Well, what do you expect?

The layout of an ePortfolio is critical. But for whom? A potential employer does not have time to browse through one's self-congratulatory essays when looking for just one characteristic. One might be looking for clear skills in organisation or an eye for detail. Another might be looking for literary excellence or previous leadership experience.

Faculty might well expect a similar style and layout from all students - it's so much easier to find the latest essay that requires feedback or to check out a learner's progress. But, unfortunately, such regimentation does not sit easily with the concept of the ePortfolio being 'Learner-owned'.

I think, therefore, that it is essential that one's ePortfolio is easily 'navigable' - that separate sections and subsections have some logic. Perhaps colour-coding will help the reader.

As my previous two posts have alluded, I am in the process of compiling a collection of ePortfolios in order to help learners (or teachers) decide on their own particular format - and whether, for that matter, the software that they have chosen can deliver the layout and navigation they need.

Looking at the examples that I have posted here I suggest that we should consider a number of questions:

Does this eP reflect the character of the owner?
Does the software allow for accessibilty controls?
Are all graphics properly credited?
Is the use of language appropriate for the audience?
Is the balance of rich media appropriate?
Is the balance of content right for a prospective employer?
Is the eP well organised and easy to navigate?
Is reflection used to display the strengths of the learner?
How is informal or extra-curricular prior/experiential learning documented?
Does the ‘Life Story’ reinforce the claims of the learner?
Does the eP display a vision for ‘my future’?
Are peer-review/feedback/mentoring tools used effectively?
Is the eP truly 'portable'?
What’s missing?

If you have examples of ePortfolios that I can attach to my list, please let me know!

The Perfect Example?

Following my last post, Barbara Nicholls asked the challenging question concerning the 'Perfect ePortfolio'. Let me start by repeating my belief that an ePortfolio should be 'Lifelong, Lifewide and for Learning and Leisure'. Secondly, my observation upon studying many hundreds of ePortfolios is that they generally appear to ignore many principles of constructivism - of team working, responding to a mentor's advice, of asking for feedback. Is it that institutions are trying to bolt on new technologies onto traditional pedagogies?

Firstly, it is probably the institution that introduces the eP concept and that generally based upon one discipline or subject. BUT, as soon as the eP is controlled by a single discipline it will tend to be little more than an assessment tool and preclude all the other exciting things that a young student is capable of doing.

On the other hand, the 'learner owned' eP could contain little more than the confused renderings of a Facebook account or the directionless accounts of a 'Dear Diary' blog.

By the time that the eP becomes the showcasing pride and joy of the young graduate looking for employment, some of the earlier peer to peer classroom stuff might well be considered a bit immature and the learner may not include evidences of such nascent learning, valuable as it might well be.

And then, again, as is the case with some of my examples by older professionals, they tend to display a very polished if somewhat conservative presentation which can provoke nothing but awe and admiration.

Recognising, therefore, that the eP is invariably engineered for a single audience, we might never see the "perfect eP". However, we, as teachers, ARE interested in the learner's Life Story, of the 'multiple metamorphoses' of the eP from cradle to grave - and this is a 'big ask'.

Maturely constructed ePortfolios that include all of the above are probably impossible to find. Even if teachers in Primary schools had the right software and vision many years ago, and even if numerous institutions later the learner’s ePortfolio had survived multiple transitions with various interoperability standards it would be rare for a mature learner to display all the hidden pages of an ‘evolutionary’ ePortfolio. Unfortunately, this may be the reason why we rarely see 'long-term reflection'.

The only way to encourage learners to demonstrate this sort of ePortfolio longevity would be through the establishment of some sort of competition – but even then people might be too shy to step forward.

I think, therefore, that at any stage of a learner’s career their ePortfolio should demonstrate as many ePortfolio ‘skills’ as possible. What is evident in my selected Scoop.it examples is that no one example includes ALL the potential skills for that context. As alluded to in my opening paragraph, it may be that we will not see the 'perfect ePortfolio' until we acquire a completely new cohort of teachers capable of creating a 'whole-school' constructivist culture.

The potential total of ‘skills’ for any stage throughout lifelong and Lifewide learning would make an interesting matrix – but that might be another post!

Examples of ePortfolios

Over the years I have been collecting examples of ePortfolios - the Good, the Bad, the Ugly. Not that I would dare to embarrass anyone by 'rubbishing' their efforts. However, since discovering Scoop.it! I have found a medium that can attractively display a collection of examples which might help both students and staff decide on the content and layout that suits them. See http://www.scoop.it/t/eportfolios-examples

Many examples contain profound glimpses of insight and are a joy to read (or listen to). However, even the best seem to have serious gaps in the total content.

Many examples are little more than a showcase of one's best works along with a CV and a list of contacts. Of these, quite a few, in blog format, document the learners interests, sometimes in far too much detail including descriptions of members of their family and even the cat!

Other examples are little more than the syllabus of the course being followed and links to modules completed.

Some are obviously clearly directed by the institution, others are less directed and are purely the results of an open-ended competition.

