1. Handout: Assessment Systems & Electronic Portfolios

2. Overlap of Assessment Types
Assessment Management Systems:
that support
Assessment OF
Learning
Electronic Portfolios:
that support
Assessment
FOR
Learning
H - Positivist checklist of skills - Constructivist story of deep learning
Institution-centered
Learner-centered
“Checklist of Competencies” • Balance • “Students’ Story of Learning”

3. Forms of Assessment Formative Assessments
Provides insights for the teacher
Assessment FOR Learning
Provides insights for the learner
Summative Assessments (Assessment OF Learning or Evaluation)
Provides insights (and data) for the institution
Nick Rate (2008) Assessment for Learning & ePortfolios, NZ Ministry of Ed

4. Overview Assessment OF Learning Assessment FOR Learning Reason
Check Status
Improve Learning
To Inform
Others about students
Students about themselves
Focus
Standards
Enabling targets
Rick Stiggins Assessment Training Institute

5. Rick Stiggins Assessment Training Institute
Assessment OF Learning
Assessment FOR Learning
Example
High stakes external assessments, Classroom tests used for grading
Assessments that diagnose needs or help students see themselves improve
Place in time
An event after learning
A process during learning

6. Purposes for Assessment
Assessment FOR Learning =
Formative (Classroom-based) Assessment
Assessment OF Learning =
Summative Assessment

7. Crucial Distinction
Assessment OF Learning How much have students learned as of a particular point in time?
Assessment FOR Learning How can we use assessment to help students learn more?
Rick Stiggins Assessment Training Institute

8. ages3-14

9. Principles of Assessment FOR Learning
Definition: Assessment for Learning is the process of seeking and interpreting evidence for use by learners and their teachers to decide where the learners are in their learning, where they need to go and how best to get there.

10. What is your portfolio philosophy?
A standardized checklist of skills? (Positivist) or
A reflective story of deep learning? (Constructivist)

11. Which approach should you take?
Are you looking for an electronic portfolio…
Or an assessment management system?
What’s the difference? Along a Continuum

12. How do we find a balance between these two purposes for assessment?

13. Overlap of Assessment Types
Portfolios that support Assessment OF
Learning
Portfolios that support Assessment
FOR
Learning
H - Positivist checklist of skills - Constructivist story of deep learning
Institution-centered
Learner-centered
“Checklist of Competencies” • Balance • “Students’ Story of Learning”

14. A Resource on K-12 Portfolios
By Evangeline Harris Stefanakis
Published by Heinemann
Includes a CD-ROM with examples of student portfolios

15. Assessment for Learning Continuum - Enhanced
Stefanakis, Evangeline (2002) Multiple Intelligences and Portfolios. Portsmouth: Heinemann, p. 136

16. Portfolio Differences
Assessment OF Learning
Purpose prescribed
Artifacts mandated - scoring for external use
Organized by teacher
Summative (Past to present)
Institution-centered
Requires extrinsic motivation
Assessment FOR Learning
Purpose negotiated
Artifacts chosen - feedback to learner
Organized by learner
Formative (Present to future)
Student-centered
Intrinsically motivating

17. Opportunity Cost The alternative you give up when you make a decision…
The cost of an alternative that must be forgone in order to pursue a certain action
What is the opportunity cost of emphasizing accountability in portfolios over reflection and deep learning?

18. Quote from Hartnell-Young & Morriss (2007) Digital Portfolios
many issues that arise from the multiple purposes for developing electronic portfolios.
“While these are legitimate uses for portfolios, when teachers perceive that accountability is viewed as more important than their knowledge and expertise, they can become cynical, and their portfolios tend to be heavy with documentation but light on passion.” (p.8)

19. Which approach should you take?
Are you looking for an electronic portfolio…
Or an assessment management system?
What’s the difference? Along a Continuum

20. Electronic Portfolio or Assessment Management System?

21. How can we address both types of portfolios?
Use three different systems that are digitally linked:
A digital archive of a learner’s work
An institution-centered database to collect faculty-generated assessment data based on tasks and rubrics
A student-centered electronic portfolio

22. Handout

23. Begin Here

24. I

25. Interactive Process

26. Interactive Process
Assessor
Learner

28. Positivist Paradigm (Evaluation and Making Inferences) Portfolio as Test

29. Assessor EVALUATES required artifacts

30. Perf tasks

31. Data collected for certification/ licensure (high stakes) and for accreditation

32. II

33. Resulting in…
Institution-centered aggregated data leading to certification/licensure and accreditation

34. Focus on Limited-Term Evaluation

35. External Locus of Control
Includes prescribed artifacts and rubrics
Requires database to manage information
Focuses on faculty's formative and summative evaluations

37. I

38. Constructivist Paradigm (Making Meaning and Assessment as Learning) Portfolio as Story

39. Learner COLLECTS artifacts from learning experiences

40. Reflection

41. Learner SELECTS artifacts and reflections to meet self-determined purpose(s)

42. III

43. Resulting in…
Student-centered documentation of deep learning, for developing self-concept and presentation to multiple audiences (peers, employers, etc.)

44. Focus on Lifelong Self-Directed Learning

45. Internal Locus of Control
Includes choice of artifacts
Results in personalized e-portfolio
Focuses on learner's celebration of uniqueness

46. Both approaches result in a:

47. Universities who have kept Assessment Management & E-Portfolios Separate
Baylor University
University of Washington
Catalyst Portfolio Builder
Student Learning Objectives (SLO) system
MNSCU (Minnesota eFolio)
New Blackboard (WebCT) System
Ball State University (rGrade)