“If the shoe fits, wear it.” --Old Proverb
“If software fits, wear it!” --New Proverb, Academic Technology, SF State
Finding the right “fit” is always challenging when considering implementation of any new technology across a range of disciplines--each with unique learning and teaching needs. In 2005, we conducted a needs assessment of our campus relating to the use of student portfolios (both paper and digital). Many departments had begun using their own solutions to create student ePortfolios, raising fiscal and technical-support sustainability issues. Another worry was that students could be required to create different portfolios for different classes/majors, with no technical or pedagogical coherence. With 28,000 students across 90 programs/departments, a growing sense was that things could get “unwieldy” and that Academic Resources should prepare to recommend a unified campus-wide ePortfolio system.
Feedback gathered from more than 40 undergraduate, graduate, and credential programs has guided SF State’s ePortfolio Project in some unexpected directions over the past three years. Sixty-two percent of respondents (25 departments) already required some form of student portfolios (paper-based or digital) or expressed interest in using electronic portfolios at the course or department levels. Nearly two-thirds of those requiring student portfolios (17 departments) were already working with a range of digital portfolio solutions (hosted software such as eFolio Minnesota, Carnegie’s KEEP Toolkit, Taskstream) as well as CD/DVD, and SF State built software and websites.
Was it essential to rein in department level ePortfolio developments and push everyone towards one system? Was there a "magic bullet" system that we could afford and roll out campus-wide? If so, what was it, and how could we project a budget scenario for it? Moreover, what would this "top-down" decision do to the existing portfolio-using programs that represented our core expertise relating to the teaching and learning benefits of ePortfolios?
Focusing on the top primary purpose(s) cited for student ePorfolios gave us some directional clues. “Career development and supporting student professional preparation” were by far the most important reason for portfolio use. Most indicated that portfolios were used for senior seminar requirements, capstone “signature” assignments, Internship reflection, graduate research, culminating project presentation, and creative/design/performing arts professional portfolios. Portfolios needed to be “student-centered and controlled” yet archivable.
“Student assessment” portfolios, tying coursework and student artifact/evidence to stated program goals, state standards, or professional licensure requirements were second. Finally, program assessment—tracking groups of students to support accreditation needs and aggregate student achievement data was seen as a value. The I-CAP (Candidate Assessment Portfolio) system was created by the College of Education to help students meet their California Teaching Performance Expectations in Secondary Education, a “homegrown” example of a portfolio file repository system.
For some departments, a mix of these three core functions was seen as ideal. However, consistent faculty concerns included the need for freedom and flexibility of any portfolio tool--the importance of a student’s ability to uniquely reflect upon their academic work, life experiences, and professional goals. Faculty members expressed that a “one size fits all” system would not support these important aspects of portfolio development, and could impede student incentive to invest energy in creating a portfolio.
Inspired by Penn State’s use of open web-space, we established an ePortfolio clearinghouse site”, http://eportfolio.sfsu.edu and began creating web-templates and an online tutorial for students to publish ePortfolios to SFSU web-space (200 Mbytes). This has accommodated the request for attractive capstone ePortfolio templates in disciplines such as Public Administration, Professional Technical Writing, Information Systems and Interior/Apparel Design among others.
In English Education, we use the KEEP Toolkit to create student portfolios—also introducing the students to the rich archives of the Carnegie Foundation, where their portfolios are hosted. In Public Health Education as well as Recreation Studies, easy-to-use web-based eFolio has been successfully implemented, with graduates sites archived each year on the Health Education Department website.
In the long term, our campus may launch a repository ePortfolio system that would play well with our CMS, ILearn (Moodle). However, the core functionality of an ePortfolio management system would still need to accommodate the valuable “face to the world” capstone portfolio sites that benefit students as they enter careers. As one public health student told us, “When I went to Kaiser for the job interview, they had my ePortfolio site pulled up on the screen, and had printed out examples of my work. I’m convinced that the ePortfolio was important to my being hired.”
At this point, we have found that addressing the unique situational and contextual factors within a course or program appears to be working well to deliver the outcomes our institution desires. Regarding concerns that students may be asked to create several different portfolios, we have seen students become increasingly more comfortable with representing themselves on the web (with Facebook, MySpace, Google Pages, personal websites and multiple Picasa or Flickr albums). Creating a new portfolio is more like putting on a new shoe: the same basic concept, with different styles or software for different occasions. You can check out our gallery space to see examples created using a variety of tools.
We welcome your thoughts!
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