1. Rethinking the Competency Portfolio System Will: Lord of PHP Supreme Chancellor of SQL Frances “The Hammer” Goddess of CSS Prescriber of Will’s Paxil Jake: Ambassador of Human Empathy Technophobia Minister

2. May 5 th, 2005Rethinking Competency Portfolios2 Olin Competency Portfolios (or how good intentions went astray) Demonstrate student competencies Allow students to showcase their work to employers and graduate schools Help intra-Olin communication of “cool stuff” Knowledge management

3. May 5 th, 2005Rethinking Competency Portfolios3 The reality Students don’t like it. –Must enter each entry 3 times –All entries look the same, ugly Students don’t contribute to it. Enforcement impossible.

4. May 5 th, 2005Rethinking Competency Portfolios4 Our Goals Empower students. To make the portfolio system easy to use. –Motivating students is essential to make the system easy to use. Assign grades. (boo) Make it fun enough for students to do it voluntary/Make it a procrastination diversion. Make it valuable to the students.

5. May 5 th, 2005Rethinking Competency Portfolios5 Surprisingly, we turned to personas for guidance Jenny Shannon – bread and butter Olinite –Apathetic about her portfolio –No HTML skills, no desire to learn –bioE Often she’s sober

6. May 5 th, 2005Rethinking Competency Portfolios6 2 nd Persona Liam Doyle – Power User –Wants to use portfolio to display l337 H4X0R skills –WoW fiend, level 52 warlock

7. May 5 th, 2005Rethinking Competency Portfolios7 3 rd Persona Michael Huffman – junior professor –Wants to view advisee’s portfolios –Familiar with HTML and web –Not interested in taking time to explain to less e- competent colleagues –Single and searching

8. May 5 th, 2005Rethinking Competency Portfolios8 4 th persona Frank Lin – backbone of Olin’s administration –Wants to view and present aggregate portfolio data –Wants to create user accounts and access for ABET, others –Nickname in college lacrosse: ‘whack-a-mole’

9. May 5 th, 2005Rethinking Competency Portfolios9 Personas do things in ‘scenarios’ Jenny –Login, create an entry, attach a file, make it public Liam –Editing existing entries, more complex formatting and privacy options Michael –Searching the portfolio library by class, subject, advisees, etc. Frank –Viewing aggregate data, creating accounts

10. May 5 th, 2005Rethinking Competency Portfolios10 What we learned: It’s the wrong interaction Old Portfolio SystemNew Portfolio System

11. May 5 th, 2005Rethinking Competency Portfolios11 The Manila Folder Bureaucratic Minimalism conveyed a lack of concern for quality Either the same as everyone else, or too much effort Dump your files here.

12. May 5 th, 2005Rethinking Competency Portfolios12 The book model (It’s all about ownership) Students are the authors of their portfolios. They can change content and the layout. They pick the cover. They set the tone.

13. May 5 th, 2005Rethinking Competency Portfolios13 How can portfolios be integrated into the lives of Olin Students? Provide varying levels of commitment and effort (should take as little or as much time as you want) –As little as possible for some Quick and easy to begin Use tools students already know Take as little time as possible –Powerful and flexible for others Customizable visual appearance, layout –Make it a valuable as a marketing tool

14. May 5 th, 2005Rethinking Competency Portfolios14 Implementing low activation energy One click to make a new entry. Default full layouts provided. (Pick one of five flavors to start from) Fill out as much or as little you want.

15. May 5 th, 2005Rethinking Competency Portfolios15 Implementing Customization Easy initial customization – pick favorite default layout template CSS/HTML controlled –First dabbling is changing colors Change layout properties Write your own tags. Hack the code with marks.

16. May 5 th, 2005Rethinking Competency Portfolios16 Implementing Marketing Value Make portfolios polished enough that students will want to show them employers. –Default templates will be professional and functional. Give portfolios personality (not clones)

17. May 5 th, 2005Rethinking Competency Portfolios17 Implementing More Value - Managing Access Externally accessible! Manage access –Students don’t want employers to see everything. Make it easy for external people to use –Individual Generic access accounts -> access one portfolio (put on resume) –Specific access account -> access multiple portfolios

18. May 5 th, 2005Rethinking Competency Portfolios18 Unimplemented Features Searching Faculty Pages –Basic Layout Designed Staff Pages –Identical to Faculty Layout but no advisee links Guest Users Annual Reports CV and Resume Uploading

19. May 5 th, 2005Rethinking Competency Portfolios19 Implemented Interaction Flow

20. May 5 th, 2005Rethinking Competency Portfolios20 Responding to Lo-Fi prototype Novel browsing technique: Scenarios didn’t match personas well –Profs care about advisees and aggregate data, not own courses Manually filling out CV a bad idea Preview pane unclear Search functionality unclear

21. May 5 th, 2005Rethinking Competency Portfolios21 Responding To Heuristic Created separate Profile Manager Added Google-style quick searching Feedback Added When –Updating or Deleting Entries –Uploading Files Warning for unsaved changes to entries Awkward Phrasing/Order for Mass-Editing Previous/Next Entry Links include the title of the entry Consistent Use of Buttons for Style Sheet controls

22. May 5 th, 2005Rethinking Competency Portfolios22 Responding To Usability Study Result of Tests: –Mass-editing organized by functionality and creation of a “style manager” page to add symmetry Related Corrections: –Lack of User Feedback  Added Messages Highlight entries that were changed in mass-edits + display message on success –Index Page Had Too Much Content at the Top Added “Welcome” on first login, but removed all large-font static messages –Users attempt to use the links in the preview plane and navigated away from page Removed links from toolbar shown in preview plane

23. DEMO!

24. May 5 th, 2005Rethinking Competency Portfolios24 Lessons Learned Limit Information Overload When interacting with users, be prepared for anything. Don’t be ego involved in the design – controlled apathy is your friend (see Jake) The system should provide more feedback to the user than you think it should

25. May 5 th, 2005Rethinking Competency Portfolios25 Questions?