The Development Process

Finding the Funds $3 Million Dollar Title V Cooperative Grant with New York City College of Technology over Five Years. New Student Technology Fee. Significant Institutional Support.

The Planning Year Year-Long Planning Committee. Year-Long Faculty Research Team Process. Faculty-Led Assessment Plan Developed & Passed.

The Research Team’s Methodology Researched key issues such as curriculum, infrastructure, pedagogy, faculty development, template design, and the impact of the ePortfolio on the college community through articles and web research. Conducted phone interviews and site visits to key campuses to explore the practice of ePortfolios compared to the theory of ePortfolios. Presented to groups around the college to share research, gather key questions and issues of concern to our college community and to facilitate discussions about ePortfolios.

Launching an Assessment Process The college’s Core Competencies include: reading, writing, critical thinking, quantitative reasoning, information literacy, technological literacy, and oral communication. Additional competencies specific to programs are being developed by individual departments. The College-Wide Curriculum Committee is developing rubrics & an assessment process.

The Pilot Year

A Working Plan Started with a pilot. Targeted ePortfolio intensive courses: FIGs, Intro to Major, Urban Studies, and Capstone courses in majors. Linked the ePortfolio to the 7 core competencies, beginning with writing, reading, and critical thinking. Created a management system balancing access, security, ease of use, and flexibility. Built a provisional system.

Launching the Pilot Year Created an Informational Site for students & faculty.Informational Site Identified pilot faculty (many of whom came out of Designed for Learning). Created an ePortfolio Faculty Development Seminar to support pilot faculty. Piloted in with 20 faculty and 1100 students (twice as many students as expected).

Pilot year

FYE Academies First Year Experience as a year-long “package.” Specialized basic skills courses, thematically linked to Intro courses in the major. Studio Hour in Semesters one and two New Student Seminar in Semester I & Fundamentals of Professional Advancement in Semester 2. Year-long series of co- curricular activities.

Launching the Academies When fully operational all students will be linked to one of three parallel FYE Academies. We piloted the first academy in , and the second two will begin in the spring of Business/Technology Academy: for students majoring in Computer Information Systems and Business Allied Health Academy: for students majoring in Liberal Arts/AS and Allied Health. Liberal Arts Academy: for students in Liberal Arts/AA, Fine Arts, Education, and Human Services.

Goals of the FYE Academies Contextualize basic skills instruction so as to increase student motivation and improve student learning outcomes. Create a more relevant educational experience for students: first-year activities are related to students’ majors and interests. Engage students more completely by including a variety of “extra-curricular” experiences that contribute to student success and development. Help personalize students’ educational experience by creating smaller “communities” for students. Develop a greater sense of community and connectedness to the institution. Provide an organizing framework for first-year advisement, orientation, and professional development activities, for which the ePortfolio will provide support. Provide a focus for cross-disciplinary faculty collaboration: basic skills, content-area, Co-op, and counseling faculty can engage in joint faculty development, align skills development with content-area course demands; develop co-curricular activities.

Next Steps Simplify by implementing a new system to support management of ePortfolios. Focus on FYE Academies & ESL Clusters. Partner with the College Assessment Committee to launch the pilot assessment process. Expand the ePortfolio through outreach to the College community and beyond. Continue to support faculty as learners: new skills, new ways of teaching. Continue to support faculty as leaders : outreach, formal and informal discussion. Continue to support students as leaders: ePortfolio Consultants.

Next Steps, continued Create and expand interest in new college sectors: Coop, Advisement, Phi Theta Kappa. Help students complete ePortfolios. Extend ePortfolio to include Adult and Continuing Education, Community Outreach, Assessment, Transfer, etc. Strengthen ePortfolio in 2nd Year Courses such as: Urban Studies and Capstone Courses in the Major. Enrich ePortfolios with student-authored multimedia narratives through digital story-telling. Use Digital Stories for community outreach & research projects. Support use of ePortfolios for assessment and transfer.