Providing Connectionsthrough ePortfolios

Katherine LithgowJane HolbrookBob Sproule

Tracy Penny Light

University of Waterloo

MERLOT International ConferenceOttawa 2006

Overview

• Documenting Competencies with ePortfolios at UW– UW Model– Making Connections within Accounting

and Financial Management– Making Connections in History– Interdisciplinary Connections– Facilitating a dialogue among faculty

http://www.cfkeep.org/html/snapshot.php?id=59355386

History

• Focus on developing historical thinking– Chris

• Encourage students to make connections between learning in history and other learning experiences – Sarah

Accounting and Financial Management

• Professional “soft-skills” - initially focused on teamwork skills– Brooke

• Building on academic skills in the workplace (co-op work terms)– Thermani

• Residence Learning Community

Making Connections: Academic to Workplace

“I realized a connection between school and the workplace when I was forced to reflect back on assignments and readings about ethics when trying to make ethical and appropriate decisions in the workplace. For example, in every file I prepared this term, ethics played a large role…I never comprehended when learning about ethics in school that they would constantly be on my mind in the workplace.”

Helping Students Make Connections between Courses

• Making use of eportfolios to strengthen connections between 3 courses in 2 different faculties:

Biol 130 - Introductory Cell Biology (Faculty of Science)

Biol 273 - Human Physiology (Faculty of Science)

Kin 105 - Cardiovascular and Respiratory Responses to Exercise (Faculty of Applied Health Sciences)

Kinesiology Students must take all three of these courses in sequence.

Many Science Pre-med students will take both Biology courses.

Connecting Applied Health Science Courses with Science Courses

• Instructors observed that students often can not make the necessary connections between common core concepts in their courses

• Example ATP in Biol 130 → Biol 273, cardio function in Biol 273 → Kin 105

• Eportfolios can help students create, store, and retrieve what they need to chart their individual pathway through their courses.

Eportfolios in Biol 130 and Biol 273

• Students are introduced to eportfolios and how they can be used to document academic and personal development through their time at UW

• Eportfolios are used to store key concept maps and personal course glossaries, and to respond to associated reflection questions

• These concept maps will be referred to in many other Biology and Kin courses too

Reflection Questions: Example

Think about these questions when you place the glycolysis concept map in your eportfolio.

1. How is this concept map about glycolysis connected to other concepts in this course/ subsequent courses?

2. What misconceptions did you have about glycolysis before you completed this piece of work? (e.g. often students think that all the reactions are reversible).

Eportfolios in Kin 105

• Concept maps from Biol 273 are used in class

• Explicit connections are made between concepts learned in Biol 273 and the Kin 105 laboratory activities relating to the cardiovascular exercise environment

Evaluating Learning Impact and Student Response to Eportfolios

• Surveys of student response/satisfaction with eportfolio use in the three classes. How are students using them, etc?Kin students will illustrate a 3 course time sequence

• Comparisons of class performance on common questions in the midterms and exams of the W06 and W07 classes of Biol 273 (with and without eportfolio activities) Are the Biol 130 and Biol 273 eportfolio exercises effective in helping students make appropriate connections so that they perform better?

• Comparisons of the performance on small early and late term tests in Kin 105 in Fall 06 and Fall 07 (with and without eportfolio activities) to evaluate knowledge on items that would be in the Biol 273 glossary (terminology)  and cardiovascular  and respiratory concepts. Are the Biol 273 and Kin 105 eportfolio exercises effective in helping students retain information?

Eportfolios: Promoting Dialogue

Among Instructors on Course/Curriculum Design

6th Annual Merlot International Conference Working With and Learning from the World’s Best

August 8-11, 2006Ottawa Congress Centre

Ottawa Ontario

Katherine Lithgow University of Waterlooklithgow@uwaterloo.ca

Eportfolios in Accounting Program2004

Bob Sproule

AFM 131

Grant Russell

AFM 481

Eportfolios in Accounting Program 2006

Pam Charbonneau

Residence Life

Kerry MahoneyCo-operative Education and Career Services

? Speech and Communications

Jill Tomasson Goodwin

Speech Communication: Advanced

Intercultural Communications

• Learning E-Portfolio: an on-line representation of student’s learning processes over the semester

• Students provided a meta-reflection of the course through the eportfolio

• Presented to the class

Meta Reflections in Eportfolios

• What the students perceived as valuable learning experiences in the course was not always what instructor had identified as the course learning objectives

Perspective Transformation • how do students change their perspective

over time- intellectually and affectively

• transformation relies on reflection and sustained reflection

• eportfolios helped instructor address the challenge of assessing learning throughout the course when when entry knowledge and experience is so different?

Encouraging Dialogue

Jill Tomasson Goodwin

Kate WillinkDiana Denton

Drama and Speech Communication

Bachelor of Accounting and Financial Management Program

Eportfolios in Biology/Kinesiology

Faculty of Applied Health Sciences

Faculty of Science

Began with three instructors

Dragana Miskovic

Biol 130Intro Cell Biology

Vivian DayehBiol 130Biol 273

Principles of Human

Physiology 1

Doug PainterKin 105

Cardiovascular & Respiratory Response to

Exercise

Now includes discussions among

• Biology department- 6 courses

• Kinesiology department- 6 courses

• Health Studies and Gerontology– many of the biol, kin and chem courses are

common to both kin and HSG students• Librarians- information literacy concepts

• Considered for use in higher level courses to help students see the application of the concepts in the community and workplace environment

Eportfolios in the Master of Public Health Program

• Students document progress on core competencies and prepare for the capstone project

• Means to engage instructors

• Web Developers role

Eportfolios Equals Engagement

Eportfolios and Students

1. buy-in– introduction is important

2. motivation– what’s in it for me?

3. assessment– of reflections, provision of evidence of student

learning

4. eportfolio technology[Tosh, Penny Light, Fleming. Haywood (Fall 2005)

Forthcoming in Canadian Journal of Learning Technology]

Eportfolios and Instructors

1. Instructor buy-in– introduction is important

2. motivation– what’s in it for me?

How much extra work will this entail?

3. assessment– of reflections, provision of evidence of student

learning

4. eportfolio technology