Giving Students a Compass: Seeking a Conceptual
Model for a Developmental ePortfolio
Catherine Buyarski, University College, IUPUI
Susan Kahn, Institutional Effectiveness &
ePortfolio Initiative, IUPUI
Association of American Colleges and Universities
Annual Meeting
January 23, 2013
Electronic Personal Development Plan
• A reflective plan that students develop as
an ePortfolio in the FYS and revise and
update as they progress through their
undergraduate career
• Becoming well established in FYS
• Pilots in several degree and co-curricular
programs
Context of IUPUI
 Partnership between IU and Purdue
 Urban research university
 30,000+ students
--Mostly first generation, professionally
oriented
 20+ very diverse schools; professional
schools dominate
Using ePortfolio at IUPUI















Art History (capstone)
Center for Research and Learning (undergrad research)
Center for Service and Learning (service learning)
English (capstone)
International Affairs (study abroad)
Library and Information Science (MLS)
Medicine (LHSI, MD)
Museum Studies (MA)
Nursing (All)
Philanthropy (BA)
Physical Therapy (DPT)
Psychology (advising, capstone)
Public Health (MPH)
Social Work (BSW)
Spanish (capstone)
ePDP
• Initiated by faculty teaching FYS to
increase student commitment to
graduating
• Connect to Learning grant to pilot
continued development in several
programs
• Now additional pilots, discussion of
adoption in new General Education
program
ePDP across the curriculum
• To deepen student learning
• To maintain engagement, commitment,
and sense of agency about their education
• To integrate and document learning
experiences
Conceptual model
• To articulate more clearly why we’re
asking students to create ePDP
• To gain student, faculty, advisor buy-in
• To guide development beyond the FYS
• To guide assessment
• To prioritize technology
needs/development
Committee
Representatives from:
 Campus ePortfolio
 Student Life
 Academic Schools: Nursing, Engineering, Liberal Arts
 Psychology
 First Year Seminars
 Student Success Programs
 Program Assessment and Evaluation
Many members wore more than one hat
Not all had direct experience with the ePDP
Process for Developing the Model
 Completed literature review on variety of topics and from diverse
fields of study
 Focused on key concepts and identified five seminal readings
 Semi-structured discussion around the readings during which key
concepts emerged; met every three weeks for four months
 Developed a summary of key points about five months into the
process
 Established basics of the model after about nine months of
discussion
 Currently assigned committee members to delve deeper into key
concepts to make sure they are represented and applied in the
most relevant manner
Literature Reviewed









Self-Authorship
Reflection
Hope Theory
Making-Making
ePortfolios
Student Development (cognitive and affective)
Identity Development
Life-long and Life-wide Learning
Integrative Learning
Self-Authorship
Self-authorship is “the capacity to define
one’s beliefs, identity, and social relations”
(Baxter Magolda, 2001)
Three elements of self-authorship (Baxter
Magolda, 2008)
– Trusting the internal voice
– Building an internal foundation
– Securing internal commitments
Learning Partnerships (Baxter Magolda & King, 2004)
Conditions that promote self-authorship
Support
• Validate learners’
capacity to know
• Situate learning in the
learner’s experience
• Define learning as
mutually constructing
meaning
Challenge
• Portray knowledge as
complex and socially
constructed
• Self is central to the
construction of
knowledge
• Share authority and
expertise
Hope Theory
“Hope is a positive motivational state that is
based on an interactively derived sense of
successful (a) agency (goal-directed energy),
and (b) pathways (planning to meet goals).”
Snyder, Irving, & Anderson, 1991, p. 287
Some Initial Thoughts
• Portfolios can start as one thing as evolve into
something else (start as development and end
with evidence/assessment)
• Initial evidence provided in first-year is foundation
for future evidence
• ePDP is an intervention that can facilitate
“development”
• ePDP facilitates meaning making about
experience, life and self
Overall
• ePDP has two primary functions
– Recording of disruptions, “ah ha” moments,
challenges accomplishments, key learning
experiences
– Development of meaning and a sense of place
in self, life and the college experience
Discussion
 Have we missed any key bodies of knowledge
or concepts?
 Are there components that should have more
or less emphasis in the model?
 Have you developed (or are you developing) a
conceptual model for ePortfolios on your
campus?
Contact us:
Cathy Buyarski: cbuyarsk@iupui.edu
Susan Kahn: skahn@iupui.edu
IUPUI ePortfolio web site:
academicaffairs.iupui.edu/plans/ePort/
ePDP web site: pdp.uc.iupui.edu/Home