Eportfolio As Curriculum

At a moment when the ePortfolio has been recognized as a high impact practice – as a unique site for hosting student integrative learning and as a powerful genre for assessment – this book provides faculty, staff, and administrators with a set of frameworks and models useful for guiding students in designing and creating ePortfolios that clearly communicate their purpose and effectively use the affordances of the medium.In short, this book both illustrates and provides guidance on how to support the development of students’ ePortfolio literacy. The ePortfolio curricular models provided in ePortfolio as Curriculum include both those integrated within existing disciplinary courses and those offered through credit-bearing stand-alone courses.In taking up questions focused on what students need to know and do in becoming informed, effective ePortfolio makers, the contributors to this volume – from the standpoint of their course outcomes and institutional contexts – present various approaches to developing an ePortfolio curriculum. Individually and collectively, the chapters explain ways to engage students in understanding the potential purposes, structures, audiences, and designs of ePortfolios; in developing the reflective practices for contextualizing and informing the selection and curation of artifacts; and in creating appropriate focus and coherence.Synthesizing insights from the previous chapters, the concluding chapter identifies six consistent features of an ePortfolio curriculum that support the development of students' ePortfolio literacy. In addition, Kathleen Blake Yancey identifies and defines seven common ePortfolio curricular dimensions that contribute to students' ePortfolio literacy, among them student agency, digital identity, and campus and global citizenship. Not least, she describes new practices emerging from ePortfolio curricula, including new ePortfolio-specific genres; new metaphors used to characterize ePortfolios and their practices; and new issues that the ePortfolio curriculum raises.

"This book provides faculty, staff, and administrators with a set of frameworks and models useful for guiding students in designing and creating ePortfolios that clearly communicate their purpose and effectively use the affordances of the medium. The curricular models provided include both those integrated within existing disciplinary courses and those offered through credit-bearing stand-alone courses."--Provided by publisher.

Documenting Learning with ePortfolios Documenting Learning with ePortfolios provides higher education instructors with a theory-to-practice approach to understanding the pedagogy behind ePortfolios and to helping students use them to record and reflect on their learning in multiple contexts. The authors outline a framework of six critical iterative tasks to undertake when implementing ePortfolios for student success. Filled with real-life models of successful ePortfolio projects, the book also includes guidance for faculty development to support the use of ePortfolios and covers the place of ePortfolios in institutional assessment efforts. Finally, the authors offer considerations for deciding on which technological tools to deploy in implementing a successful ePortfolio initiative. "These authors achieve the very rare accomplishment of combining their years of practical experience, broad conceptual and research underpinnings, and incredibly useful examples and applications into a single, concise volume for enhancing student learning through an ePortfolio approach to our shared educational purpose." —TERREL L. RHODES, vice president, Office of Quality, Curriculum, and Assessment, Association of American Colleges and Universities "Educators keep asking for more information about how to use electronic portfolios. This book provides answers, guidelines, examples, and scholarly insights about learning based in the wisdom of the ePortfolio community of practice—what a powerful addition to our collective knowledge! I am thankful to the authors for this boost to our field and for providing a blueprint for implementers to follow." —TRENT BATSON, executive director, The Association for Authentic, Experiential and Evidence-Based Learning

"This handbook investigates a variety of ePortfolio uses through case studies, the technology that supports the case studies, and it also explains the conceptual thinking behind current uses as well as potential uses"--Provided by publisher.

ePortfolio Performance Support Systems: Constructing, Presenting, and Assessing Portfolios addresses theories and practices advanced by some of the most innovative and active proponents of ePortfolios.

The fruit of the authors’ more than 15 years of using and writing about ePortfolios in general education and disciplinary programs and courses, this book is a comprehensive and practical guide to the use of the ePortfolio as a pedagogy that facilitates the integrative learning that is a central goal of higher education.Faculty and administrators of programs using ePortfolios can use this guide to help their students work individually on an ePortfolio or as part of a class or program requirement. Readers will discover through examples of student portfolios and targeted exercises how to assist students in making their learning visible to themselves, their peers, their instructors and their future employersWhile interest in ePortfolios has exploded—because they provide an easier and more comprehensive ways to assess student learning than traditional portfolios, and because they have the potential to transformatively develop students’ ability to connect and apply their knowledge—faculty and administrators all too often are disappointed by the lackluster ePortfolios that students submit. Reynolds and Patton demonstrate how systematically embedding practices in the classroom that engage students in integrative learning practices dramatically improves outcomes. The authors describe easy to use and practical strategies for faculty to incorporate integrative ePortfolios in their courses and curricula, and create the scaffolding to develop students’ skills and metacognition.The book opens by outlining the underlying learning theory and the key concepts of integrative learning and by describing the purpose, structure and implementation of ePortfolios. Subsequent sections cover classroom practices and assignments to help students understand themselves as learners; make connections between course content, their personal lives, and to the curriculum; bridge theory to practice; and consider issues of audience and communication and presentation in developing their portfolios. The book goes on to cover technological issues and assessment, with a particular emphasis on the use of rubrics; and concludes with explicated examples of ePortfolios created in a first-year program, ePortfolios created by graduating students, career-oriented ePortfolios, and lifelong ePortfolios.For both experienced faculty and administrators, and readers just beginning to use ePortfolios, this book provides a framework and guidance to implement them to their fullest potential.

The fruit of the authors’ more than 15 years of using and writing about ePortfolios in general education and disciplinary programs and courses, this book is a comprehensive and practical guide to the use of the ePortfolio as a pedagogy that facilitates the integrative learning that is a central goal of higher education.Faculty and administrators of programs using ePortfolios can use this guide to help their students work individually on an ePortfolio or as part of a class or program requirement. Readers will discover through examples of student portfolios and targeted exercises how to assist students in making their learning visible to themselves, their peers, their instructors and their future employersWhile interest in ePortfolios has exploded—because they provide an easier and more comprehensive ways to assess student learning than traditional portfolios, and because they have the potential to transformatively develop students’ ability to connect and apply their knowledge—faculty and administrators all too often are disappointed by the lackluster ePortfolios that students submit. Reynolds and Patton demonstrate how systematically embedding practices in the classroom that engage students in integrative learning practices dramatically improves outcomes. The authors describe easy to use and practical strategies for faculty to incorporate integrative ePortfolios in their courses and curricula, and create the scaffolding to develop students’ skills and metacognition.The book opens by outlining the underlying learning theory and the key concepts of integrative learning and by describing the purpose, structure and implementation of ePortfolios. Subsequent sections cover classroom practices and assignments to help students understand themselves as learners; make connections between course content, their personal lives, and to the curriculum; bridge theory to practice; and consider issues of audience and communication and presentation in developing their portfolios. The book goes on to cover technological issues and assessment, with a particular emphasis on the use of rubrics; and concludes with explicated examples of ePortfolios created in a first-year program, ePortfolios created by graduating students, career-oriented ePortfolios, and lifelong ePortfolios.For both experienced faculty and administrators, and readers just beginning to use ePortfolios, this book provides a framework and guidance to implement them to their fullest potential.

This book clearly articulates the foundations of an educational vision that is distinctively supported by eportfolio use, drawing on work in philosophy, sociology, higher and adult education, and elearning research. It is academically rigorous and accessible not only to scholars in a range of disciplines who might study or use eportfolios. It surveys the state-of-the-art of international eportfolio practice and suggests future directions for higher educational institutions in terms of curriculum, assessment, and technology. This resource is written for scholars, support staff, instructional technologists, academic administrators, and policy makers.