1. Learning Technologies, Virginia Tech
Institutionalizing the ePortfolio Addressing Assessment, Pedagogy, and Professional Development Issues for Widespread Adoption
Shelli Fowler
C. Edward Watson
Marc Zalidvar
Learning Technologies, Virginia Tech

2. “Institutionalizing” the ePortfolio
Tapping into campus-wide needs:
Accreditation
Programmatic assessment
Integrative learning
Student career development
Partnering to create/support initiatives:
Professional development for future faculty
Framing for the session—VTeP as a case study.
Introduce colleagues (if convener hasn’t done so)
How each presentation is connected.

3. Consciously Planning for Growth and Sustainability
C. Edward Watson, Ph.D.
Director, Professional Development and Strategic Initiatives
Learning Technologies, Virginia Tech

4. Overview of Virginia Tech
Comprehensive, Research I Institution
Land grant
60 bachelor's degree programs
140 master's and doctoral degree programs
~28,000 total FTE
~1,700 full-time
teaching faculty

5. Background of VT Project
ePortfolio system selection in 2002 – OSP
1.x piloted by faculty from disciplines historically associated with portfolio assessment
Late 2005, 2.x pilots began – within Sakai
Within our group, recognized much potential
How do we increase our capacity to support adoption and sustain the growth of the project?

6. Sustainability Strategic Plan Alignment
A culture of continuous improvement
Integrated learning technologies to enhance the teaching and learning process
Institutional Alignment
Multiple assessment projects
SACS review in just over a year
QEP focusing on student learning

7. Forming Key Partnerships
Unit leadership kept aware of ePortfolio’s progress and potential (Associate Vice President for Learning Technologies)
Innovative faculty opinion leaders selected as early pilot participants
Director of VT’s Office of Academic Assessment
Vice Provost for Academic Affairs

8. Engage in the Conversation
Invited to demonstrate and discuss ePortfolio at key meetings:
Provost’s council
College deans’ meeting
Department heads’ meeting
Student affairs council
Academic assessment workshops
Faculty development workshops
All of these conversations concurrent with pilot activities and meetings with individual faculty

9. Advocacy Fostered for OSP
Broad advocacy for OSP resulted from the triangulation of faculty and administrator voices, strategic plan alignment, and pressures from SACS / QEP
Spring 2007, we were asked to submit a budget
Granted three new positions – one each summer – 2007, 2008, and 2009

10. Summary of Advice
Learn the capabilities of your system, foster excitement / interest, but accurately manage expectations
Identify respected faculty for pilot
Keep internal leadership in the loop
Align articulated initiative goals with related university projects and missions
Form partnerships with other units on campus to broaden the argument for resources and support

11. ePortfolio Enacted: Case Studies
Marc Zaldivar, Ph.D.
Director, Electronic Portfolio Initiatives
Learning Technologies, Virginia Tech

12. Two case studies in ePortfolio
English
Graduates 500 majors/year
Wanted to be ahead of the assessment curve
Began in Summer 07
HNFE: Dietetics
Graduates majors/year
Accreditor (CADE) has had traditional portfolios in place for many years
Began ePortfolio in Spring 08
Basic introduction to two groups.
Both are representative departments at VT. Will give a brief 2 minute overview of each program.

13. English: Where it began
Assessment-focused work began in Summer 07. In December 07, we began a 3-year pilot focused on gathering evidence of student learning. In Summer 08, the department used this system to assess the effectiveness of the reflection prompts, which led to the formation of the undergraduate research group of ePortfolio leadership students.

14. English: Where it is today
Through Fall 08, they developed this template that has options and spaces for them to reflect as students and as English majors. We worked together to come up with prompts that would be representative of the core types of work that these majors would do and might want to represent, while wrapping it in a more pleasing aesthetic. This student has sections on her development as a writer, her extracurricular engagement activities, her direction as an English major, and representative work from her academic goals.

15. English: Where it is today
And look at the revision of the matrix. Instead of the rather large, daunting matrix, we get a one-line matrix that is actually geared at the student creating the presentation. The Academic Achievement template asks the student to collect work according to forms that coincide with the departmental outcomes, and the same data is being collected as was collected before. However, it is situated and meaningful to the student now. We try this with a class of sophomores in Spring 09 to see if it increases their buy-in to the project.

16. Dietetics: Where it began
History of paper-based portfolios that collected 10 key assignments of the student’s work. This was collected in the HNFE 4624 class, but the student was made aware of it in the HNFE 2004 course. In Spring 2008, we developed this assessment-based system to collect the 10 assignments. Actually, it began with only 10 rows, but the students re-aligned it to incorporate their entire curriculum and to help other students see the relevance of the material according to national accrediting categories.

