ePort Use
Half of the four-year universities and over one-third of community colleges in the U.S. (and many more around the world) have adopted some form of electronic portfolio, though the primary purpose varies from one institution to the next. IUPUI has been interested in the gamut of purposes: showcases for student learning, capstone evaluation of student skills and content mastery, and assessment to support program improvement and accreditation needs. Rather than attempting to pursue all uses from the outset, however, the campus chose first to focus on ePortfolio as a mechanism for campus-wide evaluation of the student learning outcomes expressed in the Principles of Undergraduate Learning. Early experience demonstrated the potential to provide authentic evidence of student learning for these purposes. Because ePortfolios are particularly well suited to support student reflection, senior capstones have been natural candidates for ePortfolio use. More recently, attention has broadened to serve University College's interest in a vehicle for first-year students' Personal Development Plans. IUPUI's newest ePort feature enables students to create personal academic web sites using familiar Oncourse tools. IUPUI has thus phased in its implementation based on emerging campus needs. The result is a set of tools, residing within Oncourse, that can support multiple purposes.
Projects
The IUPUI ePortfolio Initiative is planned and sustained through collaboration among the offices of Academic Affairs, Planning and Institutional Improvement, and University Information Technology Services (UITS). Each unit contributes human and financial resources as well as the counsel of senior leadership to assure that the initiative remains aligned with strategic directions for the campus and the university as a whole. A key element of IUPUI's implementation strategy for ePortfolio has been a gradual roll-out, working closely with faculty as experimenters and peer leaders, supporting pilots in departments across the institution.
Integrative Department Grants
Many IUPUI departments are seeking to incorporate the Principles of Undergraduate Learning (PULs) and new Principles of Graduate Learning more systematically into program curricula, in order to support student learning of these skills and abilities and to enable their documentation and assessment within degree programs. In 2005-06, the ePortfolio Initiative began making small grants--Integrative Department Grants--to use ePortfolio in support of such goals.
This grant program provided resources to departments (or, in some cases, schools or other units) to 1) collaboratively explore and plan strategies to integrate the PULs and/or disciplinary outcomes throughout their undergraduate major or other programs, and 2) pilot the IUPUI ePortfolio to improve and demonstrate this learning. Since 2008, the program has especially encouraged proposals related to assessing the PULs in anticipation of 2012 reaccreditation, the RISE Initiative, or other major campus initiatives. Grantees in turn provided valuable feedback about improvements make the tool more effective. Completed and currently active grants include:
Internal Project
Personal Development Plans
A Personal Development Plan integrates a student's academic and career goals with the PULs, RISE experiences, and their personal mission statement. The ePort team has worked with University College to integrate the Personal Development Plan into ePort. Building on a pilot in Fall 2010, students in first-year seminars develop their PDP in an ePortfolio with the intent that they revisit it periodically over the course of their education at IUPUI. Critical to these next steps is implementation of a flexible, easy-to-use ePortfolio tool, Presentation Maker, that allows students to build a web-based presentation of their work and progress. For more information, see the ePDP site.
External Projects
IUPUI is participating in two national three-year projects. First, IUPUI has joined eleven other institutions from the University of Michigan to Westminster College to Curtin University in Australia as part of Cohort VI of the Inter/National Coalition for Electronic Portfolio Research to explore ways in which the distinctive characteristics of ePortfolios can be used for assessment and accreditation. Second, IUPUI received a mini-grant to participate as a Core Campus in Connect to Learning: ePortfolio, Engagement, and Student Success. The latter is a joint project of LaGuardia Community College and the Association for Authentic, Experiential, and Evidence Based Learning, funded by FIPSE. University College and ePortfolio are collaborating with the Department of Psychology, Honors College, and the Student African American Sisterhood to develop models for expanding use of the student Personal Development Plan beyond the first-year seminar throughout the undergraduate experience. Both projects create a variety of new opportunities for faculty discussion and development and engage interested educators across the campus
How it Works
Since ePortfolio "lives" in Oncourse, the pages will look very familiar to most faculty and students. Users don't need to learn and manage a separate new system. ePortfolio is also integrated with the Oncourse Assignments tool, allowing students to populate their matrices by submitting assignments as part of their regular course work. Other advantages of using an ePort within Oncourse include segmented access for external portfolio reviewers, and integrated management and reporting of assessment data.
At the core is a customizable matrix that structures and displays student work. The number of rows and columns, their titles, and the contents of each intersection (or cell) can all be customized. Color coding of the cells helps manage work-flow, indicating at a glance which cells are ready to be populated, which are being evaluated, and which have been completed. Within each matrix cell reside instructions and controls to select work to be included, upload work samples, incorporate and revise reflections, and provide formative and summative feedback. Each matrix will look different, according to its intended use and purpose--from assessing a degree program to organizing reflections on a cocurricular activity to synthesizing linked assignments in an individual course.
Reports aid tracking and assessment
A new capability implemented in 2009-10 is known simply as "Reports." To assist faculty and administrators in aggregating portfolio evaluation data, several kinds of reports can collect information from a particular matrix to meet different needs. For example, faculty can use "Matrix Rating Summary" and "Matrix Rating Details" reports to see how many students achieved what levels of competence, examine scores by student name, and review detailed evaluation results for a particular student.
The data from these reports can be exported into spreadsheet or standard analytical software packages for further tallying and analysis. The newest "Matrix Attachments Summary" report provides a convenient way to review multiple student assignments in a matrix cell from a single report, without having to navigate to each individual student's matrix.
Presentation Maker
The latest "face" of ePort at IUPUI is Presentation Maker. This tool provides an easy-to-use set of templates that allow students to prepare a showcase or presentation portfolio. Through just introduced Presentation Maker has already generated substantial interest, ranging from use with the Personal Development Plan prepared by first-year students to online presentation of team or research projects to support for internship and career searches.
Even students with limited technical facility can construct an attractive web presence, while more proficient students can opt for a "Build Your Own" design that reflects their creativity while maintaining integration with other Oncourse features.
