E-portfolios and weblogs in Higher Education research and teaching

Sara Hattersley Learning Development Centre

S.Hattersley@warwick.ac.uk

@sarahattersley

Session overview

This session will look at the value of Web 2.0 technologies in professional and academic development, namely the use of e-portfolios and blogs. More than simply a repository for files, folders, notes and artefacts, these curated online spaces can become places for creativity and transformation of thinking and ideas, ideal for both academic and professional reflective practice. They can also be spaces for sharing and peer dialogue, presentation and teaching and learning. The session will look at examples from current use of blogs and e-portfolios at Warwick and consider their relevance, opportunities and potential issues in the medical professional and academic context.

Growing body of knowledge and interest

2009 - the Association for Authentic, Experiential, and Evidence-Based Learning (AAEEBL).

2011 - the International Journal of ePortfolio (IJeP).

Institution-wide, managed solutions (e.g. Mahara at Warwick; Warwick Blogs).

What is an e-portfolio?

Repository for files, folders and digital artefacts.

A record of student learning and achievement

A means of assessing student performance

A place for reflective practice

A social networking space

A student-led space for personal and collaborative curation

A transformative space for personal change.

A tool for re-imagining Higher Education?

What is a blog?An informal space for recording thoughts, feelings and ideas.

A log of events and progress

A journal with regular, chronological updates and posts.

A thematic, evolving documentation

A group space for dialogue, reciprocal comment and ideas sharing.

A means of raising and maintaining a profile in a field

A space for debate, promotion, fundraising and advocacy

A tool for supporting emotional health

A teaching and learning tool

Courtesy of Katie Kirby: http://hurrahforgin.com/

“I still have crippling anxiety now, it was wonderful to read your words, it reminded me that I'm not alone in feeling

overwhelmed or guilty sometimes.”

(a blog follower)

What are the aims of Higher Education?

“We provide so much more than an education; Universities are places where people find their voices and find out who

they are. It is a privilege to be able to provide an environment that supports our students to do just that and this is

something we take very seriously.”

“We aspire to be a dynamic, global, enterprising university. We will work in partnership with external organisations through our research and engage our students as partners in a community of learning.”

“Our focus brings real benefits - delivering social mobility by helping students acquire the skills, confidence and knowledge they

need to make a successful career in business, industry and the professions,

enabling them to explore and fulfil individual potential.”

“We aim to be an outstanding university at which to be a student. We concentrate on helping students

achieve their potential, and place great importance on combining

enduring human values with true professionalism. ”

Integrative learning through e-portfolios and blogs

Cognitive

PhysicalAffective

Knowledge, Analysis, Synthesis and Evaluation

Academic ‘norms’ (e.g. referencing)

Attitude, self, emotions, identity, change

Curation, ‘craft’, digital literacies, publication, management

Affective learning

Reflective practice within e-portfolios can articulate ‘changes’ experienced by the student.

Reflection and engagement together (drawing synthesis between worlds) can lead to transformation.

Measuring/accounting for changes in confidence, pride, skills, perspective and identity can tell us a lot about the learning that has taken place and inform curriculum design (Springfield et al 2015).

I look back at this experience confused by my attitude on entry. I entered the class interested and open minded at the opportunity of learning some tactics. However, I came out with a completely new philosophy towards being a teaching assistant, and ultimately a teacher in the future. I entered attemptingto find ways to simplify my job and make it easier, but came out inspired to potentially become a teacher in HE as a career. This motivation continued as I began to apply a new attitude and strategy in my class room.

On entry into the workshop, my expectations were to learn strategies which minimise: dry mouth, increased heart rate, feeling of dread, nerves about students knowing more than me.

I left the workshop inspired to fulfill these myself, but still uncertain; it was only once went into my first class four days later where I attempted group work for the first time, I could see the alternative feelings of satisfaction, definitive learning from students, student satisfaction and decreased nerves. In addition, I received voluntary verbal feedback from several students stating that they really enjoyed my lesson.

Celebrating the ‘it’

“It changed my life..”

“This the best thing I have ever done!”

“I always thought I enjoyed taught courses where you go along and take

notes etc - this course was more interactive - learning from each other,

sharing experiences , which I really enjoyed. It has impacted on my teaching a

lot - I stress to my students now that by taking part in discussions, helping each

other generate ideas for written work etc they will learn a lot more than just by

listening to me.”