17. Dietetics: Where it is today
Similar to the English department, as the students continued to investigate the ePortfolio potential, they developed a more personalized interest. This is what we developed for them in Fall 08. They are required to apply for internships through a national search database, and they became interested in all having electronic versions of a sharable portfolio of work and projects. Also similar to English, the Work Showcase organizes the collection of material according to the discipline-specific categories.

18. Dietetics: Where it is today
You can see that the categories are displayed and defined on that tab. Each category can have items and reflections added to it, as many as the student wishes. This is done in a similar one-line matrix that I showed you with English. Though you can’t see it on this screenshot, and it was true in the English example as well, we have also included an “Other” category if the student wishes to define their own non-programmatic items of significance and showcase those.

19. Dietetics: Where it is today
This is the result. Each “View the example” is a link to an item that the student is showcasing. The reflection can contain links and other formatting, if the student wishes. It becomes a flexible space for the student to demonstrate steady progress towards learning outcomes, whether defined by a national organization, a program, or the student.

20. What we’ve learned
Clear evidence-based assessment to drive programmatic improvement and accreditation is not going away.
Student learning, reflection, and professional development does not have to be isolated from the process.
Buy-in needs to come from all involved parties (administrators, instructors, and students)
Further research is needed to find out how best to integrate reflective and assessment needs for ePortfolios (I/NCEPR)
Slide says it all.

21. The Professional Development ePortfolio
Shelli Fowler, Ph.D.
Executive Director, Graduate Development Programs
and New Pedagogies
Learning Technologies, Virginia Tech

22. The Graduate Education Development Institute
A collaborative initiative between Learning Technologies and The Graduate School
Part of the Transformative Graduate Education program at Virginia Tech
Core requirement of the nine-credit “Future Professoriate” Graduate Certificate
The AVP of LT began conversations with the VP and Dean of The Graduate School, discovered a way to partner and contribute to the TGE program the Dean was developing.
If you are a Liberal Arts college and do not have many graduate programs, or if your institution does not have a centralized graduate school, this kind of partnership could be built with a specific college, program, or department. RE: teacher educ programs, UTAs (example of ES at VT), etc.
A graduate faculty member teaches the GEDI graduate seminar.
TGE—Preparing the Future Professoriate and/or Future Professional, GEDI, Citizen Scholar Engagement. All are designed as supplemental or complementary (to dept/college mentoring) professional development programs to broaden the grad stu pro dev experience.

23. Pilot Teaching Practicum (two credits, P/F) offered Fall 2008
GEDI offers a 16-week, for-credit, graded graduate seminar in Contemporary Pedagogy, GRAD 5114
Two sections in the fall; one section in the spring
Approximately 120 graduate students each year
Pilot Teaching Practicum (two credits, P/F) offered Fall 2008
The course is “housed” in the graduate school, rather than any specific department, and is designed with the understanding that most all students take it on “overload”; they take it b/c they are hungry for more mentoring around teaching and they work it into their schedules b/c they can earn the nine-credit FP grad certificate, which shows on their transcripts and makes them more competitive on the job market.
Good response to the small (10 student) practicum pilot. All students are were required to take GRAD 5114 as a prerequisite.

24. GEDI Participants explore:
Critically-engaged and appropriate integration of innovative technologies into discipline-specific teaching & learning
We start with pedagogy. The course is not marketed as a teaching with technologies course. Grad students want to know about teaching and often misunderstand “teaching with technology” as something only for online courses, etc.
Pedagogy is the driver. We ask students to know why they would use a specific tech tool; if they don’t need to use the tech., then don’t. Again, it is about active learning and TEAL is emphasized AFTER the focus on them as teachers. Cite Pdoo phrase….

25. Interdisciplinary curricular and pedagogical options that emphasize inquiry-based / active learning, articulation of learning objectives, and assessment of student learning outcomes
Technology tools further the success of all of these goals, but they are not introduced front end as any kind of panacea for good teaching.

26. The Professional Development ePortfolio (PDeP)
GEDIs choose the form and content that best represents their disciplinary focus and professional identity
Awareness of technical, ethical, and visual literacy issues
Professional representation of teaching, research, and outreach
Awareness of assessment options
Student reflection; programmatic evaluation
PDePs are multi-purposed learning exercise…how it prepares/mentors future faculty in their own professional representation of self and better prepares them to mentor/teach their own undergraduate students about those same issues; also, can some understanding of programmatic evaluation, RE: documentation for ABET, NCATE, and accreditation, etc.