Providing Connections through ePortfolios Katherine Lithgow Jane Holbrook Bob Sproule Tracy Penny Light University of Waterloo MERLOT International Conference Ottawa 2006

Overview Documenting Competencies with ePortfolios at UW –UW Model –Making Connections within Accounting and Financial Management –Making Connections in History –Interdisciplinary Connections –Facilitating a dialogue among faculty

History Focus on developing historical thinkinghistorical thinking – ChrisChris Encourage students to make connections between learning in history and other learning experiences connections –SarahSarah

Accounting and Financial Management Professional “soft-skills” - initially focused on teamwork skills –BrookeBrooke Building on academic skills in the workplace (co-op work terms) –ThermaniThermani Residence Learning Community

Making Connections: Academic to Workplace “I realized a connection between school and the workplace when I was forced to reflect back on assignments and readings about ethics when trying to make ethical and appropriate decisions in the workplace. For example, in every file I prepared this term, ethics played a large role…I never comprehended when learning about ethics in school that they would constantly be on my mind in the workplace.”

Helping Students Make Connections between Courses Making use of eportfolios to strengthen connections between 3 courses in 2 different faculties:  Biol Introductory Cell Biology (Faculty of Science)  Biol Human Physiology (Faculty of Science)  Kin Cardiovascular and Respiratory Responses to Exercise (Faculty of Applied Health Sciences) Kinesiology Students must take all three of these courses in sequence. Many Science Pre-med students will take both Biology courses.

Connecting Applied Health Science Courses with Science Courses Instructors observed that students often can not make the necessary connections between common core concepts in their courses Example ATP in Biol 130 → Biol 273, cardio function in Biol 273 → Kin 105 Eportfolios can help students create, store, and retrieve what they need to chart their individual pathway through their courses.

Eportfolios in Biol 130 and Biol 273 Students are introduced to eportfolios and how they can be used to document academic and personal development through their time at UW Eportfolios are used to store key concept maps and personal course glossaries, and to respond to associated reflection questions These concept maps will be referred to in many other Biology and Kin courses too

Reflection Questions: Example Think about these questions when you place the glycolysis concept map in your eportfolio. 1.How is this concept map about glycolysis connected to other concepts in this course/ subsequent courses? 2.What misconceptions did you have about glycolysis before you completed this piece of work? (e.g. often students think that all the reactions are reversible).

Eportfolios in Kin 105 Concept maps from Biol 273 are used in class Explicit connections are made between concepts learned in Biol 273 and the Kin 105 laboratory activities relating to the cardiovascular exercise environment

Evaluating Learning Impact and Student Response to Eportfolios Surveys of student response/satisfaction with eportfolio use in the three classes. How are students using them, etc? Kin students will illustrate a 3 course time sequence Comparisons of class performance on common questions in the midterms and exams of the W06 and W07 classes of Biol 273 (with and without eportfolio activities) Are the Biol 130 and Biol 273 eportfolio exercises effective in helping students make appropriate connections so that they perform better? Comparisons of the performance on small early and late term tests in Kin 105 in Fall 06 and Fall 07 (with and without eportfolio activities) to evaluate knowledge on items that would be in the Biol 273 glossary (terminology) and cardiovascular and respiratory concepts. Are the Biol 273 and Kin 105 eportfolio exercises effective in helping students retain information?

Eportfolios: Promoting Dialogue Among Instructors on Course/Curriculum Design 6 th Annual Merlot International Conference Working With and Learning from the World’s Best August 8-11, 2006 Ottawa Congress Centre Ottawa Ontario Katherine Lithgow University of Waterloo

Eportfolios in Accounting Program 2004 Bob Sproule AFM 131 Grant Russell AFM 481

Eportfolios in Accounting Program 2006 Pam Charbonneau Residence Life Kerry Mahoney Co-operative Education and Career Services ? Speech and Communications Jill Tomasson Goodwin

Speech Communication: Advanced Intercultural Communications Learning E-Portfolio: an on-line representation of student’s learning processes over the semester Students provided a meta-reflection of the course through the eportfolio Presented to the class

Meta Reflections in Eportfolios What the students perceived as valuable learning experiences in the course was not always what instructor had identified as the course learning objectives

Perspective Transformation how do students change their perspective over time- intellectually and affectively transformation relies on reflection and sustained reflection eportfolios helped instructor address the challenge of assessing learning throughout the course when when entry knowledge and experience is so different?

Encouraging Dialogue Jill Tomasson Goodwin Kate Willink Diana Denton Drama and Speech Communication Bachelor of Accounting and Financial Management Program

Eportfolios in Biology/Kinesiology Faculty of Applied Health Sciences Faculty of Science

Began with three instructors Dragana Miskovic Biol 130 Intro Cell Biology Vivian Dayeh Biol 130 Biol 273 Principles of Human Physiology 1 Doug Painter Kin 105 Cardiovascular & Respiratory Response to Exercise

Now includes discussions among Biology department- 6 courses Kinesiology department- 6 courses Health Studies and Gerontology – many of the biol, kin and chem courses are common to both kin and HSG students Librarians- information literacy concepts Considered for use in higher level courses to help students see the application of the concepts in the community and workplace environment

Eportfolios in the Master of Public Health Program Students document progress on core competencies and prepare for the capstone project Means to engage instructors Web Developers role

Eportfolios Equals Engagement

Eportfolios and Students 1.buy-in –introduction is important 2.motivation –what’s in it for me? 3.assessment –of reflections, provision of evidence of student learning 4.eportfolio technology [Tosh, Penny Light, Fleming. Haywood (Fall 2005) Forthcoming in Canadian Journal of Learning Technology]

Eportfolios and Instructors 1.Instructor buy-in –introduction is important 2.motivation –what’s in it for me? How much extra work will this entail? 3.assessment –of reflections, provision of evidence of student learning 4.eportfolio technology