WPA Assessment Institute 2006

Electronic Portfolios, Writing Classrooms, and College Programs: Practices, Theories, Issues, and Challenges 
Leaders: J. Elizabeth Clark, Michael Day, and Kathleen Blake Yancey

 

 

 

 

13 July 2006

 

 

Exploring ePortfolios on the Web

 

Please meet in the following small groups:

 

Group 1:  Charlotte, Becky, Jonikka, Sandra, David

 

ePortfolio Assignments:

Jamie Lynne Wojsko’s English 101 ePortfolio

http://skywalker.cochise.cc.az.us/mirage//Electronic_Portfolio_Template_101/Jamie.htm

 

Jeffrey A. Jumper’s Meteorology ePortfolio

http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/j/a/jaj225/eportfolio.html

 

Group 2:  Linda, Colin, Michelle C., Dee, Ed

 

ePortfolio Assignments:

NYC College of Technology (choose one—see ePortfolio Examples)
http://eportfolio.citytech.cuny.edu/

 

Melissa Schmidt's M.A. portfolio

http://www.plu.edu/~dmc/gallery/MDP/schmidt m/Files/home.html

 

Group 3:  Joseph,  Barbara, Derek, Alison, Scott

ePortfolio Assignments:

An LSU Architecture portfolio

http://my.lsu.edu/cbeall1/index.html

 

A St. Olaf self-designed major portfolio

http://www.stolaf.edu/depts/cis/wp/manlove/Templates/index.html

 

Group 4:  Kelly, Patricia , Peggy,  Alice,  Gerri

ePortfolio Assignments:

 

An LSU engineering portfolio

http://dportfolio.lsu.edu/dportfolio/amybreaux/index.html

 

A St. Olaf self-designed major portfolio

http://www.stolaf.edu/depts/cis/wp/nervig/index.htm

 

Group 5:  Melinda, Bill, Laura, Marcia, Stephanie 

ePortfolio Assignments:

The ABET templated flash portfolio from Iowa State

http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/10.1/binder.html?http://cissrv3.uwsp.edu/faculty/aellerts/rearticulate/home.html

 

Melissa Schmidt's M.A. portfolio

http://www.plu.edu/~dmc/gallery/MDP/schmidt m/Files/home.html

Group 6:  Lori, Michelle S., Linda, Elizabeth, Adrien

ePortfolio Assignments:

Second Semester FYComp class from NIU:
http://www.students.niu.edu/~z120512/104.M70/eportfolio/index.html

Second year MA teaching assistant who also worked at the RA for NIU's FYComp eportfolio
project:

http://www.students.niu.edu/~Z109187/eportfolio/homepage.html

 

Step 1.  Hands-On Research & Observation:  (30 minutes)
Working individually or in pairs, please explore the ePortfolio Projects linked to your respective group.  Please be prepared to comment on what you observed in the ePortfolios you examined, considering these issues. 

 

PRIMARY QUESTIONS:

 

What’s the purpose of the ePortfolio? Who is the audience? How is this ePort similar to and different from a print portfolio? How is it different from a website?  What is the learning history displayed in each ePortfolio? Which are your favorite ePortfolios and why?  How do these students use ePortfolios for hypertextual and multimedia folio thinking?  What challenges did students face in creating these ePortfolios? What might be the challenges you’d face in teaching with and assessing these ePortfolios?

 

SECONDARY QUESTIONS:

 

As a classroom instructor what do you hope that students will gain from using ePortfolios in your course?  As a WPA, what do you hope that the ePortfolio would show you about a student’s writing?  How might the ePortfolio help you to understand your writing program better?  What are the advantages and possibilities of the ePortfolio?  What are the challenges facing faculty in teaching/assessing ePortfolios?

 

Step 2.  Prepare for Large Group Discussion: (15 minutes)

Before you return to the large group, please write down--so that you can identify for the large group--the purpose, audience, design and contents of one portfolio. Please be prepared as well to identify one aspect of this ePortfolio that you found valuable; one goal for the use of ePortfolios in assessing writing; and finally, one challenge you see for using ePortfolios in teaching and assessing writing.

 

Step 3.   Whole Group Discussion:  (30 minutes)

 

Together after the identification of one portfolio per group (see above), we will discuss the following questions: 

 

What are some pedagogical implications of the ePortfolio? As an instructor, what would you like to emulate in what you’ve seen today?  As a WPA, what you would like to emulate for your program?  How can these ePortfolios  inform your goals as a faculty member?  As a WPA?  What are the uses of ePortfolio for hypertextual and multimedia folio thinking?  How might this enhance your current assessment process?  What problems or issues do you perceive in using ePortfolios for teaching and for assessment?  What are the technological challenges you face in using ePortfolios?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

** This activity is modified from the LaGuardia Community College’s ePortfolio Leadership Team’s materials.  JEC/7/2006.