ePortfolios and eReflection:

eLluminating Ida M. Jones, J.D.

Special Assistant to the Interim Senior Academic Technology Officer

Craig School of Business Faculty Fellow

Professor of Business Law

idaj@csufresno.edu

Poster presentation-2010 Sloan C Emerging Technologies Conference

Abstract

Actively engaging students in deep learning can be challenging. Part of active engagement is reflecting on what the learner has learned. In an online course, the instructor required eportfolios of all students—these eportfolios required that students evaluate coursework, compare that work to the school and course objectives and analyze what they had learned. The students then completed a qualitative evaluation of the project and its impact. Their conclusions: the eportfolio reinforced the impact of the law on business decision-making, helped them to create a living resume to highlight their accomplishments and caused them to see the connections between the work in this course and the work across the MBA program.

My eportfolio has helped me think more about my own learning (70% agree or strongly agree)

Student Perceptions of ePortfolios as an Assessment Tool

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

I feel that an ePortfolio is a better way for faculty to assess my

knowledge than an essay test.

Strongly Agree

Agree

Neither Agree nor Disagree

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

00.5

11.5

22.5

33.5

44.5

I feel that an ePortfolio is a better way for faculty to assess my

knowledge than a multiple choice test.

Strongly Agree

Agree

Neither Agree nor Disagree

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

50% disagreed or strongly disagreed that the ePortfolio was better than an essay test and 50% disagreed or strongly disagreed that the ePortfolio was better than a multiple choice test.Only 20% agreed or strongly agreed that the ePortfolio was better than an essay or multiple choice test.

Can you make and see more connections among your classes as a result of your ePortfolio work? Explain how and why. In what ways has creating an ePortfolio helped you to make connections? Explain.It did help me to pull more connections from my different classes. It helped me make connections because that was part of the assignment.

As I previously explained using my example of cultural analysis relating to marketing and ethical decisions, after completing the e-portfolio I can see more connections between my classes. Another example of the connections between classes is the International Business Policy Team and Business Law. On the team, we created a business plan and during hte course we discussed the concept of a legally astute manager and some of the legal concepts that a business should consider. For example, a business created as an LLC has more legal protection. When creating the business plan for the business strategy team I had concepts such as these in mind.

The eportfolio allowed me to relate similar topics from my other classes and linked them together.

By discussing with classmates what should we incorporate in our portfolio Doing the ePortfolio definitely helped me to make connections between

the different topics I have covered in my classes as well as other activities and involvement with the Craig School. It has made me think about and apply the connection between topics in a relevant manner.

Yes as stated above, having a cumulative portfolio of work has really been interesting and informative. The scope and variety of the curriculum really displays on the ePortfolio.

It was good to be able to see hoe [sic] other people use the space as compared with one's own

In theory you could, but I would never use it that way. It is a class assignment, not a social network, and it will never be a social network.

More connections yes but overall, I don't think anyone liked doing the ePortfolio.

It did not help me analyze my classwork in any way. The only connecting I did was some bs just to fufill requirements.

ePortfolios as Proof of Learning for Accreditation

Agree64%

Not Applicable

9%

Strongly Agree

9%

Strongly Disagree18%

Agree

Not Applicable

Strongly Agree

Strongly Disagree

ePortfolio as Proof of Learning to Outside Accrediting Agencies

Although results were mixed on value of ePortfolios for assessment-64% agreed or strongly agreed

ePortfolios could be presented to outside agencies as proof of learning.

Impact of Seeing Other Students’ Work

Strongly Agree10%

Agree60%Neither Agree

nor Disagree10%

Disagree10%

Strongly Disagree10%

Seeing Others' Work Helped Me Get to Know Them

Strongly Agree

Agree

Neither Agree nor Disagree

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

Strongly Agree20%

Agree30%

Neither Agree nor Disagree

30%

Disagree10%

Strongly Disagree10%

Motivated by Others Seeing ePortfolio

Strongly Agree

Agree

Neither Agree nor Disagree

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

Impact on learning

70% agreed or strongly agreed the ePortfolio allowed students to get to know each other

50% agreed/strongly agreed knowing others would see their ePortfolios motivated them

Impact of Seeing Other Students’ Work

Strongly Agree10%

Agree20%

Neither Agree nor Disagree

70%

Seeing Others' Work Improved my Work Quality

Strongly Agree

Agree

Neither Agree nor Disagree

Agree40%

Neither Agree nor Disagree

20%

Disagree30%

Strongly Disagree10%

Seeing Other's Work Helped Me Learn

Agree

Neither Agree nor Disagree

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

Impact on learning

30% agreed it helped with work quality; 70% were neutral

40% agreed it helped them learn; 40% disagreed and strongly disagreed with the statement

What have you learned by creating a cumulative showcase of your growth and development in this course? In what ways have you grown and developed as a student, as a professional and as a community member as a result of this work? (representative comments)

In creating this cumulative showcase of my work, I realized important relationships between courses. Also, there were concepts that I had done before this course pertaining to business law such as using Freedom of Information Act while working at US Forest Service in which I did not realize the full significance or relationship to business law until I took this course and began reflecting upon my experiences by putting together the e-portfolio. There were also concepts which I learned in other courses such as the ability to do a cultural analysis which gained more significance when I put together the e-portfolio because I realized the relationship of the concept to business law. For example, before the e-portfolio I understood the importance of a cultural analysis to marketing, but after the e-portfolio and the course I realized that understanding culture is important to business law when making decisions regarding ethics using tools such as the relationship lens.

The eportfolio was beneficial in that it allowed me to reflect on my past work experiences.

I have learned to take in every aspect of my work and to really look at the way that it all links together. There are many different areas of learning that cross paths at one point or another and they can all work together to help you learn and understand the material being presented.

I don't think I Iearned anything as far as my growth and development by creating this portfolio. It didn't incorporate anything that I hadn't already learned or done in class. The main thing I think it would be useful for is just to show support that the students are gaining an education that supports the CSB mission. (3 students had very similar c omments)

I think the eportfolio was never presented in a way where I felt it would be something that would benefit me. I think the project was a waste of time

Mahara-Open Source ePortfolio

Fresno State Sandbox for Testing New Applications

Structure of Class/Student Demographics Seminar in the Ethical and Regulatory Environment of Business:

o Significant use of technology-learning management system o Significant requirements for active presentation and

participation o Few lectures/this varies from the usual course o Only required law/ethics course for MBA students

MBA Students: o Most work full time o Take classes at night o Average age Is mid 20s o 60% women

Small sample size (10/11) Some ethnic diversity

ePortfolios and eReflection: eLluminating

Conclusions and Recommendations

Assessing Student Learning

Students overwhelmingly agreed that the ePortfolio encouraged them to think about their own learning

Students agreed the ePortfolio would be valuable for outside evaluators; mixed reviews on whether they believe they were useful for employers

Approximately half of the students were motivated to work harder on the ePortfolio because they knew others were viewing (and evaluating) their work

Students believed essay and multiple choice tests better assessed their learning

Students did not enjoy creating the ePortfolio and did not find that the ePortfolio encouraged learning

Students didn’t believe the ePortfolio helped their learning or made them work harder overall

Recommendations for ePortfolios

Provide clear objectives Remember that students may be wary of new technologies Try to recruit other faculty to try them Look for support within or outside your institution

Recommendations for Using Open Source Programs

Need administrative support Develop clear instructions Be comfortable with uncertainty Be comfortable with being “first”