1. To the Next Level: Creating an ePortfolio Culture on Campus Through Platform Selection Implementation and Learning Communities
Candyce Reynolds, PhD, Educational Leadership and Policy
Melissa Pirie, MS, McNair Scholars Program
Portland State University

2. Background
The use of ePortfolios has proliferated on campuses as institutions have recognized that ePortfolios can provide authentic artifacts for learning outcome assessment and enhance student learning.
57% of campuses have “made some use” of ePortfolios (Educause, 2014)
BUT
often ONLY at a program or course level

3. Portland State University
“Portland State University's mission is to enhance the intellectual, social, cultural and economic qualities of urban life by providing access throughout the life span to a quality liberal education for undergraduates and an appropriate array of professional and graduate programs especially relevant to metropolitan areas.”
Portland State University (PSU) is Oregon’s largest public university with just over 28,000 students.
PSU is an urban campus in the heart of Portland, Oregon.

4. Early Eportfolio Use
Started in General Education Program: University Studies in 1997
All First Year Students in yearlong Freshman Inquiry course complete one
Built around accomplishments of the 4 goals of the program
Long, rich use with lots of experimentation/software use
Focus on Fostering Student learning through the process
AND
Providing authentic artifacts for program assessment
Goal was always to take the eportfolio across the full 4 years of the program and beyond

5. Use of ePortfolios at PSU
Eportfolio use has bubbled up in different areas
Other general education courses
Student Leadership Fellows Program
Postsecondary, Adult and Continuing Education Master’s program
Ronald E. McNair Scholars Program
Art and Graphic Design
Varied use of technology—Google sites, Wordpress, Wix, Weebly, home grown platforms

6. The Problem(s)
Using different platforms—students couldn’t use across programs and courses
Operating as Silos—no opportunities to work together on pedagogy or technology
No Centralized Institutional support—Technology or Pedagogy
Difficult to use for assessment
Not taking advantage of the momentum that was building for ePortfolios on our campus

7. The Times Have Changed! Provost’s Challenge Competition—reThink PSU
Leaders from programs that used ePortfolios came
together to propose the project
Funded with the goal of:
procuring a University Supported ePortfolio System
Supporting an ePortfolio culture on campus

8. Our Steps
Procurement
Implementation
Expansion

9. Procurement Process Involve All Possible Stakeholders
(Administrators, IT, Faculty, Students, Peers Mentors)
Educate them about ePortfolios
Engage stakeholder imaginations and inspire possibilities
Ask for their help
Developed Work Groups to provide criteria for our Request for Quotes (RFQ)
Pedagogy
Assessment
Technology

10. Procurement Link to RFQ Draft and Vendor Deliverables
With input from the 3 work groups, a Request for Quotes (RFQ) was developed
Vendors identified and invited to campus
Public Forums Set Up: Multiple Stakeholders involved
Recorded and Publicized
Extensive solicitation of feedback
Software Platform chosen . . .
PebblePad!!!
Link to RFQ Draft and Vendor Deliverables

11. Pebblepad Personal Learning Environment more than an eportfolio
A place for action plans, achievements, experiences and thoughts
Users can share records, assign permissions, comment, copy and collaborate
Based out of UK. In use in other countries for over 10 years

12. examples

13. Procurement: Lessons Learned So Far
Involvement of Lots of People worked
Buzz on campus
Ownership of eportfolio broadened on campus (Intrusive Inclusion)
New champions of ePortfolios developed
New ideas from others who had not yet been involved in eportfolio work
It takes a long time but it is time well spent!!

14. Implementation: Impacting Culture
Maintaining the Buzz
Explored a Branding Campaign
Planned Ongoing Faculty Development Events
Managing the “roll out” for success
Initial Adopters with strong training and support
Interesting Use cases to showcase a variety of uses of platform
Roll out of new adopters with training and support plans
Open to community

15. Implementation: Have a Plan!
A look at our Roll Out Plan!

16. Implementation: Lessons Learned so far
Shared institutional responsibility of ePortfolio processes now resides in centralized university offices:
Office of Academic Innovation
Office of Information Technology
Our Community of Practice is developing and is important
Connections and shared resources between programs and ePortfolio leaders in different programs.
PebblePad Academy
Initial Adopters Reunions
Integration of technology support staff and instructional designers working alongside instructors and the vendor team
Students are now truly demanding/desiring the eportfolio!

17. Expansion We have plans! Building on First year pilot
Second year inclusions

18. Expansion: Lessons learned so far
Issues we see:
Maintaining early interest and spreading that interest
The process of bringing on new projects
That tricky question of “sustainability”
Pilot planning should go beyond initial phases . . .
Meeting ongoing demand for training and support around
Translating UK ideas about education to US (processes and lexicon)
System is more complex than we thought
Identifying & allocating appropriate supports for students and faculty

19. Next Steps: Case Study Experience of: Focus on Stakeholders:
Initiating the Implementation Platform Selection Implementation committee formation Pilot Selection Training and Development Technology Mapping Pilot Implementation
Focus on Stakeholders:
Administrators (eg: IT)
Faculty (eg.: peer mentors)
Students

20. Questions?