Developing ePortfolios to
Enhance Learning for Accounting
and Financial Management
Students
Grant Russell, School of Accountancy
Tracy Penny Light, LT3 Centre
University of Waterloo
MERLOT International Conference
August 4, 2004
Today’s Overview
• What are Competency Portfolios?
• Use of Competency Portfolios at UW
– Accounting and Financial
Management/History
– Teaching in Higher Education
– Co-op Enhancement
– Residence Life
• ePortfolios as a transformative
technology
What are Competency
Portfolios?
Competency portfolios provide:
• profiles of competencies for learners to
develop within a given domain
• opportunities for learners to document their
skills in different learning contexts
• opportunities for reflection in different
learning contexts to integrate learning
experiences
• opportunities for a more holistic approach
to learning
Competency Portfolio Pilot
Projects at UW
• Accounting and Financial
Management
• History
• Teaching Excellence in Higher
Education
• Co-op Enhancement
• Residence Life
Why ePortfolios in AFM?
• Motivation
– AFM students take courses with other
undergraduates, have some specialized
courses
– Need for an integrating technology for an
otherwise disjoint undergraduate program
– Have distinctive program elements both within
and between courses – where do they fit in?
– What organizing framework would apply?
Why ePortfolios in AFM?
• Motivation
– AFM students see education as a
collection of courses, not the acquisition
of skills
– Orientation of meeting course
requirement statements of professional
societies
– Accomplishment: give me a 75% and I’m
happy!
The Project -1
• Review of literature
• Identification and assessment of
potential software (KEEP toolkit,
Carnegie Foundation)
• Development of competency
categories
– Relate to ICAO
– Relate to CMA Canada
• Informing other faculty and staff
The Project - 2
• Orientation of AFM students to
ePortfolios (introducing KEEP)
• Trial run with 1st year and 4th year
students (start September, 2004)
• First year course has 800+ students
and 4th year course has 160 students
• Assessment of trial run, (December
2004)
The Project - 3
• Focus on one specific “soft” competency:
Team work
• Process: 3 sets of artifacts
– Preliminary
• Group contract, background exposure to team
concepts
– Intermediate
• Reflection based upon group assignments
• Intermediate peer evaluation
– Final
• Reflection based upon entire term
• Commentary by students on how ePortfolio was
helpful (survey, focus groups)
The Project - 4
Ongoing ePortfolio Development
• Tracking 1st year students into
subsequent co-op and academic
terms
• Longitudinal research on value of
ePortfolios for learning and
professional development
Anticipated Results
• Students will value the use of ePortfolios
– Opportunity to differentiate for employment
interview purposes
• Demonstration of value to professional
societies
– Potential funding for future development
• Sharing of results with other ePortfolio
developers
• Application to wider group of AFM students
– Use with first year students and beyond
– Develop other potential competencies / suitable
artifacts
Thank You!
Grant Russell
russell@uwaterloo.ca
Tracy Penny Light
tracy@LT3.uwaterloo.ca