The CSU ePortfolio Project is a community of members – CSU faculty, staff, administrators – that share a common interest in enhancing the quality of teaching and learning through the use of ePortfolios.
Summer 2008 Update
San Francisco State has completed a comprehensive report on ePortfolio Development. The report includes an Integrated Faculty and Student Support Model, plans for their updated website, and a Case Study on selecting an open source ePortfolio tool. This fall they will use eFolio for a pilot project involving five sections of Liberal Studies, with a two year commitment for capstone projects -- they will provide periodic updates. Kevin Kelly attended this summer’s ePac meeting to share their progress, and Ruth Cox of SFSU is the keynote speaker at the eFolio Summit in Minnesota.
SJSU continues their campus-wide adoption of an ePortfolio tool, and SFSU is using many products with many disciplines!
Kathleen
kathleen@cdl.edu
About ePortfolios in the CSU
Why does one have a portfolio? To show off your stuff, right? Or to have a place where you can keep things – a storage chest of sorts – where you can store things and find them later. Sometimes students put together binders so they can turn them in for grades, but really one would want to encourage and to have an ePortfolio for the long term. ePortfolios are being used by a variety of CSU campuses within a variety of schools. ePortfolios are sometimes just a way to put selected information up on a website, and sometimes they are a digital repository, allowing the users to build web-pages (websites) with specific content. ePortfolio vendors usually allow secure and selective access to the websites, and some vendors provide report writing. Goals vary for each CSU case, but one common use is reporting for accreditation purposes, making the report writing a ‘must have’ for most.
See the Concept Map to get an idea of a broad system.
Getting Started (ePortfolio 101)
The most important thing to do before you decide on an ePortfolio system is to figure out what your goal is. What do you want the stakeholders to get: Students? Faculty? School? Institutions? (See the Concept Map)
Investigation (ePortfolio 201)
If you know you/your school/your institution wants an ePortfolio system then it's time to figure out what the requirements are -- what you want IN an ePortfolios system. Know your user; know your user's needs. Review ePortflios 101 (previous post) so you know the theories behind what an ePortfolio system can offer. (See the Concept Map)
Implementation (ePortfolios 301)
Once you've decided on the product, you need to make a plan like every other software installation or adoption. If you are hosting the servers yourself you can go right into the adoption planning.
Accreditation (ePortfolios 401)
Accreditation agencies have become more outcome driven, requiring examples of student learning as well as an aggregation of assessment data for internal program evaluation. Some vendor products are design to help with accreditation, so choose carefully.
A CSU “Teaching Commons”
The CSU ePortfolio project exemplifies the The Carnegie Foundation's idea of a "teaching commons" in which a community of faculty that are committed to enhancing the scholarship of teaching and learning can exchange ideas, best practices, discuss policy changes, and promote pedagogical innovations for their students.
The idea of a teaching commons is not new to academia. Faculty engaged in scientific research and disciplinary scholarship have long enjoyed collegial interactions and gained professional recognition through their participation in conferences and symposia, but teaching has remained for the most part an isolated and private activity.
The mission of this site is to create a collaborative space that facilitates and supports the use of ePortfolios in the CSU with opportunities to increase knowledge, productivity, and professional effectiveness through sharing of pedagogical best practices, reports on current campus progress, ongoing research and by building an online community.
A CSU-MERLOT Partnership: Faculty can gain access to peer reviewed digital learning materials in their disciplines available through the Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT). MERLOT (www.merlot.org) was created in 1997 by the CSU to help faculty and students share high quality online content and pedagogy. Under the CSU's leadership, MERLOT has grown to an international consortium of education institutions, professional societies, digital libraries, and corporations.
Here's some direct links to the MERLOT ePortfolio Collection
Assessment and Rubrics (4)
Career Oriented ePortfolios (4)
Institutional ePortfolios (5)
Learning-centered ePortfolios (10)
Pedagogies (6)
Resources (35)
Selecting and Using Tools (6)
Support and Training (3)
Teaching-centered ePortfolios (2)
Events/Professional Development
eFolio Summit 2008
Where eFolio Minnesota Meets eFolioWorld
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Minneapolis Community & Technical College
Important Links
The MERLOT ePortfolio Portal is an educational resource for teaching and learning. Check out events (in Beyond MERLOT) and a fine collection of examples and showcase ePortfolios.
The CSU ePortfolio Liaison Site is a password protected site with resources for the CSU ePortfolio community.
The Inter/National Coalition for Electronic Portfolio Research advances the body of knowledge about impacts of electronic portfolio use on student learning and educational outcomes. CSUs are in cohort III.