Many are just a linear blog listing the meanderings and short-term reflections related to a single course of study.

Few show any sense of long-term reflection, 'lifelong learning', or one's 'life-story'.

Despite our claims that ePortfolios are now a part of our Web.2 culture, I could not find any examples of mentoring (by non-academics), collaboration or peer-review.

I also have a second Scoop.it! collection of discussions and support materials relating to both ePortfolios and foramtive assessment: http://www.scoop.it/t/eportfolios-worldwide

Attraction, Retention and Inclusivity - Part 2

At a time when institutions are being pressurised to make serious cost-cutting economies, administrators might well be looking at the principle of retention. However, 'Retention' is a much bigger subject than just that of the efficient retaining numbers of students in courses.

As alluded to in my previous post, what is the point of 'Attraction' if once the students have 'signed-on' they then find that the course is not what they expected or that they cannot get on with their peers? Students should not feel a sense of entrapment, that they have entered upon a course of study from which they cannot escape. There is no worse feeling than, "This is not what I expected."

I therefore see the ePortfolio as being a powerful tool for supporting retention. - I am currently writing on this topic for a chapter in a book to be published later this year - where I attempt to think through these matters in some depth.

Attrition, or the falling away of students, invariably happens within the first term of joining a course of study, but, as explained in my previous post, this can be significantly overcome by establishing good relationships with mentors, established students and alumni, even before 'going up'.

There are not many recently published works that deal seriously with the subject of retention and significantly only one that I can find, (Bret Eynon 2009) that deals comprehensively with the benefits of the ePortfolio for supporting retention. (see:
http://www.academiccommons.org/commons/essay/eportfolio-learning-and-change

However, Eynon does not claim for the ePortfolio that it is some sort of 'magic bullet' but, in accepting a sea-change of institutional thinking, the ePortfolio has had a significant part to play:

' What happens if we shift the focus of our teaching and learning innovations from a single classroom to an entire institution? What new kinds of questions and possibilities emerge? Can an entire college break boundaries, moving from a focus on “what teachers teach” to a focus on “what students learn?” Can we think differently about student learning if we create structures that enable thousands of students to use new media tools to examine their learning across courses, disciplines, and semesters? What is possible if, as John Tagg has suggested, we stretch our frameworks, moving from course-centered to student-centered frameworks for encouraging and examining student learning? '

Accepting, therefore, that the ePortfolio can only come, hand-in-hand, with a 'student-centred framework', I would ask readers to suggest ways in which they have discovered their ePortfolio system to be encouraging retention.

If you have any data that illustrates the 'before-after' effect of an ePortfolio culture on retention I would be most appreciative - your institution could even get quoted in the forthcoming book!

Attraction, Retention and Inclusivity - Part 1

Throughout the whole of this last month I have been researching for an article on 'ePortfolios - Attraction, Retention and Inclusivity' - and it has really taken up most of my time. The topic of Retention is not easily found within the annals of UK educational research. Admittedly, the topic of retention has been of more immediate concern in the USA where Colleges, in particular, have had to face up to serious 'drop-out' rates - in some cases 45%. But this whole area of study becomes much more difficult to 'nail' when looking at the specific relationships of ePortfolios to Attraction, Retention and Inclusivity.

And thus, particularly relevant at this time when many students are facing their first big adventure of joining a new institution (well here in the UK at least), or other students will shortly be starting their last year of study before moving 'up', I want to explore the impact that ePortfolios might have on 'Attraction'.

And thus to explain the image: Getting onto an old-fashioned bus, alone, in, as it were, a foreign country, not knowing quite where you are going and whether this bus will get you there is all part of the challenge that every young student must face. But how much more reassuring, how much more attractive it would be if there was someone there who can converse with you and reassure you that you are heading in the right direction. Identification of landmarks or signposts reassure the traveller - and this is exactly what the ePortfolio can do through 'buddying' systems that allow pairing of the new Freshman with one who has gone before.

But secondly, and perhaps more significantly, an institution that already uses an ePortfolio will certainly be more attractive to the young student just leaving mainstream education, where an ePortfolio system has been in use, possibly for several years. Institutions that have already adopted an 'ePortfolio-centric culture' will be open to small-group working, collaborative learning, of peer-review and feedback; where, inevitably, students and faculty understand something of each other.

Thirdly, and perhaps fundamentally, an 'ePortfolio-centric' institution will have recognised the place of a Web2.0 culture, where the student can use the applications with which they are already familiar, with mobile devices and interactive systems, with on-line assessment tools. This is the culture with which our 6th-form students are becomming increasingly familiar. They will easily recognise from brochures, websites and visiting promoters those institutions that have '21st Century Learning' already embedded and those who have not. The question is obvious: Which sort of institution would our young students find most attractive?

Time flies but are we standing still?

