Executive Summary
Overview
An Electronic Portfolio (ePortfolio) is a highly personalized, customizable,
web-based information management system, which allows students to
demonstrate individual and collaborative growth, achievement, and
learning over time. An ePortfolio can be used in support of career
planning and resume building, advising and academic planning, academic
evaluation and assessment, and as a tool for reflection.
ePortfolios are of value to students for a number of reasons, but essentially,
they place students at the center of their learning experience. ePortfolios
allow students to manage and control access to their records, academic
information and coursework, creating a sense of their academic experiences
as a learning trajectory, by mapping out professional goals, experiences
and outcomes.
Universities across the nation are creating and implementing ePortfolios
as a vehicle for institution-wide reflection and learning, for assessment
of student, faculty and staff populations, and for accreditation processes.
ePortfolios are a growing trend among academic institutions across the
country and abroad.
Objective
The UC Berkeley Leadership Development Program (LDP) ePortfolio Project
Team was asked to research and make a recommendation as to whether a
student ePortfolio should be implemented on the UC Berkeley campus.
Our charge included presenting data in support of our recommendation,
identifying content, partners, software and Open Source solutions, user
interface options, student wishes, and best practices for planning and
implementation.
This report is intended to provide a current "snapshot" of
electronic portfolios, which is an evolving technology. Given the four-month
time constraint, and broad scope of the project, this report is intended
to be a guide for future consideration for the UC Berkeley campus.
Approach
Our findings were generated by web-based research, attending educational
conferences, participating in ePortfolio discussion groups, interviews
with experts at other universities, interviews with campus constituents,
and by surveying students, faculty, and staff at UC Berkeley.
Findings
ePortfolios are a growing trend in higher education.
ePortfolios help students track requirements toward a degree.
Survey results show that students want more in person and on-line
advising opportunities.
Students want a way to help identify skills necessary for their
development and to receive guidance to show them how to develop skills
at the University and elsewhere.
A student portal is not required to implement an ePortfolio system.
Implementing an ePortfolio requires a significant investment
of resources.
ePortfolios will have an impact on faculty and staff workload and
will cause a cultural shift.
Conclusions
ePortfolios would support the strategic goals and mission of
UC Berkeley.
An ePortfolio would communicate across disparate campus systems.
An ePortfolio promotes "student-centered learning"
and encompasses five common features: storage, information management,
connections, communication, and development.
A "new element" called a skills matrix feature should
also be included to enhance the undergraduate experience at UC Berkeley.
ePortfolio features would connect students with support resources
that are currently available, but underutilized.
A common theme of ePortfolios is their potential to turn information
into knowledge through two important practices: reflection and social
construction.
ePortfolios could incorporate customized, Open Source solutions.
Implementing an ePortfolio will raise a number of policy and
security issues.
Representatives from key constituents (including Undergraduate Education
and Student Affairs) could join forces to establish an ePortfolio implementation
team.
Recommendations
The LDP ePortfolio Project Team recommends that UC Berkeley implement
ePortfolios for students. Since Undergraduate Education and Student
Affairs share a common mission and goal (to find ways that technology
can enhance and support the undergraduate educational experience)
we recommend that they create an implementation team. We further recommend
that these divisions, along with other key constituents including
representatives from Information Systems and Technology (IST), should
join forces to investigate opportunities and possibilities, define
academic, advising, and technology standards and strategize planning
and implementation procedures.
Educational Technology Services at UC Berkeley is currently developing
a campus-wide Learning Management System (LMS) based on Open Source
systems (to replace Blackboard and WebCT course management systems).
We recommend that ePortfolios be introduced in conjunction with the
new LMS to provide a tool for students to be at the center of their
learning, to manage their own information, to connect and communicate
with the larger Berkeley community, to develop skills, and to visualize
a trajectory of their learning experience. This ePortfolio should
be customized to meet UC Berkeley academic, technical, and policy
standards.
ePortfolio features help students manage the development of their
skills and allow them to visualize their learning experiences. Some
ePortfolio features already exist on the UC Berkeley campus. Until
a robust ePortfolio system can be implemented, the campus should promote
WebDisk and WebCrossing, two technology tools, which provide aspects
of the connections, communication and storage features of an ePortfolio.
The information management and development (reflection/skills matrix)
features are a key to the success of the ePortfolio and should also
be developed. An ePortfolio tutorial component should also be developed
and made available to all users.
In addition, it is recommended that the campus take advantage of
a call to participate in the National Research Coalition for ePortfolio
Learning. The main goals of the coalition are to provide national
leadership in assessing the impact of ePortfolios and to convene researchers/practitioners
to disseminate new information on a local and national level. This
coalition will advance the body of knowledge about impacts of ePortfolio
use, and our participation could place UC Berkeley at the forefront
of ePortfolio development.
Furthermore, the LDP project team recommends that UC Berkeley establish
a centralized data warehouse to bring together disparate student systems
and to facilitate the management of future ePortfolios. However, this
is not a necessary first step toward the implementation of a student
ePortfolio system.
We have uncovered that ePortfolios are an exciting, constantly evolving
concept that requires high-level campus support and a shared vision
in order to be successfully implemented. ePortfolios could be the
catalyst for a cultural shift for the way students learn on the UC
Berkeley campus and how the University manages and shares information
among students, faculty, and staff.
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