Mission Impossible? Encouraging Freshmen to Appropriate the Electronic Portfolio at The University of Washington

Overview Discuss goals for introducing electronic portfolios to UW students Review the functionality of the Catalyst Portfolio Tool Describe the integration of portfolios into the Freshman Interest Group Program Discussion of results

Why Portfolios? “My Action Plan” Group on campus looks for an alternative to traditional methods of gauging student progress Electronic portfolios offered as a potential solution –Obstacle: Student Web development training –Obstacle: “Portfolio” means many things UW Educational Partnerships and Learning Technologies researches the option of creating a tool as part of its “Catalyst Initiative”

Catalyst Initiative 24x7 web support Focus on teaching not technology Support as many UW instructors and staff as possible Catalyst website: Profiles, Teaching, Action Plans, How-to, Learning, and Web Tools

Catalyst Web Site

Catalyst Tools: Assumptions Tool cannot be built without input from campus stakeholders (students, instructors, academic and career advisers) Tool should be flexible—doesn’t mandate a particular pedagogical strategy Tool should be useful for all students and instructors in all colleges and schools

Portfolio: Assumptions There is a distinction between collecting artifacts, reflecting upon them, and thoughtfully presenting them in a portfolio Students will be collecting artifacts throughout their academic careers and should have exclusive access to their collections Using portfolios for reflection is a process that is important in all phases of an academic career, not just at the end of senior year

Assumptions (cont.) Instructors, advisers, and peers should collaborate with students to help them present artifacts in a reflective way Students should be able to present a variety of portfolios for different objectives: completing coursework or demonstrating academic, personal, or career development

Tool Features Collect –Large flexible storage space –Searchable Reflect –Project builder –Messaging system Present –HTML-free Web publishing –Online control of style and layout –Security and access controls

Ideal use of Portfolio: Students create a collection select items for a purpose reflect on selected items present their portfolio receive feedback on success of choices/reflection

Goals for introducing the tool to students Get 35,000 students to use the tool Provide training to UW students Encourage a “culture of reflection” Get buy-in from as many departments and programs as possible

Obstacles Diverse curriculum—Hundreds of academic departments and programs Large student population Diverse advising community No overarching program that includes all students

Freshman Interest Group program Groups of students register for the same “package” of classes, including General Studies 199, “The University Community”--weekly 1-hr seminar Touches 75-80% of freshman class 2001 pilot project with FIG program was encouraging

Our Goals for Autumn 2002: Introduce the concept of portfolios to 3,200 freshman students Within the goals of the existing University Community class, encourage reflective learning Learn lessons that can guide future portfolio projects and inform future revisions of the tool

Our Process Examine the current University Community syllabus Construct “prompts” that encourage students to reflect on the course topics Set up a Portfolio project from these prompts Let FIG leaders provide feedback on student work

FIG Program--Challenges Pass/Fail 2 credit course Course based on reflection on themes rather than traditional academic content “FIG leaders” are advanced undergraduates (unpaid) Portfolio used to standardize assignments and for program assessment

Sample prompts for the SOCIAL ISSUE addressed in the FIG seminar: 1.Consider the article/discussion on a social issue that you had in class. What about this issue makes people disagree? (use examples from your classroom discussion) Where do you stand on this issue? Continued on next slide...

Sample Prompts... cont. 2. What has influenced or shaped your current point-of-view on this issue? What, if anything, could change your perspective? 3. How did your class handle multiple perspectives? In future conversations in and outside of class, what will you do to ensure a respectful exchange, which helps everyone learn and move forward?

Study design: 162 Freshman Interest Groups 162 FIG leaders, each with a class of students Special group: 20 FIG leaders, paid to give regular, individualized feedback to students

Data Collection Surveys Focus groups Classroom observations Student interviews Examination of student portfolios

Study questions: 1.What method(s) of instruction help students feel most competent using Portfolio? 2.How can Portfolio be best integrated into the GENST 199 curriculum? 3.What instructional supports (in-class discussion, feedback, prompts within tool) might best support reflective thinking?

Three themes: Students found Portfolio easy and convenient to use. However, they largely perceived answering the questions as busywork. FIG leaders' attitude toward the tool and the work affected students' response to the tool and to class. Feedback was important--Students wanted to know that SOMEONE was reading what they wrote.

Theme 1 Students found Portfolio easy and convenient to use. However, they largely perceived answering the questions as busywork.

“… this is more like just like your opinion and so like you can do this any time…. So like everyone has a computer in their dorms so it's just like go on whenever, take two seconds, you could be eating your sandwich or whatever. So it's kind of convenient, I guess. You don't have to like take real time to do it, you know, it's kind of like check your time or whatever.”

Student Surveys 1=strongly disagree, 5=strongly agree “Based on the instruction I received, I felt competent using the technology to complete the required assignments.” “I found the questions presented in the portfolio to be genuinely interesting and enjoyable to reflect upon.”

Theme 2 FIG leaders’ attitudes towards the tool and the work affected students’ responses to the tool and the class.

“ I feel it’s really fun to me, I mean maybe it’s weird but I think it’s almost like a penpal letter to our FIG leader and we can answer the questions and sometimes they’re really in-depth and we actually have to think about what we think about life and on these certain subjects, we have to think about what our beliefs are, and I think that’s helped me a lot to really figure out what I believe and why I believe it, and apply that to the discussion that we’ve had in class and stuff.”

More comments: “See, for my FIG, my FIG leader doesn't take it really that seriously so it's kind of hard for us to take it seriously so for me it's kind of like a last priority kind of deal” “I think my experience with it wasn't so good…because my FIG leader hasn't been enthusiastic, he's kind of oh, this is kind of stupid, but you have to do it to get the credit...so that really turned me off to it...”

Theme 3 Feedback was important--Students wanted to know that SOMEONE was reading what they wrote.

Students would have liked to receive feedback in any form. “I mean, I don’t need any like long paragraphs or anything, just something so I know that I did it right and don’t have to worry about it” (student)

“It’s nice when they return it and they add comments so you know that they’re actually looking at it” (student) “If the FIG leaders did give feedback… it does kind of make it more interesting and you do feel like your FIG leader is paying a little bit of attention to you. It might even create discussions that you could have in your FIG class” (student)

When feedback was present, it allowed for two-way communication between FIG leader and student. “He [FIG leader] seems to be really good with the comments and we go back and forth over and over again, just questions and talking, learning about each other…” (student)

“[Portfolio and the feedback function] helps you know more about your students, share and get ideas” (FIG leader) “Because I comment so much, they [students] see me as a friend and come talk to me. I learned a lot from them.” (FIG leader)

Conclusions FIG program works as a setting to introduce Portfolio; it is less ideal as a setting to introduce the concept of portfolios. Continued on next slide…

If used, reflective prompts around the core curriculum topics might best be created by the FIG leaders themselves, tailored to their specific group of students. Feedback counts for establishing relationships, promoting learning

Unresolved questions: What’s the best way to persuade students to use a new tool? Can you have a “student-centered” tool and mandate its use? Can you have a student-centered structured portfolio?