ADULT LEARNING AND E-PORTFOLIOS
Prof. Janice M. Karlen and Prof. Susan M. Sanchirico
LaGuardia Community College/CUNY
EPORTFOLIOS – A BRIEF OVERVIEW
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Role of the ePortfolio – Student Perspective
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The ePortfolio is an electronic portfolio which allows students to
showcase their work.
The ePortfolio program is an initiative at LaGuardia Community
College that allows students to engage in the creative process of
creating an academic website.
Role of the ePortfolio – Institutional Perspective
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The ePortfolio is the primary way the College collects qualitative
assessment data on student learning.
The ePortfolio provides anonymous samples of student work in written,
oral, and multi-media formats.
EPORTFOLIOS – A BRIEF OVERVIEW
ePortfolio Content
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Each ePortfolio has several standard sections:
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Welcome page
About Me
Resume
Educational & Career Goals
Links
Classes and Projects
SPECIALIZED FEATURES OF ADULT LEARNING
Self-directed learning
 Experience as a learning resource
 Problem based rather than subject centered
learning approached
 The social context of the adult learner
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Knowles, 1990.
EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
Kolb’s ‘Experiential Learning Cycle’
Actual
learning
experience
Concrete
Experience
Reflective
Observation
Active
Experimentation
Abstract
Conceptualization
Thinking
about what
happened
‘doing’
Putting it into
practice
‘relevance’
Comparing
what learned
with what
already
known
Kolb, 1984
EPORTFOLIOS AS AN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM
Lowest level – used for students within
educational institutions to collect and prove
achievement
 Middle level – the organizational portfolio;
more formal, grades, control of access
 High level – the personal digital portfolio; store
of accomplisments with verification, portable
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Waters, 2009
THE EUROPEAN VIEW OF LIFELONG LEARNING
“All learning activity undertaken throughout life,
with the aim of improving knowledge, skills and
competences within a person, civic, social
and/or employment-related perspective”
Commission of the European Communities, 2001
The Regional Interoperability Project on
Progression for Lifelong Learning
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Established a model of cross-sector
collaboration in personal development planning
technology in the UK which lead to a draft
interoperability standard for ePortfolios
MORE ABOUT THE INTEROPERABILITY PROJECT
Study to study
 Study to work
 Data mining of ePortfolios
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 As
a tool for development of learning
opportunities by government or economic
development organizations
 As an intelligence agent for developing
linkages for the user
 Ethical issues
Hartnell-Young 2006
A NORWEGIAN VIEW
“It is necessary to maintain a record of an
individual’s growth in competency in a
persistent and standard way to ensure that
learners can search for new learning facilities
that fit and extends their current
knowledge.”
Koper and Tattersall, 2004
THE VISION
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Development of ePortfolio learning networks
that include
 Learning
packages that have defined competencies
 Software agents that are integrated into the
ePortfolio architecture to point out to the learner
knowledge sources that support learning goals
 Insight into the learning paths of others that have
preceded them in the pursuit of learning or
employment goals
Koper and Tattersall, 2004
BACK IN THE U.S. - EDUCAUSE 2004
“Rather than limit people to the ePortfolio model,
why not develop a model providing a personal
Web space for everyone, for their lifetimes and
beyond?”
Cohn and Hibbitts, 2004
LIFETIME PERSONAL WEB SPACE
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Benefits
 Educational
continuity
 Less record of educational pursuits are lost
 A central user structured and controlled repository
 Crossing of traditional boundaries
 Allows for a centralized place where an individual
may create linkages with other digital
presences(e.g. Facebook, photo albums)
 Creation of communities
TOWARD A LIFETIME EPORTFOLIO
An externally hosted ePortfolio is a more adequate solution
because
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
students’ affiliation with an institution is only temporary,
life-long / life-wide learning should not be affected by course
boundaries,
learners need to be sure that private information cannot be accessed by
their instructors,
learners need to feel free to use their ePortfolios for the purposes they see
fit, rather than institutionally sanctioned ones. However, if students get
ePortfolio services from an external provider, then this requires a
sustainable business model, including services not readily available
somewhere else
Heinrich 2008
E-FOLIOMINNESOTA
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eFolioMinnesota(tm) is a Web-based portfolio designed to help
state residents to create a living showcase of their education,
career, and personal achievements.
All Minnesota residents; including students and educators
affiliated with Minnesota schools and people working in the
state of Minnesota, can use eFolioMinnesota to reach their
career and education goals.
eFolioMinnesota is a free resource for Minnesota residents,
students, and workers provided by the Minnesota State College
and University system.
It is available for licensing by other groups.
OPEN SOURCE
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The Open Source Portfolio Initiative (OSPI) is a community of individuals and
organizations collaborating on the development of the leading nonproprietary, open source electronic portfolio software available.
A national trend in higher education towards the collaborative development
of open-source application software -- ensure portability for use at other
universities.
Why open source:
 In brief, open source means that you are allowed to copy, use and
modify provided you agree to:
 include the source code when distributing to others;
 not modify or remove the original license and copyrights, and
 apply the same license to any derivative work.
OPEN SOURCE
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The larger educational vision is that learners will own and manage their personal
portfolio information from childhood through career as a tool for reflective life-long
learning.
Student ownership of ePortfolios.
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The ability to set permissions of access to various groups.
Flexibility for formal or informal/social and personal or course-related areas.
Examples:
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Elgg, an open source social networking platform primarily designed to be a Personal
Learning Environment (PLE) and an Eportfolio tool
Mahara, an open source ePortfolio system (New Zealand)
OSP an open source portfolio based on sakai
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sakai an open source enterprise teaching, learning and academic collaboration platform
Student Jotter an e-portfolio system for all education levels with free and licensed options
RCampus ePortfolios Part of the RCampus Learning Management and iRubric Assessment
and Standards Systems -- Free and licensed options
LAGUARDIA EPORTFOLIO SYSTEM
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LaGuardia currently uses the Concord system that is integrated into Blackboard
Explored Sakai last year as one option – did not meet expectations/difficult for
assessment/loss of personalized templates
Over the past year, experimented with WordPress, Digication, and Epsilen
Decision: Beginning Fall 2010, Digication will replace the current system – easy to
use, ability to retain current templates for personalization, facilitates assessment
THINKING POINTS…
Private vs public persona (generation gap?)
 Lifelong education as a set of learning
experiences (courses, travel, work, etc.)
 Structure vs individualism in eportfolio
 Costs and control
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THANK YOU