Writing, Reflection, and Assessment with ePortfolios Christy Desmet Director of First-year Composition Presented to 2007 Academic Affairs Faculty Symposium Unicoi State Park, Helen GA March 31, 2007

Specific Recommendations on “Effective Writing”

Writing Task Force Fran Teague and Nelson Hilton, Co-Chairs Recommendations

Writing Task Force Fran Teague and Nelson Hilton, Co-Chairs Recommendations

Why ePortfolios? What is an ePortfolio? A place to –Collect –Reflect on –Display or publish multimodal writing

What is an ePortfolio? An opportunity to –Record and reflect on growth –Demonstrate discipline- specific writing skills and genres –Make connections (e.g., between courses or between academics and life)

What is an ePortfolio? An electronic archive that supports –Student ownership –Sharing of writing –Program assessment –Research into the writing process 482,674 documents on March 16, 2007

Evaluation with Evaluation with ePortfolios provide the perfect feedback system: 1.Shared rubric or vocabulary/set of assessment criteria 2.Text 3.Peer review 4.Revision 5.Assessment 6.Publication in the ePortfolio

Revision and Peer Review Markup/Revision –Markup makes rhetorical choices explicit; –Web displays help students “see” their texts with new eyes; –Ease of download/upload permits multiple revisions. Peer Review –Makes students intelligent critics of their own and others’ writing; –Provides students with multiple, authentic audiences; –Fosters collaboration and responsibility;

It all begins with shared criteria. FYC Program establishes a rubric, which establishes criteria and levels for assessment.

Writers then... write. Writers produce their documents in the OpenOffice word processor.

Peers provide feedback.

Revision focuses on specific rhetorical elements.

Writers revise. Teachers comment and assess.

Students reflect, revise, publish.

ePorts travel with students across the curriculum People ePorts Documents

Assessment and Research Files uploaded in the last 7 days: 3663 Files uploaded in the last 30 days: Files uploaded:

Error Analysis In a preliminary investigation of errors marked in from Spring 2005, we looked at 748 essays from 10 sections with different instructors: 140Tense 169Paragraph coherence 186Apostrophe 217Wordy 244Other punctuation 244Documentation 294Spelling 307Awkward 368Diction 425Development 643Comma errors 748Number of documents 25Logical fallacy 29Organization 43Wrong preposition 48Passive voice 63Fragment 67Agreement subject-verb 69Vague pronoun reference 70Paragraph unity 72Coherence 78 Agreement pronoun-antecedent 82Expletive construction 104Comma splice 117Transition

Sources and Citations

Revision Study Does revision improve writing (as measured by students' scores on essays)? Research Method –450 graded essays submitted for a grade (before); –Select 450 portfolio version of the same essays (after); –Essays graded online and randomly by trained holistic raters; –6-point rating scale calibrated to the program grading rubric.

Improvement in Scores

Cycle Completed Pedagogy Assessment Research