e-Portfolio in class

Organization of students in working groups with Mahara e-portfolio system, examples of their

work and assessment procedure

Ana Ćorić, mag. inf.

Content

A) General information

D) Students say…

B) Activities organization

C) Assessment procedures

A) General information

Each generation and location had own community group in e-Portfolio system.

Year Course name Number of

enrolled students

Number of students in e-

Portfolio

2010 “Computer Mediated

Communication”

142 107

2011 152 124

Total: 294 231

Locations: Varaždin, Zabok, Križevci Lectures: 30 hours Seminars: 15 hours Status of students: full & part time students

B) Activities organization

• E-Portfolio activities included:

(1) Personal development portfolio

portfolio of students’ recording and presentation of students accomplishments, qualifications and goals over time

(2) Digital diary

electronic diary where students recorded and reflected upon course activities

(3) e-Portfolio community

where students could participate in forum discussions

(4) Project portfolio

presentation of student group projects

B) (2) e-Portfolio diary

• What students did?

• Kept notes of lectures and seminars

• Documented and reflected upon course content

• Integrated created artifacts (presentations, seminars, case studies and other artifacts created using social software - web 2.0 tools for mind mapping, creation of block diagrams, podcasts etc.)

• Why students did that?

Collections of notes available and accessible online

Organization and personalization of online learning environment – just the way they like :)

combination of text, picture, video and audio files into rich and colorful notes

Possibility to share notes with others

Possibility of peer-to-peer learning

B) (2) e-Portfolio diary Case I.

Diaries open just to group members

illustrations

The main aim of this activity was to stimulate students’ creativity and facilitate collaborative and peer to peer learning

notes

&

reflections

collection

of diary

pages

Web 2.0

artifacts

B) (2) e-Portfolio diary Case II.

illustrations

This activity demanded more engagement from students but helped students to allocate less time to prepare for an exam.

notes

&

reflections

collection

of diary

pages

Web 2.0

artifacts

C) (2) e-Portfolio diary - assessment

Diary activity was very important and had a great part of final grade.

• Objective and subjective assessment measures were applied.

• Elements rating - 1 (one) to 5 (five).

• 1 is used to show that criteria were not met at all

• 5 showed that all criteria were met fully and even more.

Elements of assessment

summarization of key weekly course content

grammar and punctuation

their observations and reflections about course content

showcase of artifact as result of course activity

the quality and accuracy of created artifacts etc.

B) (3) e-Portfolio Community

• What students did?

Communicated

Participated in topic discussions

Started new topics

Asked questions?

Reflected to course content

• Why students did that?

To exchange experience and knowledge.

To support social interactions that are less constrained by the time or the space.

To make common views and to add different artifacts to group pages

To develop and improve their skills (communication skills, writing skills and multimedia integration skills)

Aims of these activities Learning trough asynchronous communication: reflections, feedback, exchange point of views.. To know each-other a bit better

B) (3) e-Portfolio Community – Case I. Group Homepage

Group

pages

RSS

feeds

Forum

topics

B) (3) e-Portfolio Community – Case II. forum discussions

Forum

topics

Group

pages

Number

of posts

Topic categories: (1) Rules of course assessment; (2) Help topics - questions and answers; (3) Course content –

engaging topics; (4) “Fun” topics – students interests: hobbies, where to work after finishing study, favorite movie, music…

B) (3) e-Portfolio Community

• Outcomes:

Increased time of learning – not just at regular classes

Positive impact on student motivation and success in mastering the content of the hybrid course

Helps to discover student reactions and opinions related the course content and course activities organization

if students are not satisfied with some aspect, they will discuss it in the forum!

in another case, the teacher might realize the difficulties faced by students in understanding a specific concept and he can give a more detailed explanation in future courses!

Increased interaction between teachers and students.

B) (3) e-Portfolio Community - Assessment

• Objective and subjective assessment measures were applied.

• Elements rating - 1 (one) to 5 (five)

1 is used to show that criteria were not met at all;

5 showed that all criteria were met fully and even more.

Elements of assessment

frequency - number of posts&reposts/topics

post clarity & post relevance

knowledge demonstration

contribution to new knowledge

personal experience & support comments

B) (4) Project portfolio

• Collaborative work among students (5-6 member groups)

• What students did?

theoretical review of project subject,

found additional resources on the web (scientific and practical examples)

categorized subject key concepts, schemas with different social software

used pictures and graphs to illustrate main points of projects and etc.

• Why students did that?

to support collaborative and team work of students

to enhance creativity in student’s project design

to contribute creation of additional teaching resources

B) (4) Project portfolio

Students were responsible for their own process of learning.

Teorethical

background

Web 2.0

artifacts

B) (4) Project portfolio – Case: Communication in organization

Group

assignment

illustrations

• Elements rating - 1 (one) to 5 (five)

1 is used to show that criteria were not met at all;

5 showed that all criteria were met fully and even more.

B) (4) Project portfolio – C) Assessment

Elements of assessment

accuracy of presented information justified sources for written facts and information;

content quality the clarity, concisely and novelty of written information;

grammar & punctuation spelling and grammatical errors;

originality in thinking (personal contribution) synthesize gathered information to draw new conclusions

or to construct new meanings;

organization and presentation of information: text organization and presentation

illustration trough multimedia (video, image, sound..); quality of supporting artifacts

list of references

D) Students say… e-Portfolio Mahara

PROS. Cons.

Open source Still lot of bugs

Enough help resources: text & video tutorials

Bad translation of some functionalities

Good for monitoring student progress

Some functionalities are not supported in all browsers

Useful features i.e. access rights No search by content

Curriculum development Not all embed types are supported

Various skills development (communication skills, writing skills

and multimedia integration)

It’s not connected with other major system (moj-posao.net, hzzo,

moodle…)

Easy to use Not enough people there

Drag and drop Not enough templates

Good designed Sometimes slow

… …

Conclusion

• Valuable portfolio characteristics to remember:

emphasis students’ progress and students’ point of view (van Aalst & Chan, 2007);

helps in development of various skills like writing, organizing, presenting, communicating, creativity, critical thinking etc. (Yancey, 2009);

facilitates students to value what they know rather than what they don’t (Reardon & Hartley, 2007; van Aalst & Chan, 2007);

encourages students to take responsibility for their own learning (Yang, 2003; Demirli & Gürol, 2007; Attia, 2010);

supports a collaborative assessment (Wang, 2009);

supports the assessment of process and product (Barrett, 2010);

That’s all…

:)