For several business reasons I've not had the time to stop and think about writing constructively about ePortfolios in this blog for a few weeks. However, in regularly scanning the posts of others, reading expensive publications and reviewing repeated 'pilot studies' I wonder if we are getting anywhere very fast. Schools in the UK are still 'thinking about' ePortfolios. Otherwise intelligent graduates are still extolling the virtues of web sites or blogging tools such as Wordpress, Weebly, iWeb or Blackboard as if they are true ePortfolios - and this is where I must part company with them.

An ePortfolio is just not a glorified CV or Showcasing tool - although these are very valuable aspects of an ePortfolio. Perhaps, in one phrase, I would sum up a true ePortfolio as 'a place of conversation'. In its initial phase an ePortfolio might be little more than a collation of unfinished works, in any media format, that peers or mentors might have access rights to in order to discuss and collaborate upon. Feedback comments, star ratings or Likert scales etc are all part of the tool-set of the ePortfolio and should all be contained in the one place.

Secondly, reflection is an integral part of ePortolio growth. In the many examples that I have reviewed I see little request for feedback and certainly very little reflection about the contributions of others. There is a sense of arrogance about many so-called ePortfolios which promote the owner as the perfect potential employee who knows it all and never needs to listen to the ideas or advice of others.

Related to reflection is the whole concept of the 'Life Story' or at least the documentation of some part of the learner's progression, of their interests and evolving maturity. As much as the learner could explain 'Where I have come from' they should also be capable of describing 'Where I want to get to' and 'How I will attempt to get there'. The learner's teachers, mentors and peers can all provide a rich source of support if the ePortfolio tool allows.

And this, of course, is where eFolio can make a real contribution. Firstly it is easy to use - it must be if even our youngest pupils are expected to use it. It needs no great technical competency and 'writing frames' can be created for those who need them. Secondly, and this is most important, teachers should encourage active dialogue through the ePortfolio, anywhere, anytime. Thirdly, an understanding of the role of feedback is important, of constructive dialogue and reiteration. Teachers should no longer be seen as the despots of two centuries ago or 'The sage on the stage' but, through their ePortfolios learners should discover their teachers to be 'The guide by the side', or even their 'Friend to the end'.

And that, again, is where eFolio makes an outstanding contribution. Here in the UK eFolio is provided as an externally hosted facility and not embedded within an institution's VLE. I have written several times about the concept of transition or portability. If an ePortfolio is really for Lifelong Learning it should be 'lifelong' with the learner and not left behind, mouldering in an institution's archives, when needed in years to come.

Independent learning?

A recent post by Gerry White of DERN got me thinking - 'How independent can learning ever be?' Obviously even the books we read, the style of writing, the bibliographies that we check out all influence our learning, nevermind our own preferred learning styles. However, what clearly impressed me about both Gerry's article and the initial document by Chau and Cheng is that of the controlling factors that influence how a learner sets about a particular task.

Questions arise as to how much influence the culture of a country, the ethos of the institution, the background of the teachers, their presentation styles, the curriculum, the school's resources, home resources and relations with other students all combine to form the learner's individual learning environment. In response to the Chau and Cheng article, therefore, I wrote:

The Chau and Cheng article makes good reading but perhaps inadvertently highlights a number of issues which, for me, make me feel that the whole ePortfolio exercise in the Hong Kong university was missing the point. Firstly, the aspect of peer-review and collaboration. To quote:

"In general, peer feedback was hardly found because it was not mandatory in the competition. Students tended to assign less significance to peer comments, but consistently agreed on the usefulness of teacher feedback for language learning in both cognitive and affective terms."

To me this is one of the most important features of an ePortfolio, that of feedback which can clarify, confirm or even change one's thinking. - Apart from anything else, peer review or that of mentors or 'other experts' reduces something of the workload of teachers.

Secondly, the feedback from teachers appears to be mainly summative, whereas I would argue that the ePortfolio is an excellent medium for allowing the teacher to apply 'a guiding hand on the tiller' before things get completely out of hand. It is generally recognised that so-called summative feedback is too late and of little consequence 'after the event'.

Thirdly, the Chinese University's concept of the ePortfolio appears to ignore its central concept of being learner-owned. It appears to be being used as a learning management system. I quote:

"Where the students’ desire to meet evaluation criteria prevails, the potential of e-portfolios for individualised developmental performance is eroded. Where teachers struggle to forge their identity in the shift towards a learner-centred paradigm without appropriate and adequate scaffolding, e-portfolios may be seen as another externally mandated exercise in which teachers are coerced to participate. Where institutional policy takes developing graduates’ competitiveness as its focus, e-portfolios bear the risk of perpetuating a culture of ‘dressing up’ achievements at the expense of candid interrogation of weakness for progress."

Fourthly, I am concerned that the sample ePortfolio as in Appendix 3 is a very scant example and is apparently lacking in any real personal identity. How does the material showcased relate to the rest of the student's life etc?

I think that the time is well overdue to look beyond 'pilots' and to try and define what a real ePortfolio should be capable of doing, how the ePortfolio can widen the owner's learning experience and how, secondly, it can also make work better for the practitioner.