ePorfolio pilot
study & beyond
Alfredo Gaitan, Rob Manton & Maja Jankowska (CETL)
“a vehicle for a learning journey
through life”
“an additional personal marketing tool”
(Owen & Hastings, 2006)
Background
• Institution wedded to Blackboard
• Decision taken 2006 to use Blackboard
based ePorfolio
Background
• Institution wedded to Blackboard
• Decision taken 2006 to use Blackboard
based ePorfolio
Study details
• Psychology
– 17 2nd year volunteers (all female)
– Linked to personal tutor scheme.
– Assessed formatively
• Computing
– 100+ 2nd year students on PDP module
– Required to submit assessment using
ePortfolio for PDP module.
The process 2006-7
n
Survey 1 *
w2
w3
w4
w5
w6
w7
w8
w9
w10
81
36
Training
Focus group 1
Implementation
Interviews
Submission eportfolio
Focus group 2
Survey 2 *
16
15
* Open to all Level 2 students.
Computing
Psychology
w11
w12
w13
Survey 1 (online): Inventory of
Academic/PDP practices & use of electronic
resources
21 practices
Sample (Survey 1)
Subject
Frequency
%
Computing
81
69.2
Psychology
36
30.8
117
100.0
Total
Sex
Valid
Frequency
Female
50
42.7
male
67
57.3
Total
117
100.0
Mode
Full time
Part
time
Total
%
Frequency
Age
Frequency
112
95.7
5
4.3
117
100.0
Cumulative
Percent
18-20
44
37.6
37.6
21-24
48
41.0
78.6
25-30
9
7.7
86.3
31-35
7
6.0
92.3
36-40
5
4.3
96.6
41-45
2
1.7
98.3
45+
2
1.7
100.0
117
100.0
Total
Country
%
%
Frequency
%
1. UK
69
59.0
2. EU
31
26.5
3.
Overseas
17
14.5
117
100.0
Total
General picture from Survey 1:
Table 1. Frequency of types of PDP practices that can be supported by the Content
Collection and eportfolio that are part of BREO (Pre-pilot).
Comp
Psych
Diff
Type of PDP
practice
M
SD
M
SD
Collect/archive
3.3
.69
3.2
.78
Record learning
experiences
2.5
1.01
2.5
Reflective thinking
3.6
.83
Reflective writing
2.8
Publish/share
2.5
Total
M
SD
.1
3.3
.72
.87
0
2.5
.96
3.6
.83
0
3.6
.83
.92
2.8
.96
0
2.8
.92
1.13
2.2
1.06
.3
2.4
1.11
1=Never, 2= Once or twice, 3=Rarely, 4=Often, 5=Very frequently
General picture from Survey 1
Table 2. Importance attached to PDP practices that can be supported by the
Content Collection and eportfolio that are part of BREO grouped by types.
Comp
Psych
Diff
M
SD
M
SD
Collect/archive
3.9
.53
3.9
.66
Record learning
experiences
3.1
.70
3.2
Reflective thinking
4.0
.54
Reflective writing
3.6
Publish/share
2.5
Total
M
SD
0
3.9
.57
.94
.1
3.2
.77
4.0
.83
0
4.0
.64
.66
3.7
.83
.1
3.66
.72
.85
2.6
.95
.1
2.5
.88
1= not important at all, 2= important, 3 = neutral, 4= important, 5=very
important
Specific results (example)
30.0%
25.0%
Percent
20.0%
15.0%
10.0%
5.0%
0.0%
Never
Once or twice
Rarely
Often
Very
frequently
RecLearning
Figure 1. Students recording their learning experiences
Focus groups 1 & 2 Survey 2
(brief summary)
Features (mostly beneficial),
also in interviews
Issues
• Access anywhere
• Blogging tools not yet
effective
• Archiving (Paperless, safety)
• Security
• Ease of use (mixed) – ‘gets
easier after a while’
• Insufficient IT skills (e.g.
images)
• Career
• Support and help
• PD (reflection)
• Time required
• Self-presentation/sharing
• Differences between users
• Challenges (for tutors and
students)
Experience (interviews)
THEMES:
1. Self
– Discovering interests
– Developing Self
2. Reflection
– Descriptive/ evaluative
– Ongoing/ summary
reflection (when)
– Concurrent (in task)/
subsequent (outside
task and tool) (where)
Experience (interviews)
3. Attitude to PDP: from perceiving it
as intimidating towards liking it
4. Career
– produce CV, online, flexible CV
– anticipating future (awareness of
employment requirements)
5. Publish
– ‘self presentation’
– to show I’ve done it
– to apply for a job, show at
interview, send to potential
employers
Experience (interviews)
6. Share
– yes/ no
– Sharing technical knowledge
• Getting ideas from others
(design and structure)
• Giving and receiving guidance
Different users = different levels
of engagement
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Kate: didn’t understand it ‘(…) I’m doing my work as normal and (…) as a
word document’
Martha: didn’t realise the potential so haven’t done much with it
Mia: did it at the last minute because I had to
Bob: ‘Not for me – for them younger, inexperienced students’
Bill: I’m doing what I’ve been told to do
Alice: good only for storage
Lou (mature student): ‘I’m not very IT literate so I’m quite overwhelmed by
the whole technology’’
Tom: easy, simple, saves time
Lee, Ben : good for career purposes, online CV
Ken, Tim: good for PDP
Ina, Jo: exploration and fun finding the way
Method of assessment
• Computing
• Submission of reflective summary to
Turnitin Grademark system for online
feedback and marking
Method of assessment
• Psychology
• Formative feedback based on given
criteria
Blackboard based ePortfolio
The Good…
 Content collection/
web folder
 Integration with VLE
 Can be extended with
custom HTML
 Good tools to
organize received
portfolios into folders
..The Bad and the Ugly
 Poor blog support
 Image handling
confusing
 Comments only
added at portfolio
level
 Permissions problems
mean some content
not available
Changes planned for 2007-8
• Introduce in level one (this is the way we do
PDP – make it a habit)
• Encourage two way conversation between tutor
and student (encourage tutors to engage via
blogs)
• Encourage use of multimedia elements (or else
why bother to do it this way?) – links to video,
audio
• Use to support dissertation students – store
work in progress and facilitate contact with
supervisor
What actually happened
• ~20% of submitted portfolios not fully
accessible due to permissions fault
• We ended up using blogs to facilitate the
two way conversation (worked pretty well,
comments added after each article – not
possible in ePortfolio)
• We used blogs for supporting dissertation
students
Changes for 2008-9
• Find ways of gathering and storing
assessments and feedback (e.g. electronic
submissions, Turnitin Grademark).
• Change to Pebblepad!
Pebblepad based ePortfolio
The Good…
 Much better blog
support
 Intuitive to create
after initial confusion
over naming
 Good easy to use
design choices
The Bad and the Ugly
 Difficulty loading
images
 Not clear how to
manage received
portfolios (gateways?)
 HTML customization
tricky
Questions????