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Electronic Student Assessment: The Power of the Portfolio

8/29/2006

By Matt Villano

Two other institutions that have implemented ePortfolios across campus are LaGuardia Community College (NY) and the University of Denver. At the latter, an effort known as the DU Portfolio Community (DUPC) integrates ordinary ePortfolio sharing and assessment features with tools for community interaction such as asynchronous discussion. Each student’s portfolio includes information about the individual’s community membership and participation in collaborative activities. Not only can all constituents of the university create an ePortfolio, but each virtual community also has its own portfolio—a portal welcoming newcomers into the fold.

Julanna Gilbert, director of the university’s Center for Teaching and Learning, sees DUPC as a multipurpose application. If students and faculty users wish to grant public access, their personal portfolio accounts can be available for the world to see through the DUPC website. The public may also participate in DUPC as registered guests who may join communities and participate in discussion forums.

“The ability to search the content of the portfolios makes it possible for individuals who have interests in particular areas to find each other, and serves to build connections across disciplines and groups,” Gilbert writes in a recently published project summary. “For example, members of the public can be invited to participate in a course discussion forum with students on a particular topic, broadening the experience for students.”

Forward-Thinking Projects

At the University of Texas-Austin, Peg Syverson, associate professor in the department of Rhetoric and Writing, has developed a comprehensive ePortfolio effort that incorporates a number of features into one. Syverson’s system moves the learning record into a standalone application that UT faculty and educators at other schools can download for free and use at their convenience. The professor created the application with FileMaker Pro from FileMaker, and named it Learning Record Online. To date, more than 7,000 students in 14 schools are using the tool.

In a nutshell, the product is a freeware relational database that stores the most current version of a particular file. Teachers input course information, and students, in turn, submit the most current copies of their assignments. The instructors make comments in the files and upload the comments. Students then import those comments into their versions and proceed accordingly. As Syverson explains, educators can see the observations students have been keeping for the duration of the process. Behind the scenes, teachers don’t need FileMaker Pro to use the software; they only need to download the standalone application, input the course information, and make it available for students.

“Don’t think of this as a buffet for the masses, think of it as a Big Mac: substantial, portable, and cheap,” says Syverson, who notes that the project was originally funded in 1994 with a $200,000 grant from the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency. “I think of it as a small, elegant implementation that d'es one thing very well.”

Then there’s the University of Hawaii system. In Honolulu, educators at Kapi‘olani Community College have turned to ePortfolios to evaluate student learning with two different approaches launched this year: the Na Wa‘a portfolio, a Hawaiian cultural values ePortfolio; and a culinary program that centers on learning outcomes based on standards from the American Culinary Federation. Both efforts are partially supported by a five-year, $2.5 million grant the school received from the US Department of Education. According to Judith Kirkpatrick, a professor of English at Kapi‘olani, the programs have changed the learning process fundamentally.

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