 .83 3.6 .83 0 3.6 .83

Reflective writing 2.8 .92 2.8 .96 0 2.8 .92

Publish/share 2.5 1.13 2.2 1.06 .3 2.4 1.11

1=Never, 2= Once or twice, 3=Rarely, 4=Often, 5=Very frequently

Table 1. Frequency of types of PDP practices that can be supported by the Content Collection and eportfolio that are part of BREO (Pre-pilot).

General picture from Survey 1

Table 2. Importance attached to PDP practices that can be supported by the Content Collection and eportfolio that are part of BREO grouped by types.

Comp Psych Diff Total

M SD M SD M SD

Collect/archive 3.9 .53 3.9 .66 0 3.9 .57

Record learning experiences

3.1 .70 3.2 .94 .1 3.2 .77

Reflective thinking 4.0 .54 4.0 .83 0 4.0 .64

Reflective writing 3.6 .66 3.7 .83 .1 3.66 .72

Publish/share 2.5 .85 2.6 .95 .1 2.5 .88

1= not important at all, 2= important, 3 = neutral, 4= important, 5=very important

Specific results (example)

Never Once or twice Rarely Often Very frequently

RecLearning

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

30.0%

Pe

rce

nt

Figure 1. Students recording their learning experiences

Focus groups 1 & 2 Survey 2(brief summary)

Issues

• Blogging tools not yet effective

• Security

• Insufficient IT skills (e.g. images)

• Support and help

• Time required

• Differences between users

• Challenges (for tutors and students)

Features (mostly beneficial), also in interviews

• Access anywhere

• Archiving (Paperless, safety)

• Ease of use (mixed) – ‘gets easier after a while’

• Career

• PD (reflection)

• Self-presentation/sharing

Experience (interviews)

THEMES:1. Self

– Discovering interests– Developing Self

2. Reflection– Descriptive/ evaluative– Ongoing/ summary

reflection (when)– Concurrent (in task)/

subsequent (outside task and tool) (where)

3. Attitude to PDP: from perceiving it as intimidating towards liking it

4. Career

– produce CV, online, flexible CV

– anticipating future (awareness of employment requirements)

5. Publish

– ‘self presentation’

– to show I’ve done it

– to apply for a job, show at interview, send to potential employers

Experience (interviews)

Experience (interviews)

6. Share

– yes/ no

– Sharing technical knowledge• Getting ideas from others

(design and structure)• Giving and receiving guidance

Different users = different levels of engagement

• Kate: didn’t understand it ‘(…) I’m doing my work as normal and (…) as a word document’

• Martha: didn’t realise the potential so haven’t done much with it

• Mia: did it at the last minute because I had to

• Bob: ‘Not for me – for them younger, inexperienced students’

• Bill: I’m doing what I’ve been told to do

• Alice: good only for storage

• Lou (mature student): ‘I’m not very IT literate so I’m quite overwhelmed by the whole technology’’

• Tom: easy, simple, saves time

• Lee, Ben : good for career purposes, online CV

• Ken, Tim: good for PDP

• Ina, Jo: exploration and fun finding the way

Method of assessment

• Computing

• Submission of reflective summary to Turnitin Grademark system for online feedback and marking

Method of assessment

• Psychology

• Formative feedback based on given criteria

Blackboard based ePortfolio

The Good… Content collection/

web folder Integration with VLE Can be extended with

custom HTML Good tools to

organize received portfolios into folders

..The Bad and the UglyPoor blog supportImage handling

confusingComments only

added at portfolio level

Permissions problems mean some content not available

Changes planned for 2007-8

• Introduce in level one (this is the way we do PDP – make it a habit)

• Encourage two way conversation between tutor and student (encourage tutors to engage via blogs)

• Encourage use of multimedia elements (or else why bother to do it this way?) – links to video, audio

• Use to support dissertation students – store work in progress and facilitate contact with supervisor

What actually happened

• ~20% of submitted portfolios not fully accessible due to permissions fault

• We ended up using blogs to facilitate the two way conversation (worked pretty well, comments added after each article – not possible in ePortfolio)

• We used blogs for supporting dissertation students

Changes for 2008-9

• Find ways of gathering and storing assessments and feedback (e.g. electronic submissions, Turnitin Grademark).

• Change to Pebblepad!

Pebblepad based ePortfolio

The Good… Much better blog

support Intuitive to create

after initial confusion over naming

Good easy to use design choices

The Bad and the UglyDifficulty loading

imagesNot clear how to

manage received portfolios (gateways?)

HTML customization tricky

Questions????