‘Transformation’ in perspective and professional identity from an Teacher Trainee at Warwick

Dialogue and feedback

Lenses for reflection

Brookfield’s lenses, accessed at: http://molingchui.myblog.arts.ac.uk/files/2015/09/reflection-02-new.jpg 09/10/16 ; 18:15

Trigger Incidents

Re-presenting academic assessment

E-portfolios can offer a ‘re-presentation’ of the traditional academic assignment, which conforms to referencing norms and can be securely submitted.

As tools for formative assessment, e-portfolios offer a unique space for dialogue between tutor and student and for reciprocal teaching and feedback between learners.

Structuralist, iterative teacher-learner relationship reminiscent of HE before the advent of the public exam (Trevitt, 2013).

Research presentation

E-portfolios and blogs can provide alternative, dynamic spaces for the presentation and publication of research or the evolution of ideas.

Careers and Skills for Chemistry

The value of the co-curriculum

Research points to the value of extra-curricula activities (UG research, internships etc) and the relationship between this and academic success.

Students persist in these ‘high impact practices’ (Bass).

Professionals in training in HE often engage less in these co-curricula activities; but their ‘work’ and ‘lives’ provide these opportunities and the context in which they truly learn.

Co-curricula use at Warwick

http://mahara.warwick.ac.uk/view/view.php?id=38638&showmore=1

Re-imagining ‘co-curricula’

Adult learners have life, career and personal narratives which offer rich insight in themselves, or in combination with academic attainment.

E-Portfolios, more than any other tools, have the potential to be able to capture this integrative learning – connecting experiences and knowledge from the academic and other contexts.

Narrative identity/story telling

“Narratives draw together disparate and somehow discordant elements to the concordant unity of plot.” (Ricoeur, 1992 in Madden)

E-Portfolios and blogs can provide a space for narratives and storytelling, central to Schon’s reflection-in-action (1983) and relating to Knowles’ (2012) assumptions about how adult experiences affect learning.

The (often) competing priorities of adult learners should be viewed as assets – an opportunity to enrich learning and assessment, and tools for drawing synthesis with academic experiences in HE.

Curation and meaningful action

WYSIWYG interfaces allow for the curation and publication of online materials in spaces such as e-portfolios, without knowledge of programming.

The craft and process of curation through e-portfolios might also be directly related to the value placed by students on their work.

‘Student as producer’ is a current concept in HE

E-portfolios and blogs may work well with students’ existing digital literacy practices.

Promoting digital literacy practices

Using students’ digital literacies

Issues with e-portfolios and blogs?

Shulman (1998) points to issues of trivialisation, misrepresentation and the e-portfolio as merely a place to ‘show off’ materials.

Clark (2011) argues that adults do not realistically want to keep their life ‘in a shoebox’.

Interoperability and long-term ownership present institutional dilemmas and student frustration.

Questions of academic rigour – suitable for assessment (formative and summative?) or lack of assessor understanding.

Shift from a ‘teaching paradigm to learning paradigm’ is not easy in HE (Khan, 2014).

Suitability of tools and student IT skills

Transforming the institution?

“(E-portfolios) can help institutionalise norms of collaboration, reflection and discussion and help to shift responsibility for demonstrating learning to the student as participant rather

than observer.”

(Wuetherick and Dickinson, 2015)

ReferencesBass (2012) Disrupting Ourselves: The Problem of Learning in Higher Education

Clark (2011) E-portfolios - 7 reasons why I don't want my life in a shoebox

Khan (2014) E-portfolios: A look at where we've been, where we are now and where we're (possibly) going

Knowles et al (2012) The adult learner: The definitive classic in adult education and human resource development

Madden (2015) Reimagining boundaries: how e-Portfolios Enhance Learning for Adult Students

Schon (1983) The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action (London, Temple Smith)

Shulman (1998) Teacher Portfolios: A theoretical activity

Springfield (2015) Transformation Rubric for Engaged Learning: A tool and method for measuring life-changing experiences

Trevitt (2013) eportfolios for learning and as evidence of achievement: scoping the academic practice development agenda ahead

Wuetherick et al (2015) Why e-portfolios? Student perceptions of eportfolio use in continuing education learning environments